The Windup Girl was an interesting journey in book form. I was a fair way in before I decided that I liked it. Immediately after I made that decision, the book killed my favorite character, which threw me back into indecision (not that I hold a grudge for books killing my favorite characters, he just kinda felt like one of the only things the story had story going for it). However, when I turned the last page, I was disappointed that there wasn't more in the best possible way. Looking back from the remove of having finished the book, I have to say that it was quite good.
The concept of the book is that in a world where almost all fossil fuels have been exhausted and engineered plagues have ravaged the globe, the most important things are calories and joules. A place where they have automatic weapons powered by springs and elephants running conveyor belts is interesting indeed, and sort of a troubling look into the future.
This book has excellent concepts from the micro scale to the macro scale, but its weakness is its characters, basically none of whom are likable. Some of them are interesting, sure, but I did not feel I had any one to root for. It is interesting to see how a variety of personality types fit into the new world that Mr. Bacigalupi has so vividly imagined.
Overall, it is a good book, with only a few things standing in between it and being a great book. It is worth reading for the ideas alone. I would give it an 86%.
Just finished this myself. The only character that it was easy to root for seemed like Emiko, the windup, and I kept waffling between rooting for Anderson and Kanya. I think he has G.R.R.M. beat in terms of making incredibly gray characters.
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