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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
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The Windup Girl (original 2009; edition 2010)

by Paolo Bacigalupi

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
6,2133031,565 (3.74)2 / 508
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.
Member:topcat21
Title:The Windup Girl
Authors:Paolo Bacigalupi
Info:Night Shade Books (2010), Paperback, 300 pages
Collections:eBook, Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:eBook, kindle, audible, science fiction, Thailand

Work Information

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)

  1. 141
    River of Gods by Ian McDonald (santhony)
    santhony: Very similar dystopian view of the near future in a third world environment.
  2. 157
    Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (souloftherose)
    souloftherose: Although Perdido Street Station is more fantasy than science fiction, I felt there were similarities in the exoticness of the world-building and readers who enjoyed The Windup Girl may also enjoy Perdido Street Station.
  3. 124
    The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (souloftherose)
    souloftherose: Another novel about a dystopian future with strong environmental themes.
  4. 81
    Neuromancer Trilogy: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (rrees)
    rrees: Gibson's global world of dirty cities and high technology are generally more optimistic that that of the Windup Girl but the styling is similar and the weaving stories of people and corporate interests are similar.
  5. 71
    Zodiac by Neal Stephenson (CKmtl)
    CKmtl: Fans of one of these works of Ecological SF may enjoy the other.
  6. 60
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (bridgitshearth)
    bridgitshearth: I find I can't say it better than some of the reviewers on Amazon. Enthralling, riveting, compelling....
  7. 50
    The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (AlanPoulter)
    AlanPoulter: These two powerful, well-plotted novels each give detailed, dark visions of two different cities in the nearish future.
  8. 31
    Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (bridgitshearth)
    bridgitshearth: This book seems to be overlooked: very quiet, no flash or catastrophe, very down to earth vision of a future with limited resources. It's one of my favorites, ever!
  9. 32
    Bangkok 8 by John Burdett (ahstrick)
  10. 10
    Mosquito [short story] by Richard Calder (AlanPoulter)
    AlanPoulter: Two powerful stories strike an eery chord...
  11. 21
    Neuromancer by William Gibson (g33kgrrl)
  12. 00
    Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (sturlington)
    sturlington: Steampunk
  13. 00
    Autonomous: A Novel by Annalee Newitz (DemetriosX)
  14. 00
    The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (Shrike58)
    Shrike58: I'm making the cross-reference for reasons of setting (SE Asia), issues (food and the environment), and matters of post-human intelligence.
Asia (31)
Ghosts (109)
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» See also 508 mentions

English (294)  German (2)  French (2)  Spanish (1)  Hungarian (1)  Polish (1)  All languages (301)
Showing 1-5 of 294 (next | show all)
Set in a future Thailand where rising sea levels due to climate change and plagues caused by bioengineered crops and mutated pests ravage the world, Bangkok holds on with levees and water pumps to keep the city from succumbing to the sea and isolationism and the Environment Ministry to ward off plagues and control by the biotech companies and their sterile seeds. It tells the story of a biotech company employee trying to get his hands on Thailand's seed bank to exploit it along with the windup girl, the only one in Bangkok, and how their lives intersect. Really interesting book. ( )
  LisaMorr | Mar 1, 2024 |
An imaginative and unique post-apocalyptic setting with a large cast of morally grey characters doing terrible things to one another. I found it fascinating. ( )
  yaj70 | Jan 22, 2024 |
As good as any book I've read before (about agro-terrorism, androids and Thai culture). ( )
  robmartin | Jan 15, 2024 |
Story: 4 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 10
Prose: 9

The Windup Girl started so well ... and there were so many reasons to read it: Hugo and Nebula award winner; and someone literally bought me a copy.

The unique, poetic prose and clever post-steampunk setting immerse the reader in the first few pages. The story starts off fairly strong with compelling characters and strange relationship dynamics. However, the plot loses direction in a web of tertiary story threads. At 33% completion, it was clear that the story was ultimately never going to come together. Since I'm reading through all the Nebula and Hugo award winning authors, I cannot honestly suggest you skip this book. Nevertheless, I would suggest reading one of Bacigalupi's later works: I imagine the stories would be more mature.

Tags: generipping (bio-engineering), plagues, post-steampunk, energy-efficiency, asia, androids ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
Did not finish despite the fascinating worldbuilding.

Most of Bacigalupi's characters felt thin and two-dimensional. I did find Jaidee interesting and would have read a novel about him, but I was frustrated elsewhere by lapses in close third-person perspective. Some early examples: Anderson is attacked and it's described in cinematic terms (rather than "holy crap, this hurts"), or Emiko thinks "Oh, there my genetic engineering goes again, making me feel submissive," instead of simply feeling overwhelmed by genuine emotion and instinct.

I don't demand detailed character studies in an ambitious SF thriller, but I do need characters that I can empathize with, whether or not I like or understand them. This ensemble just didn't work for me.
  raschneid | Dec 19, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 294 (next | show all)
It is a reasonably convincing vision of a future rendered difficult and more threatening than even our troubled present.
 
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.
 
But the third reason to pick up "The Windup Girl" is for its harrowing, on-the-ground portrait of power plays, destruction and civil insurrection in Bangkok.

Clearly, Paolo Bacigalupi is a writer to watch for in the future. Just don't wait that long to enjoy the darkly complex pleasures of "The Windup Girl."
 
One of the strengths of The Windup Girl, other than its intriguing characters, is Bacigalupi's world building. You can practically taste this future Thailand he's built [...] While Bacigalupi's blending of hard science and magic realism works beautifully, the novel occasionally sags under its own weight. At a certain point, the subplots feel like tagents that needed cutting.
added by PhoenixTerran | editio9, Annalee Newitz (Sep 9, 2009)
 

» Add other authors (17 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Paolo Bacigalupiprimary authorall editionscalculated
Chong, VincentIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Davis, JonathanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Horváth, NorbertTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lacoste, RaphaelCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lockhart, Ross E.Designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Podaný, RichardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Riffel, HannesÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ulman, JulietEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wang, EugeneCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Anjula
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"No! I don't want the mangosteen."
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Rien n'est permanent. C'est l'enseignement central du Bouddha. Pas une carrière, pas une institution, pas une épouse, pas un arbre... Tout est changement, et le changement est la seule vérité.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

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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Book description
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.
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