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The Windup Girl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
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The Windup Girl
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Summary
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)
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? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of The Calorie Man (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and Yellow Card Man (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions.
BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, author Paolo Bacigalupi explains how a horrible trip to Thailand led to the idea for The Windup Girl.
Critic reviews
- Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2010
- Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2009
- Best Books of 2009, Publishers Weekly
- 10 Best Fiction Books of 2009, Time magazine
- Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy 2009, Library Journal
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What listeners say about The Windup Girl
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 06-04-14
Great story - Narrator on Valium
Jonathan Davis MUST have been paid by the minute. I can't imagine any other reason for the glacial narration. Fortunately my Audible app lets me change the narration speed. I found "1.5 times" was about right. As a result, this was a considerably shorter book than I'd expected!
Now, the story: The Windup Girl is a fable of a world without fossil fuels, where mega-corporations claim Intellectual Property rights over genetically engineered cereal crops while millions starve. It's a story set in world where gene-hacked sub-class are quite literally, lower than trash.
It's story of contamination, where disease, superstition and revolution spread in the same way as suspicion, fear and depravity.
The Windup Girl exists in a place of poverty and decay, where your next mouthful of fresh fruit might see you coughing up blood in the gutter, and where the corrupted remnants of the police have become the most feared gang in the district.
It's challenging. Especially because of it's heavy reliance on Thai culture. So don't expect an easy page turner. That said, I absolutely loved it.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ola Agbaimoni
- 08-07-21
Intriguing and very well imagine story
I really enjoyed this book. Having read some of the reviews I decided to listen to it at 1.3 speed because the narrator, whilst, very expressive, speaks extremely slowly. I found it a novel plot with lots of twists I kept changing my allegiance being constantly torn between which side to root for. Gripping to the very end I would definitely recommend a listen.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Daniel jobling
- 19-07-21
iffy
okay this was a hard review for me because I liked the idea and the way the story initially set up but somewhere in there the writer just seemed to tumble out words and ideas maybe a standalone novel wasn't the right thing here. wasn't keen on the very cringe worthy accents either
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- LawrenceB
- 13-06-21
Slow start
I enjoyed the book but had to persevere through the first half as it took a lot of time setting up the characters.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 21-12-20
So longwinded.
Just not for me. When a author spends a third of a chapter saying the same thing fifteen different ways you know you're reading "literary" science fiction. After several chapters I still had no idea what the story was about. The combination of world building, background colour, an obsession with proving how much the author was immersed in the culture being described and the mixture of languages used to show off that culture left me cold.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-08-21
Give it time.
Initially I found this hard going, however, the further in I got the more the story unfolded and the intricacies unraveled. Such a well told and beautiful story of political, personal and sociatal corruption and collapse.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- merlin b_s
- 05-11-17
fantastic story, well told.
where do I start. this story has a fantastic story, well designed characters and an oppressive setting that captures the distopian genre.
My only issue was the gratuitouse rape scene towards the end of the book. far too much detail.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alex Ward
- 19-11-22
Intricately imagined dystopia
Well written bio-punk dystopia set in a ravaged and failing near future in which energy and food are scarce and monsanto-esque argichem/biotech companies hold the world in a symbiotic stranglehold. The Thai setting felt very fresh to me. There are a lot of names, terminology and political machinations which means you definitely need to pay close attention, but its worth it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C B-H
- 13-05-18
Just marvelous
Writing, narration, production - all excellent. The book is inventive, interesting, captivating, imaginative and not a little profound 'round the edges. Wished it'd never end...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Inder
- 02-05-20
OH MY GAAD!!!!
This is amazing, it's a must read for sci-fi fans. I wish there was a movie.😭😭
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