THE WASTE TIDE

THE WIND-UP GIRL meets GHOST IN THE SHELL.

Mimi is a "waste girl," a member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle. Located off China's southeastern coast, Silicon Isle is the new capital for electronic waste recycling, where thousands of people like Mimi toil day and night, hoping that one day they too will get to enjoy the wealth they've created for their employers, the three scrap families who have ruled the isle for generations.

Things change with the arrival of Scott Brando and Chen Kaizong, representatives of Wealth Recycle, who wish to establish a high-tech waste processing plant on the island. A ship full of dangerous cargo comes to Silicon Isle. It is treated as just another load of e-waste, but actually contains a virus born out of one of the darkest episodes of WWII, Project Waste Tide. In a fateful accident, Mimi is infected by the virus and becomes the host for an omniscient consciousness, hell bent on righting all he wrongs that have been done to her people. A class war ignites, one that draws in environmental extremists and waste workers, involves family feuds and darker conspiracies, as well as futuristic elements like mecha warriors and chipped dogs.

Stanley Chan (b.1981) is the most widely translated young writer of science fiction in China, and has published over thirty stories in venues reaching from Esquire to Fantasy & Science Fiction. He is the winner of Taiwan's Dragon Fantasy Award, China's Galaxy and Nebula Awards, and a Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award, along with Ken Liu.