Ratings28
Average rating3.5
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, the break-out science fiction debut featuring additional stories and a Q&A with the author. Anderson Lake is AgriGen’s Calorie Man, sent to work undercover as a factory manager in Thailand while combing Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. Emiko is not human; she is an engineered being, grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in this chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. What happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits and forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly-acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century. In this brand-new edition celebrating the book’s reception into the canon of celebrated modern science fiction, accompanying the text are two novelettes exploring the dystopian world of The Windup Girl, the Theodore Sturgeon Award-winning “The Calorie Man” and “Yellow Card Man.” Also included is an exclusive Q&A with the author describing his writing process, the political climate into which his debut novel was published, and the future of science fiction. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Featured Series
1 primary bookThe Windup Universe is a 1-book series first released in 2008 with contributions by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 stars for a well-imagined world but a story populated by almost universally unlikeable characters and events that have no real pay-off. Frustrating.
“I'm inoculated against diseases that haven't even been released yet.”
Spoken by one of the main characters, a Calorie Man who works for a multinational agribusiness, this quote aptly describe the world of The Windup Girl.
It's late 22nd century Thailand, the combustible fuel age is over, all energy is derived from labor, springs, and, essentially, calories. The western agribusinesses have destroyed most of the world's food supply, and control everything through sterile seed stock. Except in Thailand.
Bacigalupi has created such a believable world, one that is completely immersive, and yet one that does not overwhelm the story. Great SF book for/of our time.