The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (2015-05-28)

Here, old life illusions collide with a searing and merciless future reality. Details and language are fantastically and elaborately imagined, with characters that enrage and demand forgiveness at the same time. The world depicted is convincingly evolved from the present hints, warnings, and evidence that climate change will turn water into the nation's most priceless commodity. A raw and potentially prophetic tale.

another great novel from bacigalupi, visual, believable. perhaps not as 'big' as story as it sets up to be, but held my interest, and i read it pretty quickly (a sign that i'm enjoying a book). interesting characters, story. recommended!

A well thought out near-future thriller. It's good to read a more adult-oriented book from Paolo. I enjoyed his last few, but they were YA and sometimes a 34 year old can get tired of that tone, no matter how good the story.

Excellent and engaging action/thriller with some of the writing remarkable as poetic and touching. Perhaps a bit less of the old theatrical adage ("they don't write exposition like that anymore), but I quibble. Wonderfully engaging and so current it seems not all all "futuristic". It is here, and Churchill's jab that the US will always do the right thing after trying everything else is totally applicable.

Vivid writing and a half-decent of geography give this post apocalyptic tale a good edge.

As someone who knows both water and Arizona law there are a few technical flaws, but they don't detract from the power of the overall narrative. It's good enough to make due curious about Paolo Bacigalupi's work.

This was really enjoyable for the most part. Good story, interesting characters. Perhaps a bit longer than it needed to be, and maybe some characters too one dimensional. I won't be racing this author again.

Water scarcity is the biggest challenge in the US southwest as global warming accelerates. PB describes plausible socioeconomic catastrophes in our near future, and clever adaptation schemes for a few. The writing isn't beautiful or tight, and egregious violence can be skimmed without missing anything important. There is some good food for thought here.

A Draconian view of the future without sufficient water in the Southwest. Illustrates the crazy complexity of water rights. Liked the characters, some of the scenarios a little far-fetched. A good and entertaining read.

these characters are plausibly and fully realized, and we care about them, but they are still stereotypes. The damaged and dangerous cynical assassin, the dedicated "journo";will they find redemption together? Edward abbey meets mad max.

Paolo paints a picture of a very dark future where people war over water rights. The U.S. is more like a group of city states each vying for water for its community. There is non-stop action and the author gives the reader plenty to think about, if water ever became scarce in the future, which it might, if we don't figure out ways to desalinate more cheaply and preserve what watersheds we do have more wisely,
At its best this is a cautionary tale, if not a harbinger of our future.
I found at times some of the main characters a bit cartoon-like, I would have liked to know more about them, besides their hopeless plights. The author did provide some background details but I would have liked to see more characterization.
Some readers will find this book a bit too harsh, if you like PA though, this could very well be a very good read for you.
Without saying too much, I was not enthusiastic about the ending. I thought after reading 370 pages there would have been more to it.

Anyone who still wants to deny Climate Change's realities needs to read ALL Mr. Bacigalupe's work but especially The Water Knife. The plot is frightening enough, but the issues around climate change make the plot even more horrific!! This should be required reading for all public servants whose head in the sand attitudes are making the issues in this book a certainty. Tells the future without being too preachy but in such a way that anyone, no matter their politics, would have to think twice about what they are willing to take chances on. If I owned any property along the coasts Anywhere along the Colorado River it would be on the Market tout de suite!! Keep pounding that drum Paolo you are a necessary voice in this wilderness of willful ignorance. Thank you for going there in such relatable fashion. The World needs you and as many clones as you can muster up!! Cannot wait for your next book!!

I forgot how much I enjoy Bacigalupi's writing. He's simply marvelous. Interesting and riviting story, made even more so with current events swirling around. What would the southwest do without water?

I loved the characters and the political machinations around water rights in the future. The Southwest becomes feudal Europe of the 12th century and the most precious commodity is water and states are at each other's throats as they struggle to maintain a unstable lifestyle

Dystopian fiction too often aims to sketch out a possible future, allowing the reader to fill in the gaps on the canvas. The characters seem to exist merely to take predictable actions that cast a spotlight on just how bad things have gotten. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is different. Very different.

