The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Novel
Number of words : 145000
Percent of complex words : 9.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 9.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.3
Flesch : 74.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
PEOPLE
Anderson Lake
A calorie man, working on a project in Thailand. A foreigner, farang. Wants to discover Thai seed secrets.
Saint Francis
Would be a handy guy to have around in these calorie controlled times.
Lao Gu
A rickshaw driver and yellow card refugee.
Yates
The inventor of much more efficient kink springs at SpringLife.
Banyat
SpringLife's head of Quality Assurance.
Tan Hock Seng
Lake's assistant. A yellow card Chinese refugee from Malaya. Ex-head of the Three Prosperities.
Num
SpringLife's day foreman.
Pollack
A messy artist.
The Dung Lord
A rich union leader. An underworld figure.
Raleigh
Flotsam of the old Expansion, another farang. Runs a kinky whorehouse.
Pom and Nu and Kukrit and Kanda
SpringLife workers.
Lin and Lek and Chuan
SpringLife workers, the latter being dead.
Mai
A skinny girl from the SpringLife production line.
Doctor Chan
A yellow card Chinese doctor who repairs Lake after a Megadont rampage.
Lewis Carroll
Author of Alice in Wonderland.
Akkarat
The Trade Minister.
General Pracha
Head of the Environment Ministry and white shirts.
Gregg and Yee
Investors in SpringLife.
Emiko
The Windup girl, a Japanese created woman.
Kannika
Dominatrix at Raleigh's whorehouse.
Gendo-sama
Old owner of Emiko.
Mizumi-sensei
Emiko's mistress in Japan.
Somdet Chaopraya
Protector of the Thai Child-Queen.
Gi Bu Sen
Gibbons, a generipper who protects Thailand from the calorie companies.
Captain Jaidee Rojjanasukchai
The Tiger of Bangkok. Leader in the field of the white shirts. An ex-professional fighter.
Lieutenant Kanya Chirathivat
His second in command, whose rank increases throughout due to events.
Premwadee Srisati and Apichat Kunikorn
Great minds of Thailand.
Richard Carlyle
Corporate head and importer.
Somchai
One of Jaidee's men.
Chaya
Jaidee's wife.
Ratana
A biologist and ex-lover of Kanya's. Works in government quarantine.
Niwat and Surat
Jaidee and Chaya's children.
Charles Bowman
Possible gene hacker for Thailand. Disappeared and actually dead.
Chaudhuri
Possible gene hacker for Thailand. Disappeared.
Hafiz
An employee of Hock Seng's in Malaya. Could have turned him in during the purge.
Rana and Mohammed
Hafiz's wife and son, who is a Green Headband.
Laughing Chan
Ex-plantation overseer, now crew boss in Bangkok. Also a smugger.
Sukrit Kamsing
Dog fucker.
Ah Ping and Peter Siew
Chan's men.
King Rama XII
A Thai monarch with foresight.
Bhirombhakdi
Environment ministry officer.
Otto
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Lucy Nguyen
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Quoile Napier
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Hagg
A Grahamite priest.
Phra Kritipong
A religious leader and monk.
Sir Francis
The barman.
Prime Minister Surawong
Politician who lost his head in a coup.
Puenthai
A diseased man.
Chaiyanuchit
Old head of the Ministry.
Dithakar
Muay thai opponent of Jaidee's.
Kit
A tank worker at SpringLife.
Old Bones and Horseface Ma
Thugs for Dog Fucker.
Sergeant Siriporn
Needs bribing correctly to allow illegal methane burning.
Srimuang
A tank worker at SpringLife.
Narong
A Trade man of the spy variety.
Charoen and Sakda
Muay thai fighters.
Ajahn Chanh and Chart Korbjitti and Seub Nakhasathien
Legendary Thai.
Teacher Lalji
Helped Thailand resist the calorie companies.
AgriGen Saint Sarah
A generipper.
Pai
A white shirt of the old guard.
Kip
A girl of Gibbons'.
Drs. Ping and Raymond
Gene wizards to rival Gibbons.
Mahmoud Sonthalia
Gene wizard to rival Gibbons.
Pak Eng and Peter Kuok
Fellow yellow cards of Chan's.
Mr Yashimoto
A painter.
