I never wanted the stories to end.

I could listen to Paolo Bacigalupi for the rest of my life. I could just lock myself in my house and lay there, listening, (preferably with J. Davis narrating) in a futuristic stupor, happily ever after.
I never wanted to leave the world of 'The Windup Girl' and gratefully returned through the stories of 'Pump Six'. Now, I wander aimlessly though other offerings from other authors...some of whom have been on my "to read" list forever, thinking, "I wish you were Paolo Bacigalupi".
This book is a rare gift.

11 people found this helpful

Scenes from broken futures

Among the current crop of hot science fiction writers, Paolo Bacigalupi is one of my favorites. To me, he's the latest to grab the grimy wheel of the "broken-down future" subgenre and steer it towards nightmares extrapolated from humanity's current dysfunctions. You know, destruction of the natural environment. Running out of fossil fuels. Carelessly gene-modified organisms run amok. Marginalization and exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful. Agribusiness conglomerates that control humanity's food supply, plant viruses having killed all natural foodstuffs.

Readers unfamiliar with Bacigalupi might want to start with one of his novels, but if you're hungry for more, the pieces here are an interesting chronicle of a writer developing his ideas. Two, in fact, are set in the world of The Windup Girl, and give extra dimension to characters and issues in that book. The rest seem to take place in other future timelines (except for one set in the present day), but contain ideas that clearly influenced the direction of his novels. To me, it's always fun to read short stories that are preliminary sketches for an author's long-form work.

Though there could have been more variety to the settings, most of the pieces here are quite good, showcasing Bacigalupi's talent for description, world-building, and taut storytelling. What makes him worth reading, IMO, isn't so much that the science of his stories is totally plausible, but that they start with a few grains of truth about human nature and use the science fiction setting to craft nuanced moral parables. One of my favorite stories here is set in a post-apocalypse world, and turns the battle of wills between a young scholar and his grandfather into a smart commentary on the endless struggle between the forces of civilization and knowledge, and those of tradition and group identity. Another takes place in an all-too-plausible near future, in which small farmers of central California find themselves losing a water rights battle against the government and the water-hungry big cities. And there's the title story, which takes place in a vaguely Idiocracy-ish New York City, where people rely on sophisticated machines built long ago by now-defunct companies, but no longer understand the principles behind their repair (I liked that the ape-like "trogs" in that world aren't really explained, but the reader still gets a sense of how they came to exist).

Be warned, there's a lot of bleakness here (illuminated by a few slender rays of hope), so this may not be the collection you'll want to dive into after a funeral or a bad breakup. But it's bracing stuff, demonstrating the power of short science fiction to suck readers into another world, then gut-punch our minds. As always, audiobook narrator Jonathan Davis, with his languid, sardonic tone, is a fine choice for Bacigalupi's writing style. The other readers do pretty good jobs as well.

9 people found this helpful

Unrelentingly brutal, brilliantly imaginative

Paolo Bacigalupi write stories about bad people. Nearly everyone in the worlds he creates, including his protagonists, is a selfish, hardened, small-minded person frantically engaged in a Hobbesian struggle against nearly every other character. Trust, kindness, and friendliness are essentially nonexistent here. The ideas are wildly imaginative, the sci-fi cleverly crafted, and the worlds brilliantly realized. So if you like cool sci-fi and don't mind reading about brutal shmucks living hellish nightmares, this book is for you!

9 people found this helpful

All stories written in a minor key...

Very well written, however just not my cup of tea. Stories apocalyptic and minor key in tone... I was left with a "Slit My Wrists" feeling afterward.
Excellent sci-fi writer,(reason for the 4 stars) again, just a bit dark.
Beautiful, lyrical quality to the writing style. If you are into moody, dark, lyrical, sci-fi, then you will like this. If your tastes are more toward fast paced, tech, sci-fi, then I'd save your credits.

15 people found this helpful

Great Stories

I believe this is the best set of short stories I've ever purchased. Outstanding underlying themes make interesting comentary of the path humanity has chosen.

5 people found this helpful

Fantastic speculative fiction! Reasoned & subtle.

Would you consider the audio edition of Pump Six and Other Stories to be better than the print version?

The readers are among the best I have heard. Their phrasing and inflections are spot-on.

2 people found this helpful

Dark fun! Tropical steampunk with a touch of Kafka

Would you listen to Pump Six and Other Stories again? Why?

I would listen to a few of the stories again because I enjoyed the unique flavor of Bacigalupi's future world and his organic technology. His characters are often so removed from the builders of their society that technology, religion and philosophy are a single concept to them. I like that part a lot. Nothing beats a good-hearted stoic faced with an unsolvable dilemma for character building.

Other stories are too violent for me, and I would not listen to them again.

What did you like best about this story?

The freshness of the writing combined with his mix of fun-and-new scientific concepts.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The gore and violence grossed me out at times. Some passages seemed like they were from a writing workshop to explore trauma rather than written for publication.

Any additional comments?

Fun, rough, new. Definitely of a voice and style which is his own.

2 people found this helpful

Enjoyable but very disturbing

I don't think this is up to the standard of "The Windup Girl" - few books are - but this has some interesting ideas. It's clear that the author used these as fuel for WG - so it would probably be better to read this one first.

5 people found this helpful

Good, but not as good as Windup Girl

These short stories are some of Bacigalupi's earlier work, including two stories from the same world as the Windup Girl. They are almost all near-future dystopian, and while most were quite good individually, I found the collection as a whole felt a bit redundant after the first half. The variety of narrator voices made it a little more entertaining,and I found all the narrators to be pretty good.

6 people found this helpful

Definitely a pulse on possible futures

The performances definitely brought to life this rich oil slick colored text. Not all stories captured my interest, especially when it is the banal reasonings of murdering a spouse (I honestly couldn't make it through this one). However many captured my imagination and it brought me to wistfully see our present as if it was a time of better days gone by, and it certainly wet my interest in exploring more from this author... probably when I start to trick myself into feeling hope for the future.

Certainly not a SciFi for everyone, but it is well worth a listen if you are looking for some sobering looks into the human condition when it comes into contact with advances of technology, declining environment, increasing poverty and evolution in order to survive.

1 person found this helpful