Pump Six and Other Stories
Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo Bacigalupi's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience. The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best of Paolo Bacigalupi's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the Nebula-and Hugo-nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."
Stats for nerds
8recommend
22mentions
16people
2012–2026years
45% recommend50% neutral5% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Chiming in to second this, Pump Six and Other Stories left me with a deep, deep sense of dread after I finished reading it. Highly recommended, such an underrated collection.
- Yeah, the Tamarisk Hunter ( https://windupstories.com/books/pump-six-and-other-stories/t... ) is fantastic and set in the same world.
- I want to add that "Pump Six and Other Stories" by Paolo Bacigalupi is also a great read. "Pump Six" also paints a similar picture to Forster's "The Machine Stops", but with a different perspective.
Both are great and horrifying at the same time.
- You should read "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster. Also, "Pump Six" from "Pump Six and Other Stories" will also do fantastic job of diving into this "forgetting how to maintain them" reality.
- +1000 for The Water Knife, just excellent.
Bacigalupi wrote another book called Pump Six and Other Stories. If you enjoy scrappunk then the story "The People of Sand and Slag" from that collection is pretty good.
I don't know the solution to modern ship breaking, but I think we have it in us to be better. We don't want to be the people of sand and slag. Let's instead be characters from a Becky Chambers novel.
- Don't forget "Yellow Card Man"!
Most of his stories in "Pump Six and Other Stories" are very good. Depressing, but good.
