The Windup Girl

Jun 24, 2012 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Nataliya by: Catie

Shelves: catie-knows-best, hugo-nebula, excellent-reads, 2012-reads, dystopia-postapocalyptic, locus-winner, location-is-the-true-protagonist

My grandmother reads food labels to see if they contain any genetically modified products. I used to laugh at it. Now, after reading The Windup Girl, I'm tempted to take a closer look at the food labels myself.

Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl is a bleak and depressing story set in the future run by calorie monopolies, where genetically modified products and manufactured foodborne plagues have wiped out the foodchains, wars are waged for precious seeds, and quarantines for food-borne diseases a...more My grandmother reads food labels to see if they contain any genetically modified products. I used to laugh at it. Now, after reading The Windup Girl, I'm tempted to take a closer look at the food labels myself.

Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl is a bleak and depressing story set in the future run by calorie monopolies, where genetically modified products and manufactured foodborne plagues have wiped out the foodchains, wars are waged for precious seeds, and quarantines for food-borne diseases are a must. Calories are precious - a hilariously sad concept in the modern obesity-epidemic world where calories are our worst enemy, if you believe TV ads. Genetic engineering is not limited just to food - there are genetically modified humanoids as well, viewed as property in some countries and abominations that need to be destroyed in others.

"We are nature. Our every tinkering is nature, our every biological striving. We are what we are, and the world is ours. We are its gods. Your only difficulty is your unwillingness to unleash your potential fully upon it."

The Windup Girl raises a question common to sci-fi novels - how far can science go before it becomes threatening? To which lengths can people take playing God? On one hand, the scientific advances in medicine and agriculture are necessary to make our lives better, to feed the ever-expanding population, to cure the ever-aging population. On another hand, the eventual impact of these scientific advances is unknown, and will it be too late when we figure it out? Will it be too late when the genetic weapons and other scientific advances find their way into the hands of companies greedy for immediate profit? It is already happening, let's not kid ourselves, but will it eventually destroy the world as we know it? Or is the future change as portrayed by Bacigalupi a part of evolution, a part of the strongest-survive doctrine?

"Everyone dies." The doctor waves a dismissal. “But you die now because you cling to the past. We should all be windups by now. It’s easier to build a person impervious to blister rust than to protect an earlier version of the human creature. A generation from now, we could be well-suited for our new environment. Your children could be the beneficiaries. Yet you people refuse to adapt. You cling to some idea of a humanity that evolved in concert with your environment over millennia, and which you now, perversely, refuse to remain in lockstep with.

Blister rust is our environment. Cibiscosis. Genehack weevil. Cheshires. They have adapted. Quibble as you like about whether they evolved naturally or not. Our environment has changed. If we wish to remain at the top of our food chain, we will evolve. Or we will refuse, and go the way of the dinosaurs and Felis domesticus. Evolve or die. It has always been nature’s guiding principle, and yet you white shirts seek to stand in the way of inevitable change."

'What is natural?' is another question of this novel. Again, it resonates with the present-day obsession-fad with everything 'green', organic, sustainable, unmodified, 'natural'. What can we reject as unnatural? IS there even such a notion? In Bacigalupi's novel, the genetically modified 'windups' are viewed as something less than human, an abomination, a soulless property - because they are test-tube created, engineered, unnatural. But is it ever fair to make such a distinction? The knee-jerk response is 'no'. But we already live in the world that denounces certain lifestyles, certain preferences, certain viewpoints as 'unnatural' - and uses that as an excuse for discrimination and unequal treatment. Is is protecting the 'natural' or blatant discrimination? Depends on your viewpoint, I guess. In the world of genetic destruction that Bacigalupi created, such horrifying treatment of the windups is perfectly understandable to the surviving society but terrible to us. Would many of our conventions based on our ideas of natural and unnatural seem just as horrific? (I'm afraid they would, by the way.)

"“My body is not mine,” she told him, her voice flat when he asked about the performances. “The men who designed me, they make me do things I cannot control. As if their hands are inside me. Like a puppet, yes?” Her fists clenched, opening and closing unconsciously, but her voice remained subdued. “They made me obedient, in all ways.” And then she had smiled prettily and flowed into his arms, as if she had made no complaint at all."

The style of this novel is oppressively bleak. There is nothing uplifting, nothing cheerful; even the events that may lead to hope and satisfaction are only hinted at, and we don't know whether they will ever happen. The badness is palpable, the goodness is hinted at. This is not a novel for a leisurely read. This is not a feel-good story. It is a story that keeps bringing you down and throw you into a depressed mood. And yet I loved it, every page if it. I loved that the bleakness made it so realistic, and, more importantly, made you think - because it's thinking that makes you human. I love that there were no easy ways out of the situations, and yet little glimpses of simple humanity were so heart-warming, even if not always resulting in anything tangible. I loved the absence of info-dumps, and Bacigalupi's obvious respect for the intelligence of his readers, and his refusal to spoon-feed us the information. I loved that there was never a black-and-white approach to anything, including the main characters who are as deeply flawed as you can ever imagine. I loved how, despite my attempted refusal to go any deeper into this hopeless world, something kept bringing me back to this story day after day after day.

I loved this book despite the bleakness and the complete lack of the fell-good factor. I highly recommend it, especially to sci-fi fans. 4.5 stars. This book is a true gem!

"We are alive. We are alive when whole kingdoms and countries are gone. When Malaya is a morass of killing. When Kowloon is underwater. When China is split and the Vietnamese are broken and Burma is nothing but starvation. The Empire of America is no more. The Union of the Europeans splintered and factionalized. And yet we endure, even expand. The Kingdom survives."

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Jul 08, 2010 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Rob

Shelves: omg-were-all-going-to-die, sci-fi, the-future-is-now, ecopunk

I always feel a little stupid when I give books five stars*, because I should be cranky and worldly and save them up for something that's been vetted within an inch of its life & makes me look smart. Then when I do give something like this five stars, I have a whole stupid melt-down about what it means and why I'm justified in my pleasure. For this book, all of this seriously self-indulgent flailing was helped along by the totally fair criticisms lobbed this book's way by RandomAnthony. Lord...more I always feel a little stupid when I give books five stars*, because I should be cranky and worldly and save them up for something that's been vetted within an inch of its life & makes me look smart. Then when I do give something like this five stars, I have a whole stupid melt-down about what it means and why I'm justified in my pleasure. For this book, all of this seriously self-indulgent flailing was helped along by the totally fair criticisms lobbed this book's way by RandomAnthony. Lord knows, I've been on the other end of this, shrugging my shoulders while fanfolk scream themselves hoarse about The Next Big Thing.

I read this in a bit of total insanity while sweating out every single drop of fluid I could push into my body. It was ungodly hot. I was at a family reunion in New Hampshire, although it was not my family, strictly speaking, but my husband's siblings and parents. I'm naturally an introvert, and all of these tendencies get much more pronounced in a situation where every single moment of my time is scheduled into family togetherness with a family I still feel decidedly uncomfortable with. I'm not saying they are assholes or anything - they aren't - but after 12 years of marriage, two kids, and roughly bi-yearly meet-ups, I can't tell where I stand. I read, like a coward, and I read hard. To this day, I have no idea whether Babel Tower is as good as I remember, or if it's just a trick of the light that first Christmas I spent with my husband's family, reading alone on an air mattress while he slept on the couch, because while we may have co-habitated for some time, very different rules applied in the parental homestead.

So, the book. Honestly, I was worried at first, because I think usually four pov characters is at least one too many. But the movement between the points of view was balletic and smoothly unsettling as I shifted between one character and another. I'm the kind of reader - and I think maybe most of us are - who tends to root for the protagonist, simply because he or she is the protagonist, and the way the same event kept lensing through different, and totally opposed, consciousnesses really slapped me around. I guess I have to admit I like being slapped around here, but opinions vary on the matter. I also liked that these characters were anything but sympathetic, for the most part, while they were entirely human and understandable. I hate when writers seem to identify too strongly with a character, and protect them when the narrative clearly calls for blood or change, or both of these at once. Bacigalupi makes some hard choices, letting characters go when it's called for, and drawing them close in horrible intimacies and ruptures when another writer would flinch.

