As one might imagine for a genre reader who is going on his second decade of fandom, I have become somewhat more cough discerning in my reading.  This is, of course, a fancy way to say that I’m a bit of a sci-fi snob.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about gender in how it is portrayed in a genre which, let’s face it, is often geared toward escapists at best.  Now, there has been full theses written on this topic, and clearly, I’m not going to contribute anything particularly new to the dialog.  However, it is troubling at times, to read, or particularly re-read books that I enjoyed as a boy now, as a man with more grey in my temples than I’d like to admit.

Honestly, I’m not even talking about the straight-up misogyny that you see in all the places you’d expect – that special sort of swords n’ sorcery fiction that features women with heaving, melon-sized breasts and the brains of a cockroach. That sort of thing is so far beneath my contempt it would be akin to me railing against the rats in the subway – not that I haven’t been know to throw a gigantic fit over rodents, but that’s obviously the subject of another post.

No, I’m actually more troubled in these, more subtle times, by issues such as completely interchangeable female characters (Charles DeLint, I’m looking at you), as well as, unsurprisingly totally absent LGBT characters (far, far, too many authors to count).

So, given all these things it was with no little trepidation that I picked up Paulo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. The dust cover blurb was not promising, and the premise – a genetically manufactured slave girl/geisha adrift in the streets of Bangkok was similarly fraught.  On the other hand, it had elephants on the cover and I was facing a long train ride back from Boston with only a magazine and my smart phone to keep me occupied.

So I bought it.

HOWEVER – I found myself engrossed.  Not only with the plot (engaging) and the setting (very well done) but also the treatment of the characters – of all genders.  I finished it several evenings back and I’m still thinking about it some of the conceits.  Most of the things that I enjoyed are/would be spoilers to relate but I really think that Bacigalupi did a good job turning the geisha stereotype upside down. The contrast between the title character (Emiko) and another female lead character, Kanya was also interesting.

Beyond the gender politics, I also very much enjoyed the way that Bacigalupi weaves in very of-the-moment political issues, such as corporate colonialism, global pandemics, genetic modification, and industrial espionage.

This is not to say that the The Windup Girl is some Ayn Rand-ian schlep through political thought and tiresome discourse.  It also has more than enough sexy futuristic technology, sexy battle scenes, and sexy sex to keep me 100% engaged as I whipped home from New England on a slow regional train.

I’m curious to hear what other people thought about the book.  Feel free to sound off in the comments.

Changing up the website a bit.  I took this picture in New Mexico.  It is not the road home but I thought it was a lovely image and good to kick off.  I wasn’t quite happy with the way that the polarizing lens made everything look retro, but  I think it worked in this shot.