King Bhumibol
Also a scientist.
Hiroko
A windup girl.
Pichai
Kanya's dead radio operator.
Lieutenant Apichart
A white shirt officer.
General Som
A white shirt. Assassinated.
Karmatha and Phailin
Dead white shirt officers.
Private Sarawut
One of Kanya's men.
Elizabeth Boudry
One of AgriGen's executives sent to Thailand after the civil war.
Malivalaya and Yuthako
Kanya's new underlings.
FOOD
Mangosteen
A fruit.
Ngaw
A new resistant fruit variety.
Snakehead fish
Seafood.
Red-fin plaa.
More seafood.
Nightshades
New resistant crops.
TotalNutrient Wheat
Proprietary crop.
SoyPRO
Proprietary crop.
HiGro Corn
Proprietary crop.
Betel Nut
Used as a drug.
Chapatis
Flatbread type.
Mekong whiskey
Thai booze.
Khmer whiskey
Cambodian booze.
HiGro Bamboo
Proprietary crop.
Laksa asam, kopi and roti canai
Hock Seng's favorite foods.
Nam plaa prik
A papaya dish.
Sato
Grog.
Tilapia
A type of fish.
Durian
A fruit.
TECHNOLOGY
Blister rust
A disease that destroys food crops, and humans.
Genehack weevil
A disease that destroys food crops. Japanese.
Cibiscosis
A disease that destroys food crops, and humans.
Sabis mold
A disease that destroys food crops. Japanese.
Singha
Cigarette brand.
Treadle computers
Human powered variety.
Kink-spring
Mechanical power storage devices.
WeatherAll
A building material.
Algae baths
Part of the new kink-spring production process.
Pha sin
Thai dress.
Yaba
An amphetamine.
Crank fan
Mechanical cooling device.
Fa' gan fringe
Engineered disease.
Bitter water mussels
Engineered disease.
Gold Leaf
A type of cigarette.
PLACES
Bangkok
Major city of Thailand. Krung Thep, locally.
Des Moines
City in Iowa, USA. Calorie company base.
City Pillar Shrine
Religious site in Bangkok.
Thanon Sukhumvit
Market in Bangkok.
Mekong
River in Thailand.
Rangoon
City in Burma.
Mumbai
City in India.
Koh Samet
Island in Thailand.
Kyoto
City in Japan.
Chatachuk Market
Market in Thailand.
Chao Phraya
River in Thailand.
Khao Yai
National Park in Thailand.
Anchor Pads
Site for landing of imports in Bangkok.
Bang Rajan
Site of a battle against foreign invaders in Thai history.
Ayutthaya
An old Thai city that was attacked by Burma in the past.
Ploenchit
Old Expansion tower site.
Koh Angrit
A source of smuggled goods.
Thonburi
Now drowned.
Lumphini Stadium
Site of the fights.
Isaan
Region of Thailand.
Sir Francis Drake's
A bar frequented by the wealthy farang.
Khlong Prem
A Thai prison.
Kolkata
City in India.
Phitsanulok
Northern city.
Osaka
Japanese city.
Penang
Malaysian city.
Phuket and Chiang Mai
Razed Thai cities.
Changsa
City in China.
ORGANISATIONS
U-Tex
A calorie company.
Environment Ministry
A Thai government department.
White shirts
Environment Ministry police.
SpringLife
A company working to generate much higher capacity springs.
Chakri Dynasty
Monarchs of Thailand.
Chaozhou
A Chinese company that makes kink-springs.
Matsushita
A Japanese company thatmakes anti-bacterial handlegrips
Bo Lok
A company that makes ceramic water filters.
Trade Ministry
A major Thai government department.
Green Headbands
Anti-Chinese violent xenophobes in Malaysia.
Carlyle & Sons
Shipping company. A firm of complainers.
AgriGen
A calorie company, Anderson Lake's.
Midwest Compact
A calorie company group in the USA.
PurCal
A calorie company.
Megodont Union
Controls the use of the power generating beasts.
Customs Service
Government organisation that controls importing.
Mishimoto
Japanese company.
RedStar
A calorie company. Makes bamboo.
Sri Ganesha Insurance
An insurance company that covers importers.
Grahamites
Reactionary christian group.
Alabama New University
A Grahamite college.
