The Water Knife

paolo bacigalupi

Synopsis

In Phoenix Arizona, a man get killed and somehow it moves around a lot of people. 
This in the USA where water has become a scarce resource. Not so scarce as everybody struggles to find water, but enough so that everybody knows it's a limited resource and that it means power. 
We follow a journalist, a "water knife" - a professional killer working for a big water criminal organisation, and a poor orphan girl. They all kinda know the system and yet working for it and against it to make themselves a place. 

My take

 It's a really good problematic. There is a book constantly mentionned, Cadillac desert, which is from the 80s about water issues -- I'm curious about wither it's worth reading as well. I like how Bacigalupi always has many characters that are neither total allies nor total enemies. 

More by paolo bacigalupi

The Doubt Factory

Also read in 2022

Dead Lies Dreaming Heaven's River Redshirts Rule 34 The Calculating Stars The Delirium Brief The Fated Sky The Labyrinth Index The Relentless Moon To Sleep in a Sea of Stars