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    The Windup Girl
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    The Windup Girl
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    The Windup Girl
    Ebook672 pages11 hours

    The Windup Girl

    By Paolo Bacigalupi

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, a new edition of the break-out science fiction debut featuring additional stories and a Q&A with the author. Anderson Lake is AgriGen's Calorie Man, sent to work undercover as a factory manager in Thailand while combing Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. Emiko is not human; she is an engineered being, grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in this chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. What happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits and forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly-acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century. In this brand new edition celebrating the book's reception into the canon of celebrated modern science fiction, accompanying the text are two novelettes exploring the dystopian world of The Windup Girl, the Theodore Sturgeon Award-winning "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man." Also included are course-work questions for use in the classroom, and an exclusive Q&A with the author describing his writing process, the political climate into which his debut novel was published, and the future of science fiction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNight Shade Books
    Release dateMay 5, 2015
    ISBN9781597805742
    Unavailable
    The Windup Girl
    Author

    Paolo Bacigalupi

    Paolo Bacigalupi is the bestselling author of The Windup Girl. Between them, Bacigalupi and co-author Tobias S. Buckell have either won or been nominated for the Locus, Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell awards.

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    Reviews for The Windup Girl

    4/5

    1,827 ratings129 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Excellent story, I highly recommend it.
    • 2/5
      Kept waiting for it to get good. Hours and hours... wasted.
    • 4/5
      Very violent at times especially around the commodification of feminine women/femininity in general. Excellent and interesting world building.
    • 3/5
      Not sure where to start with this review as I have mixed feelings about this book. First, I think the author really can write but I didn't like the book for the lack of writing it was the lack of prose. The book read like random stories of characters that eventually merged into underlying story of an overpopulated dark dystopian world of corporate greed and capitalism over food production. Not a novel concept as Robert Heinlen wrote of such topics in the 50's with "Farmer in the Sky" among other stories. I eventually found myself skimming the book and not losing track of the story lines and the best and worst part of the entire story is the titles main character.
    • 5/5
      A story set in the near future Thailand where epidemics are rampant, killing people and crops, oil being scarce, corporations control food supply, and countries becoming isolated. It is a very interesting world that isn't unwholly unrealistic. It expands on current trends, extrapolating what could happen if things continue in the pharmaceutical, farming, and global warming aspects. There are a mix of characters from different walks of life, that really makes the world come alive from different view points. It shows both the fear of ordinary people, while others may try to capitalize on it. The writing is very good, giving you pieces of information at a time. This may make the beginning of the book hard to understand, but it is worth it as the story grows. This is a very original, dystopia fiction book that I really enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      Several main characters populate this complex dystopian novel: Anderson, representing foreign trade interests, with the secret mission to locate the last seed bank in the world; Hock Seng, the former corporate ceo, an illegal immigrant from China, now forced to work for Anderson; Jaidee, the popular, rebellious, and honest free spirit enforcer, known as The Tiger by his throngs of fans; his lieutenant Kanya who idolizes him yet has a dark secret from him; and Emiko, the windup girl who is repeatedly abused until she can't take it anymore and gets her revenge. At heart, this is a political novel about factions and manipulations and betrayals. I wished for a quicker start and more character development.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book; its depiction of a low-tech. dystopian future is chillingly realistic and presented as an all too likely consequence of current human endeavors, but is also secondary to immensely interesting characters an an engrossing story.
    • 2/5
      Not my cup of tea.
    • 4/5
      5 stars for world-building, 3 for plot. Averages to a 4-star book.
    • 4/5
      Very violent at times especially around the commodification of feminine women/femininity in general. Excellent and interesting world building.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining read, although I would have liked to have understood more about how the world fell into the control of the Calorie Men. The only thing I struggled with (spolier alert) is that if all windups have the speed etc, why it took Emiko so long to break out of her training, after the experiences she had to go through with Raleigh...
    • 4/5
      Wasn't really the best book for me, personally, but I still enjoyed it. (Some of the world-building was overlong and dreary for me, but I think it would be exciting/interesting for someone else.)

