What Happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man"( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions.
I was unsure about the first 100 pages - the characters seemed to passive and the prose was too expository for my liking (though there is a lot of world-building that needs to take place, it just felt tedious). But it all pays off in a big way. The politics gets increasingly tense and there are a lot of wonderful twists and developments that make perfect sense in hindsight. Bacigalupi has created an incredible world that is BEGGING to be a series of books! (all I can say is, after those cliffhangers there had better be a sequel!)
Ah, this book... I feel like this was last year's "really important book that you need to read but may not like much". It hit really hard in the almost presciently relevant to our times area, but not so hard in the keeping me excited section. Partly, it was the fact that I had so much trouble engaging with the #1 protagonist... I have a limited amount of patience for asshole protagonists, and he wore it out right at the start. Partly, too, I was really unprepared for some of the really graphic sexual violence that occurs pretty close to the opening of the book. I know it's meant to drive home just how abused and discarded that character is, but it's so abrupt and feels gratuitously detailed. Maybe, thinking back, it was necessary... so just let this review stand as a trigger warning to others who might be sensitive. …
Ah, this book... I feel like this was last year's "really important book that you need to read but may not like much". It hit really hard in the almost presciently relevant to our times area, but not so hard in the keeping me excited section. Partly, it was the fact that I had so much trouble engaging with the #1 protagonist... I have a limited amount of patience for asshole protagonists, and he wore it out right at the start. Partly, too, I was really unprepared for some of the really graphic sexual violence that occurs pretty close to the opening of the book. I know it's meant to drive home just how abused and discarded that character is, but it's so abrupt and feels gratuitously detailed. Maybe, thinking back, it was necessary... so just let this review stand as a trigger warning to others who might be sensitive.
I definitely felt like I was slogging through. I'm glad I read it, but I wish it hadn't felt so much like a required assignment.
Edit: After further thought and further reading, I'm no longer all that happy I read this. My creeping discomfort at the white male protagonist crashing around in Thailand was really my white privilege shielding me from how damn, horribly bigoted the whole thing was. Japanese geisha robot doll, really? Old Thai factory manager being judged selfish for not always thinking of Mr. white guy first? The portrayal of Thailand as a neverending jungle slum full of people who hate androids? Again I'm not Thai or Malaysian or Japanese, so I'm sure I'm missing tons, but I now feel justified in saying that I really disliked this novel. The misogyny in here was awful!
