Bacigalupi, Paolo The Windup Girl ISBN 13: 9780356500539

The Windup Girl - Softcover

3.75 avg rating
( 73,596 ratings by Goodreads )
9780356500539: The Windup Girl
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Windup Girl

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Paolo Bacigalupi is a multiple award-winning SF author whose debut THE WINDUP GIRL has been one of the most acclaimed novels in this area to appear in recent years. He also writes critically acclaimed, award-winning short stories in addition to novel length fiction. Paolo currently lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son,
From The Washington Post:
Not since William Gibson's pioneering cyberpunk classic, "Neuromancer" (1984), has a first novel excited science fiction readers as much as Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl." I missed it last year when the book first appeared, but three recent events have made it a timely addition to the summer reading list.

First, just two weeks ago "The Windup Girl" was awarded the Locus Magazine Award for best first novel. Second, in May Bacigalupi received the even more prestigious Nebula Award -- given by the Science Fiction Writers of America -- for best novel of the year. Those are convincing literary endorsements. 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.

Even though the book is set in an imagined future, its depiction of the city during violent unrest feels astonishingly true-to-life. Inadvertently, Bacigalupi offers a window on what it must have been like in Thailand's capital during this spring's strife and bloodshed. Though he stresses in his acknowledgments that the novel "should not be construed as representative of present-day Thailand or the Thai people," its overall vision of this wondrous and decadent city is nonetheless very close to that found in such contemporary thrillers as John Burdett's "Bangkok Tattoo."

By the end of the 22nd century, the world has been ravaged by deadly viruses, the disappearance of entire species, the rising of the oceans and the loss of all power based on petroleum. Sailing ships and dirigibles transport goods. Computers still exist, but they are operated by treadle-power, like old-time sewing machines. Guns shoot "razor disks" rather than bullets. Factories employ megadonts -- genetically altered elephants -- to turn their dynamos. Even "the Empire of America is no more," while something unspeakable happened in Finland. Not least, gigantic corporations like PurCal and AgriGen have become supra-national forces, with their own armies.

The Thai kingdom has so far survived, in part because it has sealed itself off from the outside world, and through draconian measures managed to keep the food supply relatively safe. The Environment Ministry -- supported by the brutally patriotic "white shirts" -- maintains stringent border and biological security: It has been known to burn entire villages to the ground at the very first instance of deadly "blister rust," "cibiscosis" or "genehack weevil." However, in recent years, the Child Queen has allowed the upstart Trade Ministry to gain power and to encourage some small-scale foreign investment in the kingdom.

Pretending to be a developer of innovative "kink-springs," Anderson is in fact an agent of AgriGen, assigned to Bangkok to orchestrate a covert yet aggressive initiative by the Des Moines-based corporation. He employs Hock Seng, an aging but resilient Chinese who lost his shipping company, family and very nearly his own life a few years previous during the genocides in Malaya. Trusting no one, he dreams of re-establishing his name and wealth. By contrast, Jaidee, the so-called Tiger of Bangkok, is the pugnaciously idealistic captain of the white shirts, determined to preserve his country against the onslaught of foreign influence and corruption. His unsmiling Lt. Kanya suffers from some dark burden on her soul.

And then there is Emiko, the windup girl. Windups, or New People, are essentially genetically modified test-tube babies, creche-grown in Japan. In other countries they are branded and loathed as genetic trash, without true souls. All windups move with a herky-jerky gait, like puppets on invisible strings.

In essence, Emiko has been designed to be a supremely beautiful, compliant geisha. Obedience has been built into her DNA. Her skin has been made ivory smooth by reducing the size of her pores. Never intended to function in a tropical climate, Emiko has nonetheless been callously abandoned in Bangkok: Her patron decided "to upgrade new in Osaka." She was then bought by the unscrupulous Raleigh, a survivor of "coups and counter-coups, calorie plagues and starvation," who now "squats like a liver-spotted toad in his Ploenchit 'club,' smiling in self-satisfaction as he instructs newly arrived foreigners in the lost arts of pre-Contraction debauch."

Raleigh's nightclub soon features a very special sex show: Each night the brutalized Emiko must suffer the attentions of an inventively sadistic co-worker. Afterward, her body is for hire by anyone seeking a forbidden, transgressive thrill. The girl lives in near-suicidal despair.

