Book Review - The Windup Girl

By Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is an award winning author who has written quite a number of short stories and non-fiction offerings for numerous newspapers, web news outlets, science fiction magazines and now has published his first full length novel.

‘The Windup Girl‘ is Paolo Bacigalupi’s second book, ‘Pump Six and other Stories’ being the first book published. It is his first full length novel, based off some of his short stories.

‘The Windup Girl’ is set in a dark, near-future version of Thailand where fossil fuels are extremely rare and most work is done by creatures, be they human or biologically enhanced elephants. Genetic Manipulation is widely performed by the corporations, who are still more interested in their bottom line then their safety records. This has led to many genehack blights, which can only be fought with fire or more genehacking. The most common global currency is now the Calorie, and most of the corporations in one way or another deal in Calories.

In this rich landscape you are introduced to a number of characters, some of them are thieves, some are master manipulators, some are just trying to stay alive.  The two protagonists are drawn together even though they are about as opposite as two people can get. The first is Anderson Lake, who is a white skinned foreigner that represents some of the most powerful global corporations. He is an expert at what he does, but what he plays his cards close to his chest, revealing them only when it is time. Emiko is a Japanese Windup Girl, a genetically created and enhanced humanoid. She is a servant, once to a Japanese executive, but now she serves a Thai Strip Bar owner. Emiko was created to be owned and to serve, but secretly she also desires freedom. Her biggest problem is that she has nowhere to go and no way to get there. In Thailand, she is worse than property, because if she is ever discovered by the law she will be destroyed and she is very easy to discover as her movements are naturally stiff and disjointed, like a windup doll. They both in their own ways represent blind progress.

The antagonists are two Thai government groups. The first group is the Environmental Ministry, which is basically a police force and army all in one. Their main representative in the book is Captain Jaidee, and he rules with strength and honor even if most of his troops are corrupt and regularly accept bribes to look the other way.  The second group is the Trade Ministry represented by General Akkarat. The two ministries are in a politcal dance to gain power and to protect the independent Thai Nation from the likes of Anderson who would do just about anything to bring the Food Corporations in to gain power.

Overall I liked the book, and would recommend it. There was something about it that just wasn’t quite satisfying. Specifically, Anderson Lake was a character that I never really was able to understand or empathise with. He was also one of the most written about characters, so that left me pretty confused for a lot of the book.

‘The Windup Girl’ got a whole lot of great reviews. I think I only saw one slightly poor review and a ton of faves. I might be a little overcritical but as enjoyable as the book was I don’t think it earned all the accolades I read about it. It was a good book, but not the second coming of the science fiction greats that some have speculated.

Maybe time will prove me wrong, I hope it does.

Title: ‘The Windup Girl’
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Format: Harcover
ISBN#: 9781597801577

Website: windupstories.com