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Feb 11, 2011

Ceridwen rated it:

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 kno More...

37 comments like (62 people liked it)

May 19, 2011

Michael rated it:

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 More...

34 comments like (48 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

RandomAnthony rated it:

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 (act More...

30 comments like (76 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

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 cont More...

10 comments like (20 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Richard rated it:

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 More...

4 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Brandy rated it:

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 represent More...

12 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

February rated it:

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 q More...

60 comments like (18 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

CasadeSlutne rated it:

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 wh More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Osho rated it:

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 rotti More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Andrew rated it:

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...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2010

BunWat rated it:

A very well thought out and well written tale about a thoroughly nasty future Thailand. In a post oil world subject to waves of plague, bio terrorism and just plain negligent design spawned by gene hackers - hordes of desperate people in a city on the edge of failure waste and destroy the last of their precious resources by fighting each other like rats drowning in a bucket. Meanwhile the eponymous Windup Girl - a genetically engineered companion abandoned in the mess by a Japanese corporate ex More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2011

Lincoln rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Stacey rated it:

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 gon More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2010

Mayakda rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Keith rated it:

The setting is Thailand in the third millennium and as the story begins it feels like a strip from “Heavy Metal Magazine” from the 1970’s but without the artist’s illustrations to help simplify the upcoming complexities of the fantasy. Of course, as the novel continues and the plots and characters develop it takes on a form that’s more familiar. The world is a changed place but yet, so very, very familiar. The final “contraction” has created a post-oil, apocalyptic world that has managed to s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Kate rated it:

What an excellent book! This is one of the best modern sci-fi/steam-punk books I have read in a very long time, as it reads like high literature with intriguing characters. The characters are very complex and Paolo Bacigalupi does an excellent job of showing the reader the many shades of gray each character inhabits. There are no blatently good, bad, black or white characters here.

There are two scenes with Emiko, the Windup Girl, that were hard to read and yet they are very necessary More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2011

Khairul H. rated it:

Bored with it. It failed my '50-page' rule but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and stuck with it past page 100-something. It still failed to engage me. It's now in my 'books that bored me' shelf. None of the characters managed to make me care for them. The incorruptible Tiger of Bangkok was the most interesting (yes, more interesting than Emiko the sexbot) but even he failed to make me stay and finish the book. The premise was intriguing: global warming, gene splicing, human-like androids. An More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2011

Nicole rated it:

If I could give this 0 stars I would. I really wanted to like the book. The premise, a post-apocalyptic world where bioengineering and climate change have made life barely functional, seemed an interesting angle. Unfortunately, the book was full of gratuitous foul language and then a couple chapters in there is a horrible, pornographic rape scene. I didn't need or want to read any more once it became clear that this was going to be the way things were done. It was also clear almost immediat More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2010

Kemper rated it:

The wife got me a cool gadget for Christmas. It’s a LED flashlight that is powered by turning a little crank on it so I won’t be cursing a lack of fresh batteries when I need it. In The Windup Girl, I could make some money by cranking that flashlight for someone.

It’s set in Thailand after corporate warfare between agricultural firms went biological. In the process of trying to taint the other guy’s crops, most of the world’s food supply is now perpetually at risk of being overwhel More...

3 comments like (21 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Djinnjer rated it:

The world's premise was interesting -- a post-oil world afflicted with massive climate change, man-made agricultural plagues, and the collapse of the global economy. I liked the Tiger of Bangkok and his right-hand, Kanya, and Hock Seng, the refugee, was interesting and sympathetic if not particularly likeable. Here ends the positive part of this review.

The title character was a Japanese-created wind-up girl, who was brought as a translator to Thailand where she was abandoned and fo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Matt rated it:

I have mixed feelings about this book. Paolo Bacigalupi has a lot of talent but ultimately he doesn't say anything with it. He's clearly trying hard to make hip socially relevant commentary; but really, he should probably be trying harder to give his readers a reason to care about his story.

The setting of The Windup Girl is hiply, and predictably, dark and post apocalyptic. In this case, the cries of every liberal Cassandra over the last twenty or so years have gone unheeded and a More...

9 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Kana rated it:

Imagine a future where we've depleted the petroleum resources. Where calories are currency. Genetic manipulation, signature seed is not only common place but seen as wealth. Species, animal and plants are so manipulated that many naturally occurring species are extinct. Where there is a new breed of 'humans' (wind up's) genetically altered to be aesthetically pleasing, but vulnerable to the environment. And intentionally disabled with a distinctive jerking-motion, so people know they are a lesse More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 06, 2011

Catie rated it:

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 More...

4 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Erin rated it:

This book had such potential, and while it's obvious Bacigalupi has some serious talent, I don't think it's fully realized yet. It took about 100-150 pages to set the stage. While that in itself is not a problem, it took awhile for the political landscape of his world to reveal itself. He reminds me of China Mieville in that he presents a well realized world through tantalizing details. The difference between the two is that Mieville knows how to create suspense without making one frustrated. In More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2011

Norman rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Jason rated it:

PS NEARLY ONE YEAR LATER: I've thought a lot about this book since I read it. For some reason it has stayed with me. I feel the need to raise my rating from a 2 to a 3. I think my initial rating was a knee-jerk reaction to only certain elements of the book without taking in to account the greater whole. I truly do appreciate this unique twist on a futuristic, dystopic society. The writing style was engaging and intelligent. I look forward to reading more of Paolo's work!

I had a hard More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2011

Ben rated it:

I must start somewhere, and where better to begin than with the title? Why is this called The Windup Girl? Although Emiko's actions have a significant effect on the plot, I never felt like the book was about her or that she was as special as the title implies. As a creation, Emiko is fascinating. She is a slave, obedience instilled at genetic and conditioned levels, beauty bred into her. Smaller pores make for flawlessly smooth skin, but in Thailand's climate they also make her prone to ove More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2011

Amanda rated it:

For some reason I just did not enjoy this book- I know everyone else loved it but i just don't. I think the whole kink-spring thing was kinda weird- i mean what about solar-power and wind-power, among other options? I also find it hard to believe that international trade would grind to a halt because of the absence of petro. I think other existing technologies would quickly be implemented. I don't know if this was the reason I couldn't get into it, but it didn't help.

I do beli More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2010

John rated it:

One of the very few science-fiction book I've read that reads like high literature. Set maybe 150-200 years into the future, in Thailand, it feels very much like it's actually set in the past, many of the current tropes of civilization in what the characters call the "expansion" having vanished in the "contraction".
It also has the nerve not to tell you everything - the characters discuss events they know well that you are never party to, cleverly avoiding vast tracts o More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Casey rated it:

The Windup Girl is a truly unique fantasy experience, bringing to life a far flung future with advances both good and bad that you wouldn't expect. The story is thick and packed with detail, enjoyable and totally engrossing. For being my first Bacigalupi book, I'd now call myself a fan!

This one took me a while to get through, simply because the book is densely packed and presents a world that is both natural, yet alien to those of us here in the States at any rate. Challenging y More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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