Disclosure notice: I did not receive a free copy of this book. The SNWA sent me a copy, but I forwarded it to the City of Phoenix with my condolences. It was returned, stamped 'No Longer at This Address'. Along with fellow WaterWonks John Fleck, Charles Fishman, and John Orr, I'm in the acknowledgments. Thanks! [Note: sentences 2 and 3 strain credulity.]
Here goes...
Cut to the chase: Read it! Compelling, frightening, violent, dark. Two books in one: a great mystery, and a water book to boot. It may be too close to reality for some.
When I first heard of award-winning (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, etc.) author Paolo Bacigalupi's second novel (The Windup Girl was his first) The Water Knife and its subject matter, I immediately thought of his 2006 short story, The Tamarisk Hunter, that first appeared in the High Country News. That piece mesmerized me and made a deep impression because I read it after leaving my beloved Southwest, home for 35 years, for the greener, wetter clime of western Oregon. I thought to myself that I had made the right decision, although I'm still unaccustomed to all this green stuff covering up the rocks.
So what's The Water Knife about? It's foremost a mystery (roman noir, if you will) involving water - Southwestern water. Does any other kind matter?
It's the near future. The Southwest is being battered by Big Daddy Drought, presumably the 'new normal'. The USA is in a state of disarray, the federal government is ineffectual, and states are now empowered to control and patrol their borders with their own militias and troops ('guardies'). Aquifers have been drained. Mexico now has the Cartel States.
The story is loaded with familiar players. Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) loom large, the latter headed by Catherine Case, aka Queen of the Colorado, a Pat Mulroy on PEDs. Ms. Case has an air force with attack helicopters, missiles and troops, should anyone (especially Arizona and its 600-pound gorilla, Phoenix) try to take water that she thinks is SNWA's, which, by the way, is in the arcology business.
California (the Calies) lurk about, blowing up dams, seeking more water and trying to prevent Las Vegas and others from acquiring more. Texans, New Mexicans and Arizonans (Zoners) seek to reach the promised lands - those with water and some semblance of a future. You'll also meet swimmers - those whose only future is to be killed, mutilated. and tossed into empty swimming pools, which abound in Phoenix.
Angel Velasquez, former Mexican prison-dweller, is Catherine Case's top 'water knife' - the black ops guy who takes the tough assignments and is amply rewarded with a living permit in one of the arcologies and a Tesla. The term 'water knife' derives from his ability to 'cut' water for SNWA but one could argue it has several more graphic meanings. Velasquez is very good at what he does. With guys like him around, Case has all the tools she needs: lawyers, guns, and money - and water knives.
Angel swings into action when it appears that there may be some available substantial water rights that are lying around somewhere. Is it true or just some old myth? But others - mainly California and Phoenix - are after them as well. Velasquez fires up (metaphorically, of course) his Tesla and heads to Phoenix, which, despite its own Chinese-built arcologies and economy partially based upon the yuan, is sliding into anarchy and beneath the sands of Arizona.
There, in the Valley of the Sun, he butts heads and other body parts with a variety of characters, most like him - operating on the dark side and capable of doing anything to get what they want. He joins forces with a journalist from the Northeast, Lucy Monroe, out to enhance her stature by reporting on 'collapse porn' - the bloody swimmers and others who illustrate the breakdown of society and death of a region.
Suffice it to say that the rumored water rights do exist, so the race is on in earnest. Bodies accumulate at an alarming rate. Gratuitous violence in spades. Fires burn. Phoenix seems doomed. Who gets those rights? Will someone's 'good side' come to the fore, if only for a few moments? Perhaps Angel lives up to his first name. Nahhhh... Read it - you will not be able to put it down.
The book is well-written. Great dialogue. Again, it's a mystery that involves water, so I suspect that this book might have been enjoyed by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, who might even have accepted Bacigalupi into their circle.
But despite its fictional designation The Water Knife has terribly unsettling elements of reality and a future devoid of any beneficent authority to keep the lid on. It does have a healthy dose of discussions on ethics and morality (wonder what Chandler and Hammett would say about that?). For a WaterWonk who spent most of his adult life in the arid Southwest, the picture it crafts cuts much, much too close to home.
It's on my bookcase between Collapse and The Sixth Extinction.
Paolo Bacigalupi's novel doesn't cut like a knife. It mutilates like a machete.
Read it. You'll great two great books in one.
You know, this would have made a helluva graphic novel. I'll wait for the movie.
'Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan'
-- Lawyers, Guns and Money, by Warren Zevon
I read it too, and found myself unable to write a review, the book was too unsettling and graphic. But this review is spot on -- a perfect synthesis and summary, without giving too much away. If you have the stomach for copious violence (physical and mental) and care at all about water, you'll like this book.
Posted by: PeterGleick | Tuesday, 01 September 2015 at 08:58 AM
I am a great fan of Henning Mankell who managed to use the mystery novel format to write about a wide range of social issues. I also read The Tamarisk Hunter in HCN. This sounds like a great follow on for both.
Posted by: Wesley Rolley | Monday, 31 August 2015 at 09:22 AM