The Windup Girl

Not quite what I had expected.

The windup girl is a fascinating character with her odd movements and disposition, but the book is barely about her, which was disappointing. I found myself somewhat uninterested in the other characters and unsatisfied because I wanted to know more about the windup girl. The integration of Thai and Mandarin (I believe that's what it was) language was interesting but confusing at times. I was sadly disappointed by this book; it had a lot of potential (characters, setting, etc.) but I personally did not think it was executed as best as it could have been. An okay read all in all, but I think it could have been so much better.

8 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

A Must Read

I enjoyed this book tremendously! Bacigalupi takes you into a world where fruits are manufactured, gene ripped, and there is not enough to go around. Where living creatures are also gene ripped into working, living, breathing creations that are both loved and despised. I was lost in his world of yellow card immigrants, Megadonts and Cheshires (I want one). I'd love to see a second book of The Wind-up Girl. Wonderful read. Thank goodness for the release of Pump Six, a collection of his short stories. Tore through it in two days!

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

I find it amazing that people rate this book without reading it...

I bought "The Windup Girl" on a whim. After reading the back I decided to give it a try. Bacigalupi has invented a terrifying future. Filled with Blister Rust and famine. No longer does the human race rely on the old fossil fuel, that source is long gone. So is the idea of a global economy. What once took hours now takes weeks as humans ply the oceans as they once were in times long past. Airplanes are a form of archaic transport and even electricity is a rare resource. It's a world where the seeds of plants are worth mountains of gold and getting enough calories in a given day is an up hill battle. I found this story intriguing and hard to put down. It was well written and the author has the ability to bring his characters to life. Though many authors own that ability, it's still nice to read a book where you feel like you know how a character is going to react to a given situation. The idea of the heechy-keechy windup girls who move in a stutter of stop motion is so interesting. The only thing that gives away the biologically engineered human who walks among the crowds is their flutter of spastic movement. As if they are in a constant wake of a strobe light. This book is deep and will remain one of my favorites for a long time I'm sure.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

One of the best!

If you enjoyed the world-building in Dune, you should be impressed with the interesting and different world Bacigalupi has created--and his writing style is exceptional.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

I didn't enjoy this book.

I still haven't finished this, though I've been trying to for weeks. I am only a hundred pages from the end, and still don't know what's going on. Who are all of these groups of people? You're just sort of thrown into the middle of the story with very little background. Because of this, it was impossible for me to become invested in the story or the characters. I spent most of the time trying to piece together the tiniest of clues that came up in order to figure out the socioeconomic and political structure of a world sometime in the future. Still, a hundred pages from the end, I have no real idea of who the Child Queen is or her significance, so why would I care if her handler gets killed? Yet this seems to be a turning point in the narrative of the windup girl, whose appearances in the novel are brief, dwarfed by longer sections about characters I didn't care about. Oh, well. Just wasn't the book for me. I enjoy sci-fi, and that is how this was categorized, but I didn't enjoy this book.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A breathe of fresh cyberpunk

Bacigalupi brings a fresh petspective to a genre that many thought only Stephenson could save...

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Masterful Writing

Like all avid scifi readers, I heard of Bacigalupi's Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel, and I certainly wanted to read it. I fairly recently read a great short story of his previously, 'Pop Squad', in Brave New Worlds (a very well written, disturbing dystopian story), and I wanted to read more of him.

The Windup Girl is one of the best novels of any genre I have read, in many years. It deserves its Hugo and Nebula awards, as it is a masterpiece of futuristic world building, within the confines of Earth's future. It's characters are sensitively portrayed in detail, and the plot is intricate, surprising in its turns, and penetrating in theme. It is what any aspiring speculative fiction writer wants to achieve. It is a benchmark, a masterpiece. I don't use superlatives like these too often. The novel is that good.

Perhaps the only criticism I can lay before you - and it is more a case of personal taste than a technicality - is that I am not overly enamored of the third person, present tense POV for works of any substantial length. It took me quite a while to avoid the distraction of this less-than comfortable style of writing (albeit, I accept that it was useful for enhancing the immediacy of the tension of the tenor of the novel). Even in Bacigalupi's case, I don't necessarily think pros outweighed the cons with regard to this matter. Given the mastery of the writing, plot, characterization and themes, this criticism is a small matter.

