Book Review: The Windup Girl 164
New submitter Hector's House writes "'Nothing is certain. Nothing is secure,' reflects one of the characters in Paolo Bacigalupi's novel The Windup Girl. In 23rd century Bangkok, life for many hangs by a thread. Oil has run out; rising seas threatens to engulf the city; genetically engineered diseases hover on Thailand's borders; and the threat of violence smolders as government ministries vie for power. Environmental destruction, climate change and novel plagues have wiped out many of the crop species that humanity depends on: the profits to be made from creating — or stealing — new species are potentially enormous. After a century of collapse and contraction, Western business sees hope for a new wave of globalization; Thailand's fiercely guarded seed banks may provide just the springboard needed." Keep reading for the rest of Aidan's review.
In a street market, Anderson Lake—a prospector for a US agribusiness giant—comes across an entirely new fruit. Drawn by the promise that it might lead him to the Thai kingdom's seed banks, he follows a trail that leads him to the backstreet club run by dissipated expat Raleigh. Here he encounters Emiko, the "windup girl" of the title. In the club's signature live sex show, she is subjected to—quite graphically described—abuse on stage. Genetically engineered in Japan as a "New Person", to be companion, secretary and translator to wealthy patrons, Emiko—a sort of transgenic geisha—has been abandoned in Bangkok by her former patron. Having been trained since infancy to be compliant, and carrying canine DNA that makes life outside of a strict hierarchy unthinkable, Emiko is trapped both by her own nature and by her characteristic tick-tock stuttery movements, hardcoded into her to make her manufactured origins immediately apparent. Genetically "unclean", Emiko daily faces the threat of extermination by the environment police: she takes to the streets only at night, when she can more easily "pass". Lake is fascinated by the exotic Emiko; she in turn is drawn to him, not least as an escape from slavery—even possibly to the fabled north, where New People reputedly live in freedom. Their relationship is an ambiguous one. Lake is not inherently a tender character (he considers the murder of business associates who threaten his plans). Moreover, his status as an unwelcome corporate outsider already puts him at risk; a transgressive liaison with a "windup" endangers him further. Emiko herself (like the Thai authorities) doesn't feel that she is genuinely human. However, she is fully capable of experiencing pain and loss and—with devastating results—rage.
| The Windup Girl | |
| author | Paolo Bacigalupi |
| pages | 376 |
| publisher | Night Shade Books |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Aidan McKeown |
| ISBN | 978-0356500539 |
| summary | Dystopian action thriller set in 23rd century Bangkok |
Bacigalupi's novel is not new, nor is it obscure: published in 2009, it went on to win the highly esteemed Nebula and Hugo awards for science-fiction writing in 2009 and 2010. However, it deserves a place on the pages of slashdot, both for its vision of the future, and how naturally that is embedded in a well-crafted, intelligent action thriller. The book takes a qualified view of our future technological development. Fossil fuel depletion has resulted in a retraction of progress. Now, human and animal labour wind massive crank shafts—a dramatic ramping up of the technology used in hand-cranked radios and windup lanterns. Everything is recycled: even sewage produces methane to light the city's gas lamps. Where technology has leaped forward is in genetic engineering. This has yielded startling benefits: megodonts, hybrid beasts of burden, the result of the splicing of the DNA of elephants with that their massive prehistoric ancestors. It has also imposed dire costs: laboratory-manufactured plagues have swept the planet, Thailand surviving only because of the extreme zealousness of its environmental police.
The setting of an Asian culture, the dystopian image of people crammed into a crumbling city, and the relationship between a cynical, jaded man and vulnerable, artificial woman inevitably recall Bladerunner; however, even if that story provided some inspiration, The Windup Girl doesn't feel derivative: Emiko is the leading protagonist, not a supporting character. And the book takes off from that point of comparison: it's not stuck there. Weaving in with the main plot are a number of sub narratives, the book drawing much of its momentum from this crisscrossing. Hock Seng, Lake's elderly Malaysian Chinese assistant, a refugee from bloody ethnic cleansing, plots his escape from the chaos he feels must ultimately engulf Bangkok. Fiery, ebullient environment police captain Jaidee Rojjanasukchai and his austere female lieutenant Kanya Chirathivat pursue genetic transgressions in an attempt to preserve what is left of Thailand's ravaged ecosystem. Meanwhile their Environment Ministry vies with the Ministry of Trade, which seeks to open up Thailand to resurgent Western business. Plot and counter plot wind the characters together into a climactic conflict sensed only dimly at the start of the book.
