Pump Six and Other Stories

These are some of the most stunningly well-imagined dystopian stories I have ever read. I made the mistake of reading all of them straight through, and spent weeks afterwards digging myself out of the consequent depression. The story, “Pump Six” itself should be required reading for any proponent of “No Child Left Behind” or for anybody who thinks the US educational system has any merit.

I found ”The Fluted Girl” more than exquisite, ”The Tamarisk Hunter” and ”Small Offerings” excellent, ”Pump six” very good, ”The Calorie Man” and ”The Yellow Man” just good (weaker than the ”Windup Girl” novel, and having read that one first these seemed less good than they actually are), ”A Pocket full of Dharma” good-ish, the rest from bad to really, really bad.

This collection has some interesting tie in stories to both The Wind Up Girl and The Water Knife which we're probably my favorites. Climate fiction is some of the scariest stuff out there. “The People of Sand and Slag” about broke my heart. There was only on story I didn't care for (the one where the man kills his wife ... title escaping me), but overall I thought it was an intriguing collection and definitely recommended for fans of his novels.

Paolo Bacigulupi takes a sci-fi conceit and really fleshes it out. Scorched earth, inhospitably polluted Earth necessitating modified humans built to withstand the environment? That's the template to countless post-apocalyptic sci-fi novels. Table stakes for a larger story. Paolo instead decides to pull up on the reins and examine the idea a little closer and the results are wonderfully thoughtful. Lots of these sci-fi conceits are explored in each tightly packaged story. Lots of fun dipping in and reading between books.