The Water Knife
{{short description|2015 novel by Paolo Bacigalupi}}
{{Promotional|date=November 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = The Water Knife
| title_orig =
| image = File:Book_cover_of_The_Water_Knife.jpg
| caption =
| author = Paolo Bacigalupi
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = Oliver Munday{{cite book |last1=Bacigalupi |first1=Paolo |title=The Water Knife |date=2015 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-385-35287-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0G6LDQAAQBAJ}}
| country = United States
| language = English
| subject = {{plainlist|
}}
| genre = {{plainlist|
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| publisher = Alfred A. Knopf
| pub_date = 26 May 2015
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages = 371{{cite book |title=The Water Knife |publisher=WorldCat|oclc=900869568 }}
| isbn = 978-0-385-35287-1
| oclc = 900869568
| dewey = 813.6
| website = [http://windupstories.com/books/water-knife/ windupstories.com/books/water-knife/]
}}
The Water Knife is a 2015 science fiction novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is Bacigalupi's sixth novel, and is based on his short story, The Tamarisk Hunter, first published in the news magazine High Country News. It takes place in the near future, where drought brought on by climate change has devastated the Southwestern United States.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-paolo-bacigalupi-20150524-story.html|title=Review Amid a real drought, thriller 'Water Knife' cuts to the quick|last=Hamilton|first=Denise|date=21 May 2015|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=19 July 2015}}
Synopsis
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Central characters
- Angel Velasquez is a "water knife", someone who sabotages and destroys the water supplies of rival states.
- Lucy Monroe is a journalist.
- Maria Villarosa is a young Texas refugee.
Reception
In a review published by NPR, Hugo Award winning writer Jason Heller says "Bacigalupi plays on a grand scale, but he does so with a keen eye for detail. His big triumph, though, is never forgetting that The Water Knife is a thriller at its pounding heart. Even amid reams of deeply researched information about the economy, geology, history and politics of water rights and usage in the United States, he keeps the plot taut and the dialogue slashing".{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/05/28/408295800/the-water-knife-cuts-deep|title='The Water Knife' Cuts Deep|last=Heller|first=Jason|date=28 May 2015|newspaper=NPR|accessdate=19 July 2015}}
In his review for The Denver Post, Dave Burdick says the novel has a "rich" and "gritty" world, and comments that Bacigalupi knows the American Southwest well.{{cite news|url=http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_28254530/water-knife-review-waters-fighting-over|title=Book review: "The Water Knife," by Paolo Bacigalupi|last=Burdick|first=Dave|newspaper=The Denver Post|date=5 June 2015|accessdate=19 July 2015}}
American crime novelist and editor Denise Hamilton, writing in the Los Angeles Times, compares the novel to the film Chinatown, and says that while "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".
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://windupstories.com/ Wind Up Stories] - Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Water Knife, The}}
Category:2015 science fiction novels
Category:American science fiction novels
Category:Climate change novels
Category:Novels set in Phoenix, Arizona
Category:Novels by Paolo Bacigalupi
Category:Fiction about water scarcity