Pump Six and Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Davis
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Eileen Stevens
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James Chen
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By:
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Paolo Bacigalupi
About this listen
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.
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Editorial reviews
Paolo Bacigalupi is fresh off of a Nebula Award win for his first novel, The Windup Girl, and his teen novel Ship Breaker is getting rave reviews. Now we're treated to some of Bacigalupi's earlier work in the form of Pump Six and Other Stories, a collection of short stories that will certainly feel familiar to those who love the dystopian settings of his longer works. The collection is narrated by a carefully matched set of three fine actors — James Chen, Eileen Stevens, and Jonathan Davis — who share a natural reading style that brings the storyteller's art to the tale.
The collection opens strong with "Pocketful of Dharma", narrated by Chen, who plunges us easily into the world of future China. A tale of moral dilemma, self vs. selflessness, and uploaded consciousness, "Pocketful of Dharma" is a satisfying and comparatively light story. It serves as a good introduction to the Eastern flavor of two stories found later in the collection, "The Calorie Man" and "The Yellow Card Man", both set in the world of The Windup Girl. "The Yellow Card Man" in particular seems to be almost a prototype of the novel.
The strongest pieces in the collection may be the ones furthest from Bacigalupi's Windup milieu. "The Fluted Girl" is set in a decadent future of fiefdoms, where fame is the only currency that matters to the wealthy, and their subjects are victims of their masters' aspirations — and their perversions. Stevens ranges easily between the vulnerable Lidia — suspended in an eternal pre-adolescence — and her cold, ambitious mistress. The author's vivid world and the complicated, horrifying relationship between possessor and possessed come together in a story that the listener will find hard to forget.
In "The People of Sand and Slag" three nearly indestructible post-human friends discover a dog in the wasteland: fragile, mortal, needy, expensive, and the only one of its kind. Bacigalupi paints an original far-future landscape and peoples it with believable, relatable characters, voiced with the authenticity that Chen brings to all of his performances.
Narrator Jonathan Davis never disappoints in anything he does, but his true gift is dialog. In "Pop Squad" — a story in which people live forever and babies are vermin to be exterminated — Davis' talent brings each character to life, including the rebellious woman who dares to have a baby hidden away from the world and the population enforcers.
The weak link comes near the middle of the book. "The Pasho" lacks the intensity that we've come to expect from Bacigalupi, who has made a name for himself by covering new ground, both in setting and in his examination of human nature. Davis' compelling reading style carries the listener for a while, but in the end "The Pasho" fails to live up to the rest of the collection.
"Pump Six and Other Stories" is a strong collection by one of the rising stars of the speculative fiction field. Fans of his other work will find tales both familiar and fresh, and the book is a good introduction to those new to Bacigalupi's brand of dystopian fiction. —Christie Yant
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Welcome to Los Angeles - where anger, hunger and disease run rampant. Jonny is a black-market dealer in drugs that heal the body and cool the mind. All he cares about is his own survival. Until a strange new plague turns L.A. into a city of death, and Jonny is forced to put everything on the line to find the cure... if it can be found on Earth.
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This is how Cyberpunk should be done!
- By Cliff on 09-09-13
By: Richard Kadrey
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The Feed
- A Novel
- By: Nick Clark Windo
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Nick Clark Windo
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Feed is accessible everywhere, by everyone, at any time. It instantaneously links us to all information and global events. Tom and Kate use the Feed, but Tom has resisted its addiction. The Feed's collapse, taking modern society with it, leaves people scavenging to survive. Tom and Kate have managed to protect themselves and their family. But then their six-year-old daughter, Bea, goes missing. Who has taken her? How do you begin to look for someone in a world without technology?
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uhhh
- By Michelle on 03-10-20
By: Nick Clark Windo
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The New Hunger
- A Warm Bodies Novella
- By: Isaac Marion
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of the world didn't happen overnight. After years of war, societal breakdown, freak storms, and rising tides, humanity already hovered near the edge. Then came the most unexpected threat of all: the world's corpses rising up to deliver the final blow.
