Hardcover, 361 pages
Published Jan. 8, 2009 by Nightshade Books.
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.
I got confused with the various political factions and characters, none of whom I much cared for, so didn't get much more than a hundred pages into this. I have read and liked short fiction by this author, but this wasn't for me at the time.
I first heard about Paolo Bacigalupi when Pump Six was released on StarShipSofa. I was immediately taken by the attention to detail and superbly gritty realism of the story. The Windup Girl plays to these same strengths on a much larger scale.
Set in Thailand, in a world where the oil has finally run out, the story is thoughtful, thought-provoking and utterly gripping. Although the novel has a very strong cyberpunk feel (no bad thing, in my view) it is a very different story. The best description I can come up with is 'environmental dystopia', but this woefully undersells just how rich the narrative and the world is.
If you like SF that makes you think without feeling the need to preach at you, you really should read this.
