Review: THE WINDUP GIRL by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is the 2010 Locus award winner for Best First Novel. The story takes place in the 22nd century; petroleum is a distant memory and giant agricultural conglomerates fight wars and wipe out local crops with genetically-engineered plagues to create markets for their genehacked grains. Thailand is the last holdout against these Calorie Companies, maintaining a closely-guarded seedbank that contains what may be the last natural food-bearing flora on the planet.
The Calorie Companies want in and the Environment Ministry wants to keep them out. Making matters difficult is the Ministry of Trade, which is doing all it can to loosen border restrictions and open up trade with the rest of the world—in direct conflict with the goal of the Environment Ministry.
In the middle of the mess, and soon to become a far more important part of it than she would ever imagine, is Emiko, a windup girl (genetically engineered “New Person”) whose very presence in Bangkok is illegal. Emiko works in a brothel, a toy for those with more exotic (and perverse) tastes than are easily satisfied by the real girls. She is a prisoner of fear, knowing that the Environment Ministry White Shirts enforcers are kept at bay only by the bribes her patron pays. Should the bribes stop, Emiko would surely be mulched, processed and turned into the methane that provides so much of Bangkok’s energy.
This was, simply put, a fantastic book. The post-petroleum world Bacigalupi created is complex and compelling (a great exploration of what the world might look like after the petroplague in Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason’s Ill Wind or simply the depletion of the world’s oil reserves) and the idea of genehacked grain and a food supply that is largely controlled by companies in Des Moines is fascinating (especially after reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan). Then there are the characters: Emiko the windup girl; the White Shirts, Captain Jaidee “The Tiger” Rojjanasukchai and his Lieutenant, Kanya; Anderson Lake, the Calorie Man looking for a way to undermine the Environment Ministry; and Hock Seng, the Yellow Card refugee from a China torn apart by religious conflict. Bacigalupi winds their separate stories together expertly, creating distinct voices for each and making them all sympathetic, even though their motivations often counter one another.
Well done, sir, although I did not reach the same conclusions reading the book. The post petroleum world is indeed complex, engaging, and creepy in a “could this really happen?” sort if way. As we’ve discussed, I thought the audiobook was very well done and the voices appropriate to the characters.
My main complaint was with the characters themselves. I just couldn’t bring myself to give a rip about any of them. None of them, including the title character, were noble or sympathetic enough to engage me. I felt cheated every time we met a new character that seemed interesting, because soon you find out that they are a turncoat, a pervert, a just a plain ol’ jerk.
All in all, it was an interesting read, especially the way the setting is described and explored. Unfortunately, I spent the entire time waiting for the good guys to show up.