Until the night she meets Anderson, who tells Emiko of an enclave of windups, "escapees from the coal war," dwelling in the forests to the North. Emiko soon dreams of fleeing her sordid destiny and making her way, somehow, to this village.

From the windup, the smitten Anderson learns of a mysterious Gi Bu Sen, who has developed a new blight-resistant fruit that has recently appeared in the Thai markets. Protected by the government and living in luxurious seclusion somewhere, this Kurtz-like farang can only be the renegade AgriGen scientist Gibbons, the greatest generipper in the world, long thought to be dead. He must be found and restored to the corporation. It is because of his genius -- and the kingdom's hidden storehouse of carefully preserved seeds -- that Thailand has been able to stay "one step ahead of the plagues."

As the novel advances, the political machinations grow increasingly tense. General Pracha, Minister Akkarat, a sinister adviser to the queen named Somdet Chaopraya, even the so-called "Dung Lord" all vie for power. Meanwhile, the increasingly troubled Lt. Kanya converses with a ghost, one who knows her secret. While Emiko may be the titular windup girl, Kanya is the novel's woundup woman, a human kink spring under intense psychological pressure. When everything begins to fall apart, these two will determine the fate of Krung Thep, the City of Divine Beings -- Bangkok.

Readers of science fiction will recognize multiple influences on this excellent novel: Cordwainer Smith, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, China Mieville and even, possibly, Margaret Atwood, who proffers a similar vision of post-apocalyptic want, fanaticism and gene-manipulation in "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood." 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."

bookworld@washpost.com

Reviewed by by Michael Dirda
Copyright 2010, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherOrbit
  • Publication date2010
  • ISBN 10 0356500535
  • ISBN 13 9780356500539
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Rating
    3.75 avg rating
    ( 73,596 ratings by Goodreads )

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781597801584: The Windup Girl

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781597801584
Publisher: Night Shade, 2009
Softcover

9781597808217: The Windup Girl

Night ..., 2015
Softcover

9781597801577: The Windup Girl

Night ..., 2009
Hardcover

9788992711470: The Windup Girl (Korean Edition)

Dareun...
Softcover

9789350092743: The Windup Girl

Hachet..., 2011
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Bacigalupi, Paolo
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 11693531-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.60
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bacigalupi, Paolo
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Barnes & Nooyen Books
(Spring, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. New Condition, Paperback book, Seller Inventory # 2308200089

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.37
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.49
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In Thailand, Anderson Lake is a calorie company man working for big business. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of near-extinct foodstuffs. And there he meets the Windup Girl, the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko - now abandoned to the streets. She is one of the underclass of New People, creche-grown and bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as slaves, soldiers and toys, they are seen as soulless by some and as devils by others. As Lake becomes more drawn to Emiko, conspiracies breed within his working life becomes and the politics of a troubled age threaten to spiral out of control. The pressures mount as what he should do conflicts with what he wants to do, threatening to bring down his world. So what happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And could bio-terrorism's genetic drift force mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? The winner of five major SF awards, The Windup Girl is both a heart-stopping dystopian thriller and a razor-sharp vision of our near future. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780356500539

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.41
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Blackwell's
(Oxford, OX, United Kingdom)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780356500539

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.02
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
AMM Books
(Gillingham, KENT, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. In stock ready to dispatch from the UK. Seller Inventory # mon0000273234

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 5.43
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 13.83
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bacigalupi, Paolo
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Big Bill's Books
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0356500535

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.88
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
Published by Little, Brown Book Group (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback / softback Quantity: 3
Seller:
THE SAINT BOOKSTORE
(Southport, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. The winner of five major SF awards, The Windup Girl is both a heart-stopping dystopian thriller and a razor-sharp vision of our near future. Seller Inventory # B9780356500539

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.88
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.26
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bacigalupi Paolo
Published by Hodder Headline Group (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Majestic Books
(Hounslow, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 544. Seller Inventory # 5025618

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.02
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 8.18
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Monster Bookshop
(Fleckney, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780356500539-GDR

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.56
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.31
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Paolo Bacigalupi
Published by Orbit (2010)
ISBN 10: 0356500535 ISBN 13: 9780356500539
New Paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
Revaluation Books
(Exeter, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 544 pages. 7.72x5.04x1.57 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0356500535

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.44
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 12.58
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book