The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Water Knife

by Paolo Bacigalupi

“They have no idea what they're doing. These are the people who are suppose to be pulling all the strings, and they're making it up as they go along.”

Lucy Monroe page 344

You can't live without it. You don't think about it when you have it but when you don't... You do anything to anyone to get enough to keep going. There's a number of things that applies to, but in this review, we're talking about water. We talked about Mr. Bacigalupi last review so let's discuss the book. The Water Knife was published in 2015 by Vintage Books. Vintage Books was founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. It was purchased by Random House in 1960 and currently operates as a subdivision of Random House. Now's let's dig into it. (I’ve never figured out why he goes through the history of publishers like this.{Someone needs to, do you know how many I've linked back to Random House?})

The Water Knife takes place in a near future American Southwest. The changes in the climate that we see taking effect around us have kept ramping up, to the point that the southern parts of the US are in collapse. Texas and Louisiana have become disaster zones as hurricanes and drought have driven the state governments to their knees. In response to the massive number of refugees, California led a coalition of wealthy states in creating the State Independence and Sovereignty act. This let those wealthy states keep other Americans out so as to avoid having to spend resources on them while they frantically poured resources into protecting their own populations and resources (In reality, California is even more screwed than LA and TX are…). Now your state residence matters and which state you're a citizen of is way more important than being a US citizen. States that can use their national guard units to enforce their borders and resource claims. States that cannot? They use militia groups recruited under the table to keep out undesirables by any means necessary. Meanwhile in the southwest, a resource war over water is being raged between Phoenix, Los Vegas, and California. Folks, no matter who wins Phoenix is the definite loser (Well yes, we’re going to lose in real life too. Even without climate change this metro area is screwed. That’s what we get for living in a monument to the hubris of humanity.). California uses a vast machinery of political, legal, economic, and military power to establish an informal empire in the west. The state drains entire other states of their water to keep themselves going, as an increasingly weak federal government can only half-heartedly protest. Meanwhile Los Vegas rallies behind Catherine Case, a real estate operator and political operator who is using an army of lawyers, crooked politicians, national guardsmen, and when all else fails troubleshooters willing to break the law to keep her arcologies lush and booming. Now, some of you may be wondering what an arcology is. An arcology is a self-contained human habitat that is nearly self sufficient. In science fiction they are often presented as being as large as cities. They show up in the Water Knife as a new model of human habitation that's being created as a response to Climate Change. Catherine Case is building a number of them around Los Vegas and is leaning hard on her less-than-legal operatives to get the water they need.


These operatives are called Water Knives because they cut water from other cities and communities in order to redirect it to their patrons. Angel, a former Mexican (now the Cartel States) refugee who grew up to be a gangbanger only to be turned into a savvy operative in Case's organization is one of the best of those Water Knives. Angel is a very interesting and complex character, someone who fully admits that what he's doing is ruining lives but rationalizes it with the belief that it has to be done. Also it will be done one way or another and it might as well be him. Angel, much like Anderson Lake in The Windup Girl, also tells himself that he's making a better world. Yes, there are losers who are crushed in the attempt, but there are also winners who gain entry into a new paradise of life free from concerns over the rapidly changing environment. Angel puts his faith in Catherine Case's vision and so is willing to be a devil to bring it about. So we get a man who is willing to blow up a water treatment plant and through that kill a city (and a good number of the people living in it) but is a big fan of a T.V series about a Texan trying to protect fellow refugees while hunting for his wife and children in the chaos of a Southwest that is falling apart and is incredibly understanding and forgiving of people trying to kill him. Whether or not that moral complexity is going to help him is an open question as he's sent into a dying Phoenix on the rumor that a game changing source of water is about to found in Arizona and Case's operatives in Phoenix have gone dark and silent. Meanwhile people in Phoenix have their own problems.