It is perhaps here where the book, not falls down, but stumbles. The complexity of the plot towards the end of the book becomes dense and – for me, on first reading – slowed the book's momentum. This complexity might, however, also be a strength. For the purposes of the review I came back to the book, which I had read some eight or nine months previously; it bears rereading, and the largely tight structure is rewarding, as is the plot development. The sense of place is very strong—the press of street markets, the stench and press of humanity in the crumbling high-rise apartment buildings, the tropical setting ("[the] night was black and sticky, a jungle filled with the squawks of night birds and the pulse and whir of insect life"), as is the sense of—literally—the daily grind, as men and animals wind the cranks that keep the city powered. And many of the ideas have the power to jolt: the "cheshires", cats with chameleon DNA that recall Lewis Carroll's fictional creation by changing color to melt into their surroundings, the better to exterminate already-threatened bird populations; the Dung Lord, a mafia don who controls the trade in human waste, a vital part of the city's economy. While not all the characters remain with you afterwards, fittingly, Emiko, the lonely and conflicted protagonist does. Interestingly, hers is also the character for whom the greatest leap of imagination is required—the genetically altered outsider, who makes a journey from abject slavery to a realization of her potential.
Science fiction often suffers because while much attention may have been paid to the technological aspects, the author fails to capture the complexities of the new society or convincingly grasp the characters. Bacigalupi – largely – succeeds because he recognizes that human nature doesn't change over time: elites are only too willing to exercise control with force; the outsiders and those are who different are always vulnerable; human culture, in all its strangeness and mundanity, continues. A key strength of the book is that the subjective portrayal of the characters' inner lives and thoughts means that we feel them to be inhabiting their own present, exactly as we are. They look back of course, as do we. In their case, wonderingly to a time known as "The Expansion", when Thailand was allegedly the "Land of smiles", quite unlike the misery that has become the lot of its average citizen.
If you'd like to sample Bacigalupi's writing, some of his short stories are available on his Pump Six website.
Aidan McKeown is an editor and writer living in the Netherlands. He can be contacted at aidanmckeown@gmail.com.
You can purchase The Windup Girl from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
thanks.. dont have to get it now (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Every generation of scholars from the ancient Greeks to the present day has complained about people like you: children of privilege and promise whose intellectual laziness signals their parents' failure and their culture's fall. Happily, those old geezers have all been full of shit... at least up until the last 10-15 years or so. Now, their lamentations ring loudly in our ears. They sound less like the grousing of irrelevant reactionaries, and more like warnings of an undeniable and very inconvenient tru
Re: (Score:2)
Every generation of scholars from the ancient Greeks to the present day has complained about people like you: children of privilege and promise whose intellectual laziness signals their parents' failure and their culture's fall. Happily, those old geezers have all been full of shit... at least up until the last 10-15 years or so. Now, their lamentations ring loudly in our ears.
Nothing's changed except you have become one of the geezers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:thanks.. dont have to get it now (Score:4, Insightful)
The only kind of person who would think that review was anything even approaching a cliff's notes version of the book are people who haven't read the book. For example saying that Hock Seng is Anderson Lake's "assistant" glosses over at least a quarter of the narrative.
Re: (Score:2)
I bow to your vast and well-documented experience.
Re: (Score:2)
I said that the review was in-depth.. very informative on the book.. much like Cliff Notes.. yes reading Cliff Notes is not reading the real book, but will give you the just of it to get you by without spending tons of time reading something that has already been complied for you.