The other thing that astounds me, given that this is a far-future Thailand with a rich history that is clearly thought-out, is that Bacigalupi never once resorts to the egregious infodump. Maybe this is faint-praise, but for me, having just been subjected to the worst infodump of all time in another Nebula winner, I'm incredibly impressed. There were times when maybe too hard a line was drawn under the historical experiences of the character - Hock Seng's experience with the green headbands, for example, kept being referred to in this frustratingly vague and similar way - but I'm willing to give this a pass, for no good reason.

The plot's very political machinations - coups and leverage and pregnant conversations, people with knives to their throats both literal and metaphoric, conflicting motivations, motivating conflicts. I love this kind of stuff, and I love it more when a good dash of the random peppers the movements of titans. At one point, a character acts out in this incredibly brutal way, and the rest are left pointing guns at each other and wondering why this has happened. As a reader, you want to scream at them: can't you see how the political IS the fucking personal? But that's not the way things work; we readers doodle along God-like, and all the characters, as limited as they are like we are before the story of our lives play out, cannot see in the broad strokes.

I was satisfied by this book. It melted like ice in the glass, quickly, leaving cold in my mouth when the solidity vanished. It cooled me in the heat of the day, quietly sitting on the back steps while the family moved and splashed in the kiddie pool, cooked food, talked. It's possible that introversion is a curse, but this salved me in just the right way so I could look up and engage when the time came. Five stars for that alone.

*Just kidding. I took a star away here several months hence - the flaws appeared in my mind like cracks in ice. Sorry. Still a good book though. (less)

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Jul 30, 2010 Architeuthis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: goodest-reads-2010, 2000s, fiction-that-speculates

Try to picture a world where big corporations own the rights to the food we eat, and engineer it specifically so that the seeds can't be reused. Picture a world where the natural resources are steadily depleting, but everyone is still trying to act as if nothing is wrong. Picture a world where technology is barely managing to address the problems of the moment, and perhaps won't be able to keep up in the face of unexpected catastrophes.

That wasn't too hard now, was it?

The best science fiction i...more

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Apr 25, 2013 February Four rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to February by: Hugo Awards

Caveat: I am Malaysian, and I am a Hugo voter who is reading the Hugo consideration edition. I hated the book so much I stopped reading it without even getting to the titular character Emiko. Make of that what you will.

Here is my biggest problem with this book: the name of my country is MALAYSIA. Not Malaya. MalaySIa. I don't mind as much if Andersen Lake gets it wrong--he's portrayed as an asshole who doesn't bother to get the local cultural details right anyway, and he seems quite racist to me...more

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Jul 08, 2010 RandomAnthony rated it 2 of 5 stars

Long, scorching days are science fiction/fantasy weather. Back when I was in middle school, after quitting baseball but not quite when I could take the L across town to Wax Trax, I would walk the four or five miles to the Harlem-Irving Plaza a couple times a week. The mall had a Waldenbooks, and off to the right about three quarters toward the back (if you were standing at the entrance) stood the science fiction/fantasy section. I would take my hard-earned cash from umpiring t-ball games (actual...more Long, scorching days are science fiction/fantasy weather. Back when I was in middle school, after quitting baseball but not quite when I could take the L across town to Wax Trax, I would walk the four or five miles to the Harlem-Irving Plaza a couple times a week. The mall had a Waldenbooks, and off to the right about three quarters toward the back (if you were standing at the entrance) stood the science fiction/fantasy section. I would take my hard-earned cash from umpiring t-ball games (actually, that was a great job) and purchase books from writers like Roger Zelazny and Phillip Jose Farmer. Then I would walk home, slip into the air conditioned house, and read for hours. Each summer since I pick up one or two science fiction/fantasy books come July, drifting toward William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Stephenson, etc. A few weeks back I heard someone compare Bacigalupi to Gibson and noticed the novel face-forward displayed at Barnes and Noble. I checked the library reserve list and snagged one of the first copies in the system. Score.

Nah, only about half a score. The novel functions as an interlocking set of characters’ stories in Thailand after the “contraction”, in which the world’s people struggle to redefine existence without fossil fuels or an expansive food source after a series of plagues and famines. The United States is fractured into different republics and the Midwestern seed companies have risen to multinational power. Dirigibles carry genetically modified rice across the globe and scientists race to stay one step ahead of the next genetic disaster. Thailand is hot (as, um, the author reminds the reader about every third paragraph) and the rising water serves as a constant threat to a one of the last remaining cities in Southeast Asia. Bacigalupi creates a fascinating and realistic future complete with spring-technology (no oil, remember) and “Wind-Up New People” created by the Japanese. His vision retains elements of the past as if the elements were rusted, unidentifiable metal pieces in a vacant lot and scavengers were trying to assign them value.

Here’s the problem. Bacigalupi writes as if he’s a reporter. The Wind-Up Girl carries a bloodless, clinical quality that I couldn’t quite transcend. I didn’t care much about the characters and the money-shot plot developments weren’t that alluring. My heart didn’t race and, while I was interested in the storyline, I was interested in the “when the hell is this novel going to really start?” way. The middle third is probably the best, really, as I felt like the book picked up around page 100 but lost steam around page 325. I admired the framework and intellect inherent in The Wind-Up Girl, but I admire the same about, I don’t know, those doorstop best sellers from David McCullough about American history that I will never read. So The Wind-Up Girl is good, but not much fun, and I feel a little cheated. This might be my fault, to be fair, as I was looking for something like Snow Crash or Pattern Recognition and Bacigalupi is, well, Bacigalupi. He’s smart and talented, but were this book and me at a party, I would politely excuse myself before the novel started telling me a long story about what he heard on NPR that day or something.
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Mar 26, 2013 Clouds - (¿head-in-the?) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hugo, science-fiction, science-fiction-stand-alone, 5-star, reviewed, read-in-2013

A man cannot live on award winning Sci-Fi alone! (or can he?)

Following the resounding success of my Locust Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my HUGO WINNERS list.

This is the reading list the follows the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I loved reading the Locus Sci-Fi Award winners, so I'm going to crack on with the Hugo winn...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Paolo Bacigalupi's imagined future, Bangkok has become a simmering stew pot of paranoia, brutality, despair, and betrayal. Genetic manipulation has brought the world to the brink of extinction. With great advancements also came tragic mistakes. Blister rust, Cibiscosis, the Genehack weevil brought death and famine. The very companies that created these problems are now the companies that the world has to rely on to stay one step ahead of the mutations of their mistakes. Battling for calories...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Megan Baxter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't know if I've ever read a book quite like The Windup Girl. Normally, I try to situate a book I've just read in relation to other books, no matter how tenuous and personal the connections may be (I can't explain why I always think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a more interesting version of On the Road, for instance.)

But this, I'm at a loss. Nothing springs to mind. It so rarely happens, but The Windup Girl stands alone in my mind

And it has snuck up on me. I ended up reading this boo...more I don't know if I've ever read a book quite like The Windup Girl. Normally, I try to situate a book I've just read in relation to other books, no matter how tenuous and personal the connections may be (I can't explain why I always think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a more interesting version of On the Road, for instance.)

But this, I'm at a loss. Nothing springs to mind. It so rarely happens, but The Windup Girl stands alone in my mind

And it has snuck up on me. I ended up reading this book over a long period of time, and while I never felt deeply affected by it noticeably, it ended up changing how I look at the world around me. I don't know how long it will last, but I've started to become hyperaware of waste, of packaging, of the calories that went into creating anything I use, particularly anything disposable. This wasn't a bolt from the blue, it was a slow creeping up of awareness. I make no claims that it's going to stick with me in the long-term, but it was interesting feeling how it snuck up and insinuated itself into my perceptions.

