Though different outcomes are posited according to the premises of individual tales, most of Bacigalupi's work is unremittingly set in a world of radical Climate Change, where environmental collapse and turbulent economic shortsightedness and greed malignly interact, a planet whose dire condition is the central occupational hazard of the various protagonists who try to make a living in the swelling ruins. Deeply thought provoking, Bacigalupi's collected visions of the future are equal parts cautionary tale, social and political commentary and poignantly poetic, revelatory prose.(1972- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Pocketful of Dharma" for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in February 1999, a noir Cyberpunk-coloured tale set in an Asian city about to be transformed into an AI-controlled habitat in a World War Three context it was assembled, with much of his best early work, as Pump Six and Other Stories (coll 2008), which won a Locus Award. "The Tamarisk Hunter" deals with the effects of global warming on water rights in the Southwest, while the title story, original to this volume, follows a New York sewage treatment worker who struggles to repair his antiquated equipment as the city's inhabitants succumb to the brain-damaging effects of industrial pollutants. "The People of Sand and Slag" envisions a future Earth as a contaminated wasteland inhabited by virtually indestructible post-humans who consume stone and swim in petroleum oceans.
The Hugo-nominated "The Calorie Man" explores a post fossil fuel future where genetically modified crops both feed and power the world, and greedy megacorporations hold the fates of millions in their hands.
Bacigalupi's stellar first collection of 10 stories displays the astute social commentary and consciousness-altering power of the very best short form science fiction.
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