The Windup Girl

the good plot and writing puts it up into the upper percentile of genre fiction off the bat. I hope one day to know enough about Thai culture and history to see specifically what Bacigalupi got wrong about it here.

one piece of criticism that was sent my way (by someone who is probably reading this, and I do thank them for it) made the, I think the slightly yank-centric point, that it emphasised ethnic and religious tensions within Asia (between Thai, Vietnamese, Malay, Japanese and Chinese) and that this came at the expense of a focus on white supremacy (which is not to suggest that this is absent, every non-white character refers to white people as devils). I personally found the representation of periodic programs of ethnic cleansing to the work to be quite convincingly done and, alongside the treatment of opportunistic disease, convey a persuasive account of a world in climate meltdown, at according to the standards I expect from science-fiction novels.

there is a character in this who is sexually degraded and humiliated basically every time she's on the page. it is of course possible to represent the bleaker aspects of human existence but there isn't a great case for it made here, some people will find it too much

In a dystopic world where cities have been/are being swallowed by the ocean, genetic modifications/viruses and the sort have killed billions in many countries and destroyed ecosystems and large corporations that provide disease resistant strains of food and tech wield far too much power, this book focuses on happenings in Thailand.

The world building is great---lots of ideas that I hadn't run into before, so it was certainly fresh. It also gets points from me for not being based in the west. I think reading the short story (the calorie man) and the novelette (the yellow card man) that came before this one would perhaps have given me a clearer idea of the world---this one sort of assumes one is familiar with it.

It does start a little slow (again, maybe it took me longer to understand the scene because I hadn't read the earlier texts) but it picked up pace and held my attention quite quickly. Lots of things happen, different characters come together. Politics, hunger for power, rage, revenge, helplessness, but also kindness, friendship and loyalty. All in there.

Totally worth a read.

Content warning: the book includes graphic depictions of rape (that I'm not entirely certain were necessary in such detail)

In this incredible novel, Paolo Bacigalupi presents the reader with a disturbing yet compelling vision of the future. Energy is so tightly controlled that people get around by bicycles and rickshaws, burn black-market methane, power their computers like old-fashioned sewing machines and their scooters with wound-up springs, and yoke giant, lumbering, genetically engineered pachyderms to spindles in factories. GMOs have run amok, being exploited by their designers for maximum profit. Engineered famines, diseases, and invasive species serve as combatants in a proxy war between competing Monsanto-like calorie companies. And then there's the Windup Girl. She's like a pleasure model replicant, and totally illegal in Bangkok, but abandoned there by a Japanese businessman. A chance encounter with a calorie company man sets things in motion, slowly winding one of Bacigalupi's kink-springs until the climax, when it is allowed to unwind its pent-up Joules.

I really enjoyed this book. Bacigalupi conveys his original vision with excellent prose, well-drawn characters, and generous helpings of Thai flavor. As I am fond of saying, the mark of a great book is instilling in the reader a hunger to learn more. I would love to visit Thailand now, before things get weird.

This is not an easy book to review. It took me more than a month to finish. I am deducing one star from the rating because I didn't always enjoy reading it, and sometimes had a hard time keeping going. But despite the lack in entertainment value I still think this is a good book. Let me explain why you should read it.

The book is set in a steampunk future Bangkok. The world economy has collapsed under the weight of climate change that has raised sea levels so much that Bangkok can only survive through high sea walls. Fossil fuels are as good as gone from the world. And as if that wasn't enough, rampant genetic manipulations of Monsanto style corporations called the "calorie companies" have caused a widespread collapse of ecological systems all over the world. Several genetic plagues have decimated mankind as well as eradicated innumerable other species. The world has switched from an "expansion" to a "contraction" where traveling between continents is once more a dangerous undertaking. Wind-up springs provide energy storage, and lamps are lit by highly taxed methane. It's dark vision of a future that seems entirely plausible. Thai culture is wound tightly into the story everywhere even though the country has changed from the open kingdom of smiles to a protectionist state trying to stay afloat against the odds (as far as I can see the author seems to know what he's doing with Thai culture and Bangkok).

We are presented with a wide range of viewpoints none of which I want to call a protagonist. All of them have their own goals, which clash and align throughout the book.

There's the old Chinese refugee Hock Seng from Malaya who barely escaped a massacre and is always trying to advance again to some semblance of his old status. There is Anderson Lake the representative of one of the calorie companies which is trying to find the fabled Thai seed-bank. There is Jaidee, the Tiger of Bangkok, ex-Muay-Thai champion and captain of the White Shirts, soldiers working for the Environment ministry, whose job it is to protect the Thai from the genetic plagues, and who want all farang gone from the city. And there's of course Emiko, the Japanese manufactured windup girl who was left in Bangkok by her owner to fend for herself in an environment hostile to so-called "new people".

The world is fascinating, new, and written with great attention to detail and much knowledge of Bangkok (at least to a one-time visitor like myself). The characters, and their motivations are believable if not always sympathetic. I believe one of my problems was that I didn't warm to any of them. Major: It didn't help at all that Jaidee turned into a ghost half-way through, even though that's a pretty cool twist, I could identify even less with Kanya the double-agent. It's great for the plot, but it doesn't make the book easier to read.

For the longest time I had no idea what direction the plot was taking. There are too many turns and twists, and only around two thirds of the book is the path toward a possible ending revealed.

You should read this book, because it is well written, well-plotted, complex, with a seriously cool setting. But it is also heavy reading that one needs to have time for. Stopping for another book to read in between is not recommended. Take it on a vacation to South-East Asia and enjoy!

The Windup Girl is a debut novel for Paolo Bacigalupi, an author that seems to take present day issues and explore them in a science fiction setting. The Windup Girl is set in 23rd-century Thailand, and explores ideas around genetically modified ‘genehacked’ foods. Anderson Lake works for AgriGen’s Calorie, one of the three mega-corporations that control the biotechnology field, and controlling food production. Emiko is a Windup Girl, a beautiful creature, not human but rather a genetically engineered being.

The Windup Girl is a very difficult novel to summarise, but I do not really care about the plot; I picked this up for the themes. I knew this was going to be a biopunk novel that explores ideas of genetically modified food and bioterrorism but I was surprised with everything this book covers. With a food shortage, ‘calories become currency’, giving corporations with bio-engineering backgrounds the tools for larger profits and control. However, what happens when corporations have too much control?

I am sure people will dislike this book for being overly complex or dense, but I really think you need to ignore the plot at times and focus on the actual message. Paolo Bacigalupi has a lot of interesting ideas, genetically modified product is a slippery slope but food shortages will also become a problem. How do we find a balance? This bleak world really captures corporations in an interesting light, exploring the shocking tactics used for better profits, and the lack of compassion they have towards the people (or windups).

This debut novel, really catapulted Paolo Bacigalupi career; winning the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best First Novel and sharing the Hugo Award for Best Novel with China Miéville’s brilliant novel The City & the City. Recently Bacigalupi released his sixth novel, The Water Knife that explores water shortages; a book I need to read as well. I like when science fiction novels explore interesting issues, this is why I prefer Soviet sci-fi or novels from the 1960s, but I think Bacigalupi is an author I will need to pay more attention to in the future.

This review originally appeared on my blog; www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/sci-fi/the-windup-girl-by-paolo-bacigalupi/