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3.5 

The Water Knife

By Paolo Bacigalupi
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A "fresh, genre-bending thriller” (Los Angeles Times) set in the near future when water is scarce and a spy, a hardened journalist and a young Texas migrant find themselves pawns in a corrupt game.

"Think Chinatown meets Mad Max." NPR, All Things Considered

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.

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The Water Knife Reviews

3.5
“This is fine but arguably a little more gritty than I'd like. We have a really morally grey protagonist who does pretty terrible things, but you find yourself rooting for him throughout. This also very much feels like something that could happen in a sense with the way the southwest is going. It all makes for an interesting reading experience; however, I didn't love the ending, and I didn't love how thr author wrote the character of Lucy, particularly during that sex scene. Overall, still an interesting novel and a cool concept”
Anxious Face with sweat“This all-too-possible dystopian novel is a fascinating and action-packed experience. I felt the drought through the pages and the twisty plot had me reading continuously. Not huge on the ending personally, but I would be interested to hear what other people thought.”

About Paolo Bacigalupi

PAOLO BACIGALUPI is a Hugo, Nebula, and Michael L. Printz Award winner, as well as a National Book Award finalist. He is also a winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the John W. Campbell Award, and a three-time winner of the Locus Award. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and High Country News. He lives with his wife and son in western Colorado, where he is working on a new novel.
 
www.windupstories.com

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