“The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi
(from the publisher) “In the near future, the Colorado River has dwindled to a trickle. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel Velasquez “cuts” water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that its lush arcology developments can bloom in Las Vegas. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with her own agenda, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north. As bodies begin to pile up, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger and more corrupt than they could have imagined, and when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.”
Our Review-
by Charles Letherwood for Tom Dwyer Automotive Services
Science Fiction at its best extrapolates the present to give a glimpse of possible futures. Star Trek or 2001 beckon us down paths to bright futures full of hope. Others, like 1984 or Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife”, warn us off dismal paths to horrifying possibilities that are hard to believe, yet are all too probable.
Today, the drought blanketing the Western US is the worst in 1200 years and shows no signs of breaking. The Colorado River drains 20% of the West and feeds 5 states, but no longer reaches the sea because all its water is diverted to urban and agricultural water projects. Cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix are built in an actual deserts, gulping water by the billions of gallons to keep their millions of people alive. Photos of Lake Mead and Lake Powell show ‘bathtub rings’ of past-normal water levels. State and local governments are beginning to encourage changes in individual’s lives like artificial grass and efficient shower heads, but these can only have a microscopic effect compared to the floods demanded by cities, farms, and industry.
These realities of water define the world of The Water Knife. Climate change and population have combined to turn the mighty Colorado into an even smaller trickle than it is today. Migrants flee dustbowls in Arizona, Nevada, and Texas, finding coyotes to take them to the promised land of California. The United States retains the shell of governance but States patrol their closed borders with private militias and National Guard troops. And it’s not just Government. Private enterprise has stepped in as another player with their own armies to gobble up water rights to feed their new Arcologies, closed environmental systems that stand as the last possible human habitations in the Southwest… for those who can pay.
This isn’t the first time we’ve written about water. If you want to dig deeper, check out this look at Water Privatization from our News To Make You Furious column.
The Water Knife is not an enjoyable book. It’s noir fiction of the bleakest kind; there are no ‘good guys’, no exceptions to the unrelenting misery, and it shows the most cynical, survival-of-the-fittest portrait of humanity in stress. Instead it offers a well-written, deeply insightful, profoundly important look at how we might deal with water pressure in the too-near future. You won’t feel better after reading it, but you will feel more aware of the problems slowly creeping up on our society. We highly recommend Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife”, and a tall, cool glass of water afterward… you’ll appreciate it like never before.
