The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi

The Water Knife is Paolo Bacigalupi's first novel length work for adults since his breakthrough novel The Windup Girl (2009). He has written four other novels in between those too, aimed at younger audiences. The Windup Girl was hugely successful, winning Bacigalupi a Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus First Novel Award. Although the Windup universe provides more than enough space for further stories, Bacigalupi opts to expand another future in The Water Knife. The novel is linked to his short story The Tamarisk Hunter (2006). The main theme is environmental. Which given Bacigaulpi's track record will not surprise the reader. He has managed to produce a novel that is very will timed though. His vision of extreme water shortages in the American South West will make for uncomfortable reading for many people living in the area.

Several decades into the future the American South West is a parched wasteland. The states in the area are involved in a deadly game for water rights to support the desperate remains of their population. The region is swamped with refugees as well and local authority has largely collapsed. Among the ruins of Phoenix, Arizona, we follow three people trying to survive. The journalist Lucy Monroe gets in over her head covering the brutal murder of one of her contacts. The Water Knife Angel, a problem solver for Catherine Case, the powerful head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, heads to the city when their agent there shows signs of cracking under the strain of the chaotic events in the city. The Texan refugee Maria has other concerns. She has lost her family and is trying to keep from ending up prostituting herself by selling water. One misstep gets her in serious problems with the local gang. She needs money quickly.

The water situation in the region has always been something of a mess. It has been known for a long time that the current use of water is unsustainable but so far this hasn't stopped cities expanding in the region. Bacigalupi names the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, first published in 1986 and updated in 1993, as one of his inspirations. It is probably a good place to start if you are interested in the problem as it gives a comprehensive overview of the situation. It is clear that there was a lot more research involved in writing this book however. Lots of little details in the book, mostly mitigation strategies, point in that direction anyway.

The drought that has been going on in California in particular in recent years is making this a very relevant book at the moment. After several years with below average rainfall the state is beginning to feel the shortage. I get the feeling that as long as the discussion focusses on who can keep their lawn and who can't, and whether an outdoor pool or a green lawn evaporates more water, the sheer scale of the disaster has not really sunk in yet. In this novel Bacigalupi drives home the importance of good water management. He doesn't focus on the environmental impact as much as I had expected though. The social impact is much more the focus of the novel. The way he goes about portraying that, is probably the book's greatest weakness.

The American government in this novel seems to have lost the ability to combat natural disasters at a federal level. The pressure put on the system by drought, tornadoes, flooding and hurricanes (all of which are becoming more frequent as a consequence of climate change) has stretched it too far and is now limited to feeble attempts at humanitarian aid. Since the role of the central government is limited, the states have stepped in and wage a kind of undeclared war against each other. The water authorities are armed, local militias guard state borders to keep refugees out, and fierce battles in court over water rights rage. All of this frequently turns very bloody and Bacigalupi describes the horror in detail.

What surprised me about this situation is that there is no effort whatsoever being made at making the situation more sustainable. There are plenty of mitigation strategies in place of course, but the real problem is that there are simply too many people, needing too much water for the region to support. What the authorities appear to be busy with, is trying to take water away from somebody else. The overriding motivation of just about all of the characters is greed. The few people who think America might still pull itself together tend to end up dead for their trouble. It is so horribly cynical that at some points in the novel I began to wonder if the wilful ignorance the world is displaying at the moment isn't better. Yes, people are greedy, and corporations perhaps even more so, but is the world in such a bad shape that nobody in the whole wide world wants to do anything constructive any more?

Greed is a theme in just about any of Bacigalupi's other works as well, of course and he often goes into detail on the horrific consequences it can have. In each of his novels there tends to be a bit more hope though. Someone pushing back, trying to get society going again, somehow build a life that is worth living. In this novel there is just violence and corruption. Even the finale of the novel is very cynical. Characters getting out of their personal hell but at the expense of other people. I fear that by injecting so much post-apocalyptic violence into the novel, Bacigalupi has drowned out his message a bit. A terrible shame because it is one that needs to be heard.

That is not to say it is a bad novel. Just a terribly depressing one. The Water Knife is something of a thriller. A treasure hunt if you will, a race against the clock with the players doubting each other at every step. Bacigalupi knows how to build the tension and as an eco-thriller it works well enough. I had hoped Bacigalupi would manage to do a bit more with the environmental and social themes he picks for the novel than just showing us in gory detail where we're heading. In a way he has written the disasterporn his journalist characters report about in the novel. All things considered it was a decent read but not all it could have been.

Book Details
Title: The Water Knife
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 371
Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-385-35287-1
First published: 2015

The Doubt Factory - Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is an author whose work I've been keeping an eye out for ever since I read his debut collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008). He is probably best known of his first novel, The Windup Girl, which won a shelf-full of awards in 2010. Since then, he has mostly produced work for younger readers. The Doubt Factory (2014) is the third novel that is marketed as Young Adult. He wrote a fourth for an even younger market. Bacigalupi will be retuning to adult fiction later this year however, with the release of his novel The Water Knife. I very much look forward to reading that one. The Doubt Factory is a novel unrelated to any of his other works and clearly aimed at teenagers. It is fast-paced, written in clear language and with an equally clear message. I might have liked it more as a teen but reading it now, I think Bacigalupi is on his soapbox a bit too much.

