The Windup Girl in The Alternative Worlds

Apr 29, 2010 Sandi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, audiobooks, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic-dystopian, hugo-nominees-2010

Science fiction has always been my first love. I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately simply because it's more popular and there's more good new fantasy than good new science fiction. So much science fiction just looks like it's rehashing old stories, I kind of yawn reading the blurbs. However, The Windup Girl has been getting a lot of good word of mouth and I really liked a couple of short stories I've read by the author, so I thought I'd check it out. I was truly impressed with the book. Pa ...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Wealhtheow marked it as won-t-read

Shelves: sci-fi, pocmaincharacters

"She ends up as a sex slave, routinely raped for the entertainment of the
high and mighty. If you don't want to read about someone having a bottle
jammed into them, you may want to skip this one. " says James Nicoll. Here's another review that says there's a lot of sexual violence, a lot of Orientalist and racist tropes, not much agency for the female characters...Yeah, at this point I'm not even going to try this book. I enjoy Bacigalupi's ideas about possible futures, but until he learns how t ...more

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Jan 21, 2010 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, nebula-winner, 2010-read, ebook, science-fiction, hugo-winner

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

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Jul 31, 2010 Terence rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

It took me about a 100 pages to get into The Windup Girl but after that the story's pace picked up, I enjoyed it more, and was surprised at the relatively upbeat ending (not Panglossian certainly but more hopeful than you might have thought considering the 350 pages that had gone before).

The novel is set in the late 22nd century when the oil-based economy of the West has long since collapsed, replaced by a world largely dependent on animal and man power once more - albeit genetically modified, e It took me about a 100 pages to get into The Windup Girl but after that the story's pace picked up, I enjoyed it more, and was surprised at the relatively upbeat ending (not Panglossian certainly but more hopeful than you might have thought considering the 350 pages that had gone before).

The novel is set in the late 22nd century when the oil-based economy of the West has long since collapsed, replaced by a world largely dependent on animal and man power once more - albeit genetically modified, e.g. megadonts & New People. Much of the world is at the mercy of the "calorie companies," who monopolize the creation and production of the crops that can resist the genetic plagues that have destroyed naturally occurring grains. The only significant part of the planet to have escaped their grasp is Thailand, which ruthlessly destroyed any contamination; hosts a renegade calorie-company scientist; and possesses a seedbank holding the relics of many now extinct plant species. As the book opens Thailand is delicately poised between the Trade Ministry, which wants to open up the kingdom, and the Environmental Ministry, which wants to maintain the isolation and keep the calorie companies out. We follow the lives of 5 people caught up in events: Anderson Lake, a covert ops agent of one of the companies; Emiko, the windup girl of the title; Hock Seng, a survivor of the massacre of the Malayan (sic) Chinese by xenophobic religious fundamentalists; and Captain Jaidee and Lt. Kanya, white shirts, the Environmental Ministry's paramilitary troops.

Telling a story from multiple POVs is always problematic, in my view, and I think the book suffers from the inclusion of Lake's and Seng's. The more interesting parts of the book are Emiko's and Jaidee/Kanya's stories, and Bacigalupi loses his focus when we're with the first two. I say this but would point out that I found Hock Seng to be an interesting character. He deserves a novel of his own but his story wasn't all that relevant to this one.

The Windup Girl is a good but not great book. Bacigalupi is masterful at creating a believable near future whose features ring true; he's pretty good at creating believably complex characters; and I like the fact that he avoids the dreaded infodump, revealing his world primarily in dialog and inference. It requires a certain exercise of mental muscle on your part but the effort's worth it.

I'd recommend the book, especially to those who enjoy near-future, hard SF, and I won't be averse to reading more Bacigalupi if I get the chance. ...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Sarah added it

Shelves: sf

This is a brutal book. The language is brutal, the situation is brutal, the characters are at best ambiguous and at worst reprehensible. The dystopic future Thailand Bacigalupi imagines is as ugly as any place I've ever read about. It's a startling vision, and Bacigalupi depicts it with unrelenting prose.
The first chapter sets a great scene, with the calorie man Anderson in a Thai street market, tasting his first lychee (it was a lychee, right? I think so). Within two chapters that pristine mom ...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Brooke rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, 2012

This book has always been on my radar because it's so highly spoken of, and I received a free eBook copy from the publisher back when io9.com picked it for its monthly book discussion. It took me until now to get around to it, and I felt kind of let down after all my expectations had been built up.

