I really enjoyed this page turning thriller although it also
felt like a bit of a guilty pleasure because it rolls like a high-octane action
movie. Nevertheless I thought it had real depth which made it more than just a
bond-esque gore fest. It’s set in a time more near future than his previous novel
(The Windup Girl), so it didn’t contain as much fantastical
technological-development speculations which I enjoy but the closeness of this
novels setting made up for that. Its set in Central America not far from now
and water shortages have led to states playing politics with people’s lives –
and dirty politics at that.
I found the characters were very rounded and I enjoyed how
the use of their different narratives gives the crisis multiple perspectives. The
pace of the book is impressively fast, by the middle I thought I was at some
finale which then just kept giving with no let up till the end. But although it’s
dark and violent I think it would be wrong to just dismiss it as some
techno-gangsta future pulp – it’s grappling with the seriousness of the climate
change future we’re sleep walking into along and the book goes some way to analysing
the psychology of what makes people act in certain ways in extreme situations. The
harrowing situations of those in the crisis needed to be very detail to
understand their motivations and, in the end, I felt that balance was right to
show who the characters were without going too over the top.
Overall a very enjoyable book, both thrilling and thought
provoking.
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