Alix Banks has a bright future ahead of her. Her father runs his own public relations firm and has made a lot of money doing so. Their family moves in the circles of the powerful and her father's money has bought Alix an excellent education. She is headed for an Ivy League university and a bright career. Until, that is, a group of activists called 2.0 upsets her comfortable life. In a series of bizarre actions, they manage to open Alix' eyes to what her father's company is really doing. It disturbs Alix deeply and she is faced with a choice that could radically alter the path of her life.

The Doubt Factory is essentially about corporate greed. What Bacigalupi describes in his novel is a method to cast doubt on scientific findings that can delay regulation or bans on the use of certain substances found to have serious health or environmental effects and allow the company involved to squeeze a few more years of profit out of their product. There is no question about whether or not companies use these kinds of strategies. It is the only reason why tobacco is still widely available in most parts of the world, decades after the conclusive scientific evidence surfaced that it is both addictive and linked to a huge list of life-threatening medical conditions. The same thing is happening in the climate change debate, where an oil money funded tiny group of researchers have managed to convince enough politicians there is doubt about climate change to keep any real action from being taken. These are just the most eye catching cases, the  list of examples is huge, as Alix finds out in the novel.

Bacigalupi provides a playbook in this novel about how the process works:

DOUBT FACTORY PLAYBOOK
COUNSEL AGAINST A RUSH TO JUDGMENT.
ATTACK THE SCIENCE.
BUY CONTRARIAN SCIENTIFIC RESULTS.
PUBLICIZE BOUGHT SCIENCE.
EMPHASIZE QUESTIONS RATHER THAN ANSWERS.
TEACH THE CONTROVERSY.
ACCUSE OPPONENTS OF JUNK SCIENCE.
KEEP THE PUBLIC CONFUSED.
CONFUSION = DELAY = $$$$

Chapter 25

You can see this strategy in just about any discussion where science, economics and politics overlap. In fact, when I was in college studying environmental science, tactics like these were repeatedly pointed out to the students to make them aware of the danger. One strategy to deal with this is to follow the money. Asking yourself the question who pays for what research and what are their motives. Bacigalupi even points out ways to obscure the money trail in the novel. It is pretty scary to think that apparently making more money than you'll ever need is so important to some people that they'd be willing to engage in such profoundly unethical and at time outright criminal types of behaviour. Just reading about it makes one feel dirty. It also makes one wonder if we, as a species, are actually capable of facing up to the challenge of keeping the planet inhabitable.

In our ever more complex world we are using literally hundreds of thousands chemical substances of which, beyond the chemical structure, virtually nothing is known. Even if we wanted to, we could not research the impacts on human health or the environment of all of them. New substances are subject to testing of course but we will keep running into situations were the use of a chemical will have unforeseen consequences even if a company follows all the regulations and procedures perfectly. The whole culture of suppressing the knowledge that might result in a product having to be withdrawn or companies having to compensate victims is disturbing.

While I approve of Bacigalupi's message, I'm not sure that he has turned it into a good novel. Bacigalupi lays out his ideas in a very direct manner in the novel, with long monologues of 2.0 mastermind Moses in particular. He lays it out in detail and, not surprisingly, Alix refuses to swallow it whole. She is a bit naive in some ways but even so, Moses makes it sound like a conspiracy theory. Which is, I suspect, how many readers not familiar with the topic will see it. Moses tries too hard to sell it.

Despite his lecturing, Moses does manage to plant the seeds of doubt in Alix mind (no pun intended) and that is one of the aspects I do like. Alix has trouble slipping back into her old life and ignoring the signs that Moses may have a point. Bacigalupi very convincingly portrays a young woman being torn by doubt, feeling the very foundations of her comfortable life starting to crumble. The part of the novel where Alix tries to pretend nothing is wrong is the strongest part of the story in my opinion.

The entire novel is something of a thriller and the novel ends in an action packed sequence that would do very well on the big screen. Alix' decision as to which side she should choose will not come as a surprise to the reader. The way the argument is presented in this novel only allows for one conclusion. It is here that we can really see what this novel lacks to make it into a great work of fiction. The novel polarizes. It clearly defines two sides of the argument and pictures one as being absolute evil that must be fought by bringing their true motives to the light. It's the kind of polarization that currently grips American politics and simply blocks any kind of progress on issues such as business ethics, distribution of wealth, environmental protection and climate change mitigation. It is a complete deadlock, and while Moses has a pretty good handle on the problem, he does not have a solution. He changes one person's mind, or rather makes her think about something she has taken for granted and by doing so, removes her from a position where she might actually be able to influence matters. He moves her from one camp and puts her in the other. It is a sign of personal growth for Alix but doesn't change the big picture. If Moses had had an answer on how to change that, it would have been revolutionary.

