The Windup Girl

In the scifi community, this is a love-it/hate-it book. I know of one person who has bounced off of this, and one person who read it and just didn't like it at all.  This also co-won the Hugo Award in the Novel category for 2010 with The City and The City by China Mieville.

$14.95 pb, 300 pages

Premise of the book from Amazon.com: In a future Thailand, calories are the greatest commodity. Anderson is a calorie-man whose true objective is to discover new food sources that his company can exploit. His secretary, Hock Seng, is a refugee from China seeking to ensure his future. Jaidee is an officer of the Environmental Ministry known for upholding regulations rather than accepting bribes. His partner, Kanya, is torn between respect for Jaidee and hatred for the agency that destroyed her childhood home. Emiko is a windup, an engineered and despised creation, discarded by her master and now subject to brutality by her patron. The actions of these characters set in motion events that could destroy the country. Bacigalupi has created a compelling, if bleak, society in which corruption, betrayal, and despair are commonplace, and more positive behavior and emotions such as hope and love are regarded with great suspicion. The complex plot and equally complex characters require a great deal of commitment from readers. Even the most sympathetic people have darker sides, and it is difficult to determine which character or faction should triumph.



I enjoyed Windup Girl immensely. I thought the setting in Thailand was exemplary and a great backdrop against the Big Seed Company's control of the world wide food source. The idea that there was a world collapse due to blight and insects and the subsequent challenge of companies to create GMO's as a seed source was a refreshing 'end of the world' scenario. Add in political unrest, karma, ghosts, illegal cloned humans and the daily struggle to survive and it becomes a fascinating read.

As a side note, I did notice this is also being advertised/sold under YA which surprised me given the circumstances in which Emiko is living and found.  I would not recommend this as a YA. 

Further, this leaves me with only one Hugo Award winner to read: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (Hugo Award Winner in 1981).  Once I get around to that selection, I will have read all the award winners in the Novel category from 1953 to present.  And from about 2000 to present, I have read most of the nominees in the Novel category as well.  A couple I purposely skipped as I just couldn't stand the nominated author.