Description

A Guardian Science Fiction Book of the Year.
Mimi is drowning in the world’s trash.

She’s a ‘waste girl’, a scavenger picking through towering heaps of hazardous electronic detritus. Along with thousands of other migrant workers, she was lured to Silicon Isle, off the southern coast of China, by the promise of steady work and a better life.

But Silicon Isle is where the rotten fruits of capitalism and consumer culture come to their toxic end. The land is hopelessly polluted, the workers utterly at the mercy of those in power. And now a storm is gathering, as ruthless local gangs skirmish for control, eco-terrorists conspire, investors hunger for profit, and a Chinese-American interpreter searches for his roots.

As these forces collide, conflict erupts – a war between rich and poor, a battle between past and future. Mimi must decide if she will remain a pawn… or change the rules of the game altogether.

‘An accomplished eco-techno-thriller with heart and soul’ DAVID MITCHELL.

‘Waste Tide is a work of spoiled and toxic beauty… It’s more than a timely eco-thriller; it’s a dark mirror held up to our selves’ SIMON INGS.

Publisher Review

'There's an old school cyberpunk quality to the book, a compelling reflection on a world defined by its waste' Guardian. 'This chilling eco-techno tale, well translated by Ken Liu, illustrates that the eternal conflict of good and evil remains alive in our "brave new world"' The Tablet. 'A crop of younger writers are now emerging in the duo's wake [Cixin Liu and Han Song]. Waste Tide takes place on an island devoted to electronics refuse in a fictionalised South China Sea ... The setting is not too far divorced from parts of real-life China, in which the by-products of the electronics industry create uninhabitably toxic environments' Economist. 'Chen's portrait of industry and society alike is caustically bleak - life is short and cheap - and the cultural impact of his future tech well thought through' SFX. 'A cracking science fiction novel by Chen Qiufan suggests humanity's future may be even stranger than its past' New Scientist. 'Chinese author Chen Quifan's debut novel Waste Tide is all too true to life' SFX. 'A work of spoiled and toxic beauty ... It's more than a timely eco-thriller; it's a dark mirror held up to our selves' Simon Ings. 'A stunning tale of greed [that] deftly exposes all the hidden contours of the human heart' Maggie Shen King. 'A hard-hitting, uncompromising look at the near future' Adrian Tchaikovsky. 'Something startlingly new ... an action-packed story that's full of moral complexity' Charlie Jane Anders. 'The pinnacle of near-future SF writing' Cixin Liu. '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.