What we are left with is a suspenseful novel with occasionally very good characterization. It's a novel with an important message, one that, despite the mechanism being clear for anyone willing to connect the dots, doesn't get nearly enough attention. I enjoyed reading it but after finishing The Doubt Factory it still left me with the feeling that the novel made it too easy to dismiss it as a conspiracy theory. It's unfair to expect a work of fiction to come up with the answer to one of the major challenges facing American democracy but I would have liked to see it reach out a bit more, rather than just condemning shameful corporate behaviour. If simply exposing it would be the answer, we'd have solved a lot of problems by now. Still, it is a message that needs to be spread, and as such the novel is very much worth reading. Just be aware that you will never see a political statement or an article in the news quite the same way after you finish this book. The pattern Bacigalupi describes is everywhere.

Book Details
Title: The Doubt Factory
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 484
Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-316-22075-0
First published: 2014

Pump Six and Other Stories - Paolo Bacigalupi

My first exposure to Paolo Bacigalupi's work was the story The People of Sand and Slag, which has been included in John Joseph Adams' excellent anthology Wastelands: Stories of th Apocalypse(2008.) Soon after I had the opportunity to read Bacigalupi's first collection for review. Pump Six and Other Stories was published by Night Shade Books and collects ten stories (eleven if you have the limited edition) from the period 1999 till 2008. The title story is original to the collection, the others have been published in various magazines and anthologies over the years. Having read it, I was nut surprised that Bacigalupi's first novel The Windup Girl (2009) turned out to be such a success. This collection displays Bacigalupi's talent. It  must be said that it is a seriously depressing set of stories though.

Many of the themes that would show up in his later novel. There are two stories with Asian settings for instance, not something many American science fiction writers without an Asian background have attempted. His environmental themes also show up in a number of stories. Climate change, scarcity of fossil fuels, genetic engineering, agricultural practices and water shortages all show up in one or more stories. Two pieces are set in the same future as The Windup Girl and one of them even shares a character with the novel. He has been renamed but is still clearly recognizable. If you want to know what his writing is about, Pump Six and Other Stories is the place to start.

The collection opens with A Pocket Full of Dharma (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1999), a story set in  a future China. Wang Jun, a young boy, orphaned and homeless, attempts  to survive in the city of Chengdu by stealing and begging. Fortune seems  to smile on him when he sees a foreigner with an expensive pair of  glasses he intends to steal. Following the foreigner he is witness to  his murder. The killers allow him to take the glasses but only if he will carry a datacube for them. When the person he is supposed to  deliver it to, fails to show up he decides to keep the cube and  unwillingly becomes involved in the political struggles over Tibet. I was struck by Wang's will to survive and the lengths he will go to to fill his belly every evening. On the one hand you want to smack him for not seeing the bigger picture, on the other you fully understand his  instinct for self preservation. There is also an undertone in the story that comments on China's drive to grow and develop and the price its leaders are willing to pay for it. Thematically it is pretty dark but I also felt a sense of wonder about the development project described in the story.

The second story is The Fluted Girl (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 2003). Set in a world where in some places at least, governing seems to have reverted back to a feudal  system, with the subjects of of a fief are little more than property. For the rich, virtual immortality is available but at a high price. To gain financial independence Madame Belari has carefully raised two fluted girls. Girls that literally use each other's body as a musical  instrument. One of the two seems happy to go along with this treatment, expecting to one day become a star, but the other, Lidia, is not content. The death or her only friend has hit her hard and when it is time for Belari to reveal her carefully nurtured girls to the general public, she rebels. The only word I can think of that fits what his being done to the girls is "perverse" really. The disregard for the wellbeing or human rights of the girls is shocking. Ones Lidia's eyes are opened, there is no way back for her, she must find a way to free herself, or failing that, take revenge. It is the bleakest story in the collection and the fact that Bacigalupi leaves the reader with an open ending makes it even more depressing.

The People of Sand and Slag (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 2004) is a very different kind of story. Bacigalupi examines what it means to be human using the point of view of far future trans-human beings and, most unexpectedly, a dog. The nearly invulnerable humans inhabit a completely destroyed world. Having advanced to the point where anything can be a source of energy and body parts can be regrown in hours, the dog seems strangely vulnerable to them. And yet, it triggers something in at least one of these people. The casual brutality and the fragility of the poor dog are what gives this story it's punch. When I first read it I was very impressed with it and it holds up well after a reread.

The next story also has an air of far future science fiction, set after we have managed to wreck Earth. It takes us in another, in some ways more positive direction however. The Pasho (Asimov's September 2004) is something of a generational conflict. A young man from a desert tribe goes to the city of their historical enemy to learn the ways of the Pasho. His grandfather, who once led a raid that destroyed the city his grandson went to study, disapproves of what he has become when he returns.

The story is built on the idea that knowledge can be dangerous, especially when a society is not ready to handle it. An acceleration of knowledge is what ultimately lead to the destruction of the world and the Pasho are dedicated to gradually reintroduce it. A frightfully arrogant position when you think about it. On the surface the reader sympathize with the young man but he has good reasons to doubt himself. Not only is his attitude essentially patronizing, he has also brought change that will accelerate the change, or as some would see it loss, of his culture. It is not so straightforward a conflict as it might first appear.

