Bacigalupi's is the most thought-provoking of the recent apocalypses. While Bacigalupi's environmental message could not be more powerful, it's neatly embedded in a nonstop action plot, full of murders and betrayals, that should satisfy thriller readers who didn't even think they cared about these issues.' -Gary K. ' water-wars thriller set in the Southwest only a few decades from now. newscasts warned of water rationing and extended drought, I felt the hot panting breath of the desert on my nape and I shivered, hoping that Bacigalupi's vision of the future won't be ours.' -Denise Hamilton, Los Angeles Times Reading the novel in 93-degree March weather while L.A. Francis Dam that killed 600 people and haunted its builder, Mulholland, into the grave. Its visual imagery evokes Dust Bowl Okies in the Great Depression and the catastrophic 1928 failure of the St. The book's nervous energy recalls William Gibson at his cyberpunk best. The casual violence and slang may bring to mind A Clockwork Orange. His use of water as sacred currency evokes Frank Herbert's Dune. Bacigalupi weaves page-turning action with zeitgeisty themes.

Although one is set in the past and the other in a dystopian future, both are neo-noir tales with jaded antiheroes and ruthless kingpins who wield water as lethal weapons to control life-and mete out death. Reading Paolo Bacigalupi's richly imagined novel The Water Knife brings to mind the movie Chinatown. As bodies begin to pile up, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger and more corrupt than they could have imagined, and when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.Ī, Best Books of 2015 - NPR Book Concierge, Best Books of 2015 - Kansas City Star, Best Fiction of 2015 - Paste Magazine, Best Fiction of 2015 There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with her own agenda, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel Velasquez 'cuts' water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that its lush arcology developments can bloom in Las Vegas. In the near future, the Colorado River has dwindled to a trickle.

'Think Chinatown meets Mad Max.' NPR, All Things Considered NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A 'fresh, genre-bending thriller' ( Los Angeles Times) set in the near future when water is scarce and a spy, a hardened journalist and a young Texas migrant find themselves pawns in a corrupt game.

The water knife review