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Pump Six and Other Stories


CoverPaolo 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. Paolo's fiction has been collected in various best of the year anthologies, has been nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best SF short story of the year.

The eleven 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.

"I hate this guy. All of a sudden he comes out of nowhere, writing like a weird angel, and winning awards, and knocking us old pros out of the box with stories about stuff we hadn't gotten around to thinking up yet. (Like that stupid bio dog!) Plus he's young and good looking. Luckily, he has an unpronounceable name."
—Terry Bisson, author of Numbers Don't Lie and Greetings

"Paolo Bacigalupi is the best short-fiction writer to emerge in the past decade; he's the Ted Chiang of the new millennium. He combines beautiful prose, startling imagery, and shocking ideas in unforgettable ways."
—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids

"Paolo Bacigalupi is quite simply one of the best young writers to come down the pike in the last decade. For anyone who hasn't gotten the news yet, Pump Six is a wonderful introduction to a singular and remarkable talent whose
work will be around for years to come."
—Elizabeth Hand, Author of Generation Loss and Mortal Love

"Ferocious, intelligent, and precisely rendered, these stories include some of my favorite contes cruels and cautionary tales for the twenty-first century. Paolo Bacigalupi is clearly the fifth rider of the apocalypse - you know, the one who writes science fiction in his spare time."
—Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners

About the Author
Paolo Bacigalupi's writing has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and the environmental journal High Country News. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Salon.com and High Country News, and have been syndicated into numerous western newspapers including the Idaho Statesman, the Albuquerque Journal, and the Salt Lake Tribune. He lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son, where he is working on a novel.

Cover Art by Claudia Noble


ORDER Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, November 2009

Distributed by Night Shade Books
1423 33rd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122

www.nightshadebooks.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59780-134-8
ISBN-10: 1-59780-134-8

Pump Six and Other Stories © 2008 by Paolo Bacigalupi
This edition of Pump Six and Other Stories © 2008
by Night Shade Books

Jacket art and design by Claudia Noble
Interior layout and design by Jeremy Lassen

"Pocketful of Dharma" © 1999 by Spilogale, Inc. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1999.

"The Fluted Girl" © 2003 by Spilogale, Inc. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2003.

"The People of Sand and Slag" © 2004 by Spilogale, Inc. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2004.

"The Pasho" © 2004 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2004.

"The Calorie Man" © 2005 by Spilogale, Inc. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2005.

"The Tamarisk Hunter" © 2006 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Originally published in High Country, June 26, 2006.

"Pop Squad" © 2006 by Spilogale, Inc. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2006.

"Yellow Card Man" © 2006 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2006.

"Softer" © 2007 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Originally published in Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, John Klima, ed., Spectra, 2007

"Pump Six" © 2008 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Original to this collection.

"Small Offerings" © 2007 by Paolo Bacigalupi. Originally published in Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge, Lou Anders, ed., Pyr., Feb 2007 (only available in the limited edition).

Night Shade Books
1423 33rd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122
http://www.nightshadebooks.com


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