The Calorie Man (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October/November 2005) is a story set in the same world as The Windup Girl. It is not surprising that Bacigalupi decided to produce more work in this future as it is a remarkably complex scenario for such a short work. Climate change, genetic engineering and peak oil play essential roles in the direction this world has taken. Without cheap oil to burn the world has reverted back to the calorie (interesting that he chose to use this outdated measurement for his story) to power the world. Agriculture is the sector that dominates the energy market and it is cornered by a few large companies. With a mixture of patented genetic material, sterile seeds and genetically engineered diseases they keep tight control over the market and essentially the complete economy. Some people are not ready to accept this corporate dominance however. In secret, scientists are working to create seeds that are both resistent to disease and capable of producing fertile crops.

It is a nightmarish scenario (one of many in this collection) but it borrows a lot from developments in agriculture in particular. Part of this story is a reference to the dubious business models of Monsanto for instance. Their combination of herbicide resistent seed stock and enforcement of their patents has frightening implications for agriculture and the environment. Forcing farmers to buy new seed stock every year and abandoning the practice of storing part of the harvest for next year's crops is probably not a particularly smart thing to do when considering food security. In some parts of the world it would even be a complete disaster. There is an environmental side to the story too. Herbicide resistant varieties make overuse of herbicides likely, threating for instance the local water supply, and there is also some concern that his genetic modifications could end up in wild populations. There is a lot going on in the agricultural industry that is reason for concern. The story is getting a bit dated however. A number of important patents held by Monsanto have expired or will expire soon. How this will affect the situation is anyone's guess.

For me, this story was the one that really got me hooked on Bacigalupi's writing. He hits on an awful lot of things that I encountered during my years in college. I do wonder how much someone without my background in environmental science will get out of it however. He presents a complex arguments with a lot of interlocking environmental problems. It's almost a literary equivalent of environmental systems analysis. There is much food for thought in this story, that is for sure. The Calorie Man is definitely the piece that had the greatest impact on me.

In The Tamarisk Hunter (High Country, June 26th 2006), Bacigalupi tackles another environmental theme: the water supply in the arid west of the US. Water rights in this region are notoriously complex in the legal sense of the world (Kim Stanley Robinson hits on this in his utopian novel Pacific Edge) but in environmental terms it is simple. There is not enough to support the entire population. In this future scenario we follow a Tamarisk hunter. A man who clears Tamarisks, an invasive species capable of taking in and evaporating huge quantities of water, for a bounty. Having seen California, with its legal and financial muscle taking away all the available water form his region, our hunter is not satisfied to support them and see the farmsteads around him empty out. To keep himself in business he reseeds the Tamarisks. A practice that is highly illegal and very risky. Sooner or later, he is bound to be caught.

I liked this story a lot, both for the theme and the plot. When I visited the region myself, I was amazed as some of the unsustainable and outright wasteful ways in which water was used in an area that is partly arid or outright desert. The struggle over water Bacigalupi describes seems almost inevitable. There is also a very nice resolution to the plot. In a way it's obvious but like the main character, I didn't see it coming.

In Pop Squad (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October/November 2006) Bacigalupi takes a different direction, although it could be argued overpopulation is an environmental theme as well. In this future, humanity has found a way to become immortal. The treatment will simply stop the aging process. To prevent a huge population book, an anti conceptive is added to the drug. The price for immortality is not having children. Some people are not willing to pay that price and procreate anyway. The Pop Squad is on the hunt for such rogue mothers. Their method of dealing with them is ruthless but despite the logic behind the ban on having children, one of their agents begins to wonder what drives these people.

There is a sharp contrast between the refined culture the agent is part of when he is off duty and the ugliness and brutality of his job. The way Bacigalupi uses this contrast will probably not be to everyone's liking. While he does work in some humanity into the story, personally I felt he is trying a little too hard to shock the reader. It is a decent story but in this company it doesn't stand out.

The Yellow Card Man (Asimov's, December 2006) is the second story set in the same future as The Windup Girl. In this story we even meet a character who will return in the novel. Bacigalupi has renamed him though. Apparently the name he chose for the character in this story is an unlikely one given his cultural background. The two short stories share a setting but are otherwise unrelated. Where The Calorie Man is set on the Mississippi river, The Yellow Card Man takes us to a future Thailand. The main characters Tranh, an ethnically Chinese man,  is trying to eke out a living there, after the shipping business he owned in Malaya was taken from him in an anti-Chinese pogrom.

The story is not so much concerned with the environmental situation in the world. Like the main character in A Pocket Full of Dharma,  situation of the main character is pretty desperate.He simply doesn't have the luxury of thinking beyond his immediate survival. Being used to a life of luxury and having people around him to do his bidding, he has fallen to the level of a beggar essentially. Hard labour is the only way in which he can make a living. His current life has made him bitter. The discrimination described in the story is absolutely dreadful, but unfortunately not unlike the things many refugees would face. I guess the opportunism, ugly as it might be, at the end of the story was to be expected.

The next story, Softer (Logorrhea, edited by John Klima, 2007), feels like the odd one out. It deals with a man who, in a moment of frustration has murdered his wife. It's a very character driven story without any obvious speculative element. Other than being pretty dark, it doesn't have much to do with the other stories in this collection. It's well written but I got the feeling it didn't quite fit with the rest.