Jai Yen, Nam Yen
Cool Heart, Cool Water. Ice maker company.
Black Panthers
Royal elite guards.
Quarantine Department
Medical government section that works on controlling disease outbreaks.
MEDIA
Grahamite Bible
A religious tract.
Global Management in Practice
Old business tomes, also Intercultural Business, The Asian Mind, The Little Tigers of Asia, Supply Chains and Logistics, Pop Thai, The New Global Economy, Exchange Rate Considerations in Supply Chains, Thais Mean Business, International Competition and Regulation.
The Bangkok Morning Post
A newspaper.
Thai Rath. Kom Chad Luek. Phuchatkan Rai Wan
Bangkok whisper sheets.
National Radio
A government network.
Sawatdee Krung Thep!
A whisper sheet.
ANIMALS
Water buffalo
Beasts of burden in Thailand.
Megodonts
Giant elephantine beasts used in power generation.
Cheshire
Genetically engineered feral cat. They have chameleon abilities.
Jingjok2
Egg eating lizard.
Nightjars
Nocturnal bird.
Peafowl
A game bird.
Ivory beetles
A common insect sight.
CONCEPTS
Phra Seub amulets
Superstition protection device.
King Rama XII images
Superstition protection device.
Expansion
Growth thanks to abundant energy.
Contraction
When Expansion conditions were no longer the case.
Ocean Bounty
A project that was a failure.
Mahout
An elephant handler. Or Megadont.
Mandarin
Chinese dialect.
Phii Oun
The cheshire trickster spirit.
Phra Kenet
Elephant-headed god.
Kuan Yin
Goddess of mercy.
Yellow cards
Immigrant refugees in Thailand.
Songkran
Thai New Year's festival.
Muay Thai
A martial art and sport.
Buddha, Phra Pikanet
Deities.
The Coal War
An energy conflict.
Hanuman
A god with monkey warriors.
Mizuko Jizo Bodhisattva
A deity that favours New People.
Triple Gem
Buddha, damma, sanga.
Rama
A deity.
VEHICLES
Rickshaws
Human powered ground transport.
Dirigible
An airship.
Kink-spring skiff
Mechanically powered boat.
Dawn Star
A clipper ship of Hock Seng's in Malaya.
Kink-spring scooter
Mechanically powered two wheelers.
RACES
New People
Created humans. Windups. Have enhanced physical abilities like speed, but some have built in limitations that prevent them using them a lot without overheating.
PLANTS
Bo tree
Now extinct.
WEAPONS
Spring gun
Kinetic energy disk firing weapon.
Blade bomb
A booby trap.
PLOT
Thai generip terror.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
After Jaidee, the Tiger of Bangkok and leader of the Environment Ministry's field policing arm is killed, protests erupt, and basically Bangkok devolves into Civil War.
The white shirts crack down.
Emiko also is under pressure at Raleigh's, and when pushed too far kills a group of patrons with the superhuman speed of which she is capable. Unfortunately for her, one of them was the Queen's protector. This gives the Trade Minister a lever - an illegal import that has committed an outrage against the monarchy.
Akkarat does a deal with the farang, and also gets the military on side and soon crushes white shirt resistant, but does serious damage to Bangkok in the meantime. Kanya agrees to surrender. At the formal ceremony, she is surprised to hear Akkarat name her head of the Environment Ministry.
The SpringLife factory is diseased, thanks to slackness in their algae processes, and Lake has caught it, despite thinking himself immune.
Moving further forward, a calorie company woman comes to get samples from the seedbank as part of the deal, and Kanya is there to oversee. She decides that giving away this vital part of the country is not on, and blows the calorie woman's head off, and has the monks take the seeds and disperse. She also orders Bangkok flooded.
There we find Emiko still, surviving pretty nicel as the few odd people staying in the flooded city are no threat to her superior abilities, and a fish is easy to catch with her reflexes.
Finally, Gibbons the generipper shows up, and they discuss her situation. His opinion is that the new state of the world is what it is, and it is far easier to modify humans to exist there, than to fight it. Humans like Emiko, who are immune to the diseases, and are better, faster, stronger, smarter, etc. He has the skills to engineer non-sterile New People using her DNA.
