50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • Kapow! graphic novels sale
  • The Chef's Kiss Sale
  • Powell’s Essential List: Novellas
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Bry H.: Books to Read for Orange Shirt Day (0 comment)
Like Indigenous and Native American storytelling, children’s books have the power to paint a picture for children, shared though reading aloud, the lives, values, stories, and cultures of different people. It’s important to remember the past, especially as we move further away from it, even when that history is painful. Starting in the late 1800s...
Read More»
  • Rachel Harrison: Hardcore Heroines: Rachel Harrison’s Bookshelf for ‘Black Sheep’ (0 comment)
  • Liz Crain: Conquer Your Fermentation Fears! (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi
Windup Girl

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9781597801584
ISBN10: 1597801585
Condition: Standard


All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$11.95
List Price:$15.99
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside
4Cedar Hills
1Hawthorne
7Local Warehouse

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

"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

"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

"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)

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.

4.7 23

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4.7 (23 comments)

`
Brian , May 22, 2017 (view all comments by Brian)
I confess I bought this book mainly because of the title and a quick read of the cover blurb. However after the first few chapters I didn't want to put it down. The author has created a believable world that is interesting and frightening at the same time. Following the lives of Lake, Emiko, Jaidee, Kanya and Hock Seng for this short time draws you in and keeps you reading. Calorie Men, White Shirts, Gene Rippers, New People all in their own quest for survival, profit and power set in a dystopian Old Thailand with elements of steampunk. I enjoyed this story and will be looking for some more books by Mr. Bacigalupi.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
chipkerchner , March 22, 2013 (view all comments by chipkerchner)
The first two thirds of the book is mainly world building, which is long and somewhat dry. The windup girl is an interesting character who is barely in the story till near the end. Definitely a different mixture of genres - bio punk? I also have a problem with a world in which they can manufacture new life - plants and animals but are unable to produce solar or wind power and even have difficulties with radio cranks. I also have a hard believing that countries would adhere to carbon limits or taxes when their people are starving and the country is on the verge of collapse.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
K N , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by K N)
Of all the sci-fi I've read recently, this is the most unique in its vision and one of the most thought-provoking. A little like Philip D Dick meets Margaret Atwood, with a little early William Gibson thrown in, this steam-punk meets cyber-punk dystopic vision still haunts me.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Waney , December 31, 2012 (view all comments by Waney)
What an excellent book! This is one of the best modern sci-fi/steam-punk books I have read in a very long time, as it reads like high literature with intriguing characters. The characters are very complex and Paolo Bacigalupi does an excellent job of showing the reader the many shades of gray each character inhabits. There are no blatently good, bad, black or white characters here.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
TE Peters , October 08, 2012 (view all comments by TE Peters)
I found this book highly appealing to the scientist in me. I study plant breeding and genetics (so much of which has been converted to the 'gene ripping' in Bacigalupi's book.) There are some stretches, but ultimately the Calorie Companies of today own more than most are aware. Seed banks as the last vaults of our lost domesticated heritage and countries trying to protect themselves from growing plagues stand at the center of this novel while genetically engineered humans and cats fight for their right to exist in this dystopia. Well worth the read.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
ny mef , August 27, 2012 (view all comments by ny mef)
Enthralling and deeply provocative, Bacigalupi's tale is convincingly set in a struggling Southeast Asia after world civilization has been wrecked and restored with the end of fossil fuel-based industrial society. This "civilization" remains tenuous and retains the basic political tensions of the previous era, however. In this brave new world a cast of richly defined indigenous and foreign characters plays out old and new dilemmas. The Windup Girl is a cutting-edge work that exemplifies the best of what imaginative fiction--what excellent fiction in general--can and ought to be.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
morrisg , August 08, 2012 (view all comments by morrisg)
Paulo Bacigalupi has written an intense winner here, set in a near future SouthEast Asia with an examination of what happens when too many people chase too few resources and what it does to our societies. He also takes on what happens to minorities in such a situation, with an emphasis on the "windup girl", who is considered "not human" or "sub human" due to her genetic kinks. What really makes the story fly, though, is the close examination of what these kinds of conditions do to people, how they react in good ways and bad ways. It's enlightening to put yourself in the characters shoes and think how you would react to all the craziness going on. A great story, a great read, and a great author. A similar author you might enjoy is Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days, set in a near future India. Both are highly recommended, especially for hard science fiction readers.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
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.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
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.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
Alfred Ritter , September 08, 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.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
ethuiel , September 01, 2011 (view all comments by ethuiel)
This is one of the most vivid, insightful books in the post-apocalyptic genera. Bacigalupi writes with sharp clarity and a brilliant eye for detail. I've heard some criticize it because it is difficult to follow with no main protagonist and no real hero. I disagree. I think this book achieves its goal much better by following several characters through time, experiencing the same overall events from different perspectives and different motivations. Nobody is evil, nobody is good - they're all just human in tough situations. I also appreciate the scientific approach to the word - each aspect of this future earth has been extrapolated through possible circumstance from our now, and in that it serves as a morality tale, but certainly doesn't preach. Read it. It's worth it.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
alsymer , September 01, 2011
An interesting twist on the post-apocalyptic future, where calories are everything and the gene-splicing calorie companies are king of the world's food supply, which has been reduced to just barely disease-resistant varieties. Bacigalupi's world is seductive, intriguing and entirely plausible, which makes it easy to get pulled into the book quickly. An excellent read that, sadly, leaves you wishing for more.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
kelley robinson , April 01, 2011 (view all comments by kelley robinson)
after reading the reviews and synopsis i wanted oh so badly to enjoy this book. however, it was a grave disappointment. the idea behind the book has endless possibility. bacigalupi could have constructed a world you wouldn't want to step out of even despite the dystopia. the primary thing lacking was character development. i must admit that i may be over critical because i am on a "the wise man's fear" hang over. that book completely absorbed me and i didn't want to let go.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Robert Tout , January 22, 2011
Steampunk or biopunk? You decide. Either way, this award-winner makes for a great read whether you are enjoining reading it in your own backyard or on a beach on Titan.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
K N , January 13, 2011 (view all comments by K N)
Part Neuromancer, part BladeRunner, part Oryx and Crake, this is a wonderfully interesting and unique on a not-too-distant future. If you enjoy dystopian fiction, you'll love this. I couldn't put it down.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(7 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
elizabeth.farquhar , January 03, 2011 (view all comments by elizabeth.farquhar)
Global warming and genetic modifications have created a world ruled by corporations and military dictatorships, in a story of faith, deception, and the nature of humanity.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
JOHN TAGGART , January 01, 2011 (view all comments by JOHN TAGGART)
Greatly innovative and well researched vision of a future world.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
merrimba , January 01, 2011
From the first page, Bacigalupi creates a plausible, realistic, terrifying future. The oil boom has gone bust, and now the world relies on genetically engineered plants and animals to supply energy and food. Of course, the United States holds agricultural patents on most things. In Thailand, a "calorie man" - agent of the US-based AgriGen - is on the lookout for new or generipped fruits. He meets a genetically perfect girl, grown in a lab to precise specifications: The Windup Girl. I love the level of detail in his sentences - I get lost in the way he weaves words and plot and descriptions. The story flows very easily and it's almost impossible to put down. I'm loaning the book out to all my friends.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
Joyce Pusel , January 01, 2011 (view all comments by Joyce Pusel)
This book deserved to win all the awards it has

