Link : Amazon, Goodreads. Price:£5.95
Genetically engineered crops and plagues have wiped out the greater portion of the world’s agriculture, ending the era of great nations and open borders as humanity struggles to survive the latest pestilence. Anderson Lake is a company man trying to discover the secrets of Thailand’s success, one of the few relatively civilised nations remaining. Jaidee is an incorruptible head of the White Shirts, protecting the nation from potentially toxic illegal imports. Hock Seng is a “yellow card”, a once wealthy Chinese refugee from a violent uprising that murdered his family. Their lives will be turned upside-down by of Emiko, a “windup girl”, an android, a sex-slave, and the person who may be about to start a revolution.
Did that all sound complicated? Well, it is. The world-building in this book is incredible, and the sheer scope of Bacigalupi’s imagination makes up for all sorts of difficulties. For example, all the characters are racist. It makes sense for the story, but it’s hard to like them! Having endowed us with a super-complicated world, the author then reaches for the literary stars by using third person present: “Lake reaches for the glass.” Great for judges of literary prizes, not great for readers trying to understand the fourteenth made up word on the page. Finally, we have the magically wonder girl, whose voyeuristic sexual abuse is excused because it gets her superpowers, and she has her revenge. Nope, never heard that trope before.
Why am I being so super harsh on this book? Because if any of these things in the early chapters put you off, stick with it. As the story hurtles into the final act you come to care about these characters, murderous gits or not. This book grows from imaginative world building to powerful character stuff – it has things to say, and things that will stay with you. Bacigalupi has taken risks with style, form, format and character, and they pay off.
