Waste Tide

The first section of Waste Tide was a carefully conceived speculative depiction of the near future and consequences of humanity’s wasteful consumerism. Section two twisted the narrative into something that felt more cyberpunk - this, again, was nicely conceived, even if I don’t think it was quite given the space to breathe. The third section suddenly ramped up the stakes and tension to eleven and the novel turned into a massive, earth shattering action novel with fights and spies and car chases… and the coherence of the novel really fell apart. Characters lost their depth, some characters were given deep emotional arcs completely undeserved from the earlier sections, and the plot points felt rushed and sloppy. These last two sections of the book either needed to be considerably slimmed down to focus on the emotional plight of the waste people, or given a lot more space to realise Chen Quifan’s larger vision. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the ideas that he explores - whether it’s the political commentary on the deprived members of society, the discussion on Chinese culture, the warning about ecological waste and humanity’s future, or the big epic sci-fi super technological arms race and the evolution of humanity, but they just needed a lot more time and space to breathe.

Chen Qiufan's "The Waste Tide" is a beautifully haunting novel. A highly recommend read.

Set in the fictitious future city of Silicon Isle -- a depressing nightmare where migrant workers toil night and day to take apart e-waste in an unforgiving filthy, toxic, cancer-inducing environment.

The world-building and characters Chen captures are rich and deep. You feel for Mimi and her unfortunate migrant workers who are treated like worthless dirt by Silicon Isle's affluent & arrogant caste.

And you encounter many gems along the way, such as the fusion of Chinese myths, a spirit-powered mech of death, as well as hilarious and visually entertaining snippets:

"The woman grabbed him by the left leg and dragged the powerless Kaizong into a temporary shed filled with junked prostheses. She pulled a rubber dildo out of the pile and, with astounding arm strength, stretched it into a rope, which she used to tie Kaizong's hands securely to a water pipe. 'You better learn your lesson. Next time, I'll use your own dick.' The woman cackled..."

Ouch!