      Good characters, plot, fantastic world detail/description, and a very interesting premise carried out fully.
    • 4/5
      A dystopia for our time: under the looming disasters of climate change and bioengineering for commerce and war, the action focuses around the treasure of an ancient seedbank hidden in the kingdom of Thailand. This book totally satisfies one of the basic requirements of science fiction, the building of a believable world. The characters are not so believable but are varied and interesting, particularly in their culture-based motivations and loyalties. A very interesting read, I enjoyed it very much.
    • 3/5
      A fascinating (if chilling) look at where biotechnology, climate change, and...oh, yeah: human nature might lead us in the not-so-distant future. Sadly, the characterization never really drew me in (as it did a little more successfully in his books for young adults: Shipbreaker and The Drowned Cities). Could have been just the timing. Still, he is a writer I will continue to follow. When his powers of characterization meet his powers of speculation: watch out!
    • 2/5
      I picked up this book because the premise was fascinating: in a futuristic Thailand, calories are more precious than anything we can imagine today. Calorie companies and governments and other factions struggle for power, even as people struggle to survive in the background of daily life, searching for scraps of food that aren't infected by plagues or mutated into killing bites of food. And in the middle of the story, a windup girl, genetically engineered for perfect obedience, finds herself overheating in this burning city as she struggles to survive.

      Ugh, I ultimately didn't like this book because I thought it couldn't portray the world and characters as well as it should have.

      One of the biggest problems, for me, was the backdrop of the story. Set in a supposed futuristic world, the setting was more like a direct imitation of history. And I'm just not historically literate enough in Thai or Malaysian history to understand the finer points of the story. This is a major sticking point for me because he tries to integrate the very culture of the countries into the book. But since he does next to nothing introducing any sort of historical background, he essentially relies on the reader to know history prior to reading the book. A lot of things went over my head culturally, including languages, certain references to religious aspects of the culture, the integration of different ethnic groups over time, etc. It was pretty frustrating because I could see that I was missing a lot, but there wasn't much I could do besides go do some extracurricular reading (and please, my time is limited as it is).

      So lack of historical integration aside, I also had major problems with stereotyping. The first hundred pages in, I honestly thought the author just decided to take all the largest stereotypes of about the ethnic groups and shove them into a story. It was like taking a piece of history and shoving stereotyped characters into it - and overall, it didn't feel very... reverent to the history. Especially the mentions of slaughter and whole destruction of villages. Although the author writes that it's all set in a futuristic world, it's obvious he's drawing on historical references - but pays no attention to sensitivity when writing about it. That bothers me quite a bit.

      Those things aside, which are only a little bit of the author's actual skill in writing, I guess I would also say that I only felt the mildest of attachments to the characters. If they lived or died, eh. It didn't really matter to me. Which is a bit of a problem, in my opinion. And did they really have different personalities? Not really. Everyone is paranoid, everyone is scheming, everyone is being played. Dialogue also wasn't anything of note - predominately because his dialogue was used so minimally and only then to further the plot line. That isn't a bad thing, and I think it was fine. But all of those things just lead to characters that are just characters trying to survive. And none of them with a special place in my heart.

      See, Bacigalupi just does plot well. Hmm wait, no let me qualify that. He juggles scenes with different characters and interweaves different plot lines very well. I don't think he does plot that well, to be honest. But first, on the juggling aspect. Dang, this guy is amazing. We see how one character's actions impact five other ones in the next chapter, all while leading up to the next point of action. It's astonishing and really quite lovely. I think that's predominately what kept me reading this book. Seeing what would happen next, even if I didn't care about the next person's thoughts.

      Now, on the aspect of plot... If you take a step back and think about what happens in the book, it's all very bland with a complete lack of direction. It's just masses of people running around with their own ideas of plots in their mind, other people countering those plans, and in the end, just everyone trying to survive. But for a clear plot? Meh, not so much. Who was the major players? They hardly even appear in the book. What was the climax of the story? Barely relevant.

      This book did a pretty good job of showcasing survival. And that's pretty much it. No, wait. It did introduce new concepts in scifi that I haven't seen before. But those are only mild, with flaws. For example, how is a windup person heechy-keechy but also super fast in movement at the same time?

      I wish he placed more emphasis in exploring the idea of gene ripping or the windup people or something in this new world. Instead, he focuses on the bare bones methods of survival in this world.

      Not impressed, even though I felt there was so much potential in this world and story. It wasn't bad, just not good. And the historical stuff bothered me a little too much.

