Book Discussion: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

[b]The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi)[/b]
You might think that my following synopsis/review is very spoilery, but trust me... these are just the basic facts of the world this story takes place in with a very brief description of the characters.

It is the late 22nd Century, and things are looking pretty bleak. The shortage of fossil fuels have long ago forced the Capitalist Western countries back within their own borders, and now things are powered using springs. You manually pump the springs yourself, and it holds a certain amount of energy. What computers that still exist are pedal-powered. Of course, this makes calories the world's new resource... you eat, and then use the calories up to power your house. As such, the so-called "calorie companies" have risen as the new brand of Capitalism. Employing "generippers" to unleash deadly diseases on the world's food supply, so that GM food of their own manufacture are the only things safe to eat. Anyone who defies the copyright of the calorie company's are dealt with harshly.

Thanks to their long history of independence, one of the last country's to stand tall are Thailand. In Bangkok, giant dikes hold the now towering ocean at bay and markets are full of fruits that were long thought to be extinct. The American Anderson Lake is an undercover agent of the calorie company AgriGen, sent to investigate the source of Thailand's food. His cover is as manager of a spring manufacturing company that employs the "yellow card" Hock Seng (refugee ethnic Chinese from a future Malaysia, that is once again called Malay), as well as the use of "megadonts" (giant, artificial elephants) to power it.

Megadonts are just one of three new species introduced thanks to the genetic engineering, the others being "cheshires" - disappearing cats that were originally created as a birthday present for a little girl who was a fan of Alice In Wonderland, but since took over the world's entire domestic cat population and roam the streets - and "New People". The New People were created in Japan to do all the menial tasks for their rapidly aging population. Learning a lesson from the cheshire's, they were created totally subservient to their patrons, are infertile, and move in a jerky robotic-like way to make them instantly noticable. This movement is what gets them the derogotary names "heechy keechy" and "windup". Emiko is one such, and the Windup Girl of the books title. Taken on a business trip to Bangkok with her Japanese patron, she was abandoned in the city so he could buy a newer model, and she since fell into the hands of Raleigh, who uses her as a novelty prostitute who is ritually humilated and raped as part of a sick sex show every night. But despite being compelled to obey all direct orders, she secretly harbours a desire to escape to a rumoured village in the North where Windups live.

The reason they can get away with this shocking abuse? (And it is shocking... some feminists didn't read past her introductory scene, which is a shame) It's because in Thailand, windups are reviled at best, and at worst are "mulched" by the "white shirts". White shirts are the enforcers for the ultra-nationalistic Environment Ministry led by General Pracha, whose job it is to protect Thailand from outside influences, whether it be artificial "soulless" humans like Emiko or the farang (Thai for foreigner) who are beginning to regain their influence abroad in an anticipated "New Expansion". Jaidee Rojjanasukchai is one such white shirt... a former Muay Thai champion, he is a hero to the Thai people and the "Tiger Of Bangkok" is the public face of the white shirts. He spends his time raiding illegal shipments and making powerful enemies, whilst simultaneously trying to get a smile out of his continuously dour partner Kanya (who sees ghosts). The Environment Ministry once attempted a coup which resulted in them sharing power with the Trade Ministry led by Akkarat. The Trade Ministry, as you can imagine are eager to let the farang into the country.

The reason for that lengthy description is because Anderson, Hock Seng, Emiko and Jaidee are all lead characters of this book, and as they all work for different factions it's pretty difficult to explain who the characters are without explaining pretty much the way the entire world works. But if you think from those brief descriptions you know how this story is going to go, you'd be very very wrong. Without going into detail, around about the halfway point in the book [i]everything[/i] changes, and what was originally a slow-burner of a story suddenly becomes an action-packed epic.

Paolo Bacigalupi has created a scary, all-too-plausible future world where nothing is ever as it seems, and the characters match this. You're going to be hard-pressed to find a single character you entirely agree with in this book, and in fact the character you first assume is going to be the hero (and follow the annoying "white man rescues asian girl trope) is actually a complete asshole, and though some of the actions of the white shirts are a bit extreme, I believe they end up becoming the most sympathetic characters in the entire book.

I'm a bit late to the party with this book, reading it after it's won pretty much every award it's possible for a science fiction novel to win (including sharing the 2010 Hugo Award with China Mieville's The City And The City - also on my To Read list), and there's a good reason, too, as it's one of the finest books I've ever read. There is a lot of local slang words (mainly Thai, but also Mandarin and Japanese at points) with no explanation of what they mean, so it may take a bit of getting used to. You usually get a sense of what they mean by context, though. Also, there are two absolutely brutal rape scenes against Emiko that won't be to everyone's tastes as I pointed out, but persevere with it, because I really think it's worth it.