Pump Six and Other Stories

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi takes place in the world of his The Windup Girl, or similar future Earths. Those that liked The Windup Girl are likely to enjoy this collection of short stories, maybe even more so. Set in the future, they extrapolate from present day hot button issues and explore their not-so-benign effects, including overpopulation, climate change, environmental recklessness, water resource reduction, insufficient food distribution, and body modification. While there are some noteworthy technological advances in the stories, they tend not to benefit what today we would call the 99%.

The stories are collected in order of publication. His earliest, "Pocketful of Dharma," improbably has the Dalai Lama show more confined in a data cube - what use is he in that form, and can he reincarnate? "The Fluted Girl" is haunting. A 1%-er has acquired two young girls and had their bones altered so that they can be "played" through engineered holes like a flute, inflicting a bizarre type of slavery.

In "The People of Sand and Slag," three future-time blue collar workers encounter a dog, an animal then only found in zoos. The tale lies in their attempts to understand the dog, and the effects of their god-like body modifications on their bonding with him. A disturbing story and one of the best in the book.

"The Pasho," set in an environmentally ruined future, features differences between a traditional desert culture that reminded me of Dune's Fremen, and a nearby "wet" and soft culture, with the title character trying to bridge the gap. "The Calorie Man" will ring bells with Windup Girl fans. It's also set in an environmentally damaged future, one ruled by corporations, and has a caper feel to it.

"The Tamarisk Hunter" is set in a water-deprived and -obsessed future California. The title character, a hunter of water-spoiling tamarisk shrubs/trees, has to address his increasing obsolescence. "Pop Squad" is a pretty heavy-handed, although thought-provoking, take on immortality and overpopulation, with the cop-like protagonist going after illegal mothers.

"Yellow Card Man" is another one set in the world of The Windup Girl. A businessman who once ran a global enterprise was ousted in a revolution for being a foreigner, and is reduced to starving circumstances. How far will he go to survive, and must he subjugate himself to a dishonest man he once fired?

"Softer" is the most straightforward of the stories, and could be set in contemporary times. A man impulsively kills his wife, and then deals with the aftermath.

The title story "Pump Six," involves the environmentally-caused descent into idiocy of most humans, with the competent main character trying to save New York City's falling apart sewer system (critical to preventing further toxic harm) while surrounded by the ignorant and devolved.

The final story, "Small Offerings," is a brief disturbing story about the effect of environmental toxins on childbearing.

As you can tell, this isn't a light-hearted collection. But the author is someone who has thought a good deal about where we may be headed. The variety is impressive, and the stories are moralistic, if that's the word, in the ways of authors like Bradbury and Phillp K. Dick. They are concise and reach resolution in the way the best short stories do. Followers of this interesting author will get sucked right in, as well those who enjoy this kind of adventurous read. show less

"The Calorie Man" is incredible. A world strangled by food monocultures and IP.
"Pop Squad": humans can live forever, can spend as long as they please perfecting their art, learning, becoming incredible athletes. But in exchange, having children is illegal. Stunning. (Can't help but think that the answer is space travel)
"Yellow Card Man" is the best of the bunch. Absolutely chilling tale of crushing poverty. Set in the same world as "The Calorie Man".

These stories make my heart hurt.

This is a book of monsters; fragile monsters, armored monsters, subtle monsters, monster who were once human, once had families, used to be like us. And looming over it all, the monsters of the post-global warming climate and the post-industrial economy. Each of the 11 stories in this collection are a facet onto the central concerns of the author. Fears about humanity and nature and labor which are my worries, and which should be your worries as well.

Paolo Bacigalupi smells like the future. I can give no higher praise.

I am weary of dystopian fiction. Maybe you are too. Bacigalupi writes dystopian fiction. But listen, this is really, really good. In each story the outlook for humanity is bleak, but the characters are sympathetic as they scrabble for a better shake of the stick. The future looks a bit like Bombay. Or like a vast impoverished American Indian reservation. Or a bioengineered living skyscraper. It's the people in it that make is a real place for the reader; their stories are varied and compelling.

After reading one glowing review after another, I decided to pick this book up. Pump Six is Denver native Paolo Bacigalupi's first book, but you'd never know it. It has the polished style of someone who's been writing for decades. It's no wonder the collection was nominated for a Hugo award. It's simply stunning.

Generally the book's 13 tales are Sci-Fi, though with a dash of New Weird, Decadent, and a brief foray into horror. Most of the stories take place in dark, dystopian, near-futures. No matter which way you cut it, Paolo doesn't have a very bright outlook for the future of mankind. However, these are in no way stereotypical dark-futures, as exemplified though other genres, like Cyber-Punk. These were much more gritty; much more show more real; much more exquisitely and disturbingly thought out. Any of these cautionary tales could easily become our future if we're not careful. Imagine the intellectual and cutting edge Sci-Fi of Philip K. Dick mixed with the bleak, unflinching and hard-hitting style of Cormac McCarthy.