The collection closes with Pump Six, the story that gave the collection its name and the only original it contains. Again, it's a fairly depressing future scenario. A man working on the systems that keep the city's sewage from running along the streets witnesses astounding levels of stupidity around him. The cognitive abilities of humanity seems to have decreased the the level where they can only act to have their most basic needs met. When one of the pumps he is operating breaks down, he tries to find someone who knows how to fix it and finds out the true extent of the problem.

I wonder if this is Bacigalupi commenting on a society that seems to crave  instant gratification as some put it. Society in this story appears to  have completely lost sight of long term planning. Whether or not it is, Pump Six  leaves you with the feeling that the main character is capable of a lot more than  he himself knows and that somehow he will fix things. A hopeful end to  what is a rather pessimistic set of stories.

It is not often you come across a short story collection that manages such consistency. The stories in Pump Six and Other Stories are simply excellent. Most of Bacigalupi's characters seem to feel they are small people,  powerless to change the world around them. He shows the effects of certain  global developments on the level of an individual, taking complex environmental and social problems and presenting in a way that makes the reader feel right in the middle of it. That is quite an achievement, given the fact that at present very few people seem to feel the need to take responsibility for the mess we're making of our planet and take action to try and lessen the impact. By creating so many broken worlds, it is a collection best enjoyed in several servings however. Most of the stories are very dark, showing us terrible visions of the future. I don't think I could swallow this slim volume, my edition weights inn at 239 pages, in less than a week. To make the most of this collection, these stories need to be digested before moving on. This collection is challenging and thought provoking, taking your time to read it will pay off.

Book Details
Title: Pump Six and Other Stories
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Pages: 239
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59780-133-1
First published: 2008

The Drowned Cities - Paolo Bacigalupi

After the huge success of The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi entered the world of young adult fiction. I read his first effort in that genre, Ship Breaker, a year ago. It was a more straightforward adventure than The Windup Girl but it had all the environmental themes that show up in most of Bacigalupi's fiction rolled into the narrative. Not many writers display the environmental awareness that shows up in Bacigalupi's work and given my education in that field, I always feel drawn to that kind of story. Even without the other elements that makes Bacigalupi's work interesting, I'd read read anything he's write just for that. Fortunately for the readers who don't share my preferences, Bacigalupi is a very good author in other respects as well. The Drowned Cities is a novel that appeals to the adult reader as well. To the point where I wondered if he shouldn't have written this as an adult novel to begin with.

The novel is set in a future Washington D.C. The USA has lost it's spot as most powerful nation in the world and climate change has dramatically altered the coastline. After a failed Chinese attempt at peace keeping, Washington is currently fought over by a number of factions, all hoping to gain control over the former capital as a first step to reunifying the country. To finance their war, they scavenge the city and sell their findings to a number of large corporations always hungry for the world's scarce resources. The communities around the war zone are regularly harvested for fresh recruits, usually children, and slave labour. In this world, Mahlia, a young girl of mixed Chinese American origin grows up. Given the resentment still carried against the Chinese peacekeepers, she is not exactly popular. Even the community she lives in, barely accepts her. The only reason she is allowed to stay is that the only man who could pass for a doctor has taken her on as his assistant. Mahlia runs into deep trouble when patients from opposing factions appear on their doorstep.

The Drowned Cities is connected to Ship Breaker but except for one character who shows up in both novels and a few minor references there is no connection between the stories. It is perfectly possible to read one without having read the other. The details of the world are the same though. Bacigalupi throws in a lot of references to climate change, genetic engineering, biological warfare and scarcity of resources (in particular oil). It is not as obvious as in his work for adults, and not discussed in as much detail, but many of the developments are similar to what happened to the world in the Windup stories (although it they are not set in the same world). Some of the things that have happened to this future Washington have roots in the great, and usually undressed, environmental problems the world faces. You can accept these as a give and ignore this background in favour of a good action story, but for the reader looking for more, there is a whole layer of highly relevant environmental and political issues to sink your teeth in.

I did think the novel was very violent. Apparently the young adult genre leans towards darker tales, with violent acts discussed more explicitly than would have been fitting a few years ago. The war Bacigalupi describes is as barbaric as the reports that have come in from various parts of Africa in recent years. Torture, mutilation and the use for children (often under the influence of some substance of other) are all accepted practices in this war and that doesn't even include the deployment of genetically engineered soldiers. America, it turns out, is not above a bit of brutality when push comes to shove. Ironically, the only pacifist character in the novel is a Muslim. I wonder how many young readers will catch that bit of social commentary. I don't think Bacigalupi gets too graphic, but with Mahlia spending much of the novel one step away from rape, death or mutilation, this book is not suitable for very young readers.  

Bacigalupi's exploration of the fallen capital of a once great nation can seem a bit depressing but the motivation of the characters to put themselves in danger is all too human. The various militias may have the guns but that doesn't mean people will put up with anything. Mahlia is a girl who realizes the word has little to offer her. She doesn't shy away from violence and is not afraid to take rash action and it is her rashness that drives the story. More than once her decisions are questionable but her loyalty to her one remaining friend touches those around her. One thing that Bacigalupi did very well is show the reader how limited her view of the world is. She knows it is a large place but circumstances are such, that places beyond the immediate vicinity are shrouded in rumour and hearsay. Or perhaps we should call it the fog of war. Her world is a strange mix of fading Chinese civilization, remnants of past American glory and sheer survival instinct. Not an easy place to stick to the ideals of her rescuer and teacher in the arts of healing.

