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by Chen Qiufan (author), Ken Liu (translator)
Award-winning author Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide is a thought-provoking vision of the future.
Mimi is drowning in the world's trash.
She's a waste worker on Silicon Isle, where electronics - from cell phones and laptops to bots and bionic limbs ― are sent to be recycled. These amass in towering heaps, polluting every spare inch of land. On this island off the coast of China, the fruits of capitalism and consumer culture come to a toxic end.
Mimi and thousands of migrant waste workers like her are lured to Silicon Isle with the promise of steady work and a better life. They're the lifeblood of the island's economy, but are at the mercy of those in power.
A storm is brewing, between ruthless local gangs, warring for control. Ecoterrorists, set on toppling the status quo. American investors, hungry for profit. And a Chinese-American interpreter, searching for his roots.
As these forces collide, a war erupts - between the rich and the poor; between tradition and modern ambition; between humanity's past and its future.
Mimi, and others like her, must decide if they will remain pawns in this war or change the rules of the game altogether.
"Starred Review. Readers who crave gorgeous imagery and a thrilling narrative that also explicitly wrestles with big questions will be overjoyed." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Chinese science fiction, once an unknown quantity in the U.S., is making its way to the forefront through sheer excellence." - Kirkus Reviews
"An accomplished eco-techno-thriller with heart and soul as well as brain. Chen Qiufan is an astute observer, both of the present world and of the future that the next generation is in danger of inheriting." – David Mitchell, New York Times bestselling author of Cloud Atlas
"Something startlingly new... an action-packed story that's full of moral complexity. This is the futuristic vision that everybody needs right now." - Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky
"The pinnacle of near-future science fiction." - Cixin Liu, Hugo Award-winning author of The Three Body Problem
"Chen weaves stunning tale of greed and deftly exposes all the hidden contours of the human heart." — Maggie Shen King, author of An Excess Male
"Filled with wonderful invention, compelling characters and a whirlpool of story, Waste Tide is an urgently-needed, thought-provoking wild ride of a novel. I couldn't put it down." – Lavie Tidhar, author of Central Station
This information about Waste Tide was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chen Qiufan is an award-winning science fiction writer. He grew up near Guiyu, China, home to the world's largest e-waste recycling center, an area the UN called an "environmental calamity." His experiences there inspired the Waste Tide. He currently lives in Shanghai and Beijing and works as the founder of Thema Mundi Studio.
Ken Liu (translator) is the author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.
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