Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

THE WINDUP GIRL
by
PAOLO BACIGALUPI
cover of The Windup Girl The Windup Girl (2009)

2009 Nebula Award Winner
2010 Hugo Award nominee

Night Shade books hardcover (left)
cover art by Raphael Lacoste
359 pages

 		 
From the front flap of the hardback:
       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, crèche-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?...

Read for group discussion on July 14, 2010
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy 8.5 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri - Barb -
Aaron 10 Cynthia -
Jackie - Ron 9
Bob 9 Molly 9
Eneasz 10 Stephanie 9
Bibliography:
Paolo Bacigalupi is a US science fiction and fantasy writer.

Awards:
2006 Theodore Sturgeon Award for "The Calorie Man"
The Windup Girl was named as one of the Top 10 Books of 2009 by Time Magazine
2009 Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Windup Girl
2010 Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel for The Windup Girl
2010 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel for The Windup Girl

Novels:
-- The Windup Girl (2009)

Story Collections:
-- Pump Six and Other Stories (2008)

YA Novels:
-- Ship Breaker (2010)

Links:
Aaron's book review of Pump Six and Other Stories on Fantastic Reviews
Fantastic Reviews' interview with Paolo Bacigalupi (2008)
Paolo Bacigalupi - Wikipedia
windupstories.com - author's website
SF Signal: GUEST REVIEW: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
SF REVIEWS.NET: The Windup Girl / Paolo Bacigalupi

Return to Home Page - Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

E-mail: SFandFBookclub@aol.com
 This page was last updated August 04, 2010