The world Bacigalupi creates is utterly unlike any I've seen, and convincing. He puts forward a post-Collapse civilization that has not fallen utterly to pieces (although it has disintegrated quite a bit), but which struggles to keep some technology going, while others campaign to limit how things can change, fearful of setting off another cataclysm. (The treadle-pump computer was mentioned only once, but illustrated so well to me the world.)

In this world, the city of Bangkok struggles to keep back the rising seas, and to do so, closes its borders in most ways to outsiders of any sort, refugees, or companies. But by the time the book has started, enough time has passed that inroads are starting to be made. Will they change the way the city exists, the politics that surround it? Yes, but probably not in the way you expect. Certainly not in any way I expected.

In the centre of the struggles between the Environment Ministry and the Trade Ministry, which a representative of the "calorie companies' tries to exploit, there stands Emiko, the eponymous Windup Girl, a genetically modified human being, marked arbitrarily with a jerky, wind-up motion to mark her out as other-than-human. Deserted in Bangkok, regarded as soulless by most of the world, subject to being composted if she is discovered without the proper bribes, Emiko suffers immense degradation, and yet, persists. Struggles. Despairs. Survives.

I enjoyed The Windup Girl thoroughly, and it often took me by surprise. As I said, I've never read a book with quite the same feel. It's nice to be surprised.(less)

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Mar 06, 2011 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books, read-in-2011, sci-fi

This is the kind of book that unceremoniously dumps you in the middle of a teeming, noisy world and demands that you sink or swim. Oh, and that noise that I mentioned? Yeah, it’s all slang, and in about five different languages – none of which you can understand. My advice is just try to float with it. Don’t stress out if you can’t understand half the words, or the vague references to “the incident” or “the situation in Finland.” All will come clear…trust me.

This story is set in a futuristic Tha...more This is the kind of book that unceremoniously dumps you in the middle of a teeming, noisy world and demands that you sink or swim. Oh, and that noise that I mentioned? Yeah, it’s all slang, and in about five different languages – none of which you can understand. My advice is just try to float with it. Don’t stress out if you can’t understand half the words, or the vague references to “the incident” or “the situation in Finland.” All will come clear…trust me.

This story is set in a futuristic Thailand, which is one of the last countries “surviving”, after several plagues have wiped out the majority of human and plant life* and the sea levels have risen to cover most cities. Thailand has managed to endure by using levees and pumps (operated with spring-power, since all other fuels are scarce) to hold back the rising waters, and a hidden seed bank to provide new genetic material for food engineering. Unfortunately this makes it a nice fat target for the masses of human refugees, looking for a place to rebuild, and the greedy calorie corporations, which have already monopolized most of the world’s food supply by engineering plant species that can’t reproduce (thus ensuring that no one else will be able to grow them).

There are upwards of four main characters in this story (some of the minor characters take on larger roles later in the book) which seems like quite a lot. I think that the biggest danger with too many characters is that there won’t be enough time or energy devoted to any of them and in the end there’s no connection for the reader. I’ve definitely come across novels like that, where I just didn’t care enough about the characters because there wasn’t a chance to become attached to any of them (Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven comes to mind). There really wasn’t one single character in this book, no matter how minor, that I didn’t end up caring deeply about. One of the minor characters actually ended up becoming my favorite (Kanya!). All of these characters are deeply scarred (some more literally than others) by the years of famine and tragedy that they’ve gone through. Not one of them is a truly good person, and yet I cared for all of them and wanted them all to succeed (which was really hard, because they were often trying to manipulate and/or kill each other). It was powerfully moving to witness them all fight and flounder, and eventually realize that it doesn’t matter how much opium or how many jewels you’ve got stashed away in your bamboo walls, or how much you’ve betrayed everything you believe in just to get ahead – you can never escape the destructive power of nature, or your karma.

I can easily see how this book won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea (Christina, I’m looking at you). There really isn’t very much action in this story (although I found myself frequently shocked by all the twists and turns). Instead there’s creepy political maneuvering and enough sinister machinations to get my evil laugh going and my fingers drumming together like Monty Burns. This is definitely more for those, like me, who are just as excited by psychological action as physical. The pacing is a bit slow, but I really enjoyed that – the writing is so good that I was happy to just float along and wallow in all the nice pretty words. This book was 100% right up my alley – I can even say that I genuinely enjoyed being confused for much of it. This one’s going on the favorites list!

*Brief scientist rant below:
One tiny little niggling problem I had with this book is the whole idea of viruses moving from plants to humans. While viruses frequently break through the animal/human barrier, I had always assumed that due to the differences in cell structure and modes of infection, plant viruses would be extremely unlikely to move to humans. However, I just googled this and found this article.

Oh. My. God. It’s happening! Watch out everyone; it’s time to start hoarding baht and brushing up on your Thai!

Also seen on The Readventurer.(less)

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Apr 06, 2011 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nebula, 2011, dystopias-post-apocalyptic, hugo, locus

3.5 stars

Unfortunately, I ended up enjoying The Windup Girl significantly less I than I thought I would.

I blame it on two things:

1) the narrator read this novel way too slowly for my taste;

2) the world of the novel was a little too familiar after reading Ship Breaker and Pump Six and Other Stories. Bacigalupi's version of the future where natural resources are exhausted and the world is enslaved by genehacking "calorie men," who have total control of food and energy supply and who are the sour...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Osho rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

The reader of this audiobook was unbearably slow. I listened to the whole thing on higher speed.

There's not a lot of science fiction set in Southeast Asia, so I was happy to listen to this audiobook while I was there. It's a global warming biopunk story of uncomfortable heat, drippy, disgusting wetness, and terrible smells. It was a great pleasure to wander the gritty and sticky streets of downtown Phnom Penh, plugged in by one earbud, slowly deliquescing amid the rambutans and rotting shellfish...more The reader of this audiobook was unbearably slow. I listened to the whole thing on higher speed.

There's not a lot of science fiction set in Southeast Asia, so I was happy to listen to this audiobook while I was there. It's a global warming biopunk story of uncomfortable heat, drippy, disgusting wetness, and terrible smells. It was a great pleasure to wander the gritty and sticky streets of downtown Phnom Penh, plugged in by one earbud, slowly deliquescing amid the rambutans and rotting shellfish.

This is a novel about corporate greed and indifference, juxtaposed with the more intimate violence governments and individuals perpetrate upon one another. Corporations continue to whore for profit with no regard for the suffering and threat their behavior creates, and without considering their effects on people or holding any notion of altruism or benefit to the community. The chief commercial players here are the agribusinesses that create, sell and sabotage genetic stock, both animal and vegetable. The citizenry must be diligent as diseases and mutagens abound; at the same time, people grow complacent and lax and, as the story unfolds, are rather viciously corrected. Salaryman becomes calorieman.

Against this backdrop, we learn the story of the Japanese windup (genetically modified) girl, Emiko, abandoned in Thailand and, because she has been built to serve, prostituted. There's a certain amount of sexual brutality, though if The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn't bother you, this won't, either. Emiko intersects with other characters, including the agri-spy Anderson Lake. There are some confusing points in the plotting and sequence of action, but generally speaking the narrative holds together well. As tension mounts, Emiko, perhaps herself a viral entity or tool of sabotage, attempts to save herself. The identified villain is a Hannibal Lector/Emperor Tiberius sort of fellow, complete with cat (though in this case it's a mutant cat that changes color). The group of people present at the book's denouement struck me as very funny, and I laughed aloud while wandering the subtropical streets.