When reading for pleasure, the story is only one component of why you read. The flavour of the text, the subtleties of characterisation and setting all add to the journey.
While the Cliff Notes may give the the bare bones of the story, they will never convey the joy of letting the telling of that story wash over you.
Re: (Score:3)
But if you read a few more books that you didn't need to, you might not say things like "give you the just of it"...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Those 7 digit UID kids wouldn't know what grumpy means.
Back in my day ....
Re: (Score:3)
Will you guys keep it the fuck down out there?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, get those kids off my lawn!
Re:thanks.. dont have to get it now (Score:5, Interesting)
Having read both the novel and the review, I can say for sure that there is still every need to get the book and read it.
The review is thorough, but it doesn't scratch the surface of what makes the novel so compelling, any more than looking at the Cliff's Notes to Midsummer Night's Dream obviates the need to read the great play.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't sell yourself short that way. You deserve better.
Re: (Score:2)
"Forbidden Planet" was good enough for me.
"Forbidden Planet" was based on "The Tempest," not "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:thanks.. dont have to get it now (Score:5, Interesting)
I just finished reading this book 3 days ago, and it was absolutely a page turner!
My work is in agricultural (food crops) research, and so many people do GMO research there... heck, people in my group are with the Plant Exchange Office that goes to other countries looking for new genetic diversity to add to the US breeding stock.
It was great to find a _____ punk genre that exactly fit what I do!
From beginning to end, there is no black/white, good/bad dichotomy evident, every character has their selfish wants (some more than others) and their demons. The pace of the novel was fantastic, and I won't give anything away, but this book will probably be getting a sequel. Although some of the story arc seems a bit pointless the way it fizzles out and is wrapped up at the end.
Seriously the most original scifi I've read in a LONG time.... is it speculative fiction/biopunk? Where are the nightshades? Awesome!
Sam
Re: (Score:2)
The review is thorough, but it doesn't scratch the surface of what makes the novel so compelling,
Hmm, bad review then? I mean, I'd expect a review to at least "scratch the surface of what makes the novel so compelling", otherwise WTF is the point of the review?
Re: (Score:2)
You can describe. You can endorse. You can summarize. And still never get to what makes a novel great.
There's a lot more to a story than the storyline. A good piece of literature is not only more than the sum of its parts, it's something categorically beyond the sum of its parts. It's love as to pornography. It's a meal as to a recipe. Th
Re: (Score:2)
You're probably one of those people who think a murder mystery can be summed up as "the butler did it".
Ok, I'l believe this review... (Score:3)
...since it's 8/10, rather than the Packt-standard 9/10 :)
Good book, but has some holes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good book, but has some holes (Score:4, Insightful)
In Windup Girl the world has gone through a cataclysm, and you could call the "present" world a post-apocalyptic one if you really wanted, but it's not a nearly dead world. At the point we join the story there are a number of civilizations in the world. They're all worried about further calamities, but most of them are doing pretty well. They're growing and expanding, world trade is starting to come back (despite somewhat justified opposition) a lot of progress is being made in genetics and the harvesting of kinetic energy, and they're able to produce high tech items like computers in at least limited quantities.
Which is why the grand-parent comment is so telling. They can make computers, so why can't they make solar panels? And why is there no nuclear power? And dear gods why no hydro power? They've definitely got the tech to build turbines and water wheels are about the oldest tech out there, and windmills ought to be just about as easy to build.
Re:Good book, but has some holes (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure if it's specifically spelled out, but it's implied that the calorie-men were responsible for releasing plagues that decimated crops of competitors.
But anyway, if you have an immensely powerful establishment, and you try to introduce alternatives, it turns out that they don't look kindly on that sort of thing.
The complete lack of hydro-power is kinda damning though. Solar and wind too, but they lack the pun.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll add both those books to my list for later.
Re: (Score:3)
r.e. solar: I got the impression they 1) didn't have the infrastructure to make new solar or electric things, and 2) famine was the new normal, actually eating was a challenge. Very very interesting social modeling; the book author put a Lot of thought into crafting this world.
