From Powells.com
25 Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far)
Staff Pick
This story hits the ground running through the dangerous winding streets of a future Bangkok, walled against the rising sea and populated with characters clawing out existence amidst food shortage and energy collapse. One of the single greatest science fiction settings I have every had the pleasure of “visiting.” Calories have become currency, crops are going extinct, and synthetic lifeforms are on the brink (or past the point) of singularity. The Windup Girl is thrilling, a little terrifying, and steps more toward reality every year. I will never stop telling people to read this book. As I’ve told everyone I’ve ever recommended this to, come find me when you get to the end of chapter 49. Recommended By Sarah R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, 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 is 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.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Review
"This complex, literate and intensely felt tale, which recalls both William Gibson and Ian McDonald at their very best….clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"One of the best books I've read this year. On a line by line basis, it has the beauty of a well-crafted short story and then you get into the big sweep of the novel. The science fiction of it is thoroughly and frighteningly believable, but that isn't what makes a great book. What makes The Windup Girl beautiful and terrifying is its convincing portrayal of humanity, both as a society and as individuals." Mary Robinette Kowal, author of Shades of Milk and Honey
Review
“When it hits its sweet-spot, The Windup Girl embodies what SF does best of all: it remakes reality in compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking ways, and it lives on vividly in the mind.” The Guardian
Review
"A captivating look at a dystopic future that seems all too possible. East meets
West in a clash of cultures brilliantly portrayed in razor-sharp images, tension-building pacing, and sharply etched characters." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Bacigalupi is a worthy success to William Gibson: this is cyberpunk without computers." Time Magazine, Best Books of 2009
About the Author
Paolo Bacigalupi is the award winning author of adult and young adult fiction. His work has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell, and Locus award among others, and been nominated for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. His short fiction has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and High Country News. Bacigalupi lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son.