Prepare by reading Bananas!: How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World for agribusiness deceit, The Untold History of the Potato for blight-related musings, Bangkok 8 for Thai atmosphere, Leviathan (Westerfeld's, not Hobbes's) for biopunk/steampunk, and, later, Oryx and Crake for more gooey genetically-brokered dystopia. (less)

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Jun 22, 2010 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone wanting state-of-the-art complex SciFi

Recommended to Richard by: SciFi & Fantasy Group 2010-03 SciFi Selection

Shelves: bookclub, scifi, scifi-cyberpunk, scifi-dystopia, scifi-hardscience

The Windup Girl has been getting plaudits from all over, including here on Goodreads (Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science Fiction). It has been nominated for the 2009 Nebula Award as well as the 2010 Hugo Award, too. (Update: on May 15th, 2010, this novel won the Nebula award. Web over here for more details).

Frankly, I haven’t read many other novels recently that I think deserve to win more. This brings us Bangkok in the late twenty-second century, in a deeply textured mash-up reminiscent...more The Windup Girl has been getting plaudits from all over, including here on Goodreads (Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science Fiction). It has been nominated for the 2009 Nebula Award as well as the 2010 Hugo Award, too. (Update: on May 15th, 2010, this novel won the Nebula award. Web over here for more details).

Frankly, I haven’t read many other novels recently that I think deserve to win more. This brings us Bangkok in the late twenty-second century, in a deeply textured mash-up reminiscent of both Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Graham Greene’s The Quiet American . Bacigalupi has delivered a magnificently wrought novel of the near future, and that makes it really stand out. Think about all the nasty challenges facing the world today, and then try to imagine what the world might look like if we fail to address them. That’s what The Windup Girl uses as its center and backdrop.

Think we might be altering the climate? Sure enough, the ocean levels have risen to drown most of the world’s coastal cities, and the Bangkok of this novel lies behind massive dikes and seawalls that barely hold back the towering sea. Think we might be getting close to running out of oil? Well, yeah, in this story human and animal power provide most of the motive force (computers are operated with treadles), while international trade is conducted with a new generation of clipper ships sailing under huge kites and using palm-oil polymer hulls. One central conceit is that springs are used to store energy — think the kind of wind-up springs used in children’s toys, but advanced with over a hundred years of technological focus.

Maybe the changing climate and collapse of fisheries might make food scarce? Oh yeah, this takes place in a “calorie economy”, where every joule of energy is eked out with an eye-dropper. And perhaps western corporate interests will capitalize on this? Sure, to the point that agribusiness fills the evil niche of global overlords that oil companies have in our time.

Maybe you’re worried that bioterrorism might cause problems, or that genetically modified organisms will backfire and cause problems? That, and more.

At the same time, Bacigalupi doesn’t make this a dogmatic lecture. The sins of our “Expansion Age” are the backdrop to the turmoil of a completely different civilization who have far too many worries to spend time bemoaning the foolishness of their ancestors. The story is one of politics, and no one in the large cast is without sin or without merit. Well, maybe a few of the denizens of the whorehouse are low-lifes, but in that setting they are more than plausible.

The wind up girl of the title is a delightful irony: she’s not quite human, but manages to be the most innocent and sympathetic of the major characters.

If you want a taste of the kind of world we might be creating for our great-great-great grandchildren, read this novel.
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Feb 25, 2012 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just realized something, neologisms - like bow ties - are cool. Explaining made-up words in a glossary or through infodumps is uncool. Nowadays sf authors seem to delight in making up new words and leave the readers to figure out their meaning through context. Depending on the skill of the author this can be an exercise in frustration or a lot of fun for the readers who like a bit of challenge.

Plenty of newly minted words in The Windup Girl, plus lots of Thai words which are equally unexplaine...more

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Jan 03, 2013 knig rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: do-you-take-me-for-an-idiot, 2012, sf

There is no real reason why this novel should be called the wind-up girl. Apart from the fact that there is, in fact, a character called ‘the wind-up girl’ (Emiko). Along with a plethora of other characters, each one given almost equal ‘air time’ in some twisted equal opportunities narratorial drive, which dispenses with the intent of primary characters and creates a mostra of frenetic participants, all dashing about wildly in an intense terpsichorean plot escalation. Some of these, such as Hock...more There is no real reason why this novel should be called the wind-up girl. Apart from the fact that there is, in fact, a character called ‘the wind-up girl’ (Emiko). Along with a plethora of other characters, each one given almost equal ‘air time’ in some twisted equal opportunities narratorial drive, which dispenses with the intent of primary characters and creates a mostra of frenetic participants, all dashing about wildly in an intense terpsichorean plot escalation. Some of these, such as Hock Seng, seem to operate in a separate storyboard altogether, given the net effect of contribution they have on the overall narrative thread: which is zero. Its almost a little annoying, really, to have to follow his copious presence about when if he were clinically extracted from the novel(e.g. press select. Press replace Hock Seng. With um, papaya) no one would even notice.

Back to ‘the wind-up girl’. A delicious irony that Bacigalupi titles his opus on the one character he majorly fails with. The SF market is crying out for an updated rendition of the man/machine dichotomy, but what does Bacigalupi do? A straight lift from Asimov’s ‘I Robot’ in terms of how a robot, or as is the case here, a robotically engineered humanoid, (the ‘halfie’ of the future) reconciles the notion of binary code and humanity. We need a new take on this subject, not just one more new new subject. Emiko is Natch.

But it is everyone else’s reaction to Emiko which leads me, tentatively, to the setting of this action bonanza. Thailand. Emiko is a gorgeous girl, and looks human, but, as I mentioned, is actually a genetic by- product of human and ‘binary’ DNA. The kind of thing you know, but can’t necessarily see. Reaction to Emiko by every nationality present in the book: disgust. Particularly when it comes to sex. Really? This lands Bacigalupi right into my ‘do you take me for an idiot’ shelf. Let me get this straight. Theres enough men out there with eclectic tastes to shag a goat

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/commut...

but a beautiful woman with modified DNA: yuck, gross me out. There are no men takers, huh?

Especially in Thailand, of all places? Where, like, anything goes? Including every European pervert: this was the playing ground of Joseph Fritzl after all. There is a reason for this: Thailand is a cornucopia of steaming potentiality: in every respect. The people are laid back, religiously non zealotic, and progressively minded. The land is exotic and lush, and the gleaming metropolises breaking through tropical heat and overabundant fauna a multilayered crescendo of competing and complimentary multi-faceted realities: there is a place for everyone, regardless of interest or creed or inclination. This is what makes it such an ideal setting for New Age proliferation: just like in the phenomenal Calder Trilogy Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things. And the least likely place for disgust at anything sexual, let alone the beautiful Emiko. Also the place I had my first ever offer: ‘vagina smoke cigarette?’, nearly two decades ago now. (Still not sure if they meant me or one of their girls. Heh.).

Did I mention a frenetically paced plot? This is always useful to hide a multitude of narrative ‘sins’: loose ends and actions which might appear silly or unwarranted simply can’t be mulled over too much, have to be pushed aside to make more memory space for the new and new and new sequences which blast onto the scene. So, overall cohesive, politically minded, compassionate to all sides, if a bit sprawling, infected with too many characters and the biggest Natch of all time: Emiko, the ‘wind –up Girl’.

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Jun 19, 2011 Brandy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tras las altas expectativas que se generaron a mi alrededor sobre este libro, reconozco que aunque no ha sido un placer, su lectura ha sido realmente gratificante ya que es un libro diferente en todos los sentidos. Bacigalupi no es ningún romántico y se aferra a una vena cruel donde todos sus personajes son marionetas de las circunstancias que los rodean.
El libro presenta una historia muy dura. Bacigalupi no da tregua al lector y me atrapó en un mundo casi apocalíptico que podría representar el...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: steam-punk, sci-fi

Thailand, some time in the future. In a world of unrest, pollution and disease, water is scarce. Calorie Corporations control the food supply and exert political influence over governments. Genetically created crops, animals and New People (or windups) are a reality and there's old and new technology - click springs, airships and gas devices, but there's also a lack of oil, and consequently no computers, combustion engines, or electricity.