The Drowned Cities is a noticeably darker book than Ship Breaker. Although Nailer lives in a hard world and has to put his life on the line more than once, it is not the bullet riddled mess Mahlia finds herself in. I also felt Bacigalupi added much more in the way of deeper layers into this story, making it more challenging than his previous effort. With a few different choices, Bacigalupi could have turned this into an adult novel. I'm not sure it would have been better that way, but it was certainly possible. I'm not sure which one of the two I like better. When I was in the right age group, I probably would have said Ship Breaker. Right now, I appreciate a lot of the things Bacigalupi did in this story more than I would have back then. One thing is for sure, Bacigalupi doesn't underestimate his audience. I think I am going to have to revisit his brilliant collection Pump Six and Other Stories, just to tide me over until the next novel. Be it a YA one of an Adult novel, I'll read anything this man writes.

Book Details
Title: The Drowned Cities
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 437
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-316-05624-3
First published: 2012

The Khaim Novellas - Tobias S. Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi

I keep an eye out for everything Paolo Bacigalupi publishes ever since reading his marvellous collection of short fiction Pump Six and Other Stories in 2008. When news reached me that Bacigalupi teamed up with Tobias S. Buckell to write a set of paired novellas in a shared fantasy world, I was quite excited about the project. Unfortunately they were meant for release as audio book on audible.com. There is nothing wrong with audiobooks of course, but I happen to prefer reading over listening so this was a mild disappointment. Fortunately Subterranean Press picked up these novellas and released them in hardcover with some very good artwork and interior illustrations by J. K. Drummond.

The novellas are set in a world where magic exists but comes at a high price. With every use of magic, a new bramble sprouts somewhere near. These plants are almost impossible to kill, poisonous and rapidly overrunning entire cities. Everybody feels use of magic ought to be curtailed but there is always the lure of solving some problem with magic that would lead to disaster otherwise. What's one extra sprout somewhere near weighed against the life of a sick child? Draconian laws are put in place, religious orders preach against using magic and still the bramble spreads... Apparently Bacigalupi came up with the bramble idea, it looks like he took his inspiration from the tragedy of the commons.

The Executioness - Tobias S. Buckell

In this story we meet Tana. She middle-aged, mother of two sons and burdened with an alcoholic husband living outside Khaim. Her family can barely make ends meet on the income of Tana's father who is one of the city's executioners. Tana's father is very ill however, and soon the day comes when he can no longer perform his duty. To ensure the family's income, Tana sees only on option, she will have to take his place. When she returns for taking the head of someone caught using magic, she learns that raiders have struck the city. Her husband is dead, her father dying, her children taken. Carrying the executioner's axe, Tana sets out to get her children back.

I enjoyed both novellas a lot but I think The Executioness is the weaker of the two. The story was partly inspired by the question why there are so few middle-aged women as major characters in modern fantasy. Which, in itself, is an interesting question of course, truth be told I couldn't name that many. Tana's role is that of a mother protecting her children. Everything she achieves in her search for her children are means to an end, she is ready to give it up in a moment if it means getting her children back. This is a very powerful motivation of course, but not one that will win Buckell many feminist fans I suspect. Not until the very end of the novella is Tana forced to adjust her view a bit.

Tana's travels do give us a brief view of the world this story is set in. Buckell, who's published work is mostly sciece fiction, quickly finds out why epic fantasy is ...well... epic. Worldbuilding takes time and Tana's story itself could easily have been novel length. In short, the author has some trouble fitting it all into a hundred pages. He manages, but it left me with the feeling that the world was a but underdeveloped. Despite my earlier comments, I did grow to like Tana a lot. Her story may be a bit of a fantasy cliché, it is a well-written fantasy tale.

The Alchemist - Paolo Bacigalupi

The city of Khaim has been trying to control the use of magic, and thus the spread of the bramble, by making unauthorized use of magic punishable by death. Not everybody is ready to give up magic, death penalty or not, so the bramble keeps spreading. In his laboratory alchemist Jeoz is working on a mixture that will kill the bramble and makes sure it stays dead. He has sacrificed his wealth for this, selling just about every bit of furniture in the house. Jeoz has an additional motive for his project, without the use of magic, he cannot keep his daughter alive. She is suffering from consumption and will surely die without magical intervention. When Jeoz hits the jackpot and finds a formula that will work, he rushes of to the authorities to show his invention to them. Khaim's mayor does not intend to deliver the world from the poisonous bramble, he sees the means to reinforce his monopoly on the use of magic. And if Jeoz doesn't care to comply, well, the major has the perfect incentive to make him.

So instead of a mother trying to protect her sons, we have a father protecting his daughter. How is this story different from The Executioness? What makes it work better? For one thing The Alchemist does not have the wide scope of Buckell's story. It is focussed on what happens in Jeoz' household for the most part, making it more intimate, less dependant on a large cast and events in the wider world to make the story work. It feels to me like Bacigalupi's story fits much more comfortably into the novella format.