As for a the "Reviews of two+ year old books suxorz" *shrug* 1) it is still a good book today, and 2) some geeks might enjoy reading it. (unless this is a dup and Windup Girl h
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
What drawbacks do solar and wind energy have, other than not being terribly economical at present due to cheap oil? In a time of energy scarcity, they'd be rolled out in huge numbers. They also have scalability problems (e.g., you're probably not going to power the Seattle metro area (at present consumption levels) with solar power even if you put panels on every rooftop because there's simply not enough sunlight, and you're probably not going to power other cities with wind power if there isn't that much
Re:Good book, but has some holes (Score:4, Insightful)
2) famine was the new normal, actually eating was a challenge.
If there was mass famine, wouldn't human and animal labor be the last source of energy you would want to use? That would just create an even greater need for food.
I are not an cannibule (Score:2)
Depends on how much of a priority the mid- to long-term survival of those humans and animals is.
Re: (Score:3)
Nope. It depends on what the animals eat. Dumb vegetarians, for instance, are always complaining about the use of animals as food, saying that we could just use all that pasture land as farmland instead and grow crops for people to eat directly. What they totally miss is that people can't eat grass. Cows, however, can eat grass (as can goats, and various other animals), and turn completely useless scrubland into a food source for humans. And no, you can't necessarily turn that land into farmland becaus
Re: (Score:3)
Longer answer: you're right, and - our food supply is essentially based on our oil economy (industrialized agriculture, fertilizer...).
So let's talk about oil for a moment:
An optimist might say we (the Human Race) are transitioning from an oil economy to renewables.
A pessimist would say we're moving far too slowly.
What happens if we never get around to replacing oil before it runs out?
What if something (maybe a world war, or plague, or blight, or a financial crisis) upset th
Re:Good book, but has some holes (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks for the review. I like this Bladerunner kind of stuff. I'll be ordering it, and also checking out other similar books mentioned here.
IMO the no solar energy and reliance on animal powered cranks (and especially in a dense urban environment) is totally unrealistic but dramatic license.
The 23rd century is way too optimistic. The ocean will have flooded Thailand well before that and there will be massive death from starvation and a runaway bioengineered disaster even before that. Human nature being what it is, it's guaranteed we will do nothing to prevent it.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the info. It sounds like an interesting read.
Re: (Score:2)
As for a the "Reviews of two+ year old books suxorz" *shrug* 1) it is still a good book today, and 2) some geeks might enjoy reading it.
Bummer for me is that I picked it up from the library Sunday afternoon and I haven't even started yet, so this thread couldn't have worse timing.
Vilest book I've read in years (Score:4, Informative)
I was fine with the dystopian energy-crisis food-shortage spy-novel paranoid stuff - it was creative, and some of it was well-written, and I wasn't bothered by the cartoon-physics use of genetically engineered elephants to wind fancy springs that seems to annoy a lot of engineers. But the genetically-engineered-women-just-deserve-sex-slavery-and-killing theme that makes up about half the book was really vile. I found it far more squicky and offensive than when a bad imitation Conan the Barbarian character rapes his conquests, and IMHO that part was almost as badly written.
I didn't see how it rated a Hugo award, in spite of the creativity and the complexity of the plot.
Re:Vilest book I've read in years (Score:4, Informative)
Heh, if you think that is vile, try reading Bacigalupi's 'People of Sand and Slag'. He's a brilliant writer, but he always gets under my skin and makes me sad for human nature. For a real fun treat, read Vicker's 'The Featherless Chicken'. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20051024/featherless-f.shtml [strangehorizons.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, maybe a little vile.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember reading "People of Sand and Slag" when it was published. At the time, I was in the hospital and some friends stopped by and brought me a copy of the current (2004) "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction".