Anderson Lake, a Calorie Man from AgriGen, has come to B...more Thailand, some time in the future. In a world of unrest, pollution and disease, water is scarce. Calorie Corporations control the food supply and exert political influence over governments. Genetically created crops, animals and New People (or windups) are a reality and there's old and new technology - click springs, airships and gas devices, but there's also a lack of oil, and consequently no computers, combustion engines, or electricity.

Anderson Lake, a Calorie Man from AgriGen, has come to Bangkok in search of a mysterious gene hacker called Gibson who's creating illegal fruit and vegetables for the Thai Government that may be immune to disease. In a sex club he meets Emiko, a raped and abused windup girl from Japan. She wants to escape the city, but cannot. Windups are illegal in Thailand and she would be destroyed if the authorities ever found her. Through selfish motives, Anderson helps her out and they both become pawns in a military coup that is about to sweep through the country.

I listened to the audiobook version, which was probably a mistake, I think you really need to have the paperback so you can flick back and forth to work out what the hell is going on.The plot is very complicated (much more so than the synoposis suggest) and follows the machinations of at least ten or fifteen characters. It was hard to remember who was who and what they had been doing previously. I was disappointed that so little of the book revolved around Emiko, who was by far the most interesting character. Her story arc was also very slow to get going, but when it did, in the second half of the book, it was riveting, and I wish this had been more of the main thrust of the story. Apart from Anderson and Emiko I never really felt I got that close to the rest of the characters, although the world they inhabit is amazingly detailed and thoughtfully constructed. The East-meets-stempunk-meets-genetics theme reminded me of 'The Diamond Age' by Neal Stephenson, which I think, on balance, I preferred. Although both books seem to reach the thrust of the action a little late in the day.
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Jul 10, 2011 Suz rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, dystopian, borrowed, science-fiction, award-winner

Wow, this book was immensely unsatisfying.

And for the life of me, I don't know why it's won so many awards, accolades and general love from so many people.

The story takes place in Bangkok, after the "Contraction" (both peak oil events and the general destruction of the ecosystem, complete with plagues cause a collapse in society as we know it and quality of life), where a host of not-quite-interesting characters interact. Everything from eco-terrorist types trying to keep their country clean and...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Foz Meadows rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There were some truly fascinating ideas in this book, but despite that, it just wasn't for me. Possibly this is less a fault of the book than it is a question of my own taste - The Windup Girl has, after all, received rave reviews and won two major awards - but while I can certainly tip my hat to Bacigalupi's imagination, I still feel as though there were blanks in the worldbuilding. These aren't my only objections, but they come across in my head as being the least biased ones, so they're where...more There were some truly fascinating ideas in this book, but despite that, it just wasn't for me. Possibly this is less a fault of the book than it is a question of my own taste - The Windup Girl has, after all, received rave reviews and won two major awards - but while I can certainly tip my hat to Bacigalupi's imagination, I still feel as though there were blanks in the worldbuilding. These aren't my only objections, but they come across in my head as being the least biased ones, so they're where I'll start.

The setting is a future, not-quite-dystopian Earth where most of the world's population is fed by sterile wheat, soy and rice varieties created by calorie companies: agricultural outfits whose monopoly stems from the fact that, at some time in the past, human meddling with plants and animals - what the book called generipping - lead to the evolution of new and deadly plagues that wiped out an incredibly high number of original plant (and, as a direct result, animal) species. Those that remain are generipped copies created by scientists from the small amounts of surviving seedstock, though thanks to the fact that the plagues and blights are constantly reshaping themselves, this is an ongoing process. Most of the world we know has been altered irrevocably as a result of all this. Thus, the story takes place in Thailand, one of the few countries to pull together and survive as a result of its generipping prowess. Also, there is no more oil, which changes the technological landscape quite drastically, although - unless I missed it - there is never a clear explanation provided as to why a history of agricultural plagues would suddenly cause the world's oil reserves to dry up. Possibly we're meant to infer that the story is set in a far enough future that this has just happened anyway, but with so much ambiguity about the dates and with the recent history of this new era only ever hinted at, never described in detail, it is hard to tell.

But, I digress: many old species are dead, both plant and animal, plague and starvation are ever-present threats, and the entire language of society is altered to fit the idea of working for calories, rather than money, as food is what ultimately powers everyone. There is a lot of repetition throughout the book - or rather, several specific ideas are reiterated, particularly early on - and one of these is the constant fear of blister rust and cibiscosis, both fruit diseases that threaten the new crops. There is also fear of ivory beetles, which seem to have taken the place of locusts. Everyone is careful about threats to the food supply, who eats what, where it goes and at what calorie cost. And yet, Bacigalupi has populated this environment with two new generipped species - the giant megadonts, being 10-foot-tall elephant-creatures used to power machinery, and the tiny cheshires, who first interbred with and then replaced actual cats - without ever touching on how they can feed themselves. Because so far as we see, there are no mice or rodents in this world for the cheshires to eat - certainly, if there are, it feels as if we should hear about them as a threat to the grain, the cheshires praised for keeping their numbers down instead of being culled and cursed - and yet their numbers are so great as to require culling in the first place. And then there are the megadonts, which apart from being improbable creations in a world without any other big animals that we can see, must surely require vast amounts of calories to live - enough that their usefulness as engines might be diminished.

In a similar vein, there is Emiko, the eponymous windup girl. Another of the book's repetitions is the fact that, as a generipped human - a New Person - her stop-start movements constantly set her apart. At the same time, we are told she has preternatural speed, eyesight, healing, immunity and agelessness. Fine, fine, these are standard SFF dreams - but why, when New People only exist because of Japan's dwindling population, and when most of them, like Emiko, work as aides and translators and bedroom companions, do they need any of these things? How can the generippers create an awesome megadont, a cheshire that constantly fades in and out of reality, and a practically superhuman breed of New Persons, and yet fail at something so basic as fine motor control? And then there was the concept of phii, used as a term for (I assumed) ghosts or the soul, which came to be very crucial later on in the book, and which early on was associated with generipping, but which - like many things - was never explained, and couldn't properly be inferred from the context. This matters because we can't tell if the phii are real or not: one character mentions seeing them and another accepts this, and then, after someone dies, one of the POV characters starts to talk to the dead man's phii, which seems to follow her everywhere. Is it a voice in her head, or a real ghost? I couldn't tell, and that really bothered me. Finally, there were the whisper sheets, which seemed to be the equivalent of local newspapers. It was never explicitly stated that they were printed on paper, yet that was what we were left to infer - but in a world where trees are rotting everywhere, and where a government permit is required to fell one for use in a factory, where would cheap paper come from? How could it be made? All these aspects of the generipped world could doubtless be explained one way or another, and yet the fact that they weren't within the confines of the novel made me feel that, worldbuilding-wise, Bacigalupi had put more effort into deconstructing modern-day Earth than building the rules of its future.

In terms of the characters, I didn't end up really liking any of them, though some were definitely interesting. Again, this could well have been an issue of personal preference, but it also felt as though every time a character was brought to a crucial or tense moment, their chapter would end, forcing us to read about someone else, so that by the time we came back to whoever it was, the big climactic moment had already happened off screen. I found this an isolating experience; it also served to make the characters feel inconsistent. Tan Hock Seng, for instance, starts out feeling comparatively misanthropic, if not openly misogynistic, what with thinking of his dead daughters as being less worthy than his dead sons, calling them "daughter mouths" and never naming either them or his wives in his thoughts; he also despises the Thais and seems strongly racist in early scenes. Yet, by the end, he has become sympathetic to a Thai girl named Mai, who he looks after and protects even to the point of endangering himself - and yet we never witness the point at the narrative in which he switches from one mindset to the other. Rather, he seems to change between chapters for no discernible reason.

