Book Review: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

he Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Hardcover, 371 pages Published May 2015 by Knopf

So this is the first entry in my eco-horror/dystopia-a-thon. Also my first time checking out Bacigalupi who I have known for awhile would likely be up my alley. Known for writing novels that depict a future destroyed by climate change. His Wind-up girl that took place in a drowned Bangkok of the future is one of the best reviewed sci-fi novels of the century so far and already considered a classic in the making.

Lets get something out of the way, if you are a climate change denier you are (dangerous and) not likely to enjoy this book although I don't think you are the target audience of this book. This not-so-far in the future novel is a glimpse into the future of the american Southwest if we don't turn things around. The author is known for his sci-fi, and certainly it is speculative but had this exact same novel been written by someone not effected by the genre ghetto this novel would be taken as seriously as it has every right to be.

The Water Knife is about an all to real future we face. This novel is about the life that depends of the flowing stream of the Colorado river. Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and southern California all depend on the mighty river. Every city, and small town along the way do as well. I have to think about with every drop of water I drink, bath or use to cook. You see I live in San Diego at the end of the supply chain of the same Colorado River.

In this dystopia government agencies fight and over water rights and Arizona has recently lost most of the water it depends on. The borders are closed between states, Arizona is dealing with Mad Max extra like Texan refugees and Nevada and California are taking drastic steps to keep refugees out. We see this through an excellently plotted array of characters who each could have supported their own novels. The most interesting is an enforcer doing dirty deeds for Nevada named Angel Velasquez who works for a brutally intense woman behind the Nevada water authority named Catherine Case. She is hearing rumors of a new water source in Arizona perhaps an ancient aquifer. The maguffuin becomes the water rights in question.

So at this point Angel has to travel across this awful messed up future Arizona that has fallen into chaos. There he meets Lucy who is a reporter cover the violence and death on the other side of the Arizona border. There are other characters fellow 'Water knifes' and refugees. This is not just a tale of political intrigue there is violence, betrayal, romance desperation and excellently plotted tale of the best things in story telling parallels and reversals.

I am sold on Bacigalupi as a story teller. I think this is an important novel that already has a wide audience but considering the vision of the future it presents deserves a wider look. Here in the southwest this should be required reading. Sure it is a dystopia and as such it exaggerates to clarify but the book was well researched. If we don't want to see this world become a real thing, then we need to make sure more people check it out.

Some might consider this book preaching to the choir. I feel on the issue of climate change there is no such thing. Most of you who understand it is a problem have taken very little time to think about what all this means for our future, your children's future. If you are in the so-called choir then perhaps a little more time and thought into what you buy and more importantly what you eat would be in order.Just my opinion.