I don't think it was vile, but it was sad. Both a sad story and a sad look at human nature. Still, a very good read. It's a short story and doesn't take along to finish. Better still, it's available online:
http://windupstories.com/pumpsix/the-people-of-sand-and-slag/ [windupstories.com]
Re: (Score:2)
You noticed that genetically modified people may not be great candidates for slavery. Good for you. That was one of the major points that I think the author wanted to make by, in this case, describing the negative aspects of such a situation.
Re: (Score:2)
So, uh... Spoilers!
There's also the important undertone that uber-men must be regulated as they're dangerous in the short term and the risk that they'd replace us in the long term. So they're gimped and made illegal. But, as always, some slip through the cracks and find their existance in direct opposition to the law, which makes the seedy underworld their only real option. Hey! Guess what the seedy undergrou
Re: (Score:2)
if the freedom of speech was limited by the collective average outlook of people like you, who insist on getting 'offended' to 'prove' their social decency, we'd have none at all. get over it.
Re: (Score:2)
if the freedom of speech was limited by the collective average outlook of people like you, who insist on getting 'offended' to 'prove' their social decency, we'd have none at all. get over it.
Fuck off, GP didn't say it should be censored by the government, he just said he found it vile. Freedom of speech includes having the opinion that not everything is equally good or bad, you know.
I find a lot of things vile and offensive, and there's something psycopathic and morally empty about anyone who doesn't.
Re: (Score:2)
IMO the real problem is that the most important POV character in the book, Anderson Lake, is portrayed as a total blank. He just kind of walks on and off stage and does stuff, and you never get any insight into why he does what he does. It's not that Bacigalupi can't do characterization -- he does a very nice job with the other characters in the book. He just fails in the case of Lake.
****************** SPOILER WARNING ********************
This creates real problems when Lake uses Emiko as a sexual tool and
Re: (Score:2)
I would tend to agree with you, but it was in some ways even worse than that. Anderson Lake was basically a tool for the current part of the story. I counted at least four times throughout the book that his personality completely changed for no better reason than it served that part of the story. And not just "growing" or even being deceitful (which he is)... some of his behaviours were distinctly at odds with established behaviours from earlier in the narrative. It's almost as if the author did four differ
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What part of dystopian did you miss? There can't be any good news... the evil corporations stole all the sunlight and charges you a royalty for a copy of a photon.
Sci Fi is all about the guilt trip and foreboding warnings from those smarter than you who use just as much (or more) natural resources.... ...And catch phrases, you damn dirty ape!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Seemed pretty obvious to me.... they repeatedly mentioned the megodont union... which wielded huge amounts of power and seemed to act like a guild, excluding others etc.
The feeling I got from the book was that megodont power winding kink-springs was an asian or at least south asian thing... the western nations could easily have used electricity generated by whatever, although the power density of batteries could hardly seem to reach the kink springs. Which is probably why they were so universally used.
Sam
Re: (Score:2)
Really? If you have lost the hi-tech manufacturing complex how in the fuck are you going to make wafers? Anyway the pushed disease from Monsanto was far more interesting than another re-write of the ideas brought up in lets say Dune in the 1960's.
Re: (Score:3)
The next generation of nuclear plants is not fusion. You're looking WAY too far down the road. For that matter, CURRENT generation nuclear plants are perfectly viable. Sure, they have that risk of meltdown and the fuel isn't renewable. But meltdowns are rare, and there's quite a lot of fuel.
The whole economy is based upon oil and coal.
Oil is transportation and coal is grid power. And yes, those are two fundamental resources that ou
Three year old book review? (Score:3, Insightful)
The Windup Girl came out in September 2009 and now you're getting around to reviewing it?
Let me tell ya, there's an awesome book by this guy named Bob Heinlein. He named it "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and I heard it's pretty good. I'd better get cracking on that review before it's too late!
reviewing old books (plus RAH) (Score:3)
Reviewing old books is perhaps not that bad an idea. Many people haven't read The Windup Girl, or even The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Especially with RAH, with no new books coming out, there are no big advertising pushes for his works, even though they're republished periodically. Moon isn't even available in Kindle format for some bizarre reason. (I'm about to scan one of my copies so I can have it on my Kindle. If it's ever available in Kindle format, I'll buy it.)