Between waves of Texan refugees that can't leave, California, and Las Vegas systematically stripping the state of Arizona of its water rights and the cartels moving north smelling blood on the sand; Phoenix is a dying beast that refuses to believe it's dead. While a Chinese built arcology is rising in the middle of the city, the remainder is turning into a vast slum choked with desperate Texan girls selling themselves for food and water; Mexican gangsters taking control of the city one street and dirty cop at a time; as well as Chinese and Californian business men picking over the corpse for anything of value. Meanwhile Coyotes offer a way north for anyone who can pay enough and is willing to brave the desert while being hunted by militias willing to commit the kind of crimes you usually associate with news about civil wars in the Middle East. Living in this city is Lucy Monroe, a journalist who came to Phoenix to provide front-line coverage of the death of a city and perhaps an entire state. Lucy could leave anytime she wants, she has citizenship in a New England state, has won Pulitzers for her work, and has a sister living in Canada who practically pleads with her to get out of there. But it's to late for Lucy, Phoenix has gotten to her and she has become a part of the dust-ridden sun-blasted hell it's become. That said Lucy still holds out hope that something can be done to at least slow down the dying and while she's not a fan of Catherine Case, her real hatred is reserved for an increasingly imperialist California. When her friend Jamie is tortured to death after telling her about a deal that could change the entire region, Lucy starts digging to find out what the hell happened. Maria Vilarosa can't leave however; a Texan refugee, climate change drove her family out of Texas and has killed the rest of her family one by one. Her life is one of trying to hustle from score to score, find a way to save some money despite the gang claiming almost everything she earns as “tax”, and avoid being turned into a street-walker. This might be impossible as her neighborhood is owned lock stock and barrel by the Vet. The Vet is a criminal madman who has built a violent criminal enterprise and is squeezing the Texan community for every last cent he can. He maintains power through fear, violence, and feeding people who disobey him to the pack of Hyena he keeps in a lock pen outside his home. (...Woah. Points for creativity and animal trafficking I suppose.) Maria has an overriding goal, she is going to get out of Phoenix and she is not letting anything stop her.


The plot moves quickly in The Water Knife as the characters encounter one another, part ways, meet again and create alliances, betray each other and remake alliances and play against an increasingly violent and unstable backdrop. It's a world where the United States has all but fallen and no one seems to realize it (which echos the fate of the Roman Empire in a lot of ways) and it's component parts are increasingly turning on each other for whatever resources those governments can grab for themselves. The story presents us with a world where Americans have abandoned national unity and have turned on each other; where the actions and behaviors we see in the third world are now played out in the United States as a vast chunk of the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet is turned into a wasteland by changes in the climate. This story is light years darker and more dystopian then The Windup Girl. There is no strain of hope here, no emerging group of human beings better able to live in harmony with their environment. There are only those lucky enough to be in safe zones, like arcologies or states that have the wealth and power to deal with the changes being wrought, and those who live in the ruins of places that don't. Places where girls who are barely high school age sell themselves for a chance at real food and a shower, where religious fanatics duel with criminal armies. The biggest conflict in The Water Knife isn't between Los Vegas and California, or between criminal gangs and refugees though. It's between people who are trying to keep the old order who still believe in the way things were and could be again; and those who believe that things have changed and there is only finding a way to survive in the world they’re in now. It's not all bleak, Mr. Bacigalupi is careful to show us good people in this world, trying to help others. The Red Cross for example hasn't abandoned Phoenix, nor has the UN, even if the US government has. There are characters who perform good deeds and reach out to help those around them; even Angel is willing to aid and help his fellow man if he can. This creates depth and realism to the story, while only making it more frightening because of it's realism. For me, the most terrifying thought is the idea of the states turning on each other. I have to admit that it isn't impossible, but if it ever got to the point where states where using armed troops to keep other Americans out of their states and launching armed raids on each other to steal resources and destroy infrastructure... Then we're doomed. Our greatest strength despite all the political disagreements and economic competition is that our states work together; that our shared identity as Americans is more important than any party, state, or local loyalty. Without that, we're not a country and much of our power, wealth, and basic safety goes down the drain, most likely never to return. It's my hope that no matter how bad things get, we don't forget that, that those who declare they would prefer serving a foreign nation rather then see their political rivals win are enough a minority that they don't matter. It's my fear that they aren't.


Turning back to our theme this month, while The Water Knife was recommended to me and I defended The Windup Girl as Solarpunk... I can't really do that with this novel. While Mr. Bacigalupi remembers that solar power is a thing in this book (the fact that California would rather loot water from other states then build desalination plants is also pretty believable (Keep in mind, California is vast and so is its need for water. Desalination is good for small populations like Israel, or to smooth out the edges of a drought in a larger region, California has a larger population than Australia or Canada by a wide margin, and staggering agricultural needs to boot. Desal is so energetically expensive that it simply won’t cut it]{That’s why you attach a nuclear reactor to your desalination plant<I agree, clearly, but this is California. Even an ecological catastrophe isn’t going to convince them to build more nuclear plants without something I’d be tempted to call an act of God, or a massive federal mandate.>}), it doesn't really have what I would consider the main themes of Solarpunk. It's too dark and too much about the fall from grace rather then the rebuilding or living in balance. So apologies folks I owe everyone another solarpunk novel review (don't hold your breath though it might take a while for me to find one). That said The Water Knife is an amazing read, well plotted, and carried by characters with believable motivations and outlooks on life that just kinda sucks you right into the book. Like water down a drain. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi gets an A.


Join me Sunday when I talk about climate fiction and look at it's influences on Solarpunk.  Keep reading! 

Red text is your editor, Dr. Ben Allen.

Black text is your reviewer, Garvin Anders.