The Water Carriers
An intricate and empathetic speculative novel, The Water Carriers follows a billionaire’s growth toward concern for the thirsty planet.
In Gregory Greunke’s imaginative dystopian novel The Water Carriers, a wealthy heir aims to make the transportation of water around the world more efficient, setting off a chain of events that alters the political and environmental climate.
After climate change left most of the world in extreme drought, rain falls in only two places on Earth: Cambodia and the Ivory Coast. There, two billionaire families compete to sell water to the rest of the people on the planet.
When Kasemchai, the heir to Cambodia’s water business, is inspired by Liv, a solar engineer, to shift all gas-powered tanker ships to electric, the undertaking amuses his father and challenges the loyalty of his business partners. At the same time, Makoa, a Hawaii–New Jersey transplant and a winemaker, struggles to balance Kasemchai’s hasty new investment in his winery with his own financial ambitions. When a fire destroys all he worked for, Makoa offers to provide Kasemchai his everyman’s perspective on integrating sustainability into the water-shipping business.
The story sweeps across decades, as Kasemchai is exposed to the working-class struggles his privileged upbringing hid from him, Liv’s innovations propel her from disregarded idealist to renowned inventor, and Makoa adapts to the ever-changing job market. At first a typical presumptuous playboy who buys shares in the winery on a whim, Kasemchai evolves beyond his narcissism as he grows closer to intelligent Liv and candid Makoa. Nevertheless, thematic questions about how billionaires should use their wealth to better the world lose some of their power when Kasemchai admits he does not care about the environment; he only wants his father to notice him. His actions are the ultimate deciders on where the plot moves; Liv and Makoa are captivating but often overlooked angels on his shoulder.
Still, thanks to its intricate worldbuilding, the story is immersive. People in this arid future ask “Are you thirsty?” as a greeting and operate their lives in the nighttime when the sun is not lethal. Rich, introspective descriptions of flood-ravaged Cambodia and the Ivory Coast are juxtaposed to those of other nations, brutalized by deadly heat. Eloquent passages bear witness to the climate catastrophes’ victims, too. In addition, context for engineering, economic, and geopolitical terminology is supplied in a seamless manner, making every scientific and political advancement in the story credible, cogent, and cohesive.
A deus ex machina event in Brazil in the book’s final quarter upends all that Kasemchai, Liv, and Makoa manifested thus far, testing their resolve to the inspiring, hopeful end. Long conversations about the logistics of developing solar energy technologies for water transport ships delay the start of this more gripping Brazil plotline, though, even as related arguments and educational moments reveal Kasenchai’s and Liv’s ambition and breadth of knowledge.
The Water Carriers is a sweeping, urgent science fiction novel set in a future that’s devastated by climate disaster but that inches toward the rediscovery of hope.
Reviewed by
Aimee Jodoin
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
