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Pump Six (2010)

by Paolo Bacigalupi(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Night Shade Books

review 1: Harrowing, haunting - this book excels at bridging the cerebral and the visceral in images of possible futures. The theme of poisoned lands, physical transformation, and systems of survival runs throughout, but the images linger and cling, they get under my skin and I find myself referencing them in thought and conversation, as well as recommending this to half the people I know. If it were not for one sour note in a later story, and for the fact that the images can be really very disturbing, it would be an unqualified recommendation.
review 2: Overall very good, especially the stories set in the Windup Girl universe. The stories for the most part are 'soft' science fiction in that the technology takes a back seat to the social implications of the worlds he cre... moreates. The background and the implications are very well thought out for the most part, and several of the stories could easily have been expanded into fascinating novels. He's great at the creepy, morally compromised character too. Definitely a darker worldview. Weak points that reduced it a bit in my estimation include the story "Softer." I would have left out of the collection completely. There didn't really seem to be much point to it, other than cleverness, and there was no science fictional aspect to the story that would have fit it into the collection. If I was the editor, I'd have snipped it out as self-indulgent. The title story, "Pump Six" was also a little bit of a stretch. It read like SF from an earlier age: 50s or 60s perhaps. The decline of society, the stupidity of people. Definitely worth a read. less

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