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This short story, set in the same future as The Water Knife, originally appeared on Matter, 27 June 2015. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Matter.

This short story originally appeared on Slate, 26 April 2016. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow (2019) from Unnamed Press.

Read the full story for free at Slate.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (2014), edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine (2015), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family - merchant bankers with a vast empire - has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese diplomacy: knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur - like the fossilized dragon eye in the family's possession, a potent symbol of their raw power and a talisman that seems to be summoning Davico to act.

As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits. His fate depends on the eldritch dragon relic and on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister, Celia di Balcosi, whose own family was destroyed by Nalova's twisted politics.

This short story originally appeared in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008), and was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 14 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and After the End: Recent Apocalypses (2013), edited by Paula Guran.

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 eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best 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."

Table of Contents:

• Pocketful of Dharma - (1999)
• The Fluted Girl - (2003)
• The People of Sand and Slag - (2004)
• The Pasho - (2004)
• The Calorie Man - (2005)
• The Tamarisk Hunter - (2006)
• Pop Squad - (2006)
• Yellow Card Man - (2006)
• Softer - (2007)
• Pump Six - (2008)

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology The End Is Nigh (2014), edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howley. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gadner Dozois, and Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction (2015), edited by John Joseph Adams.

This short story was originally published in the Lou Anders anthology Fast Forward 1 (2007). It can also be found in some editions of the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

In this page-turning contemporary thriller, National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author Paolo Bacigalupi explores the timely issue of how public information is distorted for monetary gain, and how those who exploit it must be stopped.

Everything Alix knows about her life is a lie. At least that's what a mysterious young man who's stalking her keeps saying. But then she begins investigating the disturbing claims he makes against her father. Could her dad really be at the helm of a firm that distorts the truth and covers up wrongdoing by hugely profitable corporations that have allowed innocent victims to die? Is it possible that her father is the bad guy, and that the undeniably alluring criminal who calls himself Moses--and his radical band of teen activists--is right? Alix has to make a choice, and time is running out, but can she truly risk everything and blow the whistle on the man who loves her and raised her?

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette.

In "The Fluted Girl," Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi weaves a tale of the freedoms and shackles of wealth and fame. Lidia is a fluted girl, one of a pair of genetically altered and surgically designed twins, intended to win the hearts and minds of all who observe her in performance. While Lidia's patron, Madame Belari, plots to profit from Lidia's and her sister's debut exhibition, Lidia seeks her freedom, and will pay any price to seize it.

This story was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2003. It is included in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois, Science Fiction: The Best of 2003 (2004), edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2004), edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link. It can also be found in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

In this Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated short story, a Laotian journalist, Ong, tries to succeed in an American news agency where glamorous "click-bait" stories drive revenue, and in-depth news stories are a dying breed. As Ong struggles to survive in the newsroom, he must choose whether he will pursue clicks and success, or stay true to his ideals, and risk everything because of it.

This story was originally published in Fast Forward 2 (2008), edited by Lou Anders. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009), edited by Gardner Dozois and 21st Century Science Fiction (2013), edited by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Read the full story for free at the Pyr blog.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette.

In "The People of Sand and Slag" Paolo Bacigalupi weaves a tale about the lives of three technologically modified guards, their barren, heavily mined landscape, and a chance encounter with a creature rare for their time period -- a dog. What starts off as a hunt for an enemy ends up as a story of empathy, and what it means to be human.

The story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2004. It has been antologized in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois, Science Fiction: The Best of 2004, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. It is also included in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at the author's website, or listen to a podcast of this story at Drabblecast.

Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times-Bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist, dives once again onto our uncertain future with his first thriller for adults since his multi-award winning debut phenomenon The Windup Girl.

In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents.

With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other's hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

The apocalypse begins on the day Rabi, Miguel and Joe are practicing baseball near their town's local meatpacking plant and nearly get knocked out by a really big stink. Little do they know the plant's toxic cattle feed is turning cows into flesh-craving monsters... ZOMBIES!!!

The boys decide to launch a stealth investigation into the plant's dangerous practices, unknowingly discovering a greedy corporation's plot to look the other way as tainted meat is sold to thousands all over the country. With no grownups left they can trust, Rabi and his friends will have to grab their bats to protect themselves (and a few of their enemies) if they want to stay alive... and maybe even save the world.

In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life. . . .

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.

This third book in a major series by a bestselling science fiction author, Printz Award winner, and National Book Award finalist is the gripping story of the most provocative character from his acclaimed novels Ship Breaker and The Drowned Cities.

Tool, a half-man/half-beast designed for combat, is capable of so much more than his creators had ever dreamed. He has gone rogue from his pack of bioengineered "augments" and emerged a victorious leader of a pack of human soldier boys. But he is hunted relentlessly by someone determined to destroy him, who knows an alarming secret: Tool has found the way to resist his genetically ingrained impulses of submission and loyalty toward his masters... The time is coming when Tool will embark on an all-out war against those who have enslaved him. From one of science fiction's undisputed masters comes a riveting page-turner that pulls no punches.

From award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell comes a fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of magic, and a tyrant who is trying to rebuild an empire--unless the people find a way to resist.

Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.

In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse from within--and yet hope emerges from unlikely places with women warriors and alchemical solutions.

Nebula-nominated Novella

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In the paired novellas, The Alchemist & The Executioness, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

In the beleaguered city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble's essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire--if it doesn't destroy him and his family first.

Sturgeon Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2005. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois, Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005 (2006) edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. It is included in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008) and is included as an extra in some editions of the novel The Windup Girl (2009).

What Happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man" (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions.

Hugo and Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2006. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008) and as an extra in some editions of the novel The Windup Girl (2009).