The Windup Girl [Hardcover]

 

 

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One of the finest novels published in 2009, Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" is a compelling dystopian future post-cyberpunk novel which vividly imagines a world coping with the worst effects of anthropogenic global warming and the rapid collapse of our petroleum-based civilization. His stark, quite vivid, portrait of 22nd Century Bangkok is one well steeped in realism and among the finest examples of world building published recently in science fiction. It's a near future world where humanity must rely almost exclusively on genetic engineering as a means of coping with the loss of plastics and other synthetic materials, creating not only new species of plants and animals, but also virulent diseases as deadly as Ebola virus for which cures may be nonexistent. A near future world where Thailand has become the hegemon of Southeast Asia, even if it is technologically backward compared with Japan and America. Bacigalupi weaves a most mesmerizing tale, introducing us to a compelling cast of anti-heroes, of which the most enigmatic is Emiko, the windup girl, one of the New People genetically engineered by the Japanese to become their society's domestic servants and soldiers, compelled against her will to serve the warring factions within Bangkok's Byzantine-like political elite. Her only hope of salvation is the American Anderson Lake, an AgriGen company man, who searches the food markets of Bangkok lfor fruits and vegetables from plants thought to be extinct, hoping to find new DNA to aid in his company's genetic engineering, while serving as the manager of the SpringLife factory near downtown Bangkok. His elderly assistant Hoeck Seng is among the few ethnic Chinese survivors of a Malayan genocide committed by its fundamentalist Muslim majority against the Chinese; one plotting to revive his family fortune in Bangkok by any means necessary.

Bacigalupi is a fine prose stylist in his own right, conjuring a gritty, realistic, view of a Bangkok protected by dikes and levees from the encroaching sea; a view so realistic that readers can vividly imagine the sweltering heat, the open air food markets, and the teeming masses of impoverished ordinary people whose lives differ little from those of their 20th Century ancestors. Without a doubt, Bacigalupi has written a most impressive literary achievement, a great novel of ideas and action, reaffirming science fiction's importance as a literary genre capable of producing not just great ideas but also high literary art. However, he may not be as graceful a literary stylist as William Gibson or China Mieville. For this very reason, some readers will regard his dystopian near future far less compelling than either Gibson's Sprawl or Mieville's New Crubozon, though I think his dystopian vision is as compelling as theirs. "The Windup Girl" was the 2010 recipient of both the Nebula and Hugo awards, two of the highest honors bestowed on science fiction literature. In his literary debut as a novelist, Bacigalupi has made a most auspicious start, demonstrating that he should be regarded as one of our finest contemporary American writers of science fiction.

The Windup Girl is one of the those rare novels for which a sequel is definitely warranted, the risk of course being that it wouldn't live up to its spectacular predecessor. A meticulously devised plot combines the intrigue of warring political and cultural factions with the ruthlessness of gene-modding food corporations cornering markets and eliminating their competition and biodiversity. It further incorporates a moral and ethical examination of laboratory-produced life (vegetable and animal--the latter of the which the title character is comprised), all taking place in the exotic backdrop of Thailand; fertile soil indeed for crops, be they biological, political, or theological in nature.
If the novel suffers from the lack of a clearly likable protagonist, a positive message, or a happy ending, it certainly makes up for with visual and emotional intensity; palpable realism of characters, settings, and situations; wondrous imagination; and a plethora of schemes and obstacles for the "heroes" to overcome. The Windup Girl is a well-conceived and an enthralling read.

Plot, characters, setting--awesome on all counts. A challenging read at the beginning, but the rewards are many, up until the very strong ending. This novel has been nominated for the upcoming Nebula Award. Past the first 25 pages or so, I found it extremely hard to put down. Couldn't find anything weak in it. I won't forget those characters.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A for The Windup Girl
Disclaimer: Reviews will mainly concentrate on novels that I enjoyed, and in writing them I will attempt to be succinct and to avoid all manner of spoilery comments. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Zafri M.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Steampunk Novel
Well this book includes mystery sci-fi steampunk and well developed characters all in a distopian future world. Read more

Published 2 months ago by fastreader

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
This is a very detailed and believable future world. It might not appeal to hard sci-fi fans but it is self-consistent. Read more

Published 4 months ago by David Cameron

4.0 out of 5 stars Multi Kulti Blade Runneresque
I think this book is a vision of a possible future where the world is undergoing a process of entropy, systems failing everywhere, and there are people who have been displaced... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Leong KEN

5.0 out of 5 stars The Windup Girl
A great read for near future sci-fi aficionados. Smart, entertaining and thoroughly engaging. A fresh vision of a possible future. Enjoy!

Published 7 months ago by Eugene Miles

5.0 out of 5 stars A riviting look towards a possible future .....
After having read the first three chapters of this book I was well prepared to give it a far less than favorable review. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Ronald W. Maron

5.0 out of 5 stars Biopunk At Its Finest
Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" is a biopunk novel, featuring a dystopic future world where biotech corporations battle for power and money. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Dave_42

4.0 out of 5 stars RIDING THE EDGE OF DYSTOPIC BIOPUNK
This was the first book I read in 2011 and I can say that the year started on the right foot.

The book setting is Post-Apocalyptic Bangkok, living on time borrowed... Read more

Published 13 months ago by NeuroSplicer

5.0 out of 5 stars Depressing but impressive
I bought this book based on an Amazon recommendation so I had no idea of what to expect. The book is somewhat painful to read, as many or most of the characters spend most of the... Read more

Published 13 months ago by dcyspm

5.0 out of 5 stars The Windup Girl
Paolo Bacigalupi is a relatively new name in the genre, but obviously one to pay close attention to. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Roland

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