Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife is his first book for adults since his 2009 debut novel, The Windup Girl, swept most of the major science fiction awards. In between, he published well-regarded young adult and middle grade books, including the 2010 National Book Award finalist Ship Breaker. Throughout his varied career, Bacigalupi has focused on extrapolating present-day ecological concerns into semi-dystopic future scenarios. The Water Knife may be the apotheosis of his pessimistic vision.
The Water Knife takes place primarily in Phoenix, Ariz., a shadow of its former self thanks to the relentless drought plaguing the American Southwest. The narrative switches among a trio of viewpoints that include a reporter struggling to rise above the level of journalism colloquially referred to as "implosion porn"; an immigrant from now-desolate Texas scheming desperately to stay alive; and the titular water knife, Angel Velasquez, whose occupation involves stealing water from struggling communities and redirecting it to his employer in Las Vegas. Bodies are dropping in Phoenix and, in a vaguely noir-esque setup, Angel is sent to investigate.
The Water Knife is haunted by the specter of looming catastrophe and, even worse, by the idea that people could have stopped it. Catherine Case, Angel's cynical employer, muses early on: "There's a theory that if we don't have the right words in our vocabularies, we can't even see the things that are right in front of our faces." Bacigalupi tries to find the words, even as his own book suggests that it will all end in dry riverbeds and blood. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books