Originally published in 2009, I was gifted a copy of “The Windup Girl” a couple of years ago and have just gotten around to reading it.
WOW!
What a fantastic story!
And what a perfectly executed piece of writing!
On the front cover of my copy there is a quote from Time Magazine claiming that ‘Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson’ – that high praise takes a lot of justifying, given that Gibson essentially created the ‘cyberpunk’ sci-fi sub-genre with his ‘Burning Chrome’ short story and then his masterpiece novel ‘Neuromancer’.
In a Q&A at the back of my copy of “The Windup Girl”, Bacigalupi describes the story as classic science fiction in the tradition of Huxley (‘Brave New World’) and Orwell (‘1984’). Again, those are massive sci-fi influences to try to follow on from… so does he have the imagination and skill to pull it off?
The answer is a resounding ‘YES’, and in bucket loads.
‘The Windup Girl’ is set in a dystopian future Thailand that is being ravaged by climate change, sea level rise and widespread bio-engineered plagues. Energy comes from human labour and wound-up “kink-springs”. Food is generally scarce and food security is fragile. Thailand’s tight biosecurity laws and seed vaults are a desperate bulwark against foreign agribusinesses and invasive genetic plagues. In this world, environmental collapse isn’t a looming threat but a permanent, everyday reality that shapes all political and personal decisions.
Throughout the book, Bacigalapi explores themes of Environmental Collapse, Bioethics and Post-human Identity. In that sense his writing follows a well-trodden path in SF. What makes this book stand out is the immensely vibrant sense of character and place that he creates. The people are facing real challenges with real motivations and actions. The place is so vibrantly described that you can almost smell the shrimp cooking over methane stoves in the heat of the slum’s streets.
Beyond Thailand, the global economy is dominated by powerful “calorie companies” that control genetically engineered crops. Anderson Lake, an undercover agent for AgriGen, is running a kink-spring factory in Bangkok as a front for seeking out valuable pre-plague seed stocks. His investigation draws him into the fragile political power balance between the Environment and Trade ministries.
The Environment Ministry, fronted on the streets by teams of ‘White Shirts’, is fiercely protective of Thailand’s genetic independence. The Trade Ministry is seeking to open the country up to foreign interests. The tension between them is heightened by food shortages, corruption, as well as the constant threats from bio-plagues and rogue biotechnology. Political intrigue, corporate espionage, biotechnology and ecological disaster are all on course to collide in a bloody power shift that will destabilise the nation.
As a non-Thai farang, Lake is constantly at risk of being revealed to be a ‘calorie man’ and executed. Always trying to conceal his true identity, he starts to take risks when he becomes enthralled by Emiko, the titular “Windup Girl”. She is a genetically engineered post-human ‘New Person’, designed to serve the wealthy. Abandoned in the city by her previous Japanese owner, she is forced into degrading sex-work in Bangkok’s underworld.
Emiko’s plight explores what it means to be human when your body is designed and owned. Engineered for obedience, she is ostracised, sexualised, and deemed subhuman by law. Yet she experiences longing, pain, and moral choice. Seeing her suffering, we are forced to question whether being human is a biological category or a moral one.
Destablised by the degradations of her daily life, Emiko’s dreams of freedom are multiplied when she hears that there is a place in ‘the North’ where other Windups are living freely. Increasingly consumed by her drive for freedom, she becomes the violent catalyst for civil war between the ministries. Ultimately the old order gives way to a new and uncertain future, where survival hinges on who controls the seeds of life itself.
Unusually for me, I had to stay up until midnight to finish reading ‘The Windup Girl’… I had to know how it finished!
I’m now looking forward to reading Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife” – he’s set himself a high bar to reach with that one!
Lee J. Russell, Author 
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