'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi

I've been a little MIA of late due to getting to grips with a new job and watching the Olympics here in the UK non stop. I've just finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, and that is what I'm reviewing today. Next up for review will be the Song of Ice and Fire books. I want advice- should I review as a whole series, book by book in one post? Or do a separate post on each book? Let me know in the comments please. Thanks!

The Windup Girl has won numerous awards so I had high hopes for it, despite being a genre that I haven't tried before. The genre is described as bio steam punk. Bacigalupi is well known for Ship Breaker which I have on my lengthy books to buy list. 

What's it about?
 I'm going to include more background than usual, describing the world and the plot.  I think Wikipedia does a good job at setting the scene:
'The Windup Girl is set in 23rd century Thailand. Global warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and mega corporations like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar (called calorie companies) control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile. The current monarch of Thailand is a child queen. The capital city is below sea level and is protected from flooding by levees and pumps.'

That's the background, now what about the plot? This is from Amazon:

'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. 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?'

What did I think of it? 

I found that it took me a long time to get into this book. It throws you in at the deep end, in the middle of a world you know nothing about. Frequent use of foreign, non translated languages in the inital chapters made it tough to understand what was happening. So many new concepts are thrown your way in the first few chapters, it all becomes rather bewildering and not overly enjoyable.  The Windup Girl is set in the same world as Bacigalupi's short story The Calorie Man and The Yellowcard Man, which I didn't realise when I began this book. I'm not sure if reading those short stories would have helped me to get into the story faster or not. I did find that by around chapter 10, I was starting to get into the plot, but it is a slow plot builder. For a long while you just have lots of questions and not many answers in terms of where the plot may be going. This was a disappointment for me, as I struggled at the beginning not to give up on this book. I'm glad I didn't, but it wasn't immediate enjoyment, which I think is important for books. 

The book is told by five narrators- Anderson Lake (the calorie man), Emiko (the Windup girl), Jaidee (a captain of the whiteshirts), Kanya (whiteshirt) and Hock Seng (a yellowcard). I enjoyed all the narrators once I managed to get my head into the world that Bacigalupi created. I personally found Anderson and Emiko the most compelling, and I cared the most for their stories and well being. Emiko was fascinating to me; it was highly enjoyable learning about the attitudes to windups, the mindset of the windups themselves. Hock Seng wasn't overly likeable at the beginning, but I found I did start to root for him in as the plot continued and I came to understand him a little better.

Once the plot got going I found myself quite absorbed by the story, intrigued as to what was going to happen, as it was very slowly unveiled. I also thought the world that Bacigalupi described was incredibly interesting. It raised lots of questions about the ethics of the world and the dangers of the future. It paints a very depressing picture of the future!  The whole gene hack and genetic engineering was interesting, especially the windups who have a large  design faults and are sterile to stop them taking over from humans. The whole future that Bacigalupi envisioned was very clever, and I plan to read Ship Breaker and quite possibly Bacigalupi's short stories too.

Rating

Goodreads Reading Challenge
This book is number 8 out of 50

'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner

I got bored with reviewing my goodreads list in order, so I thought I'd jump ahead to 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner, as this was a very different reading experience for me, as I don't usually gravitate towards slightly frightening thrillers, despite the fact I always enjoy them. I really should learn to pick them up more often!

What's it about?
'When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse enclosed by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them, open. Every night they are closed tight. And that every 30 days a new boy is delivered in the lift.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets that are buried within his mind.' Goodreads summary. 


What did I think of it?
I was really surprised by this book. It was not what I was expecting at all. The booktube community kept recommending this book for fans of 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins, and saying that is was a brilliant book. I was looking for something similar to 'The Hunger Games' so I thought I'd give it a go. Personally I wouldn't compare the two. Okay, the concept of being trapped in an arena/maze idea can be considered similar, but the feel and ideas of the books were very different. 

I started reading 'The Maze Runner' about 10:30pm and I only planned to read until midnight, then I would get some sleep. This did not happen! I had to keep reading as I found it a little scary and I couldn't sleep until I knew what happened. Plus, once I got past the fear, I was hooked on the plot. I just had to find out what was going on, and how the Gladers were going to resolve the situation. I found this an incredibly addicting read, and I was left feeling rather worn out after this book. It is a great thriller! 

Dashner creates a creepy yet enthralling world that the Gladers live in. The book has a real sense of urgency, and continually builds the suspense, revealing small plot points whilst at the same time creating even more mysteries as the book goes on. I think Dasher does an excellent job in describing the forbidding maze, and letting you picture the dark and foreboding place in your head. 

I thought the characters were a little under developed and that the remembering memories at convenient moments was a slightly contrived plot device but none of these things ruined the book for me.  I am very much a plot driven reader, I empathise and get attached to characters fairly easily so it doesn't usually matter too much to me if characters aren't as developed as they could be, as long as the plot interests me. I was so intrigued by the plot of 'The Maze Runner'- what was outside the maze? Why were they in the maze in the first place? Where did the monster Grievers come from? Why does the Changing occur? Why is the maze stepping up a notch? Who are the 'Creators'? 

It is a fairly cheerless, unrelenting and dark book in many respects but it drags you in, and compels you to read more.  From reading other people's reviews, I have found that it splits the jury- a lot of people seem to have gripes with the made up slang, and 2D characters, though everyone seems to love the idea of the maze runner. I personally thoroughly enjoyed 'The Maze Runner' and I would recommend it to my friends. 

Rating

Goodreads Reading Challenge
This book is number 6 out of 50