Pump Six and Other Stories

By: Paolo Bacigalupi

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Eileen Stevens, James Chen

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science-fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.

The 11 stories in Pump Six represent the best of Paolo'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". The title story is original to this collection.

With this book, Paolo Bacigalupi takes his place alongside SF short-fiction masters Ted Chiang, Kelly Link and others, as an important young writer that directly and unabashedly tackles today's most important issues.

©2010 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Bacigalupi’s stellar first collection of 10 stories displays the astute social commentary and consciousness-altering power of the very best short form science fiction…Deeply thought provoking, Bacigalupi’s collected visions of the future are equal parts cautionary tale, social and political commentary and poignantly poetic, revelatory prose.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“ Pump Six and Other Stories… quite strikingly positions Paolo Bacigalupi as one of the best young SF writers of our time: a writer who has already done first-rate work and who is ready, I feel sure, to really thrill us.” ( SF Site)

“Paolo Bacigalupi is the best short-fiction writer to emerge in the past decade….He combines beautiful prose, startling imagery, and shocking ideas in unforgettable ways.” (Robert J. Sawyer)

"Three narrators perform the works individually, bringing the stories starkly to life. James Chen adds a special touch with his Chinese accent in the performance of “Pocketful of Dharma,” an odd melding of science and religion. The readers craft their performances to wring every ounce of drama from Bacigalupi's words." ( AudioFile)

All stories written in a minor key...

Very well written, however just not my cup of tea. Stories apocalyptic and minor key in tone... I was left with a "Slit My Wrists" feeling afterward.
Excellent sci-fi writer,(reason for the 4 stars) again, just a bit dark.
Beautiful, lyrical quality to the writing style. If you are into moody, dark, lyrical, sci-fi, then you will like this. If your tastes are more toward fast paced, tech, sci-fi, then I'd save your credits.

Good, but not as good as Windup Girl

These short stories are some of Bacigalupi's earlier work, including two stories from the same world as the Windup Girl. They are almost all near-future dystopian, and while most were quite good individually, I found the collection as a whole felt a bit redundant after the first half. The variety of narrator voices made it a little more entertaining,and I found all the narrators to be pretty good.

Nice collection of well written short stories

Considering that, for the most part, I don't like short stories, this was an exceptionally well-written, interesting and original collection. I have read some of Bacigalupi's works before (Wind Up Girl comes to mind), and I like the dark, depressing future bio-tech world the author has created. All these stories are set in the same world - or, if not the exact same, the same type of world - and they almost feel related, even though they all have separate plots and characters... it is the tone, pacing, and bio-tech I guess, that makes it feel like a single story.

I enjoyed some stories more than others, but as the ones I enjoyed the most are not the same ones that other reviewers enjoyed, I guess that is personal taste. Essentially, though, they are all clearly written by the same author and if you like the first story in the book, you should like all of them well enough. The stage is the same, just the actual characters change.

The stories have different narrators, and, while all of them are at least good, some of them are better narrators than others. I don't think you'll find any of them off-putting though. The stories are dark but not graphic or gory.

Our Future?

These stories should have been classed horror. If any of these things cone to pass our future will be a pretty horrible place. While listening to them I attended a conference by Riccardo Petrella and the problems of our society which he addressed were reflected in the themes of these stories . It was eerie. I actually wondered if the author had heard him speak. Not an easy read but interesting nonetheless.

I never wanted the stories to end.

I could listen to Paolo Bacigalupi for the rest of my life. I could just lock myself in my house and lay there, listening, (preferably with J. Davis narrating) in a futuristic stupor, happily ever after.
I never wanted to leave the world of 'The Windup Girl' and gratefully returned through the stories of 'Pump Six'. Now, I wander aimlessly though other offerings from other authors...some of whom have been on my "to read" list forever, thinking, "I wish you were Paolo Bacigalupi".
This book is a rare gift.

Dark-toned future greenpunk

None of the stories in this collection were bad, and some I would rate 4 or even 4.5 stars individually, but nothing really impressed me like the The Windup Girl did. I think my greatest disappointment was the similarity of all the themes: Bacigalupi writes dystopian stories about humanity's greed and selfishness and environmental devastation, and that's all he writes about. Two of the stories in Pump Six are from the same world as "The Windup Girl," and most of the others easily could be. He's a good writer, but I'd really like to see him open up a bigger toolbox.

Dark fun! Tropical steampunk with a touch of Kafka

Would you listen to Pump Six and Other Stories again? Why?

I would listen to a few of the stories again because I enjoyed the unique flavor of Bacigalupi's future world and his organic technology. His characters are often so removed from the builders of their society that technology, religion and philosophy are a single concept to them. I like that part a lot. Nothing beats a good-hearted stoic faced with an unsolvable dilemma for character building.

Other stories are too violent for me, and I would not listen to them again.

What did you like best about this story?

The freshness of the writing combined with his mix of fun-and-new scientific concepts.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The gore and violence grossed me out at times. Some passages seemed like they were from a writing workshop to explore trauma rather than written for publication.

Any additional comments?

Fun, rough, new. Definitely of a voice and style which is his own.

Dystopian Downer

I could not get through this in continuous reading. Thought provoking. Sad. Well written. Depressing. Engaging. Terrifying.

Ok in small doses.

Enjoyable but very disturbing

I don't think this is up to the standard of "The Windup Girl" - few books are - but this has some interesting ideas. It's clear that the author used these as fuel for WG - so it would probably be better to read this one first.

Fantastic speculative fiction! Reasoned & subtle.

Would you consider the audio edition of Pump Six and Other Stories to be better than the print version?

The readers are among the best I have heard. Their phrasing and inflections are spot-on.