5 out of 5
Number of words : 145000
Percent of complex words : 9.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 9.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.3
Flesch : 74.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
PEOPLE
Anderson Lake
A calorie man, working on a project in Thailand. A foreigner, farang. Wants to discover Thai seed secrets.
Saint Francis
Would be a handy guy to have around in these calorie controlled times.
Lao Gu
A rickshaw driver and yellow card refugee.
Yates
The inventor of much more efficient kink springs at SpringLife.
Banyat
SpringLife's head of Quality Assurance.
Tan Hock Seng
Lake's assistant. A yellow card Chinese refugee from Malaya. Ex-head of the Three Prosperities.
Num
SpringLife's day foreman.
Pollack
A messy artist.
The Dung Lord
A rich union leader. An underworld figure.
Raleigh
Flotsam of the old Expansion, another farang. Runs a kinky whorehouse.
Pom and Nu and Kukrit and Kanda
SpringLife workers.
Lin and Lek and Chuan
SpringLife workers, the latter being dead.
Mai
A skinny girl from the SpringLife production line.
Doctor Chan
A yellow card Chinese doctor who repairs Lake after a Megadont rampage.
Lewis Carroll
Author of Alice in Wonderland.
Akkarat
The Trade Minister.
General Pracha
Head of the Environment Ministry and white shirts.
Gregg and Yee
Investors in SpringLife.
Emiko
The Windup girl, a Japanese created woman.
Kannika
Dominatrix at Raleigh's whorehouse.
Gendo-sama
Old owner of Emiko.
Mizumi-sensei
Emiko's mistress in Japan.
Somdet Chaopraya
Protector of the Thai Child-Queen.
Gi Bu Sen
Gibbons, a generipper who protects Thailand from the calorie companies.
Captain Jaidee Rojjanasukchai
The Tiger of Bangkok. Leader in the field of the white shirts. An ex-professional fighter.
Lieutenant Kanya Chirathivat
His second in command, whose rank increases throughout due to events.
Premwadee Srisati and Apichat Kunikorn
Great minds of Thailand.
Richard Carlyle
Corporate head and importer.
Somchai
One of Jaidee's men.
Chaya
Jaidee's wife.
Ratana
A biologist and ex-lover of Kanya's. Works in government quarantine.
Niwat and Surat
Jaidee and Chaya's children.
Charles Bowman
Possible gene hacker for Thailand. Disappeared and actually dead.
Chaudhuri
Possible gene hacker for Thailand. Disappeared.
Hafiz
An employee of Hock Seng's in Malaya. Could have turned him in during the purge.
Rana and Mohammed
Hafiz's wife and son, who is a Green Headband.
Laughing Chan
Ex-plantation overseer, now crew boss in Bangkok. Also a smugger.
Sukrit Kamsing
Dog fucker.
Ah Ping and Peter Siew
Chan's men.
King Rama XII
A Thai monarch with foresight.
Bhirombhakdi
Environment ministry officer.
Otto
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Lucy Nguyen
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Quoile Napier
An entrepreneur. One of the Farang Phalanx.
Hagg
A Grahamite priest.
Phra Kritipong
A religious leader and monk.
Sir Francis
The barman.
Prime Minister Surawong
Politician who lost his head in a coup.
Puenthai
A diseased man.
Chaiyanuchit
Old head of the Ministry.
Dithakar
Muay thai opponent of Jaidee's.
Kit
A tank worker at SpringLife.
Old Bones and Horseface Ma
Thugs for Dog Fucker.
Sergeant Siriporn
Needs bribing correctly to allow illegal methane burning.
Srimuang
A tank worker at SpringLife.
Narong
A Trade man of the spy variety.
Charoen and Sakda
Muay thai fighters.
Ajahn Chanh and Chart Korbjitti and Seub Nakhasathien
Legendary Thai.
Teacher Lalji
Helped Thailand resist the calorie companies.
AgriGen Saint Sarah
A generipper.
Pai
A white shirt of the old guard.
Kip
A girl of Gibbons'.
Drs. Ping and Raymond
Gene wizards to rival Gibbons.
Mahmoud Sonthalia
Gene wizard to rival Gibbons.
Pak Eng and Peter Kuok
Fellow yellow cards of Chan's.
Mr Yashimoto
A painter.
