The Windup Girl Audiobook By Paolo Bacigalupi cover art

The Windup Girl

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The Windup Girl

By: Paolo Bacigalupi
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories.

There, he encounters Emiko...Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-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 a 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, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of The Calorie Man (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and Yellow Card Man (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions.

BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, author Paolo Bacigalupi explains how a horrible trip to Thailand led to the idea for The Windup Girl.

©2009 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2009 Audible, Inc. Adventure Dystopian Genetic Engineering Hard Science Fiction Hugo Award Locus Award Nebula Award Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Fiction Scary

Critic reviews

  • Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2010
  • Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2009
  • Best Books of 2009, Publishers Weekly
  • 10 Best Fiction Books of 2009, Time magazine
  • Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy 2009, Library Journal
"Paolo Bacigalupi's debut sci-fi novel is a stunner, especially as interpreted under the careful ministrations of narrator Jonathan Davis. The novel postulates a corrupt near-future society in Southeast Asia, where powerful corporations vie for control over rice yields by wielding bioengineered viruses as tools for profit." ( AudioFile)
" The Windup Girl will almost certainly be the most important SF novel of the year for its willingness to confront the most cherished notions of the genre, namely that our future is bright and we will overcome our selfish, cruel nature." ( Book Page)
"A classic dystopian novel likely to be short listed for the Nebula and Hugo Awards" ( SF Signal)

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A long novel, set in a dismal future Thailand, there is no petroleum, all plant life is genetically modified and sold at high cost by the " calorie companies", computers are powered by treadle ( like old sewing machines), the world is full of tribes, and companies.
A fascinating view of the potential that our children's children may face if we don't make changes now, this novel was in dire need of a good editor before it first was issued in book form.

After a couple of slow first hours, I listened at one and a half speed and lost little I'm sure as the author spent chapters on, for example, a "Noe" fruit which I learned far too much about only to have it make no real difference in the plot.

But, it was fascinating to listen to the misery that people were living in, struggling to eat, living in dismal slums. The (former) US, which is now agro-corporations, hires these wretched people at minimal wage ( of course), enslaves genetically modified elephants for labor and is essentially the Ugly American.

The 3rd part, however, is much more exciting, and much of the plot is knitted together.

Jonathan Davis is an excellent narrator but he lacked the ability to keep his accents and names straight..one time a person might have an Asian accent, the next sentence he wouldn't. With all the Asian names, it can get a bit confusing for someone unused to the words.

Would I recommend it? Depends. It can be horrific to listen to, depressing and confusing but it IS a dark future novel, not one of peace and joy and life like Star Trek promised us on TV.

You'll have to decide for yourself if you want to spend a credit on an essentially depressing view of our future. I'm glad I did.

300 years from now..A nightmare Future

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This is not the type of book I usually read or listen to. I chose it because I wanted a change of pace over my usual read and because of the reader reviews .I am so glad I did. It is one of the best listens I have discovered on Audible.com and recommend it highly. I am not surprised to see it win an award. Can't wait to listen to his latest.

Wonderful surprise

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This book takes place in a futuristic Thailand where the world’s currency is based upon calories. This is not the only change from the world as we know it. We encounter beings that are used as slaves, solders and even for recreation. They are called New People and they were engineered to be stronger, faster, and obedient.

Overall this was an interesting sci-fi book and has won two of the biggest awards:
The Hugo Award and The Nebula Award.

Award Winning

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Despite my hesitation after reading some less-than-favorable reviews, I took a chance on this book and rather liked it. Bacigalupi's hard-edged, confident, cerebral prose resembles that of William Gibson. The novel takes place in an ecological dystopia some 200 years in the future, an era when fossil fuels are nearly exhausted, sea levels have risen, and genetically-modified plants and diseases have run amok, wiping out original species. Humankind has regressed backwards both in technology -- relying on specially-bred animals and stored energy springs for power, and using boats and dirigibles to get around -- and in civility, living in a world of xenophobia, factionalism, and human exploitation.

The events of the story occur in a future version of Thailand. In Gibson-esque fashion, Bacigalupi introduces a motley cast of characters with intertwining stories, a hustling North American "calorie man" desperately looking to make a quick fortune from the discovery of lost foodstuffs, a duty-driven officer of a militarized environmental protection force struggling to hold pestilence out of the Thai kingdom, a genetically engineered sex slave who's despised by a xenophobic population but possesses a strange power, and a once-wealthy Chinese refugee who now must make deals to stay alive.

I enjoyed the calm intensity that Bacigalupi brings to his story, the vivid sense of a declined world in motion, where people are nonetheless surviving and living their daily lives as best they are able. I appreciated that the author didn't try to lead readers by the hand, but left us to soak up his reality and a set of intrigues already underway. The Windup Girl's setting, texture, and level of literacy feel quite different from a lot of other science fiction books, but its images and scenes stuck with me more than most. Perhaps this one will be remembered for painting a stunning vision of the-future-in-the-hazy-distance for 2009, in the same way Neuromancer did for 1984.

Criticisms? Well, some readers have complained that the plot is slow-moving and the characters aren't very involving. The former charge -- arguably true in this case -- rarely bothers me in a good novel, but the latter is hard to deny. The characters, cogs in a complex plot, never quite become sympathetic (we hardly learn anything about the backstory of the American), and the only one I found truly interesting, the vile but mesmerizing Dr. Gibbons, doesn't get much stage time. Still, the book swept me up as its plot strands converged towards a blazing finale, and I would certainly consider Bacigalupi a writer to keep an eye on.

The audiobook reader deserves a lot of praise, with subtle but distinct differences in accent for the various characters.

Original, troubling world creation

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What can I say? An engrossing story, masterfully told, and unique in concept. Just hear it.

Don't listen to the detractors, this book ROCKS!

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