H2o

by Mark Swartz

It's 2020 and the world is facing an unthinkable crisis: shortages and contamination have made drinking water scarce. Hayden Shivers is a lowly filter and drains engineer employed by Drixa, a mega-corporation with a monopoly on water. When he stumbles upon a method for synthesizing fake water, Hayden is promised a big promotion if he signs over his patent to Drixa. As the company hustles to get the product on the market, Hayden frantically tries to stop them until the new water is confirmed safe. The situation grows increasingly dire as advice pours in from all fields: a fanatically loyal manager, a cynical divorce lawyer, a muckraking reporter, and his brilliant mail-order “maid.” Told in a brilliantly off-kilter style that reverberates with the sublime and the paradoxical, H2O traces and retraces the overlapping family and corporate intrigues that threaten to turn a life-saving invention into an instrument of disaster.

166 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2006

Reviews

[Townes Genoves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like the Maltese fungus responsible for the titular H2O, I have allowed the world and ideas of this novel to seep into my pores and infinitely replicate in my mind. In such a short 166 pages, Swartz manages to paint a chilling future of corporate totalitarian that feels even more tangible 20 years after the books publishing. A societal numbness brought on by the involuntary drip of poison in to our social fabric but also the public facing stooges who allow themselves to be fall guys to our corporate overlords is something that must have felt like the scare of the century in 2006 and now is just another thing contaminating our water supply.

[Margarita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the clever play on word usage throughout. It taking place in Chicago makes perfect sense. Made me think about other minute things that could be capitalized off of. The ending felt a little too abrupt that I didn’t really think fit Hayden’s personality?? Really good read though. Very “what if” situation…

[Richard]

It is 2020 and the world is facing a massive crisis in the water supply: shortages and contamination have made drinking water scarce. Hayden Shivers is a lowly filter and drains engineer employed by Drixa, a megacorporation with a monopoly on water. When he stumbles upon a method for synthesizing fake water, using a rare ingredient that grows on an island off the coast of Malta, Hayden is promised a big promotion if he signs a Letter of Agreement granting Drixa the patent to his invention.

Hayden's determination to win recognition for his innovation seesaws with his concern that the product not launch until it is confirmed to be safe. He manages to jeopardize both goals in an encounter with his idol, Drixa's laconic director Lionel Dawson, and the situation grows more dire as he solicits advice from a fanatically loyal Human Resources manager, a cynical divorce lawyer, a reporter determined to expose the corruption at Drixa, and his brilliant African mail-order "maid." Told in an off-kilter style that reverberates with the sublime and the paradoxical, H2O traces and retraces the overlapping family and corporate intrigues that threaten to turn a life-saving invention into an instrument of disaster.