Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo Bacigalupi's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience. The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best of Paolo Bacigalupi's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the Nebula-and Hugo-nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."