The narrative has similar problems. I don't require all novels to be cathartic, but when they're as long as The Windup Girl and get off to such a long-winded start, I really want those early scenes to matter at the end. These ones didn't; all the talk about the ngaw fruit only serves to bring Anderson Lake to a particular place in the middle of the story, then stops; none of Hock Seng's deals go anywhere; and Jaidee, for all his importance to Kanya, is very short-lived for the amount of early screen time he receives. And then there's the fact that, for a lot of the book, it feels as though Bacigalupi has been deliberately hiding Anderson's thoughts from us, even when we're reading in his point of view, just so the end events feel slightly more mysterious than they otherwise might have done. What this means is that a lot of the book is heavy with a species of internal monologuing - which, again, I don't necessarily mind, but for the number of questions I had left at the end about the world, the politics and the history of both, it felt as though those sections could have been put to much better use than repetitive introspection.

But finally, we come to the real reason I didn't enjoy the book: Emiko herself. The first time we see her, she's being raped, and that never really changes throughout the book. We are told that part of what makes her a New Person is, in addition to those qualities already mentioned, both a deeply ingrained servility and an unconscious sexuality, so that she is literally forced to orgasm even when she hates what's being done to her. Possibly I could have dealt with that, but then comes her sexual relationship with Anderson, the motives and emotions of which are largely hidden from both their thoughts. We do not see the crucial decision Emiko makes to sleep with Anderson; that scene is from his point of view, and very much written with a male gaze in mind. By the time we come back to her, she is already thinking of him as Anderson-sama - an honorific I am very certain he doesn't deserve - and the only explanation we are ever left with for her sleeping with him are the selfsame sex-slave qualities she so hates about herself. Even this much could be salvageable, if we saw Anderson struggle to view her as a person, if any kind of romance features in their relationship, but he doesn't, and it doesn't, and it all just feels hollow and abusive and, frankly, needless.

Possibly this is the point, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Given that she's the titular character, I'd expected more from Emiko in every respect: more screen time, more clout, more personality. Instead, the vast majority of her appearances render her as nothing more than the classic hentai victim, the helpless-sexy objectified girl who pleads and pleads against her own rape, and yet is shown physically to be enjoying what is done to her, even against her own wishes, and which her rapists therefore use to justify themselves. That her violent reaction against these crimes eventually sparks off the climax of the novel is small satisfaction: she is not the protagonist the title makes her out to be. To draw a brief comparison with Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, Emiko is equivalent to wife of the disgraced party member who finally shoots Chancellor Adam Susan out of revenge for the life his actions have forced her to live; she is not Evie Hammond, and she certainly isn't V. And unlike the fallen wife, Emiko doesn't even have the distinction of knowing who her victim really is, or what the consequences of killing him will be, so that there is no political catharsis in the act, either - and even worse, it is yet another scene which happens after a fade to black, the results shown only in hindsight. Which leaves a rather large hole in the middle of The Windup Girl, because if Emiko isn't the main character, then who is? Arguably, she is just one member of an ensemble cast, but given that all their individual stories never quite come together at the end, I finished the book uncertain of what journey I'd really been on, and what the point had been.

So, there you have it. Doubtless a lot of people will disagree. I still enjoyed Bacigalupi's imagination, and am still keen to read Shipbreaker, his YA novel. But through whatever quirk, The Windup Girl just wasn't my bag.

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Jul 01, 2012 Sandra aka Sleo rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

I couldn't finish this book, so perhaps I shouldn't put it on my 'read' list. I stuck it out for more than half, however, until I was certain that I didn't really care how it ended. What others have said about his prose is absolutely correct, but the characters were awful and the Windup Girl pathetic. I see that most of the people who like it are men, so maybe it's a man's book, but I need a little emotional meat in a story. The author is young, so perhaps when he's older?

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Mar 28, 2013 Etienne DeForest rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been in some pretty seedy strip clubs in my time. But I’ve never been to Thailand.

I was not expecting this book, to be so….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGoLM2...

I was transported into a world of filth, sex, money, corruption, and zero drugs. Thailand, will kill you for importing drugs. (This isn’t addressed in the book.) Apparently, in this futuristic sin-land, their kill-you-for-drugs policy worked. There is no mention of drugs, of any kind, props to the author on that.

The main premise...more

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May 16, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, favourites

Wow! I went from knowing nothing about this book to loving it within the first few chapters. The front of the book compares the author with William Gibson and sure certain ideas and themes are comparable to his cyberpunk but in style, tone and structure this felt more like a James Ellroy novel.

At times it's completely brutal in its description of human carnage and none of the major players are good or bad; they are all varying shades of grey all with their own selfish agendas. Very much in the...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, four-star-plus-reads

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

I'm getting tired of the "punk" label: steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk. Let's go back to the big tent theory and call science fiction what it is: science fiction. You will hear people try to fit The Windup Girl into one or more of these punkish niches, and I suppose you could do that. Biopunk: yes, much of the story has to do with genetic engineering. Steampunk: sure, there are dirigibles aplenty, and mechanical contrivances running on clockwork and alternative fuels. Cybe...more Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

I'm getting tired of the "punk" label: steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk. Let's go back to the big tent theory and call science fiction what it is: science fiction. You will hear people try to fit The Windup Girl into one or more of these punkish niches, and I suppose you could do that. Biopunk: yes, much of the story has to do with genetic engineering. Steampunk: sure, there are dirigibles aplenty, and mechanical contrivances running on clockwork and alternative fuels. Cyberpunk: why not? The spirit of William Gibson is strong in this book. I'm going to call it science fiction ... outstanding science fiction ... and let the matter rest there.

Just by way of establishing credentials, The Windup Girl won both the Nebula and Hugo awards in 2010. A year earlier, Time Magazine listed it as one of the ten best books of 2009 ... that would be one of the top ten of all books, in all genres.

Paolo Bacigalupi's vision here is so rich, so detailed, it's hard to know where to start. He writes of a collapsed world: post-oil, post-American, post-global trade. Genetically engineered crops have gone horribly wrong and fierce new diseases have destroyed agriculture, killed millions, and laid waste to whole countries. Much of the once-developed world is now wasteland. Thailand is hanging on, trying to keep existing crop diseases from spreading and new diseases from penetrating its borders, trying to feed its people and to keep foreign influences out, fighting a vicious war with Vietnam. Japan is a small regional power, likewise India; China is no more. AgriGen, a global non-state corporate power, schemes to invade Thailand to steal its closely guarded bank of preserved pre-collapse seeds.

Bacigalupi takes us into this world through a cast of wholly believable characters: a farang (foreign) businessman and undercover agent for AgriGen; a despised yellow card Chinese, once the powerful owner of a global fleet of clipper ships but now a refugee on the run; two officers of the feared Environmental Ministry who find themselves front and center in political and military struggle for control over Thailand; and Emiko, a man-made woman, genetically engineered and cloned, in the country illegally and hiding from the authorities, slowly discovering her remarkable built-in capabilities ... she is the wind-up girl of the title.

I read Paolo Bacigalupi's second novel a few months ago and reviewed it here on Goodreads. Ship Breaker, a young adult novel, was a revelation to me: good science fiction with great characters, super-realistic settings, solid science, rich detail. The Windup Girl, an adult science fiction novel, is even more so. I must say, Bacigalupi's science fiction is the best I've read in years.

When I read Bacigalupi, I hear echoes of David Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, and in the case of The Windup Girl, Cordwainer Smith, who wrote the SF classic The Ballad of Lost C'Mell. God, this is good stuff. I want more!(less)

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Sep 13, 2011 AMessyRenaissance rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, hugo-novels

I feel like reviewing this book is very difficult.

There are a lot of problems:

-- The author dumps you into a completely envisioned future, with all of the resulting slang and history, with no explanations. It made figuring out what was going on in the beginning difficult.
-- I spent a lot of time trying to understand the world the author was creating, only to figure out that the majority of all of it, didn't matter to the story in the end.
-- I can't decide whose story this book is suppose to...more I feel like reviewing this book is very difficult.

