From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Windup Girl

Paolo Bacigalupi

Start date: September 10, 2012

Finish date: October 1, 2012

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Why we're reading this: Chosen for the October discussion.
[close] Chosen for the October discussion.

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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* What is a good book for AW discussion? (Nominations pool)
By Gertie · 65 posts · 218 views

last updated Oct 18, 2025 05:31PM

* AW Book Club: what we've read
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last updated Dec 10, 2019 09:01AM

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What Members Thought

Sep 22, 2012 Gertie marked it as partial

Sorry folks, but I just can't finish this one. It just isn't emotionally evocative enough. I'm actually quite bored with it, and when I realized I was less than halfway through, the cringe convinced me to move on to other things.

With this book you tend to get the feeling that you're missing something, and indeed for a little more clarity you should first read The Calorie Man and Yellow Card Man, in that order. Both of these stories can be found for free online.
http://www.freesfonline.de/authors ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2009 Esther rated it it was amazing

Shelves: author-male, __mine-and-i-m-keeping-it, favourites, science-fiction, won, dystopia, cyberpunk-biopunk, zz-2013, zz-2013-from-my-own-shelves, world

An excellent book, though not for the faint-hearted, that deserves all the hype and awards.
This is a dystopian future created by a free market economy rather than a tyrannical dictator. Greedy corporations have destroyed the world's natural food resources while at the same time oil has run out and the greatest energy sources has become human labour.
This is a brilliant premise and a complicated idea to express but the author does an outstanding job. I was sucked into the world in a few pages and An excellent book, though not for the faint-hearted, that deserves all the hype and awards.
This is a dystopian future created by a free market economy rather than a tyrannical dictator. Greedy corporations have destroyed the world's natural food resources while at the same time oil has run out and the greatest energy sources has become human labour.
This is a brilliant premise and a complicated idea to express but the author does an outstanding job. I was sucked into the world in a few pages and although none of the characters is either admirable or heroic you quickly begin to care for them and become caught up in their fate.

And the world building… The masterpiece of his world building is that he doesn’t seem to be doing any. At first he just throws you into crazy, noisy, blight-infested Bankok and abandons you to survive. But gradually through vague comments and brief references you are able to gather information about how our world was reduced to such a state, about the greedy calorie-men and gene-rippers who have wreaked so much disease and destruction on the Earth.

Most reviews remark on the slow-pacing. I didn’t notice until I realised how long it was taking me to read this medium length book. The pace doesn’t drag but the narrative is so complete you want to savour every moment.
I also had no problem with the multiple points of view. Each character had a distinctive voice and the scenes switched seamlessly. I felt I came to know each character as an individual.

This is one of the best books I have read recently and I look forward to reading more by this author

Notes:
It is frequently labelled Steampunk but that is a total misnomer - there is no steam, no Victoriana, no brass and no goggles. The correct label seems to be biopunk, a sister genre to cyberpunk.
There isn't a lot of sex or violence but what it has is combined to horrendous effect, unpleasantly so. Definitely not YA like the author’s later books.

I also loved this review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Cindywho rated it really liked it

Shelves: dark, fantasy-sf

This was a stressful read - it's set about 100 years in the future and you get the sense that a human die-off has happened, helped along by genetic terrorism that has damaged the food web and created plagues. A calorie man, looking for untainted seed strains in Bangkok is trying to make sure that his company keeps making money despite and from world-wide disaster. Other stories are weaved through this dark and violent future: The Japanese "wind-up girl" a manufactured human discarded and left to ...more

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May 24, 2011 Tabatha rated it liked it

Shelves: strange, survival, government, sci-fi, dystopian, steampunk

First let me say, this book was nothing like I expected. I didn't expect it to be so dark. That's not to say I didn't like this book, but I'm sure it's not a favorite of mine. The book takes place in a Steampunk Thailand which was different than anything I've ever known, so kudos to something unique. Sometimes the book is hard to follow, I guess because it has a lot of filler junk. I felt a bit of happiness when Emiko finds her strength. After getting into the book I guess I really had no expect ...more

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Mar 03, 2014 James Noll rated it liked it

This is more of a 2.6, so I'll round it up to a three.

The cover was more exciting than the writing. I liked the plot and the premise, but the style was sucked dry of any personality, and it killed my enjoyment of a lot of what could have been a really good book.

**Possible Spoilers**

The ending reminded me too much of Oryx and Crake.

The twist after the main battle sequence (which was probably the most journalistic, boring climax I've ever read), was forced. ...more

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Feb 15, 2010 Robert rated it really liked it

maybe 3 1/2. It's pretty well written, but I was not grabbed until the second half when the action picked up. I think I was having a little trouble envisioning the future of the book because it seems largely possible. Scary.
Little events are seized upon by big business to massage government into a more useful form. ...more

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