Story after story, I was blown away by the sheer force of Bacigalupi's unique imagination. If imagination were rated on a scale of 1-10, his would be an 11. I kept thinking to myself, wow! How did he come up with that!?! How could anyone even think of something like that!?! His ideas and concepts are truly amazing. Here's a taste (without giving anything away):

A future society of fiefdoms where celebrities are the new ruling class and everyone else toils as serfs.

A future where bio-corporations own patents on the world's food supply, and create bio-engineered plagues to destroy natural food options (read, competitors).

A future where humans have become near-immortal through gene therapy, cellular enhancement and symbiotic organisms, calling into question what it means to be human.

A future Mid-West littered with abandoned subdivisions where water is the new gold.

An overpopulated future where skyscrapers are no longer built but grown.

I going to say the old cliché -- I don't care -- if you read one book this year, read Paolo Bacigalupi's PUMP SIX & OTHER STORIES. Support a new author! show less

It took me a loooong time to get through this book, and not because it wasn't good, but because I was bloody scared of it. I would finish one story looking like this @.@ and then put the book aside for a while to get some courage to read another one.

Bacigalupi is the author who doesn't do safe and comforting. His visions of our future are brutal, unforgiving and totally too believable.

Let's take "The Fluited Girl" - for me the scariest story in this anthology. The idea Bacigalupi extrapolates here is what will happen if humanity continues indulging in surgical modification of their bodies. I'll let you find out for yourself what "fluited girl" means. Hope you have strong stomachs.

Then there are stories that speculate about what people show more will become if they achieve immortality. Characters in "The People of Sand and Slag" are adapted to pollution to such a degree that they are able to survive eating just sand and waste. (They are also capable of regrowing their limbs BTW - and apparently this "feature" can be a part of sexual play, good grief, another shocker!) When these people come across an actual live dog, the disconnect between these humans and natural world comes to light in a rather horrifying way. The other story playing with the idea of immortality is "The Pop Squad." Not to go into details, let me throw these questions out there - if everyone is immortal, would children be allowed to be born? what if there are some women who decide to break rules and have kids? what happens to these children? A hint: boom, boom! Not for the faint of heart.

Other stories explore the versions of future where: natural resources (water) belong to a private company ("The Tamarisk Hunter"), the exhaustion of fossil fuels leads to a world run by the corporations that own genetically modified crops that now fuel and feed humanity ("The Calorie Man"), intelligence is becoming obsolete and people revert to animal-like existence ("Pump Six").

Like in all anthologies, not all stories "Pump Six and Other Stories" are equally good, the earlier ones are particularly transparent in their message. But they all are definitely equally thought-provoking. A great dystopian read for those not turned off by heavy subjects. show less

Are you looking for visions of a dark gritty future with a glimmer of hope that the better parts of mankind will shine through? Then keep looking. Here there is no glimmering. While we seem to share a similar world view, I’m a giddy optimist compared to the author. Which is not to say there isn’t humor involved. It’s just dark. So dark you’re not sure if it’s actually there.

Mr. B does a fantastic job within the confines of these short stories of building worlds that you can almost taste. Not that you’d want to. It’s an interesting blend of styles; partly old school sci-fi, but definitely modern at the same time, lots of techie bits (which I’m not often a fan of) but building characters that really made me feel for them, show more even if that felling was sometimes not particularly pleasant. He uses a hammer to get his point across, yet there’s subtlety in there as well.

Most of the stories are visions of Dystopia, which could describe many of my favorite books and movies. Like ‘Jennifer Government’ many of them seem ridiculously exaggerated and completely plausible (maybe even likely) at the same time, not the sort of far off, disconnected vision of “maybe that could happen” but “oh crap, that’s going to happen”.

That’s the only resemblance to the fun thrill ride of ‘Jennifer Government’. These stories range from melancholy and slightly depressing to crushing. Strangely, the two stories that seemed to me to have the most “light hearted” tone, ‘The People of Sand and Slag’ and ‘Pump Six’, where the ones that really got to me. I was actually a little upset after reading TPOSAS and can’t stop thinking about it. I mostly read these stories one at a time because I needed to process them afterwards.

Not that it was all great. ‘Softer’ was a pretty average, non sci-fi story of a sociopath in the suburbs. ‘The Tamarisk Hunter’ was nothing to get particularly excited about either. And you could make the criticism that there was too much of a commonality to the stories.

I didn’t know who this was when I started reading it but I can’t wait to read ‘The Wind Up Girl’ now. I have not been this intrigued by a Sci-Fi writer since Gibson and Stephenson came out. show less