What I also liked about this story is the gradual way in which the motives of the key players are revealed. It is clear what Jeoz tries to achieve from the first but there is much more to his household than is immediately apparent. Bacigalupi carefully times the moment when the mayor's ideas on Jeoz' invention become clear. When it comes to pacing and time key developments this novella work very well indeed. In a way, The Alchemist is not that different from Buckell's effort but I think I can see why Bacigalupi got the Nebula nomination.

The Executioness and The Alchemist form an intriguing set of novella's. On Suberranean's website a new story in this world written by Buckell appeared. I wonder if he and/or Bacigalupi intend to develop this world further. There's definitely room for more stories in this setting.

Book Details:
Title: The Executioness
Author: Tobias S. Buckell
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 102
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-354-9
First published: 2010

Title: The Alchemist
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 95
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-353-2
First published: 2010

Ship Breaker - Paolo Bacigalupi

Ever since I've discovered Bacigalupi marvellous collection of short stories Pump Six and Other Stories I've read everything by this author I could get my hands on. He just received a Nebula award for his début novel The Windup Girl which was one of the top books of last year for me. In Ship Breaker Bacigalupi tries his hand at young adult fiction. I've always found young adult to be an extremely problematic label for fiction but in this case I guess it means the book is aimed at teenagers. Despite the fact it's been quite a while since I could say I was part of that age group, I very much enjoyed this novel. The story may be a bit more straightforward than The Windup Girl, thematically it is every bit as interesting.

The story is set in a future where oil has almost run out and is extremely valuable. Sailing ship have returned to the world's oceans and the enormous tankers that once used to transport oil around the globe have been beached and are slowly being dismantled for reusable metals. The working conditions for the workers who break up the ships are appalling. Exposed to toxic chemicals and just about every hazard one can think of on an industrial site, life is short and brutal for these workers. The heavy work, reclaiming the ships' steel is mostly done by crews of adults. So called light crews strip the ship of valuable copper and aluminium. This scavenging is usually done by children small enough to move though the cramped interior of these ships. Kids like Nailer Lopez.

Nailer does not know his own age but thinks he is about fifteen. His mother died some time ago and his father is a violent drug addict. One of the most frightening men on the scene, even to his son. Nailer is not large for his age, just small enough to work the light crews but quite aware that his days on that job are numbered. He is looking for a way out but so far an opportunity has not yet presented itself. When he is involved in an accident on the ship he is working on, nearly drowning in an oil residue left on the ship, his outlook on life changes. Quite inconvenient really, when he is confronted with the survivor of a shipwreck washed on the shore after a devastating hurricanes hits the region. He is faced with a choice, claim the scavenge or help a fellow human being. Survival alone is no longer enough.

For a young adult book Ship Breaker features some pretty heavy themes. Nailer's home and working conditions are quite clearly a reference to the conditions in which ships are scrapped in places like Alang, India. How the west disposes of its waste is not something we consider every day. Some of the ways we choose to deal with it are downright shameful. By placing those practice on American soil Bacigalupi brings some of this problem very close to home. There's a lot of references to the effects of climate change too. A polar sea that is ice free and used for shipping between Japan and the American east coast for instance. More severe weather events, catastrophic sea level rise, entire coastal cities drowned, the world Bacigalupi envisions is not a pretty one.

Another interesting bit of scary science is the presence of genetically engineered beings called half-men. They are described as a mix of human, tiger and canine genetic material and provided muscle and unquestioned loyalty for those who can afford to pay for them. They are disturbingly intelligent but practically enslaved. Bacigalupi raises an interesting point about genetics here, one that is also relevant to Nailer's relationship with his father.

"Listen to me, boy. Scientists created me from the genes of dogs and tigers and men and hyenas, but people always believe I am only their dog." Tool's eyes flickered to the captain, and his sharp teeth gleamed in a brief smile. "When the fighting comes, don't deny your slaughter nature. You are no more Richard Lopez than I am an obedient hound. Blood is not destiny, no matter what others may believe."
Half-man Tool to Nailer - Chapter 19

The influence of genetics on behaviour remains an interesting but poorly understood issue I guess.

There's also quite a bit of attention for the peak oil event (or rather, oil running out entirely) present in much of Bacigalupi's writings. Some very clever ways of dealing with it are described in the book. It doesn't seem to be set in his Windup future however. At least, I haven't come across references to that particular technology. Especially the sailing technology described in the book is fascinating, although Bacigalupi seems to realize it cannot replace the massive fossil fuel powered ships that currently travel the world's oceans. All of this changes views on our current consumer society for Nailer and his generation of course. They tend to view the people living in what they call the Accelerated Age as extremely wasteful. Nailer is making us look in the mirror in a way. Quite a lot to take in for the young reader indeed.

When you get right down to it the story isn't about the world's ecological struggles however. It's about a boy looking for a better life, a bit more comfort and above all, people he can trust. It is very interesting to see Nailer move from raw survival mode to compassion and trust. He's faced with various issues of trust and loyalty throughout the novel. Bacigalupi also mercilessly exposes the gap between the privileged elite, even in this exhausted world they are quite comfortable, and the immense poverty on the scavenger beaches. At first glance this gap seems enormous but Nailer soon learns he does have things in common with the rich. He may even like some of them.

