The future of food and of being human
A calorie company employee is after one of the last seed banks and a new human hopes to save herself in 'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi
Welcome to the monthly Reviews & Recs edition of Story Voyager, where I recommend sci-fi books and short stories.
In 2023 and 2024, I published my annual reading lists here on Substack, and several of you asked if I’d review any of those books. So, by popular request, I created this new section on Story Voyager that will bring you a monthly book review in your inbox.
But first, a short announcement👇…
Upcoming seasonal story series 📣
From June 30th to July 10th, I will publish a mini-series The Dust Pirates, a cli-fi, dystopian short story that is part of my cli-fi series There Is Hope.
This will be epic, don’t miss out! 💫
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The undercover employee of a calorie company spreading genehacked seeds tries to break into Thailand, one of the last global markets still using natural seeds in the 23rd century. But his mission is led astray when he meets a windup girl, a genetically modified humanoid from Japan hiding in the underbelly of Bangkok.
Star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: science fiction, biopunk, climate fiction, hopeful dystopia
Major themes: climate change, biotechnology, seed industry, climate migration, energy technologies, environmental ethics
Publication year: 2009
Book length: 361 pages
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a captivating, provoking, and moving take on our future and it was my favorite climate fiction read in 2023.
What is the book about?
James Clavell’s gritty realism meets William Gibson’s steampunk low-life and high (bio)tech surrealism.
It is the 23rd century, and the city of Bangkok is under pressure from the rising sea levels pumped from under the city with expensive fuel, the megacorporations or calorie companies propagating genehacked seeds that push against Thailand’s closed borders to introduce their engineered products together with plagues and bioterrorism, as well as internal tensions caused by the regent of the child queen who doesn’t have the city’s best interests at heart—all the while protecting a secret glimmer of hope at its heart.
Amidst this complex setting, Paolo Bacigalupi weaves a tale of intrigue and suspense in The Windup Girl. As the main characters and narrators are introduced, a web of lies and betrayal is spun, slowly revealing their true intentions. With each turn of the page, the plot gains momentum, leaving the reader uncertain about who the true villains and heroes are.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel delves into a pressing issue of the 21st century—the genetically modified seeds and seed patenting practices of fertilizer megacorporations. In their quest for profit, these monopolies are quietly destroying the genetic diversity of our seeds, driving independent seed banks out of business, and forcing farmers to purchase their sterile seeds every season. This cycle of exploitation is not confined to the pages of the book. In India, a country not far from Thailand, the agriculture sector has already been decimated by the monopoly practices of agrochemical corporates and is currently fighting for the right to own and grow naturally propagated seeds.
There’s a vintage feeling to The Windup Girl, where the patriarchal capitalist past is threatened by a surrealist future emerging like a lotus flower from the murky waters of greed and exploitation.
What I liked the most
This book creates awareness about one of the most overlooked themes in science fiction, the future of food, and one of the looming threats of climate change, food insecurity.
The chapters written from the point-of-view of the windup girl, a non-human character, are fascinating, while the insights into her subservient genetic conditioning are chilling. This alien character reminded me of Detective Miller from The Expanse after he became alien, and the fascinating translator character from the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie, who had acquired alien-like behaviors after spending time with aliens and learning their language. These three characters are a stellar example of portraying otherness in science fiction.
What I liked the least
The lenghty descriptions of the kink-spring techology for producing and storing gigajoules of energy. Several prominent reviewers complained about the inaccurate science in The Windup Girl. I say they missed the point of the book.
Would I recommend it?
Paolo Bacigalupi’s vision of our climate future is as realistic as it gets. Even though some reviewers might consider the science unrealistic or far-fetched for the 23rd century, The Windup Girl remains a solid 5-star recommendation.
If you plan on reading only one climate fiction book this year, let it be The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. This intelligent, well-written novel has a high educational value about the future of our food and a compelling non-human character that will give you a new perspective on our continued existence on this planet.
She is an animal. Servile as a dog. And yet if he is careful to make no demands, to leave the air between them open, another version of the windup girl emerges. As precious and rare as a living bo tree. Her soul, emerging from within the strangling strands of her engineered DNA.
— The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Sci-fi roundup on Substack
If you don’t have time to read a whole book, here are three sci-fi & fantasy short stories I loved reading with my daily cup of tea, in no particular order.
P.S. Substack is the platform I use to send this newsletter to you. And it is slowly becoming a great place for reading quality fiction online.
I hope you’ll enjoy these short stories ✨!
Maya by
What happens to a society when we optimize humans for productivity? The there-part short sci-fi fiction story Maya by
is a sobering reflection on our current society and a glimpse into a future that none of us wants to live dashed with a glimmer of hope.
Looking for a New Life – The Space Cuckoo by
The Space Cuckoos are coming for you! A cli-fi short story in which a deep space civilization might take over humanity and make it better? All I know is that this story is a beautiful read.
Brae’s meteorite by
Brae’s meteorite is a young adult fantasy novella about teenage love, loss and magic translated by the author from a mysterious diary. It’s not sci-fi but worth your time if you enjoy good writing and storytelling. You can find a table of contents here.
That’s all for today.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Story Voyager. Let me know in the comments if you want more sci-fi book reviews & recommendations.
I haven't read anything by Bacigalupi. I read David Brin's Piecework (Biopunk if you will) back in the 90s, though and it haunts me ever since.
Great review, Claudia. 'Biopunk' is a place on my bookshelves I should fill more. I'm intrigued by the Thai setting and the intricate characters.
Seeds, like pollinators, sit too low on our radar. Corporate controlled sterile monocultures do the world no favours. People need to understand the difference between GM and GE. I hope the Arctic seed banks will still be accessible and viable when we become desperate for them.
And thank you for hatching my Space Cuckoo from an appreciative nest. 🤗