The Windup Girl is a darkly pleasing mix of science fiction and magical realism, replete with gene-hacked food, color-molting Cheshire cats, and stalking ancestral ghosts.
In the 22nd century, megacorporations known as “calorie companies” have contaminated the world’s natural food supply and successfully monopolized global food production by providing genetically modified, disease-resistant, and sterile foodstuffs. Fossil fuels have failed, sea levels have risen and the world is on the brink of environmental collapse.
Due to a mysterious generipper, a cache of pristine heirloom seeds, and draconian security measures regarding immigration and the import of goods, Thailand has remained independent, which has made it a target for infiltration by corporate calorie agents. But Thailand is also fighting a war within, as the Trade and Environment Ministries bribe, backstab and struggle for control of the kingdom. Tumultuous and volatile, this intricately detailed future Thailand is as fetid and corrupt as it is exuberant. Continue reading
The Aberrant Rag 