I was at a sci-fi con a couple of years ag
Re: (Score:2)
I was at a sci-fi con a couple of years ago, and the _only_ author who had a discussion panel dedicated to their works - was Robert Heinlein. Sadly, the average age of the people there was quite high.
That's because younger people generally don't care for sci-fi. Just look at the demise of the Sci-Fi channel, the near-total lack of real sci-fi movies these days, etc. Remember back in the 70s and 80s, when there seemed to be a big new sci-fi movie every week? Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, Alien, Alie
Re: (Score:3)
Oddly enough, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is our book club book for next month.
It's my turn to pick next and we will be doing "Brave New World".
Just because a book is 'old' doesn't mean it's not worthy of consideration or that everyone is familiar with it.
Re: (Score:2)
The Windup Girl came out in September 2009 and now you're getting around to reviewing it?
Let me tell ya, there's an awesome book by this guy named Bob Heinlein. He named it "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and I heard it's pretty good. I'd better get cracking on that review before it's too late!
The best thing about that book is the title. As soon as the irritating narrator's voice starts to grate on you (i.e. after about a page) it becomes like swimming through treacle to see the occasional bright nugget of gold in the murk.
He's much better at ideas than characters, plot or, indeed, writing.
Slashdot: (Score:5, Funny)
News for Nerd. Stuff that matters. Reviews of fiction published two years ago.
Re: (Score:3)
yeah well apparently the reviewer thinks it's ok to push it because it paints a bleak omg fossil fuels end and then it's shit for everyone picture of the world..
like.. fuck.. could just as well review Make Room! Make Room! then..
real kicker is of course that it's actually an advert. no, i'm not going to buy it on amazon. I didn't buy it when I read the synopsis on the paperback either. I might read it, some day, but it seemed cliche shit from the synopsis and this review doesn't help that impression.
"Baciga
Starts strong, then levels of and gets boring (Score:3)
Unfortunately, it bogs down after a while and things move glacially and in circles. I did not finish the book and stopped somewhere in the middle. Pretty rare for me. For me that makes is more a 3/10.
Re:Starts strong, then levels of and gets boring (Score:4, Informative)
Agreed. This book received more buzz than was warranted, and the substance was lacking. As you say, it starts off strong, but never really delivers. I slogged through until the end, but more out of stubbornness than because it was a compelling read. I couldn't help but think that in the hands of a more capable writer, this could have been an incredible story, but the reality was less compelling.
Re: (Score:2)
I've only read "pump six and other stories", his collection of short stories mostly from the same universe, and I thought it was amazing.
The creativity and originality of the world and ideas he packed into those short stories was astounding, so if "The Windup Girl" flags towards the end, I recommend you give pump six a look.
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting. The Windup Girl doesn't quite work (for me) as a narrative, but I will agree the ideas presented were quite thought provoking. It seemed more a problem of execution than ideas, though, so I can totally buy the idea that the author might come up with some really interesting stories in the short form in this particular make-believe world. I will most certainly read these short stories, based on your recommendation. Thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Any idea why it got so many awards? Is there a dearth of good, new sci-fi, or does this touch upon some politically popular ideas amongst the crowd who give awards?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In general, it's just good writing, period. Not easy writing, not obsessive compulsive series fiction,
This might be the answer. I've noticed many with a penchant for sci-fi lean towards a bit of OCD.
Regardless, I added both this and the short story collection to my Amazon wish list.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that many awards stem not from complete reading, but from reading, say, the first 50 pages, and then skimming the rest quickly. Doing that, the book does look very good indeed. The setting is compelling, the characters are vivid, the world is nice and though-provoking. But after a while, you notice that this is not going anywhere and gets bogged down in detail. This could have made an excellent novelette (7,500 and 17,499 words, something like 40-90 pages).
Serves to show that buying by award-count i
Re: (Score:2)
I think that many awards stem not from complete reading, but from reading, say, the first 50 pages, and then skimming the rest quickly.
