Pump Six and Other Stories
by Paolo Bacigalupi, Jonathan Davis, James Chen, Eileen Stevens · first published 2008
50% recommend44% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short science fiction stories with a creative approach to world building and a bleak, unsettling mood. The ideas are inventive and tend to linger after the last page. Fits fans of Bacigalupi's novels.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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."
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…the perfect format for science fiction, since it lets brilliant ideas play out rapidly. Check out “The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson”, “Stories of Your Life and Others” and “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang, “Pump Six and Other Stories” by Paolo Bacigalupi, and “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson.
on “Neal Stephenson – Announcing Termination Shock” ↗…logical. The novel is essentially about the other grim decisions you have to take to have a constant population. [0] This was in a book with multiple short stories from Paolo Bacigalupi. I believe this is Pump Six and Other Stories. Most of the novel are rather pessimistic, but at the same times sounds plausible enough to happen. I also recommend The Wind Up Girl from the same author.
on “Why Aging Isn’t Inevitable” ↗Paolo Bacigalupi is a good writer with a creative take on world building. Both The Windup Girl and The Water Knife (on topic for this thread) are good reads. His short stories collected in Pump Six and Other Stories are worth digging into as well if you like his novels. He goes into the potential effects of widespread gene modification and excessive patent protection of crops as well.
on “Indonesia Plans to Move Its Capital Out of Jakarta, a City That's Sinking” ↗+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.…
on “The toxic tide of ship breaking” ↗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.
on “Preparing for when the machine stops” ↗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.
on “NASA mistakenly severs communication to Voyager 2” ↗If you want a read that takes this to the utmost extreme, I recommend "People of Sand and Slag": https://windupstories.com/books/pump-six-and-other-stories/p... It's scary to me how true it rings.
on “Climate Change Is Killing Alpine Skiing as We Know It” ↗Don't forget "Yellow Card Man"! Most of his stories in "Pump Six and Other Stories" are very good. Depressing, but good.
on “The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk” ↗Yeah, the Tamarisk Hunter ( https://windupstories.com/books/pump-six-and-other-stories/t... ) is fantastic and set in the same world.
on “Hundreds lose water source in Colorado's poorest county with no notice” ↗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.
on “A low-carbon computing platform from your retired phones” ↗Also, links to reviews on Goodreads: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539171-pirate-cinema (rating: 3.82) Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8503271-pump-six-and-othe... (rating: 4.11) Zoo City by Lauren Beukes – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11351953-zoo-city (rating: 3.68) Invasion:…
on “Humble eBook Bundle” ↗…Going to just leave this up as it has the ratings;) And because I think goodreads review are way above amazon in quality (usually, not always) here are the links for GoodReads (ratings in brackets): Pump Six and Other Stories http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2819368-pump-six-and-othe... (4.11) Zoo City http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7163862-zoo-city (3.68) Invasion: The Secret World Chronicle http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1986356.Invasion…
on “Humble eBook Bundle” ↗…potential. At least one story is about someone who reverse engineered the GM/pest resistant crops to be non-sterile again. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Bacigalupi - at least two of them are in the "pump six and other stories" compilation - I can't remember which are which though.
on “No Patents on Seeds” ↗…you guess which episode I'm thinking of? Just to doublecheck my own perception), and of course "Pop Squad" from the second season is based on the short story of the same title by Paolo Bacigalupi (from "Pump Six and Other Stories"). And I'm sure I'm missing many more!
on “Why we're blind to the color blue” ↗Another, less optimistic view of this same future is the short story "Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi. https://windupstories.com/books/pump-six-and-other-stories/
on “Profession by Isaac Asimov” ↗