No book will ever make you thirstier than The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi's (The Windup Girl) action-packed return to hard science fiction, in which the American Southwest is ravaged by drought.

In the not-too-distant future, climate change has turned the Colorado River Basin into a dust bowl. California, Nevada and Arizona wage hot and cold war over aquifers, dams and water rights. The wealthiest 1 percent live in lush, self-sustaining "arcologies" (architecture + ecology), while the cities and suburbs of old are riddled with crime and desperation.

California has the upper hand thanks to foreign water corporations, and Arizona is a militarized backwater. But the most powerful woman in Las Vegas—Catherine Case—has a secret weapon named Angel Velasquez. He's one of her "water knives," soldiers trained to secure fresh water resources by any means necessary. Angel is sent to investigate a potentially game-changing source of water in the most unlikely of places: Phoenix. There, his fate becomes entwined with those of a determined journalist and a teenage refugee from Texas. Together, they follow the trail of a near-mythical artifact that could shift the balance of power in the war for water.

Bacigalupi's nightmarish vision of a dystopian America ruined by greed, bureaucracy and environmental disaster is both horrifying and prescient. It takes a few chapters to gather momentum and orient the reader, but once the story finds its stride, the pages turn themselves. The Water Knife is a thoughtful, frightening, all-too-likely vision of the future.

 

This article was originally published in the June 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In the dry and thirsty Southwest, where states fight over what little remains of the Colorado River, Angel Velasquez "cuts" water for his rich boss. Things get ugly when he's sent to investigate rumors of a power play to monopolize the river. This is the New York Times best-selling Bacigalupi's first thriller for adults since his Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winning debut, The Windup Girl.

Angel is a water knife for the South Nevada Water Authority, pitting himself against anyone who threatens Las Vegas and its control of water rights from the precious reserves of the Colorado River even if it means cutting desert communities off at the knees. Lucy is a journalist chronicling the desperate state of affairs in drought-ridden Phoenix. Maria is a refugee from Texas struggling to make ends meet. Their lives converge in a city dying from a lack of water but drowning in violence, and all become tangled in the search for long-lost water rights that could change the power structure of the American Southwest. VERDICT Hugo and Nebula Award winner Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl) has written a fresh cautionary tale classic, depicting an America newly shaped by scarcity of our most vital resource. The pages practically turn themselves in a tense, taut plot of crosses and double-crosses, given added depth by riveting characters. This brutal near-future thriller seems so plausible in the world it depicts that you will want to stock up on bottled water. [See Prepub Alert, 11/24/14; seven-city tour; highlighted in "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 35.]

Drought and climate change mean that water knives like Angel keep busy protecting the interests of those who want to control the water supply. Angel winds up in parched and dying Phoenix, where his path intersects with that of a journalist and a refugee as they all search for documents that could change the balance of power for the region. (LJ 2/15/15)

Angel Velasquez "cuts" water in the drought-ravaged Southwest. As wealth and corruption increasingly determine who can drink, he is sent to Phoenix to investigate a possible new water source. There he finds a journalist, a refugee, and a murderous plot to control an entire river. VERDICT Organized crime, a bleakly realistic take on apocalypse, and three original character perspectives make this near-future thriller a compelling read. (LJ 2/15/15)

Hugo Award–winner Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl) delivers an ambitious, genre-dissolving thriller and a timely cautionary tale. In an indeterminate near future, extreme water shortages have made the Southwestern United States a dystopia, with the privileged few living in elite "arcologies" with self-generating water recycling systems. The depleted Colorado River has become one of the last lifelines and the object of armed conflict among the residents of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Angel Velasquez is a "water knife," a sort of mercenary factotum, whose job is to secure as much water as possible for his Las Vegas boss, arcology developer Catherine Case. Sent to investigate a possible water source near drought-stricken Phoenix, Angel soon crosses paths with an idealistic journalist, Lucy Monroe, whose underground dispatches put her in constant danger. As vigilante bloodshed and desperation threaten to consume Phoenix, whispers of a 150-year-old document surface that may settle the water rights dispute and bring life back to the desert metropolis. With elements of Philip K. Dick and Charles Bowden, this epic, visionary novel should appeal to a wide audience. Seven-city author tour; 150,000-copy first printing. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh. (May)