No, I expect they just pull them out of their ass, like your comment.
It's a good story (Score:2)
While I like "classic sf" (meaning technology and adventure), this was a very good read. It has enough stuff to cause some thinking, not just the entertainment value. I highly recommend it to anyone who's getting a little bored with current SF.
Enjoyed the book (Score:3)
Fun read, not quite (scientifically) accurate (Score:4, Informative)
So, for a dystopian novel (and if you read it closely it is VERY dystopian with what's left of mankind scavenging for what few "calories" they can) I thought is was a "fun" read. Maybe that's because I've been to BKK many many times (I live in Vietnam) and it is the preferred destination for most expats R&R. (In addition to being a "Disneyland for adults", Bangkok consistently is rated the world's top tourist destination for being cheap AND fun! ;). The author gets many details about Bangkok right while projecting it into the despairing future; I especially like the abandoned skyscrapers that are today the icons of the city.
Unfortunately for the novel (but very fortunately for us!) there is no way the world will turn out that bad at least not due to the overwhelming shortage of energy he predicts. Even if we completely run out of fossil fuels (unlikely) or have their use almost completely prohibited worldwide to stop climate change (a bit less unlikely), it looks like renewables will save our energy butts. Even now solar and wind are *only* a factor of two or three times more expensive than fossil fuels; we may be headed for a poorer world (and one in which air travel will again be a luxury only for the rich) but we won't be so desperately scavenging for energy as to make genetically engineered animals (and people!) a necessary substitute. Of course he did this partly to play up the "wind up" aspects of a society which requires this animal energy to be stored up somehow but I'm very glad it won't come to pass.
His climate change predictions, on the other hand, are much more spot on and do foretell a world where the major coastal cities of the world are under constant threat of inundation. :(. As well as it being very hot and humid. :( :(
Read it, liked it, try this... (Score:5, Informative)
I recently read the Jump 225 Trilogy by David Louis Edelman [wikipedia.org] consisting of Infoquake [sffworld.com], Multireal, and Geosynchron. and found them more interesting, but think the author was uncertain how to wrap up the series, which left me a little unsatisfied at the end.
If you want hardcore sci-fi, try Alastair Reynolds [wikipedia.org] and his Revelation Space [wikipedia.org] series.
xkcd (Score:2)
Unlikeable (Score:3)
A friend told me the book was great. It won Hugo and Nebula awards, more evidence that it's great. But I am stopped reading it and I'm finding it difficult to make myself pick it up again.
My main complaint is that I'm around ten chapters in, and so far I don't like anyone. Maybe I should like Emiko, but I haven't seen much of her. But the business exec is harsh, people around him are plotting to stab him in the back, the union that controls the matodonts is corrupt and obnoxious, Thai government officials are corrupt and obnoxious... I find the book unpleasant to read.
Reading this book made me think: in any story you need to make a connection with at least one of the major characters. Usually it should be a positive connection: you are rooting for the hero and want him/her to triumph. Sometimes it can be a negative connection: you start to really want to see the character's plans foiled.
In my favorite stories, there is not just one but several characters I connect with, and usually right from the first chapter. Not so this book.
And, like another Slashdotter commented, I have to wonder why solar power doesn't seem important. The concept of treadle-operated office computers is kind of cool, but it doesn't really make sense to me. Business desktop computers of the 90's were less powerful than today's ARM or SOC computers, so you ought to be able to run business computers 100 years from now on sunlight. Especially in Thailand!
If you love steampunk sort of stuff, then the "bio-punk" in this novel might capture your imagination. I certainly found the background and the technology more interesting than the characters. Global warming has made the seas rise, and fossil fuels are depleted, so the technology is all different. They use "mastodonts" to wind "kink-springs", and these "kink-springs" are sold to anyone who needs portable power without putting carbon emissions into the atmosphere. So airships run on kink-spring power, and sailing ships ply the oceans, and nobody can afford to operate airplanes or motorized ships anymore. (You might think the Internet would be hugely important, since it is so much cheaper to ship bits through a cable than to move humans around, but it doesn't figure much into the chapters I read.)
steveha
Re: (Score:2)
It's a cautionary tale and, I imagine, is suppose to be unpleasant on several levels. You're right not to like anyone in t
Re: (Score:2)
My main complaint is that I'm around ten chapters in, and so far I don't like anyone.
