Recommendations based on The Water Knifeby Paolo Bacigalupi

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  1. The Windup Girl

    by Paolo Bacigalupi
    A dystopian future where energy scarcity and biotechnology have caused massive upheaval in society.

    Anderson Lake is an economic hitman for the AgriGen Corporation, working in Thailand. He owns a factory trying to mass-produce a revolutionary new model of kink-spring (the successor, in the absence ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Ship Breaker

    by Paolo Bacigalupi
    In a post-apocalyptic world, a young scavenger discovers a valuable and dangerous secret that could change his life forever.

    Nailer, a small-framed teenage boy, is scavenging through an old rusty ship for copper wire. As he crawls through the darkness looking for scavenge to make quota, he dreams of traveling through the ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Neuromancer

    by William Gibson
    A hacker's journey through a dystopian cyberpunk world, searching for a way to survive.

    Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City , Japan. Once a talented computer hacker , Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Seveneves

    by Neal Stephenson
    Humanity's struggle for survival after an apocalyptic event threatens to extinguish life on Earth.

    In the near future, an unknown agent causes the Moon to shatter. As the pieces begin to collide with one another, astronomer and science popularizer "Doc" Dubois Harris calculates that Moon fragments ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Fifth Season

    by N.K. Jemisin
    A world where seismic and magical disasters ravage the land, and a woman's journey to save humanity.

    In a prologue, an extraordinarily powerful orogene discusses the sad state of the world and laments the oppression of his race. He then uses his enormous power to fracture the entire continent along ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Drowned Cities

    by Paolo Bacigalupi
    In a post-apocalyptic world, two orphaned children struggle to survive amidst war and violence.

    Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew ... (Barnes & Noble)

  7. The Three-Body Problem

    by Liu Cixin
    A science fiction novel exploring the consequences of first contact with an alien civilization.

    The story takes place in flash-forwards, flashbacks, and the present time. Below is a chronological plotline. During the Cultural Revolution , Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics graduate from Tsinghua ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Aurora

    by Kim Stanley Robinson
    A future mission to colonize another planet, and the ethical, social, and psychological challenges it presents.

    A generation ship is launched from Saturn in 2545 at 10% c (i.e. traveling at 108,000,000 km/hr or 10% the speed of light). It includes twenty-four self-contained biomes and an average population of ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Ancillary Justice

    by Ann Leckie
    A sci-fi epic of revenge and redemption, exploring the far reaches of the galaxy.

    On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking ... (Goodreads)

  10. Ancillary Sword

    by Ann Leckie
    Space opera about a starship captain's struggle to survive a hostile imperial government.

    Seeking atonement for past crimes, Breq takes on a mission as captain of a troublesome new crew of Radchai soldiers, in the sequel to Ann Leckie's NYT bestselling, award-winning Ancillary Justice. A ... (Goodreads)

  11. Station Eleven

    by Emily St. John Mandel
    Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.

    An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  12. Annihilation

    by Jeff VanderMeer
    A team of four women venture into a mysterious, surreal landscape in search of answers.

    A team of four women cross the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X", an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. The group consists of a ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Snow Crash

    by Neal Stephenson
    A hacker's quest in a futuristic America dealing with a mysterious computer virus.

    Hiro Protagonist is a hacker and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier ( courier ) who refers to herself in the third person , during ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Acceptance

    by Jeff VanderMeer
    A journey of exploration and self-discovery, as humanity faces a mysterious alien power.

    Acceptance jumps around in time and between the perspectives of several characters from the first two novels in the Southern Reach Trilogy. The Lighthouse Keeper In the years before Area X, Saul ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Neverwhere

    by Neil Gaiman
    A mysterious journey through a hidden realm of London, filled with danger and unexpected allies.

    Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Peripheral

    by William Gibson
    A journey to the future, exploring the possibilities of a post-apocalyptic world.

    The novel begins sometime in the near-future in a small town in rural America. Flynne Fisher works at a local 3D printing shop and lives with her mother and her brother Burton, who sustained brain ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Provenance

    by Ann Leckie
    An interstellar journey of intrigue and espionage, unraveling a conspiracy spanning the universe.

    An ambitious young woman has just one chance to secure her future and reclaim her family's priceless lost artifacts in this stand-alone novel set in the world of Ann Leckie's groundbreaking, NYT ... (Goodreads)

  18. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)

  19. The Orenda

    by Joseph Boyden
    An exploration of the spiritual bonds between a small Huron tribe and their European invaders.

    In the remote winter landscape a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of a young Iroquois girl violently re-ignites a deep rift between two tribes. The girl’s captor, Bird, is one of the Huron Nation’s ... (Goodreads)

  20. Ms. Marvel

    by G. Willow Wilson
    Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager from Jersey City, discovers she has superpowers and becomes the new Ms. Marvel.

    Marvel Comics presents the all-new MS. MARVEL, the ground breaking heroine that has become an international sensation! Kamala Khan is just an ordinary girl from Jersey City–until she is suddenly ... (Goodreads)

  21. Saga, Volume 2

    by Brian K. Vaughan
    An intergalactic adventure of two star-crossed lovers and their families.

    Each issue of Saga is titled with a numerical Chapter, such as "Chapter 1" for the debut issue. Every six chapters comprise a story arc designated as a "Volume" and are reprinted as trade paperbacks. ... (Wikipedia)

  22. American War

    by Omar El Akkad
    A vivid account of a second American Civil War and its devastating consequences.

    In 2074, after the passage of a bill that bans the use of fossil fuels anywhere in the United States, Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina and Texas secede from the Union, starting the ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Nemesis Games

    by James S.A. Corey
    A group of spacefaring adventurers embark on a journey of discovery and peril.

    The fifth novel in Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series–now being produced for television by the SyFy Channel! A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history ... (Goodreads)

  24. Half a King

    by Joe Abercrombie
    A young prince's struggle to reclaim his rightful throne and avenge his father's death.

    The story follows the exploits of Yarvi, a young prince of Gettland with a disabled hand. When his father dies Yarvi is elevated to the throne but faces a struggle to keep it as others conspire to ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Anathem

    by Neal Stephenson
    A philosophical novel set in a monastic society, exploring the limits of knowledge.

    Anathem is set on the fictional planet of Arbre. Thousands of years before the events in the novel, the planet's intellectuals entered concents ( monastic communities) to protect their activities ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Embassytown

    by China Miéville
    Exploring a distant alien city and unraveling its mysteries.

    Embassytown takes place mostly in the city of the title, on the planet Arieka. Embassytown exists on the very edge of the "Manchmal" (from the German for "sometimes"), which is suspected to be the ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Dog Stars

    by Peter Heller
    A man struggles to survive in post-apocalyptic world, searching for a better life.

    Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a ... (Goodreads)

  28. Wool Omnibus

    by Hugh Howey
    Uncovering the truth behind a post-apocalyptic world, where society is hidden beneath a giant dome.

    The story of Wool takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. , Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending one hundred forty-four stories beneath the surface. The series ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Scar

    by China Miéville
    A fantastical journey of survival in a dangerous, watery underworld.

    The Scar opens with the journey of a small ship which has set out from the city New Crobuzon (the setting of Perdido Street Station ). It is heading to the city's new colony, Nova Esperium, which ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Doomsday Book

    by Connie Willis
    A time-traveling historian struggles to contain a deadly pandemic in the Middle Ages.

    For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi ... (Goodreads)