The Windup Girl

By: Paolo Bacigalupi

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

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.

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)

Hard core almost at it's best

Very good hard core sci fi in the world it is set, with a message that is not preachy, but a very slow moving story. If you like story over action then this a good book for you. The story follows characters who seem to have very little interaction that leads to a chain of events that reach the book's conclusion. The world is gritty and grimy, set between the few haves and the all the rest of the have nots. The wind up girl is not electrical/mechanical but is genetically engineered. Which to me makes her still human, but how she is 'programmed' that makes her the way she is. It is the simple fact that she is made that is how others perceive her. The narrator is very good, he can jump from an American male to an Asian woman without a hitch. His voice is clean and clear. Over all the book has the feeling that is should be great, but in the end is somehow lacking.

Not a single likable character in the mix

I bought this book because i'm in to this sort of steam punk dystopian Science fiction world and I read that it was "award-winning".

Who even decides this?

Again I find myself wondering, is it the sheer length that makes the award committees determine that this is "literature" as opposed to other books in the genre. Granted the story had promise, and the narrator was fabulous, but the characters were so unlikable I did not even care what happened to them. There wasn't a Single character who had any redeeming qualities. I was literally praying that the author would blow them all to hell by the end.

An Amazing Story

The world that Paolo Bacigalupi has created is a fantastical one, capturing the world in the midst of great change. In it we are shown how even though everything is changing culture does not change as fast as the world around it.

Jonathan Davis does an amazing job narrating this story; I am totally blown away by his performance. He fills the characters with so much life, making them each a vivid character with their own desires and fears. His ability to create a palpable difference between the different Asian cultures is fantastic.

I really enjoyed the science fiction aspects of this story, the new words, the blending of different languages, new creatures, and most of all interaction between the different characters. Every character expresses their desires and fears as the story moves along at a perfect pace, almost all of the characters are both hero and villain, living in some shade of gray. Good stuff.

There are some very brutal scenes in this book where I feel the author went WAY overboard, to the point that I almost stopped listening and deleted the book, but instead I turned the player up to 3x speed and got past them, it was worth it (but I think it would be a better story leaving some things to the imagination instead of spelling them out in horrifying detail.)

Very cool!

I'm only half way through and I'm sold. Hey..they don't pass out Nebula awards to just everyone! Both the story and the performance are excellent...I'm not a critic...I just love thoughtful, innovative, speculative fiction...especially if it's delivered well! And that's what you get... if you just click it!

Creative Plot, Successful Narrarator

Would you listen to The Windup Girl again? Why?

I already have! This was my second listen and I enjoyed it more this time. The plot is so thick that it took me a few times to really understand all the concepts that were presented. I will let it sit for a year or two and give it a third round. One of the few books that I have re-visited.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Windup Girl?

Memorable? The disturbing sexual scenes were memorable in a rather traumatic way.

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Davis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, he is one of my favorite narrators. He is not overly dramatic (read Scott Brick here... booo) yet knows where to place emphasis on what could be difficult to follow passages.

Interesting story but confusing

Perhaps it's me, but I couldn't stay with this story. I still am not sure what the war was about or who the good guys are. The part with the hitchy gitchy girl was good but still left me scratching my head. I finished it but was not really satified. Maybe I will get it the second time around when I re-listen a year from now.

a best scifi read

I was somewhat overwhelmed in the first portion due to the lingo and descriptors of a future eco/world. I was hooked on the 2nd third and couldn't stop towards the end. This is a big world of unique people in a future world with many relevant eco/environmental issues at play. The windup girl? amazing read.

Cyber-Punk meets The Flintstones

Even though there were times I felt I was listening to a cyber-punk version of the Flintstones, I still loved it. The author has a gift for weaving his characters into life. I find that rare these days. You'll find yourself screaming "what happened to solar, nuclear, hydro and geo-thermal generators?" over and over again. You'll be bewildered at Bacigalupi's use of gas lights to light the streets instead of the much more efficient gas generated electricity. But honestly, you want care after about an hour. Highly recommended.

Excellent read, Recommended

The world Bacigalupi writes is rich and detailed. His characters are whole people and the plots inside this work are compelling to say the least.

Brilliant view of the future

Where does The Windup Girl rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 25%

What did you like best about this story?

The originality. The world and time was a creative and thoughtful extenstion of the modern timeline.

Any additional comments?

Firs class science fiction!