King Bhumibol
Also a scientist.
Hiroko
A windup girl.
Pichai
Kanya's dead radio operator.
Lieutenant Apichart
A white shirt officer.
General Som
A white shirt. Assassinated.
Karmatha and Phailin
Dead white shirt officers.
Private Sarawut
One of Kanya's men.
Elizabeth Boudry
One of AgriGen's executives sent to Thailand after the civil war.
Malivalaya and Yuthako
Kanya's new underlings.
FOOD
Mangosteen
A fruit.
Ngaw
A new resistant fruit variety.
Snakehead fish
Seafood.
Red-fin plaa.
More seafood.
Nightshades
New resistant crops.
TotalNutrient Wheat
Proprietary crop.
SoyPRO
Proprietary crop.
HiGro Corn
Proprietary crop.
Betel Nut
Used as a drug.
Chapatis
Flatbread type.
Mekong whiskey
Thai booze.
Khmer whiskey
Cambodian booze.
HiGro Bamboo
Proprietary crop.
Laksa asam, kopi and roti canai
Hock Seng's favorite foods.
Nam plaa prik
A papaya dish.
Sato
Grog.
Tilapia
A type of fish.
Durian
A fruit.
TECHNOLOGY
Blister rust
A disease that destroys food crops, and humans.
Genehack weevil
A disease that destroys food crops. Japanese.
Cibiscosis
A disease that destroys food crops, and humans.
Sabis mold
A disease that destroys food crops. Japanese.
Singha
Cigarette brand.
Treadle computers
Human powered variety.
Kink-spring
Mechanical power storage devices.
WeatherAll
A building material.
Algae baths
Part of the new kink-spring production process.
Pha sin
Thai dress.
Yaba
An amphetamine.
Crank fan
Mechanical cooling device.
Fa' gan fringe
Engineered disease.
Bitter water mussels
Engineered disease.
Gold Leaf
A type of cigarette.
PLACES
Bangkok
Major city of Thailand. Krung Thep, locally.
Des Moines
City in Iowa, USA. Calorie company base.
City Pillar Shrine
Religious site in Bangkok.
Thanon Sukhumvit
Market in Bangkok.
Mekong
River in Thailand.
Rangoon
City in Burma.
Mumbai
City in India.
Koh Samet
Island in Thailand.
Kyoto
City in Japan.
Chatachuk Market
Market in Thailand.
Chao Phraya
River in Thailand.
Khao Yai
National Park in Thailand.
Anchor Pads
Site for landing of imports in Bangkok.
Bang Rajan
Site of a battle against foreign invaders in Thai history.
Ayutthaya
An old Thai city that was attacked by Burma in the past.
Ploenchit
Old Expansion tower site.
Koh Angrit
A source of smuggled goods.
Thonburi
Now drowned.
Lumphini Stadium
Site of the fights.
Isaan
Region of Thailand.
Sir Francis Drake's
A bar frequented by the wealthy farang.
Khlong Prem
A Thai prison.
Kolkata
City in India.
Phitsanulok
Northern city.
Osaka
Japanese city.
Penang
Malaysian city.
Phuket and Chiang Mai
Razed Thai cities.
Changsa
City in China.
ORGANISATIONS
U-Tex
A calorie company.
Environment Ministry
A Thai government department.
White shirts
Environment Ministry police.
SpringLife
A company working to generate much higher capacity springs.
Chakri Dynasty
Monarchs of Thailand.
Chaozhou
A Chinese company that makes kink-springs.
Matsushita
A Japanese company thatmakes anti-bacterial handlegrips
Bo Lok
A company that makes ceramic water filters.
Trade Ministry
A major Thai government department.
Green Headbands
Anti-Chinese violent xenophobes in Malaysia.
Carlyle & Sons
Shipping company. A firm of complainers.
AgriGen
A calorie company, Anderson Lake's.
Midwest Compact
A calorie company group in the USA.
PurCal
A calorie company.
Megodont Union
Controls the use of the power generating beasts.
Customs Service
Government organisation that controls importing.
Mishimoto
Japanese company.
RedStar
A calorie company. Makes bamboo.
Sri Ganesha Insurance
An insurance company that covers importers.
Grahamites
Reactionary christian group.