The world building astonishes me. As I hinted above, Bacigalupi creates a future society within the context of a future Earth, but transformed beyond expectation. Genetics is the keystone of what technically (and culturally) drives society, in a backdrop of an energy-starved population. It smack of truth, given the inroads in genetics and the Monsantos of this world. It also smacks of truth with current issues with regard to environmentalism. What makes this particular powerful, however, is representing this future world in the microcosm of a future Thailand. This was masterful, and Bacigalupi clearly researched this part of the world meticulously. I use the term 'microcosm' lightly, because it turns out that this future Thailand is a special place, unique and more than just a representative of humanity-to-come - it is in many ways the center of humanity's universe.

Bacigalupi paints his characters well, and not a single one of them is just noble and righteous. They are all flawed, due to the circumstances of their lives, and because, quite simply, they are human. Even the New People. The key characters, Anderson, Hock Seng, Kanya, Jaidee, and The Windup Girl (Emiko), are expertly drawn and attract reader empathy, and yet are scrutinized for their frailties, whether they were self-constructed or were thrust upon them.

Anyone with a predilection for speculative fiction, and particularly dystopian themes, will be immersed in The Windup Girl, and will want to read more. If you have discomfort with the Third Person, Present Tense POV style, try hard to ignore it - it's still well worth it.

Five sparkling stars.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The most depressing and annoying book I have ever read

I would recommend that you don't buy this book - it is incredibly depressing and annoying. The premise is simple: what happens when you take a 3rd world country, make food incredibly scarce, add population pressures, hostile forces on the border, and remove almost all energy generation technology - no solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, or petrochemical? Answer: you get a complete hell-hole.

That's basically what the writer did - he erased all possible energy generation types in the world - there aren't even any windmills or water wheels. The only thing people have is spring power - advanced springs wound up by humans or animals.

Couple that energy starvation with extreme corruption, and you have a horrible situation. Into which the author drops people made ugly and horrible by the same situation. And some innocents, who get tortured by this reality. This makes for an INCREDIBLY, astonishingly depressing read. It basically ruined my mood for a few weeks.

Plus, as I already said, the author threw out all technology and logic that wouldn't fit with the image behind the book - the image of giant genetically engineered elephants walking around in a factory winding springs. Even if we ignore solar, nuclear, wind, ocean, and geothermal power, there aren't any water wheels - a technology invented over 2000 years ago!!! And this is supposed to be a few hundred years in the future. Besides alternative energy concepts, the author completely screwed up the concept of carbon credits (he has no idea what they are or how they work), as well as genetic engineering in general.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Why isn't this available for the Nook?

Looks like a good read.

1 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

When the future grows in a new way

Bacigalupi has seen a new future, one that is terrible in that it is plausible. In the true tradition of classic science fiction, technology has run amok leading to our downfall, but that same technology may also be our salvation. World trade, politics, big business and our innate will to live merge in the creation of perfection. New people will lead the way as the author leads us to a new future of science fiction.

1 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Think you know what's going on?

Nope. Not once did I get things right. Twist, turn, death. . . shock. . . after shock. . . all set in a most strange vision of not so distant future I have ever read. Highly highly recommend this book. It was a lot more graphic than I am normally comfortable with but I think that is because I was so engaged. . . I can't wait to see if there is more to this world. A series perhaps? The ending sure left things open for one.

fast moving, good read.

Good character development and story moved along well. Very entertaining.

Good read and interesting view of the future

If you enjoyed the short stories in Pump Six, you will definitely enjoy reading this book (which follows up Yellow Card Man and others). The author doesn't give a lot of explanation to his world up-front, but I felt it was worth it once finished.

Enjoyable

Good story but more like several short stories combined rather than a novel. I would like to read spinoffs and follow the Wind Up girl further.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read approximately 60 books a year, from non-fiction, fiction

I read approximately 60 books a year, from non-fiction, fiction to bio's, this has been my favorite for the last 2 years! I hope someone considers making this into a movie,, how thrilling,

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very good story. It took me about 1/3 of the way to understand

Very good story. It took me about 1/3 of the way to understand the dynamics, but the characters are well developed and the ending... leaves me hoping for a sequel!

Spectacular

A NY Times top 10 novel of the year 2010--seldom is scifi in this list--this book deserves the praise--characters, plot, themes and especially setting are all brilliant

DUDE!!!

It is way to confusing. If it is a part of a series i can under stand that. The plot jumps around way much. Good lucky trying to read it! ;-)

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A unique vision.

I bought this book on a whim. I thought I would give it a read through for something to do. I don't think I set it down at all once I picked it up. This book is such a different future from those imagined by most people. I have never read a book like this one before.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an interesting and different possibility for the future.

@Try it if your undecided

Wow! Yo should be an author!! But thx for the info.

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.