The Windup Girl

Hardcover, 361 pages

Published Jan. 8, 2009 by Nightshade Books.

ISBN:
978-1-59780-157-7
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OCLC Number:
373482688
Goodreads:
6597651

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4 stars (12 reviews)

What Happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity 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 questions.

12 editions

Review of "The windup girl"

4 stars

In a dystopic world where cities have been/are being swallowed by the ocean, genetic modifications/viruses and the sort have killed billions in many countries and destroyed ecosystems and large corporations that provide disease resistant strains of food and tech wield far too much power, this book focuses on happenings in Thailand.

The world building is great---lots of ideas that I hadn't run into before, so it was certainly fresh. It also gets points from me for not being based in the west. I think reading the short story (the calorie man) and the novelette (the yellow card man) that came before this one would perhaps have given me a clearer idea of the world---this one sort of assumes one is familiar with it.

It does start a little slow (again, maybe it took me longer to understand the scene because I hadn't read the earlier texts) but it picked up …

Review of 'The Windup Girl' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

I gave up circa p100. I don't care about any of the characters and there is no discernable plot after 1/5th of the book. The writing is repetative and the ideas not nearly as original as many seem to think. My faith in winning awards as an indicator of quality is further eroded; it's down to bedrock, now.

Review of 'The Windup Girl' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

For anyone who has ever worried about genetically modified organisms, incurable plagues, climate change, war, famine, or global dominance by giant corporations, this book is your worst nightmare. The eponymous heroine of the book is a genetically engineered and enhanced "New Person" who is enslaved in a decadent future Thailand, riven by internal political division but gamely attempting to fight off floods, epidemics, and the giant food consortia that now dominate the earth. Self-interest and survival are the dominant motivations of the characters, and yet the story is nevertheless engaging, fast-paced, and instructive.

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Subjects

  • Bio-terrorism, gene-hacking, steampunk, AI

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