      Glad I read it, but it still gets two stars.
      Would probably recommend to someone who has a better history of Thailand and Malaysia and likes science fiction. Hmm.. but also isn't bothered by stereotypes either. Y'know, I might not recommend it to anyone other than a scifi lover with nothing left to read.
    • 4/5
      This is a hard book to review. For one it is a lot of grand ideas about the future packed in the book which tries it's hardest to immerse you quickly. A lot of info goes by pretty quickly, you are basically dropped into future Thailand with no primer of the world. You have to learn as you read. I didn't really have much problem here, I thought the book was well plotted and if you can just float along for a while you soon understand all you need to. Sure it's slow and leisurely in its pace but I liked that about it.

      I felt the writing was clean and very effective, the characters had real true motivations and you could understand why they did the things they did. I like the idea of books set in the future where science and technology hasn't solved all our problems for us. The world is still full of the same people, there is just as much corruption and fighting, and the rich still walk all over the poor.

      This is a really good book, although something still keeps me from a 5 star rating. I would still recommend this to people who are into future tales.
    • 4/5
      It helps that I lived in Bangkok for four years and even recognize some of the Thai words that the author throws around. Interesting sci-fi about how the world has succeeded in making itself into a biological hell - with almost every living thing suffering from some sort genetic mutation or pestilence. The main character is not very likeable, but the plot is interesting and certainly suceeds in capturing some of the essence of Bangkok.
    • 4/5
      While much of sci-fi deals with hard, metallic, bleeping technologies, the genre occasionally ventures into organic-based techologies. These are usually idealized in utopian, peace-loving societies with a synergy between all the organisms and a Gaia temple in the middle of it all with nubile young priestesses of great wisdom tending a sacred grove or something.Mr. Bacigalupi took the idea of a post-petroleum world that switched to biological-based technologies and applied real-world motivations and a(n un)healthy dose of worst-case scenarios. The result is a richly imagined dystopian future of ecological collapse. While other authors tend to fall into the genre trap of painting ecological collapse with a barren world, Mr. Bacigulpi paints his picture in the tropics with emergent, but invasive, life forms and ever-threatening disease and plague, both natural and man-made.The author's dark future with quick cuts and incompletely developed characters has a definite William Gibson feel to it. Like Gibson's stories, all the characters are distant, both from each other and the reader. As such, readers who prefer a more emotional impact in their stories may find the story lacking and the plot a bit thin.The story itself is maybe only 3 stars, but as an act of imagination and creation, it gets 4 stars.
    • 1/5
      Boring and pretentious.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as part of a goodreads giveaway. Far into the future in Thailand, a country that appears to be one of the few that still stands alone without interference from the genetic food companies by figuring out how to propagate their own food is just about to be plunged into political upheaval. The reader sits on many different narrators and gets an opportunity to see most, if not all of the different sides of the coming conflict including those who are just innocent bystanders. It includes two short stories and an interview with the author and I always love a good author interview about writing.

      I had to think really hard about how to rate this book. I love the back and forth between the different narrators and getting an opportunity to see all the different aspects of the story but it's a very heavy and dark book and I think you need to be in the mood for that and I kind of wasn't but felt obligated to read it right away b/c I'd won it. I think that if I had waited, I would have liked how scary the story is. GMO food is a really hot button issue right now and this totally brings home the idea of extreme food manipulation. I will say that the world building is absolutely incredible and the author did an amazing job bringing the setting to life.

    • 2/5
      The actual future Thailand with its "steampunk" technology is quite interesting. A society where oil has failed, that apparently even the internet and computers have failed too. No cell-phones. Dirigibles have made a come-back and bio-technology has become a two-edged sword. Cloning and other scientific devices have created new strains of plant diseases and human diseases too, that keep scientists busy and are one step away from destruction.

      Meanwhile there are political implications in all of this: We meet a corporate spy of sorts, Anderson who we later find works for a mega corporation, Agri-Gen, and further struggles with the Environmental Ministry and the other areas of Bangkok. Meanwhile political pressures lead not only towards civil war powder keg, but giving up the ideals of the culture for the disgrace of profit.

      Sounds good, huh?

      The writing style is what I hate the most about this book. The author introduces many Thai terms and lets the reader only infer their meaning. There's no second person, no third-person narrator that nods and knows these terms. Having a glossary would have helped (as Frank Herbert did in his opus, Dune).

      Page 69: Balances on planks and slips past women sweating over steaming pots of U-Tex glass noodles and reeking of sun-dried fish....ones who have bribed either the white shirts or the slum's pi lien, ..."