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Not worth more than $1.00 or so
- By cristina on 11-20-15
By: Isaac Marion
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Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
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Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
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Trail of Lightning
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse have destroyed most of the planet…yet out of these waters, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, has been miraculously reborn. Listen along as Tanis Parenteau's impeccable narration, capturing the rhythms of Navajo speech, fully envelopes you into the Sixth World. Trail of Lightning follows our heroine as she walks the land alongside gods, heroes of legend, and monsters alike.
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The person you hire when the heroes fail
- By Cynthia on 08-09-18
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Mr. Shivers
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Jackson Bennett makes a stunning debut with this deliciously dark tale sure to hold readers in its menacing thrall. The grinding poverty brought on by the Great Depression is nowhere more apparent than in the untold thousands looking for work along America’s railroad system. But one man haunting the rail camps has been moved by an entirely different brand of desperation: revenge.
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From the Cormac McCarthy Playbook
- By J. Cons on 08-09-10
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The Iron Dragon's Daughter
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Named a New York Times notable book of 1994, The Iron Dragon's Daughter tells the heartrending story of a changeling child who is kidnapped to a realm of malls and machines and enslaved in a vast, infernal factory. Ultimately, she escapes and attempts to educate herself about this alien world, while being tormented by visions of the life she was denied.
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Inconsistent story and makes for a poor experience
- By Martin Smith on 07-10-15
By: Michael Swanwick
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Carniepunk
- By: Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, and others
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Come one, come all! The Carniepunk Midway promises you every thrill and chill a traveling carnival can provide. But fear not! Urban fantasy's biggest stars are here to guide you through this strange and dangerous world....
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Its A Separate 14 Short Stories
- By Hassan on 07-27-13
By: Rachel Caine, and others
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The Blue Blazes
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Mookie Pearl. Criminal underworld? He runs in it. Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it. Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job. But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give....
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Was hesitant at first
- By Andrew on 07-23-13
By: Chuck Wendig
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The Sky Is Yours
- A Novel
- By: Chandler Klang Smith
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the burned-out, futuristic city of Empire Island, three young people navigate a crumbling metropolis constantly under threat from a pair of dragons that circle the skies. When violence strikes, reality star Duncan Humphrey Ripple V, the spoiled scion of the metropolis' last dynasty; Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg, his tempestuous, death-obsessed betrothed; and Abby, a feral beauty he discovered tossed out with the trash; are forced to flee everything they've ever known.
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a hot mess
- By Alison on 04-09-19
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A Death in Kitchawank, and Other Stories
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: T. C. Boyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
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Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
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Black Dog Blues
- The Kai Gracen Series, Book 1
- By: Rhys Ford
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since being part of the pot in a high-stakes poker game, elfin outcast Kai Gracen figures he used up his good karma when Dempsey, a human Stalker, won the hand and took him in. Following the violent merge of Earth and Underhill, the human and elfin races are left with a messy, monster-ridden world, and Stalkers are the only cavalry willing to ride to someone's rescue when something shadowy appears.
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Not the story for me.
- By Heather K (Dentist in my Spare Time) on 06-08-15
By: Rhys Ford
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Bleeding Violet
- By: Dia Reeves
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new home. But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. She discovers secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen, and no one is safe.
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Didn't like it. Sorry, not sorry
- By Cii'Em on 02-15-16
By: Dia Reeves
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Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
What listeners say about Pump Six and Other Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- David
- 08-25-10
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.
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6 people found this helpful
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- RD
- 08-12-10
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.
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16 people found this helpful
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- crazybatcow
- 10-11-14
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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- schniev
- 09-01-16
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.
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- J.G.
- 09-12-11
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.
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12 people found this helpful
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- David
- 03-26-12
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nicolas D.
- 08-05-12
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.
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2 people found this helpful
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- gamekat
- 06-30-20
Dystopian Downer
I could not get through this in continuous reading. Thought provoking. Sad. Well written. Depressing. Engaging. Terrifying.
Ok in small doses.
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Overall
- David
- 12-19-10
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.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Donald
- 03-11-13
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.
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2 people found this helpful