You must be pretty disappointed bymost fiction then. Great (or even good) novels don't depend on you liking the characters, they just have to be believable, or at least interesting.
Most of the characters in Brave New World or 1984 aren't people you'd want as friends.
Good, not great. (Score:2)
I thought it was very entertaining. However, it had some very glaring holes. For example, why the fixation on batteries? Why were they manufactured in such an absurdly complex manner? Why no solar power? Wind power? Tidal? Clearly, some of those decisions were made for the sake of the establishing a plot.
I did feel he did a good job of establishing tension, especially when the uprising began. I also thought he did a reasonably good job of conveying ex-pat culture from the perspective of the ex-pat. But he a
IPv6 (Score:3)
Did they manage to wide-scale convert to IPv6 by the 23rd century?
DRM-free ebook edition at Baen (Score:4, Informative)
The Windup Girl: (Score:2)
Old school version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=m7KPpfTr6PE#t=394s [youtube.com]
uhm no thanks (Score:2)
having just lived through the 'girl with the dragon tattoo' i can go another 5 years without an extended anal rape scene
Re: (Score:2)
having just lived through the 'girl with the dragon tattoo' i can go another 5 years without an extended anal rape scene
Hint: the authors probably didn't introduce these for positive erotic effect.
The Unincorporated Man (Score:2)
The Unincorporated Man is another great, recently written, dystopian future kind of book. The underlying premise to the book is that in the future, every person is a corporation unto themselves. People's stock is bought and sold on the market. In effect, people become investors in each other. Obviously the majority of people end up being owned by others. The greatest accomplishment for a person is to reach "majority", to have the controlling stake in themselves.
All in all, it is a well written and ente
The book stilll haunts me (Score:2)
I read The WIndup Girl about two years ago. Part of the backround is is that the "expansion" , the 250 year run of expanding economies, has come to a horrible end, with famine, wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing. In spite of the technical holes in the book, it rings true to me and I have been reading science fictiion since 1954.
Every time I walk into a supermarket and observe the incredible plenty around me I think "The Expansion". I hope my worries do not come true.
Re: (Score:2)
I hope my worries do not come true.
It occurs to me that no one hopes their worries become true.
Good folks worry about bad things happening; Evil people worry about good things happening.
Me? I am neither Good or Evil, for I know everything is happening all the time.
unanswered question (Score:2)
Yes, this all sounds fine, but did they get around to any chess [wikipedia.org] in the book?
Loved it (Score:2)
With this book Bacigalupi managed to rekindle my ten-years-dorman love for science fiction. Rich characters and wonderful prose.
I still don't see the point of reviewing it now, though. By this time everyone interested in reading it has probably already read it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If the nature decided that mixing fish DNA and spider DNA is not good idea, then accept it.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that if you compared fish and spider genomes, you'd find they share a lot of DNA.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, they even have similar-looking noses [squarespace.com], unless you're one of those freaks with a little pointy nose, in which case you need to undergo a medical procedure to fix this aberration.
Re: (Score:2)
The implication was fairly strong that the plague(s) were the result of the biofood corporations fighting wars against one another.
sPh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Read the book and realize that the author is taking Green/Sustainable culture to a dystopian end...
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like the author was definitely no engineer. You're absolutely right; if you already have an electric distribution network, why would you go backwards to a 19th century gas distribution network? And a central power station can get far higher efficiency that simply burning a hydrocarbon for light, especially if you use LED lights. An energy shortage would drive people to use more efficient technologies, not go backwards to horribly inefficient ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That makes me want to read it in the same way that I want to bungee jump with the cord stapled to my nuts.