Another apocalypse novel, similar in theme to The Wind Up Girl (which I would like to reread). This time the author is exploring a future southwest US, when water has finally become so scarce that the main urban centres begin to fight amongst themselves to have control and access to what water remains. He also explores what kind of development might survive within this crisis environment using the latest technology around water recycling and waste management. As in so many apocalypse novels, there is the elite that survives and thrives no matter, and then there are the excluded, the surplus, the excess. Two societies - one militarized, one a chaos of crime bosses, gangs, criminals and paramilitaries.
A good read, but very american in structure - lots of guns, violence, the obligatory sex scene or two.
There is also a theme of what people will do, how they will change in moments of extreme crisis and threat. The breakdown of civil society and what relations and structures grow up in their place. What does facing that new reality mean?
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