There are a lot of problems:

-- The author dumps you into a completely envisioned future, with all of the resulting slang and history, with no explanations. It made figuring out what was going on in the beginning difficult.
-- I spent a lot of time trying to understand the world the author was creating, only to figure out that the majority of all of it, didn't matter to the story in the end.
-- I can't decide whose story this book is suppose to be. Is it the Pinocchio-inspired story of Emiko? The calorie man? The revolution? The Chinese man? There are too many people in this story to keep track of sometimes.
-- The writing is seriously dry and the story takes awhile to actually start.

Even with all of those complaints, I still really enjoyed the book. I've never read Bacigalupi before and I was completely enthralled.

The world created is where the "Contraction" has happened. Oil is only available to the obscenely wealthy and powerful. Water is scarce. Disease has ravaged the crops of the world, which has made seeking out new seed stock a career and business field. Calories, both the consuming and burning of them, have become a daily struggle.

Thailand is one of the few countries to survive with it's political boundaries intact. But, as any country that protects itself by sealing it's borders, it's coming under attack from both internal and external forces. Emiko's story is a "human" symbol of the larger struggle, as her very nature comes under attack both internally and externally. Trying to give any more detail about the complex plot would make this review entirely too long.

I have to admit to a personal bias here. I don't like Monsanto and follow the Transition movement pretty closely. This book fed into my own doomsday fears and righteous indignation about the future and that definitely slanted me into enjoying the book. I'm not sure a reader who didn't have that bias already in place, would enjoy it as much as I did.

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Jul 31, 2010 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the same scifi nerds that loved Ian McDonald's "River of Gods"

Recommended to Rob by: John Adams, B², a bunch of others

Shelves: own, 2010, evolution, science-fiction, loaned-out

"What took you so long to pick it up?" I did not believe the hype.

Before The Windup Girl, my exposure to Bacigalupi's work was through two short stories:

(1) "The People of Sand and Slag"—which seemed to pop-up everywhere for a while; and then
(2) "Yellow Card Man"—which was in the same milieu as this novel and which I liked but which I didn't really "get" because I was expecting something more along the lines of "The People of Sand and Slag".

This is not to say that I did not enjoy Bacigalupi's wo...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Andrew Liptak rated it 5 of 5 stars

Paolo Bacigalupi’s debut novel The Windup Girl is a frightening, realistic and brilliant look at the near future of the world. Taking place in Thailand at some point in the future, Bacigalupi paints a picture of a world that is caught between several major problems: climate change has affected the lives of many people around the world, and in turn, has brought a rise in global agricultural corporations, and global energy resources have been depleted, forcing major changes in the way people live...more Paolo Bacigalupi’s debut novel The Windup Girl is a frightening, realistic and brilliant look at the near future of the world. Taking place in Thailand at some point in the future, Bacigalupi paints a picture of a world that is caught between several major problems: climate change has affected the lives of many people around the world, and in turn, has brought a rise in global agricultural corporations, and global energy resources have been depleted, forcing major changes in the way people live their lives, and how a world-wide economy functions with different resources. Corporations have run amok with trying to maintain their profit margins, and released a number of plagues upon the world that devastated the planet’s ecology upon which we all depend, and because of their actions, remain just a single step ahead of the latest mutation of blister rust and other assorted plagues. Thailand is a country that has thus far weathered the storm – the Royal government has maintained a fierce isolationist policy to keep the country from succumbing. As a result, Thailand has a precious resource that western companies desperately want: a genebank, containing thousands of new strains of crops that could be utilized to combat the ongoing struggle against plagues and hunger world-wide.

The story follows several discrete storylines and characters, each with their own motivations and demons. Anderson is a ‘calorie man’, a westerner who ostensibly manages a factory that manufactures kink-springs, a renewable power source. Jaidee is a member of the Environmental Ministry, tasked with maintaining a barrier between Thailand and the rest of the world and the dangers that it poses. Emiko is a windup, a genetically engineered woman, designed by the Japanese for servitude and for sex, who has been abandoned in Thailand and fears that she will be mulched (killed and burned for energy). In addition to these main characters, there are a number of other background characters who are just as complex as their counterparts. In a nut-shell, Anderson has come to Thailand on the behalf of a major Agricorporation that is hoping to gain a foothold in the country in order to obtain rights to the country’s gene banks. While he is ostensibly looking for ways to combat the plagues, Thailand officials believe that the corporations have far more sinister and selfish motivations for the gene banks. While in the country, he has to walk a narrow line to stay in the country, as the Environmental Ministry intends to keep Thailand free.

Captain Jaidee is a leading member of the Environmental Ministry, and throughout the book, it is clear that the country is not necessarily unified in its position to remain away from the rest of the world. Limited trade and imports occur through the actions of the Trade Ministry, which is at frightening odds with the Environmental Ministry, to the point where open bloodshed and crimes are committed on both sides to try and force their position upon the rest of the country, which eventually interrupts into violence, which helps to push forward some of the plans that Anderson and others have laid to gain more traction into the country.

Emiko’s titular character is somewhere between the various storylines. As an artificial biological construct, she is a representation of what is wrong with the outside world in the eyes of a secular nation that believes heavily in the value of one’s soul and rebirth. To the Thai people, she is a soulless being, one who is against nature, and essentially lumped in with the problems of the world. Thus, Emiko, who is unsuited for Thailand’s climate with reduced pores (she overheats easily) and a body structure that makes her stutter while moving, which makes her a literal odd woman out, and thus a target to the Environmental Ministry (also known as White Shirts for their uniform) who see her as a threat to the country’s independence.

Futuristic worlds are a common element in Science Fiction, but it is very rare to have one that is so deeply realized as Bacugalupi’s Thailand, one that takes the current state of existence for the country and extrapolates into the future with hypothetical events. The portrait that he paints of the world is very scary indeed, and the constructed world has reacted accordingly though a number of levels. What makes this novel so interesting is just how everything fits together. There are economic elements that make sense, social, biological and political, all of which are not mere exposition in a prologue in the novel, but where they are an active part of the storyline. This, in a way is one of the best examples of show, don’t tell, a writing exercise that I remember from creative writing courses. What is even better (or sobering, depending on how you look at it), this world makes sense. I can see major corporations putting profit ahead of common sense, and I can see the world going to hell in much more vivid detail now. Furthermore, Bacugalupi posits the power struggle between various departments of government, each with their own agendas and motives, both at odds with one another, which trails up through to the very end of the book.

There’s a strong look at morality and ethics when it comes to bioengineering and the eventual fate of the species, and how our role fits within a society such as what we see in the future. Emiko, a Windup, is shunned, hated, in reaction to what she was, and what she represented: something highly unnatural. By the same token, there are holes in that sort of feeling, as one character confronts towards the end of the novel. One thing that particularly stuck in my mind was how much of evolution is an unnatural, random occurrence, verses how much of it is conscious decisions that any sort of creature makes that better enhances their chances of survival? In this world, survival is predicated on the work of gene rippers and scientists who remain just a couple of steps against plagues – it is noted that the windups are built for a purpose, and that they are immune to most problems in the world because of their unique design. Like the clashes in the Thailand government, there is a larger struggle at stake, survival, with both sides making valid arguments for their continued existence. In a sense, this story is a look at how the human race might choose to survive, and enter a new stage of development. To me, this is a very profound element to the story.

When all is said and done, there is one big theme that goes through and through with this book: survival. Each element of the book deals with this very issue, from the ultimate survival of the human race in a hostile world, to the immediate survival of several characters who are neck deep in political and economic conspiracy to the various branches of government who want to see their vision of the future for their country to survive the coming turmoil.

