It's a very timely read for policy-makers, as well as anyone living in the threatened American West. Bacigalupi's is the most thought-provoking of the recent apocalypses. While Bacigalupi's environmental message could not be more powerful, it's neatly embedded in a nonstop action plot, full of murders and betrayals, that should satisfy thriller readers who didn't even think they cared about these issues.' -Gary K.

' water-wars thriller set in the Southwest only a few decades from now. newscasts warned of water rationing and extended drought, I felt the hot panting breath of the desert on my nape and I shivered, hoping that Bacigalupi's vision of the future won't be ours.' -Denise Hamilton, Los Angeles Times Reading the novel in 93-degree March weather while L.A. Francis Dam that killed 600 people and haunted its builder, Mulholland, into the grave. Its visual imagery evokes Dust Bowl Okies in the Great Depression and the catastrophic 1928 failure of the St. The book's nervous energy recalls William Gibson at his cyberpunk best. The casual violence and slang may bring to mind A Clockwork Orange. His use of water as sacred currency evokes Frank Herbert's Dune. Bacigalupi weaves page-turning action with zeitgeisty themes. Although one is set in the past and the other in a dystopian future, both are neo-noir tales with jaded antiheroes and ruthless kingpins who wield water as lethal weapons to control life-and mete out death. Reading Paolo Bacigalupi's richly imagined novel The Water Knife brings to mind the movie Chinatown.

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi