Reviewed by Michael @ Knowledge Lost on
The Windup Girl is a very difficult novel to summarise, but I do not really care about the plot; I picked this up for the themes. I knew this was going to be a biopunk novel that explores ideas of genetically modified food and bioterrorism but I was surprised with everything this book covers. With a food shortage, ‘calories become currency’, giving corporations with bio-engineering backgrounds the tools for larger profits and control. However, what happens when corporations have too much control?
I am sure people will dislike this book for being overly complex or dense, but I really think you need to ignore the plot at times and focus on the actual message. Paolo Bacigalupi has a lot of interesting ideas, genetically modified product is a slippery slope but food shortages will also become a problem. How do we find a balance? This bleak world really captures corporations in an interesting light, exploring the shocking tactics used for better profits, and the lack of compassion they have towards the people (or windups).
This debut novel, really catapulted Paolo Bacigalupi career; winning the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best First Novel and sharing the Hugo Award for Best Novel with China Miéville’s brilliant novel The City & the City. Recently Bacigalupi released his sixth novel, The Water Knife that explores water shortages; a book I need to read as well. I like when science fiction novels explore interesting issues, this is why I prefer Soviet sci-fi or novels from the 1960s, but I think Bacigalupi is an author I will need to pay more attention to in the future.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/sci-fi/the-windup-girl-by-paolo-bacigalupi/
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 12 August, 2015: Finished reading
- 12 August, 2015: Reviewed