A review by essinink
The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi

3.0

A very lovely bite-sized tale.

This is one of a pair of novellas written as a project between Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi. I do encourage people to read them both--they're both fairly quick. ;)

Where The Executioness was focused primarily on one woman's search for her family within this world, The Alchemist chooses to tackle the world itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and setting. The protagonist makes what's effectively a miracle machine, but fails to anticipate human greed.

Despite it's brevity, I found it both absorbing and enjoyable.