The Windup Girl
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, the break-out science fiction debut.
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? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century.
Awards:
Hugo Award for Best Novel (2010), Nebula Award for Best Novel (2009), Locus Award for Best First Novel (2010), Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for Bestes ausländisches Werk (2012), British Science Fiction Association Award Nominee for Novel (2010), John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2010), Compton Crook Award (2010), Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Roman étranger et Traduction (2013), Premio Ignotus for Mejor Novela Extranjera (2012), Prix Bob Morane for roman traduit (2013), Cena Akademie SFFH for Kniha roku (Book of the Year) (2011), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science Fiction (2009), Prix Une autre Terre (2013)
Paolo Bacigalupi is an award-winning author of novels for adults and young people.
Review from Goodread critic Oleksandr Zholud:
"... A great story, which should be read by all Sci-Fi fans. This genre is defined as bio-punk which means ‘classical’ cyberpunk themes like great merciless corporations, wage slaves, underground hackers etc., but in a post-apocalyptic world, where fossil fuels are almost depleted and calories rule: people and pack animals have to ‘wind-up’ mechanical stuff for work, waste should be processed to get methane, etc.
Mega-corps here are presented by calorie men, who hunt for gene-materials, create plagues to destroy alternative food sources and get profits by squishing hungry people dry. Quite a bleak view on what GMO and copyright protection may lead to. A great read, highly recommended."