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The Windup Girl

Paolo Bacigalupi

Start date: August 21, 2015

Finish date: September 11, 2015

Discussion: Book Discussions

Discussion leader: Aleah

Why we're reading this: Group Contemporary Novel Discussion August 2015
Hugo Award Winner 2010 (tie)
Nebula Award Winner 2009
[close] Group Contemporary Novel Discussion August 2015
Hugo Award Winner 2010 (tie)
Nebula Award Winner 2009

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Jan 05, 2012 Traci Loudin rated it it was ok

Shelves: male-author, borrowed

Since the book is named The Windup Girl, I assumed she'd be the main viewpoint character. Instead she was often lost among a large cast... I think there were five viewpoint characters, total. As it turns out, I was glad she wasn't in more scenes, since her life mainly consisted of finding her next source of ice and spending her evenings being humiliated and raped.

Exploring the world was one of my major sources of enjoyment in this book, because it's amazing. The political dynamics and future te Since the book is named The Windup Girl, I assumed she'd be the main viewpoint character. Instead she was often lost among a large cast... I think there were five viewpoint characters, total. As it turns out, I was glad she wasn't in more scenes, since her life mainly consisted of finding her next source of ice and spending her evenings being humiliated and raped.

Exploring the world was one of my major sources of enjoyment in this book, because it's amazing. The political dynamics and future technologies and their impacts were very well thought-out. In fact, I would have liked to have seen more of the world, rather than just the one city.

Unfortunately, the plot is unclear in the beginning, leading to a slow start. I can understand some of the sluggishness, as it takes a while to set up the world and so many viewpoint characters. But it seemed like even once things were established it took a while for things to happen. In fact, things don't actually start moving until a non-viewpoint character (Carlyle) heats things up.

The writing itself makes it hard to care about any of the characters, even the windup girl, whose plight is so terrible. And the most interesting, complex, tortured character of all doesn't even come in as a viewpoint character until halfway through. But the writing was so clinical that I wasn't hugely impressed with her either.

There seemed to be several missed opportunities to create dramatic tension. Most of the writing seemed to strive toward worldbuilding, rather than storytelling. An example of missed dramatic tension was (view spoiler) Another example is pretty much everything about Kanya. (view spoiler)

Overall, I wanted to like this book, but couldn't. Even the ending, (view spoiler) didn't seem that climactic. ...more

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May 28, 2012 Lamora rated it it was amazing

At the periphery of the bloodletting, shimmering feline shapes have appeared; twists of shadow and light summoned by the carrion scent.

The Windup Girl is not a book for the squeamish or faint of heart. It depicts a bleak post-apocalyptic and near-future dystopia, where the depletion of most fossil fuels has resulted in a regression of technology, with the exception of genetic engineering.

In Paolo Bacigalupi’s grim vision of our future, the environment is devastated by global warming. Set in 23rd At the periphery of the bloodletting, shimmering feline shapes have appeared; twists of shadow and light summoned by the carrion scent.

The Windup Girl is not a book for the squeamish or faint of heart. It depicts a bleak post-apocalyptic and near-future dystopia, where the depletion of most fossil fuels has resulted in a regression of technology, with the exception of genetic engineering.

In Paolo Bacigalupi’s grim vision of our future, the environment is devastated by global warming. Set in 23rd century Bangkok, Bacigalupi works to create an elaborate, believable picture of a Thailand fighting against total environmental collapse. The only thing protecting the country from the rising ocean levels are doughty retaining walls, constantly pumping water back into the sea with coal-burning machines.

Because of the lack of fossil fuels and the limited progress of renewable energy, the world is dependent on human and animal muscle for power. Consequently, the world economy is directly based on our most basic of fuels: calories. Power is generated through the use of megodonts (genetically engineered elephants) harnessed to treadmills, or through humans storing energy in kink-springs, which are later plugged in to release their potential.

The genetic manipulation which was supposed to help the world cope with the absence of fossil fuels is instead helping to ruin it. Highly infective human-made blights spread across borders, regularly destroying crops and attacking local plant life. Reduced biodiversity has made the very groups that created these problems, gene-ripping "calorie corporations," the only possible salvation for the world. They have settled into an ecological monopoly and own the rights to blight-resistant foods.

Thailand, as one of the few nations to survive the collapse of globalization, stands apart from the rest of the world. The Thai people outlive the plagues, infestations and starvation that sweep the rest of the planet with the help of a hidden seedbank that provides them with new genetic material for food engineering. They have also secured a brilliant geneticist who has continued to find ways to grow edible, disease-resistant food, like the ngaw, a new virus-resistant fruit introduced to the market at the start of the novel.

Yet, the survival of the Thai people is tenuous. As the Environment Ministry tries to intercept any damaging material coming from overseas, the Trade Ministry is keen to welcome deals with "foreign devils" and their corporations. The power struggles between these two parties of the Thai government are integral to the story, but ultimately (and ironically) it is the scrupulous action of a good man that inadvertently advances the plot. Caught in the conflict is one such foreign devil, Anderson Lake, the main character of The Windup Girl.

Anderson is a shrewd corporate hitman posing as a factory manager. In the pursuit of his own agenda, he encounters Emiko, the windup girl. She is a bioengineered artificial person, known in the book as the New People. Emiko was raised, among others like herself, in a crèche in Japan as a transgenic geisha for Japan's executive market. Because of her origins and the circumstances that left her abandoned in Thailand, Emiko suffers a life of abuse, making her point of view the most graphic in the novel.

The Windup Girl avoids the infodumps that plague some sci-fi novels, especially the ones relating to biotech and the novel's intricate setting. Bacigalupi uses just enough science to create a plausible yet frightening vision of the future.

The pacing of plot elements seemed adequate, however I found there were too many points of view, each with their own group of characters, and too many political and apolitical parties involved in the narrative to to consider all at once. Despite some sections that seem on the border of fluff, the many viewpoints also bring a sense of liveliness of the city of Bangkok, since the reader is not restricted to just one approach to the setting.

All in all, The Windup Girl is an excellent read, especially if you’re a fan of biopunk or if you enjoy settings with cyberpunk elements. Even though it's a long read, you won't find yourself becoming bored halfway through. ...more

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