Alabama New University
A Grahamite college.
Jai Yen, Nam Yen
Cool Heart, Cool Water. Ice maker company.
Black Panthers
Royal elite guards.
Quarantine Department
Medical government section that works on controlling disease outbreaks.
MEDIA
Grahamite Bible
A religious tract.
Global Management in Practice
Old business tomes, also Intercultural Business, The Asian Mind, The Little Tigers of Asia, Supply Chains and Logistics, Pop Thai, The New Global Economy, Exchange Rate Considerations in Supply Chains, Thais Mean Business, International Competition and Regulation.
The Bangkok Morning Post
A newspaper.
Thai Rath. Kom Chad Luek. Phuchatkan Rai Wan
Bangkok whisper sheets.
National Radio
A government network.
Sawatdee Krung Thep!
A whisper sheet.
ANIMALS
Water buffalo
Beasts of burden in Thailand.
Megodonts
Giant elephantine beasts used in power generation.
Cheshire
Genetically engineered feral cat. They have chameleon abilities.
Jingjok2
Egg eating lizard.
Nightjars
Nocturnal bird.
Peafowl
A game bird.
Ivory beetles
A common insect sight.
CONCEPTS
Phra Seub amulets
Superstition protection device.
King Rama XII images
Superstition protection device.
Expansion
Growth thanks to abundant energy.
Contraction
When Expansion conditions were no longer the case.
Ocean Bounty
A project that was a failure.
Mahout
An elephant handler. Or Megadont.
Mandarin
Chinese dialect.
Phii Oun
The cheshire trickster spirit.
Phra Kenet
Elephant-headed god.
Kuan Yin
Goddess of mercy.
Yellow cards
Immigrant refugees in Thailand.
Songkran
Thai New Year's festival.
Muay Thai
A martial art and sport.
Buddha, Phra Pikanet
Deities.
The Coal War
An energy conflict.
Hanuman
A god with monkey warriors.
Mizuko Jizo Bodhisattva
A deity that favours New People.
Triple Gem
Buddha, damma, sanga.
Rama
A deity.
VEHICLES
Rickshaws
Human powered ground transport.
Dirigible
An airship.
Kink-spring skiff
Mechanically powered boat.
Dawn Star
A clipper ship of Hock Seng's in Malaya.
Kink-spring scooter
Mechanically powered two wheelers.
RACES
New People
Created humans. Windups. Have enhanced physical abilities like speed, but some have built in limitations that prevent them using them a lot without overheating.
PLANTS
Bo tree
Now extinct.
WEAPONS
Spring gun
Kinetic energy disk firing weapon.
Blade bomb
A booby trap.
PLOT
Thai generip terror.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
After Jaidee, the Tiger of Bangkok and leader of the Environment Ministry's field policing arm is killed, protests erupt, and basically Bangkok devolves into Civil War.
The white shirts crack down.
Emiko also is under pressure at Raleigh's, and when pushed too far kills a group of patrons with the superhuman speed of which she is capable. Unfortunately for her, one of them was the Queen's protector. This gives the Trade Minister a lever - an illegal import that has committed an outrage against the monarchy.
Akkarat does a deal with the farang, and also gets the military on side and soon crushes white shirt resistant, but does serious damage to Bangkok in the meantime. Kanya agrees to surrender. At the formal ceremony, she is surprised to hear Akkarat name her head of the Environment Ministry.
The SpringLife factory is diseased, thanks to slackness in their algae processes, and Lake has caught it, despite thinking himself immune.
Moving further forward, a calorie company woman comes to get samples from the seedbank as part of the deal, and Kanya is there to oversee. She decides that giving away this vital part of the country is not on, and blows the calorie woman's head off, and has the monks take the seeds and disperse. She also orders Bangkok flooded.
There we find Emiko still, surviving pretty nicel as the few odd people staying in the flooded city are no threat to her superior abilities, and a fish is easy to catch with her reflexes.
Finally, Gibbons the generipper shows up, and they discuss her situation. His opinion is that the new state of the world is what it is, and it is far easier to modify humans to exist there, than to fight it. Humans like Emiko, who are immune to the diseases, and are better, faster, stronger, smarter, etc. He has the skills to engineer non-sterile New People using her DNA.
5 out of 5