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mark_b 's review for:
The Windup Girl
by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Windup Girl takes place in a future Bangkok, where climate change has ravaged food crops, human health, sea level, and the global political economy. The windup girl of the title is a genetically modified Japanese woman abandoned by her “patron”, and working in a Bangkok brothel. An older male Chinese refugee, a male American representative of an agribusiness corporation, and a Thai man and woman from a paramilitary arm of the Thai Environmental Ministry round out the principal characters.
Windup Girl starts a little slowly for my tastes, but the pace picks up at about the halfway point. I’m glad I stuck with it. The author describes vividly the destructive forces on culture, politics, and the economy caused by crop failures, disrupted drought/monsoon cycles, genetic manipulation, and malevolent agribusinesses. There’s a steampunk aspect to the story: for example, many devices (fans, firearms, small boats) are powered by springs, and computers are treadle powered, like old sewing machines.
There’s lots of graphic violence in Windup Girl, including rape. I’m not entirely convinced it was essential to the story. Still, a very good read. Recommended.
Windup Girl starts a little slowly for my tastes, but the pace picks up at about the halfway point. I’m glad I stuck with it. The author describes vividly the destructive forces on culture, politics, and the economy caused by crop failures, disrupted drought/monsoon cycles, genetic manipulation, and malevolent agribusinesses. There’s a steampunk aspect to the story: for example, many devices (fans, firearms, small boats) are powered by springs, and computers are treadle powered, like old sewing machines.
There’s lots of graphic violence in Windup Girl, including rape. I’m not entirely convinced it was essential to the story. Still, a very good read. Recommended.