The late-21st-century reality portrayed in The Water Knife brings into high relief the consequences of climate change and the resulting water scarcity on the American Southwest. This sad, violence-ridden world is fully realized through the seemingly bottomless imagination of the author. In contrast to the bleak desert landscapes that dominate the story, this future reality abounds with colorful detail.

Prolonged drought, the draining of the aquifers, and climate change have combined to make most of the Southwest into a desert, while the states of the Eastern seaboard, the Gulf, and the Midwest are succumbing to the rising level of the seas and monster storms that dwarf anything previously known in human history. A weakened federal government has acquiesced to demands from the states to allow them to close off their borders. Now the states use the National Guard and local militias to block and often slaughter refugees from other states. In the Southwest, where The Water Knife is set, hordes of people displaced from Texas are taking the brunt of the violence.

The “water knife” of the title — a hit man employed to cut off water to farmers and sometimes to towns and cities — is a tough and extremely clever Mexican immigrant named Angel. His boss, Catherine Case, rules the powerful Southern Nevada Water District. Using Angel and a small army of other thugs, she has channeled much of the water of the Colorado River into Las Vegas, when she has built three arcologies — massive vertical towns that are virtually self-contained — and is building a fourth and planning a fifth; in these privileged communities, thousands of wealthy and well-connected people live in luxury unknown to the rest of the population. Angel, who is Case’s right-hand man, is one of those privileged people.

In the course of his ongoing dirty work, Angel’s path intersects with those of Maria, a teenage refugee from Texas, and Lucy, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative reporter originally from Connecticut who is pursuing the story behind the water politics of Arizona at great risk to her life. The intertwined stories of these three remarkable characters form the core of this extremely well written novel.

Warning for squeamish readers: violence is a dominant theme in The Water Knife. The book teems with scenes of violence so explicit that it will disturb all but the most hardened reader. There’s explicit sex, too. This is a book for adults. Period.

Paolo Bacigalupi is one of the most gifted of the current crop of younger science fiction writers. His best-known work, The Windup Girl, is a masterpiece of the imagination, painting a picture of a grim, far-future reality that illuminates the world we live in now. The Water Knife is equally compelling.

Usually, I find Paolo Bacigalupi's adult genre novels to be five-star events. For this reviewer, that was not the case. In some ways, this is a brilliant vision of a dystopian future for the world, focused in the southwest areas of the United States. As several reviewers say on the book's page on the store, the book does bring to mind the movie "Chinatown." That's a pretty hefty comparison. And, for the most part, the comparison is apt as the book lives up to the expectations brought to mind by that comparison.
This is, without question, a genre bending event. It is dystopian, noir, speculative (science) fiction. The noir aspect is most prominent including the almost thoughtless violence. I felt that there was just a bit too much of that graphic violence, and that is why I docked the book one star. Make no mistake, this is a superb, well thought out speculation as to a very possible dystopian society evolving from the one that can be found now in the U.S. The reader is asked to accept a world in which water is more valuable than gold, and that means that whomever holds the water rights to any body of water, be it river, lake, pond, etc., is in possession of great wealth. Just as in the past of this part of the country, it was land that was fought over for grazing rights, farming rights and so forth, so it is with water rights in PB's dark vision of the not-too-distant future.
His main characters are all well developed, with only the character of the "baddie in chief", Catherine Vegas, coming close to being stereotyped.
The title, "The Water Knife", refers to the character Angel Velasquez, who is an enforcer for Catherine Vegas, "the Queen of Colorado," in this case referring more to river than the state.
Water knives are brutal, almost sociopathic former military or cartel type thugs who are responsible for securing and protecting water rights held by their employers. Angel is thought to be the toughest of them all. The plot centers around the battle between Las Vegas and Phoenix for survival and involves a rumor that documentation exists that is so old that if found and valid, would save Phoenix and put a huge dent in Ms Vegas' empire.
Bacigalupi's skill at putting the reader right in the middle of extremely desolate scenery inhabited by equally extremely desperate civilians living in those places, is unmatched. His descriptions of the despair and violence are terrifying, made more so by their credibility.
A side plot involves the hatred of Texans who have migrated further west out of desperation. They are so hated because they put an even greater strain on the supplies of what water is available.
As always is the case with PB's writing, it is his well-developed, disparate and believable characters and their various relationships that really carry this book and make it such a great read. He shows how certain relationships can transform despair into hope, and survival at a distance type relationships into relationships featuring various forms of love, be it agapé or romantic or merely utilitarian. It is the transformative effect that makes possible the surprising and unexpectedly gratifying ending to the novel. If you can stand the graphic violence, this is a great read. Potential readers with weaker stomachs may want to take a pass. Overall, very highly recommended.