What truly stands out for this book is the rich detail and fantastic prose. I’ve purposely taken my time with this book so that I could absorb as much as I could. What Bacugalupi puts together is a superior story, one of the best science fiction novels that I have read in a long time, one that takes the best from well thought out characters, plausible economics and science and a complicated story.(less)

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May 19, 2013 Nibra Sitzpinkler rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book is set in post-plague Thailand, a kingdom, although rich in culture and history, that suffers from and through the evils of politics and science, which come off together both in mutual agreement, and, quite often, at loggerheads. Here is a society where a fine line separates politics and science.

The pov rotates around several characters. I get annoyed at times, especially at the first quarter, because the principal players felt a tad too many. But as soon as the plot unfolds, I started...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-2009s

In this dark dystopia, many of the foods we know now are extinct, like tomatoes, lemons, and oranges. The planet has been ravaged by genetically engineered diseases like blister rust and cibiscosis, which infect crops and people alike and mutate faster than potential vaccines can be generated. People smuggle fruit over the borders and those who are captured have their food destroyed as punishment because in this world, nothing is thrown away. In third world countries humans are essentially reduc...more In this dark dystopia, many of the foods we know now are extinct, like tomatoes, lemons, and oranges. The planet has been ravaged by genetically engineered diseases like blister rust and cibiscosis, which infect crops and people alike and mutate faster than potential vaccines can be generated. People smuggle fruit over the borders and those who are captured have their food destroyed as punishment because in this world, nothing is thrown away. In third world countries humans are essentially reduced to scavengers. Calories are currency, and people are desperate for the food that generates the joules that fuel hard labor and methane gases. The big businesses all deal in genetics, searching for that magical combination that will create a food that is capable of resisting the many plagues. Anderson Lake is one of these "generippers" - a genetic engineer that works for one of the big North American calorie companies. His search for new agricultural-related genetic material has taken him to Thailand, which is teeming with barely-repressed hostilities from a variety of resentful factions - and also fresh genetic material for fruit, such as the ngaw. Out-groups are resented as being a drain on caloric resources and live under the constant threat of being worked to death, mulched (i.e. boiled to methane), or executed.

One of these out-caste groups are the windups. The windups are genetically engineered beings that are superior in many ways to human beings - they are beautiful, have incredible hearing and vision, and are as obedient as dogs. They are also detested and considered lower than trash and many people will simply kill them on sight. Lake is fascinated when he meets Emiko, a discarded windup from Japan who is essentially a sex slave. She is beautiful, and somehow manages to look both very human, and very otherworldly. Her movements are what give her away: the jerky, mechanical motions that contribute to her race's name. In spite of himself, he becomes attached to her. But what does attachment mean in a world where calories take precedence above all else and self-preservation is everyone's modus operandi? Nothing.

I really had no idea what would happen next, and that almost never happens. Each chapter is written from a different character's viewpoint, and Bacigalupi weaves their stories together with skill. I found myself on tenterhooks when Anderson and Emiko were fully embroiled into the power coup between the two leaders, Akkarat and Gen. Pracha, wondering how on Earth they could possibly get themselves out of the situation. The conclusion was definitely striking, though somewhat unfinished (I hope there's going to be a sequel - or two - or three. This is definitely a world I'd love to see develop).

Not since Margaret Atwood's MaddAdam trilogy have I read such a brilliant post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel. Interestingly, both portray a civilization that has been torn apart by scientists playing God, and include new races that are considered inferior by the existing humans - but may well surpass us. I really enjoyed comparing and contrasting the two as I read. It seems like every decade has a favorite way of destroying the earth in literature. The first were about aliens, then eugenics, then nuclear war, and now it's genetic modification. I wonder what the next will be. Space travel, perhaps, or terraforming.

As I said before, the ending didn't really tie things up - and it was a bit of a downer. I was going to give this book five stars originally, but the ending didn't satisfy me so, being petty as I am, I removed one star. I hope there is going to be a sequel. I would like to find out what happens to the New People (a.k.a. the Windups), and what remains of the human race. With all the alluding Bacigalupi did to the settlement of the New People, I was surprised that he never actually introduced the settlement. Likewise, I never really got a feel for who the Green Headbands were, either. From what I gather, they were some kind of radical group who decided to wipe out the Chinese and some other nationalities because... I don't know... they needed a scapegoat? The author never said, and I really wanted to know the answer because they were referred to several times!

That doesn't mean that this book is disorganized or bad. My, no. The writing was amazing, but the world needs to be fleshed out. I would be pleased to see these questions - and many others - answered in a second book. As it was, The Windup Girl contained a lot of dead-ends. However, the writing was beautiful - almost cinematic in scape. I'm giving this to my brother, who doesn't really like reading but loves movies, just because it's so easy to picture the action sequences. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made into a movie, either. It's just that kind of book.(less)

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Mar 02, 2011 Lincoln rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So far this is incredible...writing is clean and effective, characters are well-drawn. The toughest thing about reading this is that while it IS science fiction, it isn't even slightly far-fetched.

So much futuristic fiction (including plenty that I adore) presents a future where technology has solved the problems we face today. Limitless clean power, readily available creature comforts and easily accessible personal fulfillment - all these are just around the corner in many authors' forecasts....more

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Jan 23, 2011 Stacey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, all-time-favorites, post-apocalyptic, ebook, owned-hardcovers, signed, subterranean-press

I think I've recommended this to more people than any other book I've read (except maybe American Gods,) and yet I had to let it tumble around in my mind for months before writing about it.

Sometimes it's like that, and I'm so smitten with a story, or the prose, or... something... that I have no clue what I want to say at the end. I think the idea of all of these people doing such ordinary things, day to day, in the background, as they struggle to just survive in a world that has gone so complet...more I think I've recommended this to more people than any other book I've read (except maybe American Gods,) and yet I had to let it tumble around in my mind for months before writing about it.

Sometimes it's like that, and I'm so smitten with a story, or the prose, or... something... that I have no clue what I want to say at the end. I think the idea of all of these people doing such ordinary things, day to day, in the background, as they struggle to just survive in a world that has gone so completely awry, through no fault of their own. People who are just pawns and bystanders in a calorie shell-game...

The best Post-Apocalyptic sci-fi, in my reading experience, is the type that could happen, if we don't get our collective heads out of our asses and stop the plundering of earth. We all want exactly what we want, when we want it, and tomorrow will be soon enough to reduce-reuse-recycle, and develop renewable energy sources, and quit dumping toxic refuse into rivers, and quit trying to create all these resistant GMO whatevers that crossbreed/pollinate/contaminate all the other whatevers in their immediate environment, etc, etc, etc.

I include myself in the collective, as I sit at my lovely laminate petroleum-based desk, in front of my two huge and gorgeous flatscreen monitors, and occasionally pat myself on the back because I turn off the lights, put on a sweater and recycle almost religiously.

There's a recurring plotline in Windup Girl regarding ice - it's the ultimate luxury in this hot, humid tale. Everything is hot and humid, over and over, until the heat itself becomes another character in the book, as much as Anderson Lake, or the Windup, or Hock Seng, and ice - ice that's nearly impossible to get - becomes a metaphor for the inevitability of what has been done to the planet, and how things will never be normal, and there will never be a new normal, not even if you can finally get your hands on the seeds from the old normal, not even if you can develop new sources of energy, you'll still be caught in the gears of inexorable decline.

Still, it's human nature to hope, and maybe the Garden of Eden still exists, out there hidden somewhere, even if there's no ice. (less)

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Mar 15, 2010 Mayakda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf, read-in-2010, hard-luck-heroes, explicit, read-in-2010-03

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was torn between 4 & 5 stars and rated up, because I usually hate dystopian settings and yet the author managed to overcome my bias.
The dystopian setting for Windup Girl is all-too plausible, and drives the plot, but the author wisely focuses on the characters' individual stories and motivations to make it real.

Anderson Lake is the primary character and he is an Iowa "calorie man", an agent of one of the powerful agricultural companies whose genetically modified seeds and plagues have deva...more

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