Harlan Ellison, that science-fiction Titan, advises would-be writers to become plumbers because he says plumbers have more positive effect on the world. Stephen King says if you are a plumber and you want to write, consider writing about the plumbing onboard an interstellar spaceship.

Which brings me, elliptically, to Slow River. First, I've loved every Nicola Griffith book I've read, and this, her second novel, is set in a near future where one or two families control vast wealth because of their tech patents (ooh, sound familiar?). The main character, Lore, is a daughter of the family that has created and monetized biological water-cleaning systems that are used by countries all over the world. Lore has every advantage money can buy as she grows up in the family business, learning the chemistry and biology of water treatment, but her family is seriously messed up. When Lore is kidnapped, and her ransom goes unpaid, she escapes her captors and goes to ground.

She lives for a time with a grifter named Spanner, becomes addicted to a souped-up version of E. She and Spanner become lovers, and the two women dive into a series of sordid money-making operations before Lore breaks free.

Lore takes a legitimate job at a water-treatment facility, where she first hides her acumen, but then helps to avert biological disaster at the plant. Meanwhile, she finally confronts the abuses of her family and finds love.

This is a big, sprawling novel that won the Nebula and the Lambda in 1995. It's a sci-fi novel far closer to, say, Jennifer Eagan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, than an Arthur C. Clark novel. It's a solid if not joyous science-fiction-y story: the chunk of information I now feel at least a passing familiarity with about algae scrubbers and the mechanics of water-treatment—not to mention the possibilities therein for mistakes and malicious actions?!—wow! I don't know if Griffith ever spent time working in a treatment plant herself, but I appreciate the depth of research and gritty detail of Lore's world.