If you're into post apocolyptic reads this was interesting enough for the genre. A little slow up front, but it eventually gets going. It was well written and the characters were likeable. Although, I was a little confused at the lack of development on a few of them who were sort of important to the story.

Well, Mr Bacigalupi is one of my all-time favorite S/F authors. His book "the Windup Girl" in particular rests among the pantheon of the greats, in my opinion.
Therefore, I have to ask of the author:
WTF?
I was most eager to get my copy of this book when I heard it was coming out, and began reading it at once when I received it. The premise is worthy and timely, the writing engaging though not necessarily up to par with the above-mentioned work, but I found I had to put up again and again to what seems to me to be the cultural trend these days of employing gratuitous excessive brutality as a form of casual entertainment. At the point where a developed and sympathetic character is carelessly thrown into the meat grinder (not literally- no spoiler here) I suddenly realized that I had been grinding my teeth and bearing the random graphics throughout, and at that moment just threw the book across my bedroom and haven't opened it since. This tactic of gratuitous brutality does not serve any function at all in my view toward enhancing or serving the telling of this tale. It is rather a cheap use of what appears to be more and more an expected element in "entertainment" these days. I have been a S/F reader all my reading life, and am not squeamish re graphic elements if they serve the telling, but I have to say of this book, it is a sad capitulation to an unworthy and low level of readership.
Or maybe Mr Bacigalupi has simply given up.
What a shame.

Excellent mashup of technothriller, eco-catastrophe, cyber punk and crime noir caper. If you liked Gibson's Sprawl novels, you'll love this book.The key characters are quite well done. The action is non-stop. The sense of place works well. The perpetual plot reversals manage to avoid coming off contrived. It is hard to do this sort of a relentless action run without leaving a feeling of deus ex machina but the author managed it. The one downside is the world building. It works for story and mood but if you like really tight settings [S.M. Stirling, C.J. Cherryh] you may want to deduct half a star for the various tropes not quite gelling. Works as a novel. Would work as a movie. There would be problems writing a sourcebook to make this a gaming world.

A cautionary tale told exceedingly well. Having just lived through a drought that mercifully ended, probably temporarily, and reading daily stories about California, this book unsettled me. Nobody emerges unscathed. I also liked how he left the fate of Vet to our imagination.

As a resident of Tucson, I can recommend both the novel and the science behind The Water Knife. The characters are compelling, and the environment is possible. Science fiction that makes you think, who'd a thunk?

In Australia the political corruption, corporate theft and deception and the internecine state bickering could have been a model for the book. No guns here thankfully, but lives and communities still ruined.

A suspenseful story with a grim (probably overly so) outlook on the future of America's water resources. The characters are excellent and interesting, taking on nuanced personalities and exhibiting traits of "real" people. Overall, a great novel that bridges the gap between post-apocalyptic fiction and modern day political fiction with a gripping tale and some interesting interpretation.

The dystopian worl this depicts may be an accurate prediction. Pacing was uneven. The ending was a little weak. It was occaisionally paced like a Sherlock Holmes novel, slow and heavy. At others, it moved fairly quickly. I enjoyed the book, overall.

After reading The Windup Girl and Pump Six and Other Stories, I was really looking forward to reading the next Paolo Bacigalupi book on my list. I am pleased to report that The Water Knife definitely lived up to my expectations.

