This past weekend I finished Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl from NightShade Books. I’ve waited a bit to write this because I wanted to let the story settle some and I didn’t want to write on that initial lump in my throat that might have made this a much more angry posting.
So to the setting, not the story the setting. Mr. Bacigalupi’s setting in The Windup Girl is a mish-mash of several sub-genres that can be described best as a post-environmental-dystopian-steampunk-future. At first, it does not sound like it can work but believe me it does. The story is set in a Thailand after a series of global viruses, oil shortages, pestilence, war, etc. Essentially a series of global calamities has reverted the world back to a closed door policy across the globe. But this is not a Victorian steampunk novel, and as such there is a whole cluster of generippers, virologists, and bionetic engineers who are trying to genetically re-engineer crops to be plague resistant. This type of science brings us around to the title name, The Windup Girl. A windup is a vat grown humanoid genetically engineered to pick up the gap left in the workforce after a century of disease and famine has nullified them. Some windups are engineered with 10 arms as very efficient crop pickers, some are military units designed for war. A windup girl therefore is a whore, typically of Japanese make (because the Japanese are always ahead in weird sex-tech I guess). Regardless of their type a windup is naturally resistant to the various plagues and famines that have befallen the world, but they are infertile. And more importantly, windup girls are made for beauty, meaning their skin lack pores, so they overheat. And so they can be told from the regular people they have a natural shutter-stop motion to their movements that I imagine would be like watching bad stop motion animation.
Instead of a heavy reliance on steam power, and as an inferior answer to the lack of oil based fuels, almost everything is ran from ‘kink-springs.’ Yeah everything is spring based. I know it sounds fishy now, but trust me, Bacigalupi pulls it off, and well.
There was a lot of trepidation involved starting this book initially, but the setting really saved me from this, and I am glad it did. I went in blind, however, not knowing much about this book aside from the recent Nebula award nod. That was probably a mistake, I should have looked a little more into the book before grabbing it up. So for your sake here is the shit you need to know:
- this story is not an environmental dystopian parlaying the fears of current world bullshit
- this setting is an environmental dystopian parlaying the fears of current world bullshit
- the setting is awesome… you will love it
- this is an identity searching story
- there are no Mary Sue’s (can’t stand them)
- it does get exciting in the last quarter of the book
The story here left me feeling a little disappointed, it’s not that great. And when you have it standing up in comparison to the amazing setting that is woven through the book, and the Nebula win, it is just downright lacking. This is not to say that the story is bad, just that you can tell that Mr. Bacigalupi has spent far more time in the setting, having at least two other short stories in this world and I would imagine at least one of his unpublished novels falls in this category as well. Some of the side plots seemed to be more woven around the setting as opposed to the main plot line, you know who you are Jaidee. Basically his time was spent making the world and it shows. This book would have rocked my world if he had played to that more I think.
Overall I think you should read this book if you like dystopians, or Dick-ensian futures. If you are looking for a griping environmental thriller read it. If you have never heard of Paolo Bacigalupi and have never read his short stories, put the book down and read his short stories, primarily The Calorie Man and Yellow Card Man find them both here. If you haven’t read either of these and are not a dystopian fan run to the store and find those stories.
I give it a 3/5 for story and a 5/5 for setting.
What’s next?
So I have stepped up my fiction intake somewhat and have finally started reading epubs on my Motorola Droid last 
week. I have been using the Word-Player app (QR Link to the right) as my primary reader and I love it. The format lends itself very well to short fiction and I read a number of shorts on it last week. I also started The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks on it last Friday and have been very pleased with it so far. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to 
get back to the Culture series.
I also signed up for Audible last week and started listening to Feed by Mira 
Grant thanks to the new Audible Android app that is in beta. I’m really digging Feed as it is set post zombie infection and followers a trio of bloggers through a presidential campaign fraught with, what else, zombies.
In addition to these I am reading Gail Carriger’s first novel, Soulless. This is a quirky Victorian steampunk supernatural detective story that is very enjoyable so far.
Sometimes it is better to read a series out of order. That isn't something I am wanton to do and in fact, I generally frown on the practice. But had I not read the worthwhile Death is Now My Neighbor before Last Bus to Woodstock, I might have never resolved to read more.