      Through inference I figured out the white shirts are from the Environmental Ministry, keepers of bio-tech and protectors of the rights of Thai (at least I think so, I may be wrong on that point). U-Tex and others have created disease resistant rice, apparently. I'm still not sure what "pi-lien" is, really. We can figure from context that it is some kind of low-life, bums, etc.

      Writing Style:

      Another criticism is the writing style. Every other chapter has a new character and you could even skip every other chapter to read through that character's adventures. Trouble is, you have to recall back what was said and there's some measure of annoying flipping back and forth.

      Don't get me wrong, this could work in some books, but not this one.

    • 1/5
      The author seems to greatly enjoy using "cool" new words and terms for new technology, which works in some books, but not here. What better authors would describe in ordinary language, this author chooses to describe with annoying techspeak. He also created characters that are dull and hard to connect with.
    • 2/5
      Interesting premise, a dark, post-apocalyptic world where bioengineering and climate change have made life barely functional with a little prophetic edge as corporations have taken over both the political and public realm of life. The problem isn't the bleakness but the bland and dry writing. By the time you figure out the world and setup there was little to no investment to bother with the characters; plus, I felt there were a few cheap characters ploys that were unnecessary i.e. rape.
    • 3/5
      An interesting book that would have been much better if the author had: (a) carried through on the central premise more thoroughly, and (b) created a "wind-up girl" who was not so obviously written by a man with an interest in the sex doll trope. This is one of those books that is uncomfortable due to having a difficult character trope done poorly; I should not have been so aware of the AUTHOR'S slightly creepy gaze in the way that this character was portrayed. So while I didn't end up hating the book, I would not recommend it to anyone who would find such a flaw to seriously impact their enjoyment.
    • 5/5
      Loved it, great vision of post-global warming society
    • 4/5
      The real attraction of this work is that Bacigalupi is an author who has embraced the dystopian menace that committing near-term speculative fiction entails these days (it's all-too-easy to imagine the worst) and pulls it off with some aplomb, by having characters who have the will to pull through in the wake of their personal lives being utter trash.While Emiko, the "windup" girl of the title, is the character that most captured my imagination, to a large degree the real main character here is Bacigalupi's alternative Thailand. I don't really believe in the spring-driven technology that the people in the book use as a work-around, but I do believe that the political stresses of the actual country and society have been given a good symbolic treatment.
    • 4/5
      I'm more impressed by the concepts of the novel than the execution. The works created here is fascinating, but something about the story falls flat. Part if the problem is that it is too obviously a set up for future books. The pacing is also off. The first two-thirds drag rather slowly; the last third flies by much too quickly to satisfy.
    • 4/5
      A very interesting sci-fi, developing a future after collapse. Good imiginative world.
    • 4/5
      My first four star book in quite a while. Solid characterization, solid world building, strong plot line, and a variety of subtexts. The story is set in Thailand in a fairly near future (no dates given). Global warming has hit with a vengeance and only levees and constant pumping keep the capital (still Bangkok?) above water, but that's a lesser threat than the US midwestern agricultural firms (think Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland) that have released genetically engineered plagues to wipe out all crops except their own genetically engineered seeds. And of course you can only buy sterilized rice and grain -- no planting your own!The details of this future contain tinges of steampunk -- human and animal power drive most things, and "kink springs" are used instead of batteries to store that power. This nicely dovetails with the story which is a series of arcs that are all about power, and how it shifts constantly from one group to the next, as pent up forces eventually break like an overwound spring.The story follows half a dozen different players sampled from some of the major elements of this new order. There is an agent of one of the biggest agricultural firms. There is his second in command, once a wealthy businessman in China, now a refugee scraping by and planning for a return to power. There is an ambitious loose cannon in the "white shirts" who violently enforce trade laws unless you bribe them, but his goals are somewhat nobler. There is his assistant, a woman soldier with serious conflicts of interest. And there is the windup girl, a genetically engineered sex toy, made in Japan where such things are accepted, and abandoned in Thailand where she'll be composted if discovered. This is one of the most well-balanced science fiction novels I've read in a while. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I didn't know what to expect from this book. For some reason it made it's way to my amazon wish list (although I can't remember when or why) and I asked for it this year for Christmas and got it.

      This is a dystopian novel set in the future where fruits have caught a virus...and so have people. The plague has killed many people all over the world...and the international companies are fighting for control over foreign markets.

      There is a lot to this book and I enjoyed it way more than I anticipated.