The first 100 pages were on the uninteresting side, and while it picked up after that point, it never became anything that I was looking forward to reading. None of the characters were particularly pl ...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Nicky rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopia, speculative-fiction, steampunk

I never really got into this, and had to parcel it out in small doses, like a chore. I might go back to it someday, because there were parts I liked, and I thought some of the descriptions were really vivid and interesting, and I think some of it is just the mood I'm in lately.

I'm not even sure I finished it off, because I had the ebook and me and my reader have been going through a rough patch (I think we're friends again now), but it was a while ago, anyway, and aside from the brief snatches o ...more

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May 17, 2010 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it really liked it

Shelves: nebula-award, science-fiction, own, apocalyptic, hugo-award, john-w-campbell-award, locus-award

I had very mixed reactions to this book. On the one hand, Bacigalupi paints a type of apocalyptic future very different from that of other authors, tackling subjects such as genetically-modified organsisms (GMOs) and global warming in ways not really seen before. On the other hand, the characters are almost universally dislikable. They are uniformly racist, which becomes frustrating after awhile (although to be fair, its equal opportunity racism since at least four different races are all portra ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Taueret rated it it was amazing

Shelves: have, speculative-fiction, dystopia, favorites

I'm only about 1/10 of the way into this book, but what a breath of fresh air after enduring the turgid crap of "under the Dome". So far this is awesome- reminding me (in a good way) of Gibson, Dick, Stephenson, Sterling- while at the same time being wholly original in its ideas. Rock on!

5/5/10

now 50% thru this book, raving incoherently about it to all who will listen. LOVE.

Finished on the 7 May, REALLY enjoyed this book. To me the measure of a special book is not just good writing, but the kind ...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, award_winner, ebook, book_club

a while into the future, Asia is starving. the agricultural tech wizards of the western world, after developing profitable new & improved versions of standard crops, are barely keeping their crop strains ahead of diseases just as deadly to the plants as to the people who eat them. a mercenary agent for one of these ag giants hunts the streets of bangkok for mysteriously reemerged fruit; local police use any means necessary to keep foreign contamination out of their kingdom (and thereby line thei ...more

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May 03, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, dystopia, world-thailand

The Windup Girl's setting is very enticing, and assuredly the source of most of the praise this "biopunk" novel receives. In Bacigalupi's future, Monsanto-like agriculture multinationals have run amok with the world, while Thailand remains a fiercely independent haven of biodiversity. There are bioengineered mutant plagues, New People, mammoth-like creatures driving indutrial engines, and spring-powered vehicles. It's cool, fresh, and exciting, with a touch of steampunk thrown in.

Yet there's som ...more

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Oct 18, 2009 H. R. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: apocalpyse, science-fiction, fiction, asia, authors_paolo_bacigalupi

We live in 'The Accelerated Age', prior to a perfect storm of the demise of an oil-based economy, global climate changes, and genetic agribusiness causing a series of contagions. Bacigalupi's image of a future destopia: Bangkok surrounded by sea-walls, factories assembling 'kinetic springs' for portable energy, clipper ships and dirigibles connecting the rest of the world.

Several well-defined characters; Asian, American and Japanese, capture the reader as they struggle to survive. Extremely wel ...more

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Dec 09, 2009 bsc rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, read-2010

Didn't finish. I could not get into this, at all. It seemed like if I could make it a little more it would have been good, but I just couldn't read another page. I didn't like his world building or the characters, except for Emiko, and overall just found the whole thing annoying. ...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Marty rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So far, so good - bio terrorism from large corporations...I can dig it.
Finished this and - wow!
What a world he built - I sincerely hope I get to spend more time there.

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