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
jadewberry , January 01, 2011
With The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi presents a world fantastical beyond imagination yet distinctly possible given the current global climate.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
cjbrown102 , January 01, 2011
Amazing, colorful, despondent, dystopian view of the future. Arturo Perez-Riverte meets Vernor Vinge.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
tree1334 , December 09, 2010 (view all comments by tree1334)
I just finished this book and was sad to see it end. I hope there is another forthcoming. Paolo balances detail, violence, and drama very well. Each day I looked forward to picking this up. I encourage everyone to check out his unique vision.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
encgolsen , August 15, 2010 (view all comments by encgolsen)
Set in a dystopian Bangkok, The Windup Girl is a fascinating glimpse of an all too plausible future when the oil has run out, the oceans are rising and calories are a scarce commodity. What makes this novel truly brilliant is the way the author has grounded his story in Thai culture and history: it remains the unconquered, never colonized country. Each character--an expat "calorie man", an ethnic Chinese refugee from Malaysia, a genetically engineered Japanese "windup girl," and a pair of Thai officials--is deeply flawed yet sympathetic, planning and scheming to get ahead, unaware of the larger forces that will determine Bangkok's future.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

View all 23 comments


Product Details

ISBN:
9781597801584
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
05/01/2010
Publisher:
Skyhorse Publishing
Pages:
361
Height:
1.00IN
Width:
6.00IN
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
1
UPC Code:
9781597801584
Author:
Paolo Bacigalupi
Subject:
Bioterrorism
Subject:
Science fiction
Subject:
Science Fiction and Fantasy-High Tech

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$11.95
List Price:$15.99
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside
4Cedar Hills
1Hawthorne
7Local Warehouse

More copies of this ISBN

  • Used, Trade Paperback, $12.95

This title in other editions

  • Used, Hardcover, Starting from $90.00
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##