The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

I picked up The Windup Girl  on a whim at an Ollies. I'd never heard of it, but it won a Nebula and a Hugo, so I felt it was a safe bet. It took me 11 days to read. I guess most people would think that's pretty quick  For me, that's almost glacially slow. I generally finish a book every other day or so. Even non-YA I tend to get through in about three days on average. 11 days is an eon for me. I got pretty frustrated about it too.

I almost put it down in favor of something I could get some momentum going on. I'm glad I stuck with it though. The Windup Girl is a grim look at what GMO companies like Monsanto could do to the world given a chance. The action is set in Thailand where isolationist policies have helped the country survive the collapse of the ecosystem, the melting of the ice caps, and a succession of bio-engineered plagues and blights. As in any setting like this, the balance of power is tenuous and political intrigue tends to be a key element of the plot.

The narrative follows several points of view. Anderson Lake is a calorie man which is something like an industrial spy for the for the big agricultural engineering corporations who wants to crack the secret to Thailand's food independence.  Hock Seng is a Chinese refugee from Malaya that works for Anderson Lake. He however has plans to regain what he lost in Malaya and he's not too pick about how he gets it. Emiko is a windup girl or artificially engineered and created human. She calls herself a new person and is genetically programmed towards obedience. Jaidee is an enthusiastic government official who believes in his duty and is ruthlessly honest. Kanya is Jaidee's subordinate...she has secrets.

None of these characters is a hero. Each is a fully imagined character with both admirable and sinister qualities. The way they are presented is almost clinical. It is almost like Bacigalupi doesn't intend the reader to feel any specific sympathy for any of them. This detachment allows the story to really be about what happens in the world as the precarious position of the Thai wobbles and then falls apart. While many of the characters do distasteful things, all the protagonists are given backstories rich enough to make their decisions believable.

It's a story filled with tension and anxiety. It's in the characters and it's in the setting itself. There is a constant threat of invasion or pandemic. While I'm happy to be done with it, I'm glad I made it all the way through. The resolution was worth the time I spent on it.