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Cover of The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Water Knife

  • 384 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2015
  • 12 editions

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1 About this book

The American Southwest has been decimated by drought. Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, deciding if it should just take the whole river all for itself. Into the fray steps Las Vegas water knife Angel Velasquez. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel "cuts" water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert and that anyone who challenges her is left in the gutted-suburban dust. When water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

Decimated by drought, Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, waiting.

Good for readers who want: a thriller, dystopian fiction, and a survival story.

  • Thrillers
  • Dystopian fiction
  • Science fiction
  • Survival
  • Droughts
  • Western stories
  • Deserts
  • War

2 About Paolo Bacigalupi

Born 1972

Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi (born August 6, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and has been nominated for the National Book Award. His fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and the environmental journal High Country News.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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