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The Review Knife
Jun. 12th, 2015 08:39 pmHey,
So a few days ago I whipped through The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. Mr. Bacigalupi wrote Wind-Up Girl and Shipbreaker among other eco-dystopian sci-fi books. This is another in that vein, but he manages to switch things up a bit. As far as I can tell, there's no direct link between this book and any of his previous novels.
So the book is set in the American Southwest between Las Vegas and Phoenix with most of the action taking place in Phoenix. Things have gotten very, very dry in the west. A decades-long drought has made water a precious commodity and the odd way water rights in the West were developed means that water coming down off of Colorado mountains can be under the control of California. So while legal action is how these issues get settled in public, in private, things can be a little more forceful.
We first meet Angel, a water knife. He works for the oligarch who runs Las Vegas (and most of Nevada). His job is to go around and use friendly persuasion to get people to give up their water rights to his boss as well as to protect those rights when other knives come swimming around. So he starts off by making a nighttime assault onto a water treatment plant to blow it up. He's soon sent off to Phoenix to figure out why some friendly agents have started getting nervous.
In Phoenix is Lucy, a journalist who's been covering the slow decay of Phoenix. The city is overrun by refugees from Texas and New Mexico, narco state bad guys from what used to be Mexico, and Chinese workers/investors who are building a glittering archology in the middle of downtown. Showing up at yet another crime scene, Lucy is startled to find that a friend of hers has been brutally murdered. Her friend was a water rights guy working for the city and this sets her off on the trail of a killer.
Also in Phoenix is Maria, a refugee from Texas who's doing her best to make ends meet and to keep away from The Vet, a local gang-lord and his hyenas. She manages to score a load of cheap water and she hopes it'll be enough to get her and her friend Shelly out of Phoenix and up north to Nevada or California.
Slowly the threads draw these three people together as sandstorms, raging mobs and hired killers swirl around them.
I liked the book. It had a real Cyberpunk feel to it but updated for today. There were one or two turns of character development where I raised my eyebrows but by and large the book was a fun read. Angel might be a competent gun for hire, but everyone showed strength and skill when it counted. Certainly worth a look and good fodder if you're planning a cyberpunk-style game.
later
Tom
So a few days ago I whipped through The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. Mr. Bacigalupi wrote Wind-Up Girl and Shipbreaker among other eco-dystopian sci-fi books. This is another in that vein, but he manages to switch things up a bit. As far as I can tell, there's no direct link between this book and any of his previous novels.
So the book is set in the American Southwest between Las Vegas and Phoenix with most of the action taking place in Phoenix. Things have gotten very, very dry in the west. A decades-long drought has made water a precious commodity and the odd way water rights in the West were developed means that water coming down off of Colorado mountains can be under the control of California. So while legal action is how these issues get settled in public, in private, things can be a little more forceful.
We first meet Angel, a water knife. He works for the oligarch who runs Las Vegas (and most of Nevada). His job is to go around and use friendly persuasion to get people to give up their water rights to his boss as well as to protect those rights when other knives come swimming around. So he starts off by making a nighttime assault onto a water treatment plant to blow it up. He's soon sent off to Phoenix to figure out why some friendly agents have started getting nervous.
In Phoenix is Lucy, a journalist who's been covering the slow decay of Phoenix. The city is overrun by refugees from Texas and New Mexico, narco state bad guys from what used to be Mexico, and Chinese workers/investors who are building a glittering archology in the middle of downtown. Showing up at yet another crime scene, Lucy is startled to find that a friend of hers has been brutally murdered. Her friend was a water rights guy working for the city and this sets her off on the trail of a killer.
Also in Phoenix is Maria, a refugee from Texas who's doing her best to make ends meet and to keep away from The Vet, a local gang-lord and his hyenas. She manages to score a load of cheap water and she hopes it'll be enough to get her and her friend Shelly out of Phoenix and up north to Nevada or California.
Slowly the threads draw these three people together as sandstorms, raging mobs and hired killers swirl around them.
I liked the book. It had a real Cyberpunk feel to it but updated for today. There were one or two turns of character development where I raised my eyebrows but by and large the book was a fun read. Angel might be a competent gun for hire, but everyone showed strength and skill when it counted. Certainly worth a look and good fodder if you're planning a cyberpunk-style game.
later
Tom
