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Interviews | May 7, 2012

Jill Owens: IMG Gideon Lewis-Kraus: The Powells.com Interview

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Gideon Lewis-KrausI started and finished A Sense of Direction in one evening; I couldn't really stop thinking about it, so I couldn't put it down. I found it... Continue »
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eBook editions

The Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Windup Girl Cover

ISBN13: 9781597801584
ISBN10: 1597801585
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

 

Awards

2009 Nebula Award
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Staff Pick

I'd heard all manner of praise and complimentary comparisons for The Windup Girl, but it wasn't until I started to read the book that I began to believe, and in believing I was filled with sadness and wonder. Bacigalupi throws us into a terribly possible post-oil future and introduces a cast of characters seeking redemption in a hopelessly corrupt world. This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of 2009.
Recommended by Christian Benito, Powell's City of Books

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko. Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature.

One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-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 a 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, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind 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 poignant questions.

Review:

"Noted short story writer Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories) proves equally adept at novel length in this grim but beautifully written tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation. Capt. Jaidee Rojjanasukchai of the Thai Environment Ministry fights desperately to protect his beloved nation from foreign influences. Factory manager Anderson Lake covertly searches for new and useful mutations for a hated Western agribusiness. Aging Chinese immigrant Tan Hock Seng lives by his wits while looking for one last score. Emiko, the titular despised but impossibly seductive product of Japanese genetic engineering, works in a brothel until she accidentally triggers a civil war. This complex, literate and intensely felt tale, which recalls both William Gibson and Ian McDonald at their very best, will garner Bacigalupi significant critical attention and is clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when this forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? This is a tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation.
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About the Author

Paolo Bacigalupi's writing has appeared in High Country News, Salon.com, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. It has been anthologized in various "Year's Best" collections of short science fiction and fantasy, nominated for three Nebula and five Hugo Awards, and won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best sf short story of the year.

His debut novel The Windup Girl was named by Time Magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009, and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Award. His short story collection Pump six and Other Stories was a 2008 Locus Award winner for Best Collection and also named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. His most recent novel, Ship Breaker, has just been released from Little, Brown. He currently lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son, where he is working on a new novel.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 17 comments:
Catherine L Mommsen, March 23, 2012 (view all comments by Catherine L Mommsen)
This book has all the qualities to make my five-star list: Great writing, complex plot and storyline, excellent character development, and relevancy. The windup girl is a heartbreakingly enchanting not-quite-human construct with a potential, but not predisposition, for inflicting bodily harm. Set in a believable and mesmerizing world filled with exceptional characters and beasts, the book seems truly prescient. I loved the book, and I’m very hard to please or impress.
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Rich the Reader, January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Rich the Reader)
An amazing book. I was transported to the future world that had distinct elements of the past, a great use of mixing cultures and technology. Bacigalupi takes full advantage of the exotic setting and the adaptations of a broken world to create a compelling story and characters. This book would make for a amazing movie. I've recommended it to everyone.
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Alfred Ritter, September 8, 2011 (view all comments by Alfred Ritter)
This scifi novel scratches so many of my itches. First there is the world building, set some centuries hence where oil has run out, the seas have risen, many states have collapsed and the most powerful and wicked forces are the calorie companies. These controllers of food and flavor break governments, use diseases as a tool or corporate power and act like general bastards. The book is set in Thailand, one of the worlds few independent states, but one where the Ministry of Trade, disposed to working with outsiders, and the Ministry of the Environment, given to doing ANYTHING to protect the country, are constantly at odds, even killing one another in order to meet their mission.

I also like that Bacigalupi is sparing in his detail. We know that terrible things have befallen much of the world, but we get only slight details. Backstories pertinent to the plot, like the Malayan massacre of the ethnic Chinese are slowly revealed by characters. The slow telling makes the story in many ways sadder as you digest it over time. I appreciate that Bacigalupi forces us to imagine so much of the detail. I hope he never tells us. It will end up as lame as the Clone Wars or the Butlerian Jihad most likely.

These skills would be great, but unimportant if it wasn't a good story. This one is quite the story. The many main characters experience frequent ups and downs and it is never clear who, if any of them, are going to prevail, or at the very least get what they seek. There is one Macguffiny character that feels underutilized or perhaps is there to tee off a possible sequel. I didn't love that element, but it was a minor complaint.

This is my favorite scifi novel in quite some time.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781597801584
Author:
Bacigalupi, Paolo
Publisher:
Night Shade Books
Subject:
Fantasy - Short Stories
Subject:
Science Fiction - High Tech
Subject:
Science / General
Subject:
Science fiction
Subject:
Bioterrorism
Subject:
Science Fiction and Fantasy-High Tech
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
20100501
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
300
Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1 in
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The Windup Girl Used Trade Paper
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Product details 300 pages Night Shade Books - English 9781597801584 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

I'd heard all manner of praise and complimentary comparisons for The Windup Girl, but it wasn't until I started to read the book that I began to believe, and in believing I was filled with sadness and wonder. Bacigalupi throws us into a terribly possible post-oil future and introduces a cast of characters seeking redemption in a hopelessly corrupt world. This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of 2009.

by Christian Benito
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Noted short story writer Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories) proves equally adept at novel length in this grim but beautifully written tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation. Capt. Jaidee Rojjanasukchai of the Thai Environment Ministry fights desperately to protect his beloved nation from foreign influences. Factory manager Anderson Lake covertly searches for new and useful mutations for a hated Western agribusiness. Aging Chinese immigrant Tan Hock Seng lives by his wits while looking for one last score. Emiko, the titular despised but impossibly seductive product of Japanese genetic engineering, works in a brothel until she accidentally triggers a civil war. This complex, literate and intensely felt tale, which recalls both William Gibson and Ian McDonald at their very best, will garner Bacigalupi significant critical attention and is clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis" by , What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when this forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? This is a tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation.
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