wind me up

Books again: Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WIND UP GIRL is fascinating. The plot, in this case, is a vaguely Frank Herbert-esq tale of conspiracy, people submitting to their baser instincts, and nations being moved by the actions of individuals. However, the MacGuffin here, of a post-collapse Thailand run by biotechnology is staggering: Bacigalupi’s world-building is maybe not as razor tight as some other authors I could name, but his conceit is enormously satisfying. Reading the book has the same bewildering effect that reading NEUROMANCER must have had in the 1980s. All we can hope for is that he’s not as prescient as Gibson.