The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi

The setting of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife is near-futuristic with a speculative SF idea behind it, but essentially it's more of an action thriller. On both accounts it's very good indeed, if not outstanding or particularly original in either. Essentially, it's another disaster scenario, one that is increasingly evident in fiction, a rather worrying trend that suggests that is all the more concerning when the scenarios depicted are all too credible.

Climate changes are already rocking parts of the United States, so imagine how vulnerable the south-western States would be to any disruption or drying up of the water supply. In Bacigalupi's novel, set in the not too distant future, much of the South is a dustbowl. Texas is gone, Arizona isn't far behind with Phoenix in turmoil. The other States have strict border controls, refugees aren't welcome, and natural water supplies and dams are jealously guarded. Inevitably powerful agencies have sprung up, with the major players in California and in Las Vegas. Catherine Case, in charge of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, is perhaps the most ruthless, protecting her interests through court orders that are enforced by her Water Knives, cutting supplies with little concern for the impact on huge populations.

Angel is one of Case's Water Knives, but he's stumbled upon a dangerous plot concerning important documents that could change the whole game. It brings him into contact with Lucy, a journalist reporting on the unfolding disaster, and Maria, a teenage Texan refugee who is struggling to survive on some dodgy water dealing, hoping to keep out of the way of the more immediate dangers of being exploited by ruthless gangs and militia groups. The southern States have become a very dangerous place to live, but if you're wealthy enough, you can live in one of the Chinese development projects called arcologies. There's always someone going to profit from a natural (or man-made) disaster, and the question is who is going to come out on top of this one?

There's a lot to play for then in the scarily credible not-so-distant future plot that Paolo Bacigalupi has developed here. Having established the ground-rules - and it takes a little while to adjust to this new setting - any environmental or SF issues in The Water Knife take backseat to what develops into what amounts to a tense espionage thriller of secret agencies chasing down important documents, with allegiances in these complicated times rather fluid and untrustworthy. It's all very well drawn together, but particularly satisfying in how Bacigalupi manages to continually raise the stakes, and yet still bring it all to a strong and surprising conclusion that really does come out of who the characters are and how the author has successfully developed them.