The Water Knife Presents a Frighteningly Possible Future

Ripped from the (upsetting) headlines
Bacigalupi builds his near-future landscape from extrapolations of what’s already happening in our world. It’s set in a version of the U.S. in which a years-long drought has turned the Southwest into a chaotic collection of desperate states; where Water Magnates forcibly cut off smaller areas; where the population of Texas has fled to live like refugees in Arizona, persecuted and hopeless; where states have walled off their borders; and where China is a welcome economic savior. In this cracked landscape, water has become more valuable than oil, and the Water Knife, a man named Angel Velasquez, serves his Water Magnate mistress by cutting water pipes and throats with equal dedication.
Cli-fi
The term “cli-fi” (climate fiction) may seem silly at first blush, but with this novel, it has been elevated into one of the most important new sub-genres in science fiction. The patterns that could result in a world like this one are already in play: California’s intense drought has led to the imposition of water restrictions for the first time in the state’s history; extreme weather is cycling ever faster through new “Storms of the Century”; the natural consequences of a water shortage and the manipulation of remaining resources that result—all offered up in matter-of-fact naturalistic detail.
The characters are human
Bacigalupi’s characters are drawn from every stage of the slow-motion catastrophe he’s envisioned. Velasquez is a thug and a killer, but he’s also a thoughtful and ultimately surprising protagonist. Lucy is a prize-winning journalist who came to Phoenix to write “collapse porn” but has gone more than native; she risks her life to chase after a mysterious water deal that might change everything. Maria and Sarah are Texan refugees with no option for survival beyond scheming, biding their time by selling their dignity. The secondary characters are lived-in and fleshed-out, resulting in a disaster scenario that feels not only possible, but very intimate.

It echoes the past
The book’s power comes from its effortless believability. No, Texas is not an abandoned desert, Arizona isn’t dealing with a dying Phoenix, and corporations aren’t in control of the Colorado River, sending black helicopters and mercenaries to serve court orders and blow up water treatment plants. But Bacigalupi draws on history to make his future: the Texans’ plight is ripped right from The Grapes of Wrath and the Dustbowl of the 1930s, while the water fights are clearly inspired by the very real battles over the Owens River, which Los Angeles legally stole for itself a century ago—a story that inspired the film Chinatown.
There are no gadgets
There is a complete lack of fictional science in this work of science fiction, which somehow makes it that much more terrifying. The book is set five minutes in the future, which makes its twisted premise land that much more forcefully. But make no mistake: this is a book of ideas, of imagination, and a steadily building pace.
Any doubt that Bacigalupi is an important new voice in speculative fiction can be put to rest with the arrival of The Water Knife. Filled with ideas, sharp writing, and compelling characters, it is a novel that demands to be read now.
The Water Knife is available May 19, also in a signed edition.