The Water Knife is set in an all-too-believable dystopian future where global warming and overconsumption of water have lead to widespread water shortages in the American Southwest. “Widespread water shortages” is an understatement. The entire region is practically in a state of civil war. California, Nevada, and Arizona are fighting in the courts and sometimes in the streets to secure access to what little water remains. Politicians, businesspeople, organized crime networks, refugees, and other everyday citizens are all struggling in their own interrelated ways to survive and get ahead in the often violent and cruel circumstances of what’s left of human civilization.

This novel works on many levels — and works on all of those levels quite successfully.

The basic elements that I would expect of almost any good narrative are all strong here. The plot, characters, and setting are all complex and compelling. I often do my reading in fairly short bursts, and I found myself wanting to extend my reading time for as long as possible. Some narratives — even some really good narratives — rely heavily on one or two of these elements to carry the story. But the plot, characters, and setting all work together brilliantly, like complex parts of a well-oiled machine driving the narrative forward to its conclusion.

Bacigalupi is especially good at getting inside of each viewpoint character’s head, bringing the reader into their inner world, and using their perspective to reveal some very vivid and intense imagery. Anyone can tell the reader what the character is experiencing, but few authors can describe it so well that the reader feels like they’re right there along with the character, experiencing all of the joys and horrors (let’s be honest — mostly horrors in this case) that the character experiences. When I read the Water Knife, I feel like I’ve been transported into a very real apocalyptic future — a feeling that is terrifying on some level, but eminently rewarding as a reader.

The precise apocalyptic nature of the Water Knife is actually somewhat uncommon. This is what I’ve come to think of as a “mid-apocalyptic” or simply “apocalyptic” narrative rather than a “post-apocalyptic” one. In post-apocalyptic narratives, human society has collapsed entirely, leaving behind small to mid-sized bands of desperate individuals struggling to survive in the aftermath. Post-apocalyptic narratives are popular nowadays, and most stories I’ve come across lately are either post-apocalyptic or non-apocalyptic.

Water Knife is something in between. It offers a glimpse of an American society that is well on its way to complete collapse, but still not fully gone. To an extent, there is still a society similar to what exists today — a civil government with various government agencies, a market economy dominated various large corporations, information and communication technologies, etc. People in power are still trying to maintain the appearance that society has not, in fact, collapsed. But in a very real sense, it’s all either broken or falling apart. For large groups of people, it has already failed, leaving them in fringe situations that we would normally associate with a post-apocalyptic setting. This middle ground between today’s society and a future post-apocalyptic society is a very rich space for exploring the problems of today and the direction in which they may be taking us.

What I find most rewarding about this novel is the importance of its central themes of water scarcity and global warming. Bacigalupi doesn’t seem to be pushing any single solution or course of action here in the present day. However, presenting the potential horrors of where we’re headed in graphic detail is enough to inspire anyone with half a brain and half a heart to give some serious thought to what we can do in the here and now to avoid water wars and climate catastrophe. Bacigalupi takes some very important concerns facing the world today and turns them into a compelling narrative that will entertain (and perhaps even inspire) many people who otherwise might not give much thought to these concerns. Good fiction doesn’t always need a deep message about today’s society — but it doesn’t hurt, and those are some of my favorite narratives. Bacigalupi’s approach to the task of writing such narratives is among the best I’ve seen. I definitely recommend the Water Knife to other readers and look forward to reading more of his work!

I enjoyed this audiobook, but was jarred by a number of mispronunciations of basic words. Wasn't there a director at the recording sessions?
For example, "wounded" does not rhyme with "sounded" or "pounded."

I've been involved in California water issues for 30 years (see @LPAwater) and found The Water Knife to be frighteningly possible. We in the West hang on by threads - threads of storm clouds, threads of concrete canals snaking across the desert - so who knows? Maybe the water knives are already at work!

The subject of water scarcity overwhelms the characters whose whole existence is to illustrate the coming problem in the Desert SW, including Texas. It is well written and I kept looking forward to reading it. I am a hydrogeologist and agreed with a minor character that as soon as someone starts "fracking" for groundwater, grab your wallet.

OK- a little pulpy, but the underlying issues are so serious that I could forgive some of the camp. Hate to express it outright, but it would make a good movie! Oh, and read Wind-Up Girl, a little deeper...