Ship Breaker is meant to be a young adult novel, I would have loved this book at thirteen, but Bacigalupi has put enough food for thought in this book to appeal to more mature readers as well. While my attention was clearly drawn to the environmental themes of the book and the links with his other works, the author did not forget to tell an exciting story. Even if you ignore Bacigalupi's bleak outlook on the future and just let yourself be swept away by Nailer's tale it is a very good read. Enjoyable on multiple levels, Bacigalupi has created a very interesting book with Ship Breaker. I would have loved it at thirteen, I guess I love it at thirty-three as well.

Book Details
Title: Ship Breaker
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 326
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcoverk
ISBN: 978-0-316-05621-2
First published: 2010

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is the author of Pump Six and Other Stories, one of the best short fiction collections I have ever read. I was very much looking forward to reading his first full length novel, especially after I found out it would be set in the same future as his stories The Calorie Man and The Yellow Card Man. The last story especially has a close connection to the novel. To say I had (unreasonably) high expectations of this novel is probably an understatement. Although I had some quibbles with both the pacing and character development the novel did not disappoint.

The novel is set in a future Thailand, one of the few places on earth that is not totally dependant on a small number of large agricultural/industrial companies. Oil has run out, the sea level has risen considerably and carbon is strictly rationed. Internal combustion engines have all but disappeared because of this, and has largely be replaced by muscle, both human and animal. Where oil once ruled, the calorie is the all important factor in production processes. To make matters even more complicated, various biological weapons have wreaked havoc on the world's ecosystems and food production can only be kept at a sufficient level to feed the population by careful genetic engineering. Keeping one step ahead of the viruses is tricky though. The Thai government has managed to a degree but the big companies are trying to get a foothold in the country.

Against this backdrop Bacigalupi follows a number of characters. A Calorie Man, an agent of one of the big companies, trying to find the secret of Thailand's relative success in keeping food production up. A Yellow Card Man, a Chinese refugee of the Malaysian pogrom in which he lost his family, desperately trying to build a life again. A Windup Girl, a genetically engineered human, trained to be a secretary and translator with benefits for a Japanese business man. Abandoned by her owner, very illegal, almost unconditionally obedient and without rights she has fallen into the hands of a bar owner who does not appreciate her for her intellectual qualities. And finally a White Shirt, an official of the ministry of environment, once all powerful and now slowly losing ground to the ministry of trade. Something he means to put a stop to. Everybody has a price in Thailand but the Tiger of Bangkok cannot be bought. In Bangkok's steaming political climate these seemingly minor players will be essential in the drama that is about to unfold.

I marvel at the detailed picture of this future Thai society Bacigalupi has created in this novel. His environmental themes in this novel, the commentary on the way we produce our food in particular, is something I don't think I came across in any other speculative fiction I have read. It is a bleak future indeed if Bacigalupi's scenario would unfold but unfortunately it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility. The way food is dragged across the globe and what that does to local economies as well as the attempts to patent genetic codes and the lengths to which some companies are prepared to go to protect these patents are pretty disturbing. I also think he has written a very interesting chain of events in Thailand's political arena. I would be a major spoiler to elaborate about that unfortunately.

It has to be said though, at some points in the novel Bacigalupi probably pays a little too much attention to his setting. It slows the novel down in several places, making the pacing a bit uneven. A more serious problem is the character development. Emiko, the Windup Girl is especially problematic. Her character and story depend largely on her breaking the conditioning she received. Bacigalupi approached this by putting her under a lot of psychological pressure but given the misery she has been suffering on a day to day basis for years, this does not entirely convince me. The Yellow Card Man Hock Seng is a more interesting character but ultimately he says stagnant, constantly worried about his survival and fearing for another round of violence against the Chinese.

In a way The Calorie Man Anderson and the White Shirt Jaidee are the most interesting, both striving for their goals without compromise. Or course, given the end of the novel, one could wonder if this was a wise course of action but it certainly makes for interesting reading. I guess it is telling that the true twist in the story eventually comes from neither of these four. Bacigalupi made the events in Bangkok the real focus of the book. There is something to be said for that choice, his attention to detail and the believable scenario he presents make it the novel's strong point. It would have been nice see a little more development in the characters though.

The Windup Girl is a very good novel length expansion of the themes Bacigalupi wield with such success in his shorter work. I didn't think it was quite as good as his short fiction but the novel is certainly among the better ones I have read this year. I very much appreciated the environmental themes in his work, something Bacigalupi handles with an understanding rarely seen in other science fiction novels. The future he describes is bleak but also fascinating and the Thai setting is so well realized it convinced me (granted, I have never been even close to Thailand). The novels has some flaws, a few of which other reviews will no doubt think quite serious. The novel kept me captivated anyway. I think the author can do better, and I certainly hope he will in years to come, but the fact remains is that I thoroughly enjoyed The Windup Girl. As far as I am concerned this is one of the 2009 publications that should be on your reading list.

Book Details
Title: The Windup Girl
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Pages: 359
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59780-157-7
First published: 2009