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The Windup Universe #0.5-0.6
Windup Stories
Contains two stories from the world of The Windup Girl:
1) “The Calorie Man” (2005) - Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2005.
2) “Yellow Card Man” (2006) - Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2006.
1) “The Calorie Man” (2005) - Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2005.
2) “Yellow Card Man” (2006) - Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2006.
62 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Paolo Bacigalupi
133 books4,939 followersPaolo Bacigalupi is an award-winning author of novels for adults and young people.
His debut novel THE WINDUP GIRL was named by TIME Magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009, and also won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. Internationally, it has won the Seiun Award (Japan), The Ignotus Award (Spain), The Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis (Germany), and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France).
His debut young adult novel, SHIP BREAKER, was a Micheal L. Printz Award Winner, and a National Book Award Finalist, and its sequel, THE DROWNED CITIES, was a 2012 Kirkus Reviews Best of YA Book, A 2012 VOYA Perfect Ten Book, and 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. The final book in the series, TOOL OF WAR, will release in October of 2017.
His latest novel for adults is The New York Times Bestseller THE WATER KNIFE, a near-future thriller about climate change and drought in the southwestern United States.
His debut novel THE WINDUP GIRL was named by TIME Magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009, and also won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. Internationally, it has won the Seiun Award (Japan), The Ignotus Award (Spain), The Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis (Germany), and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France).
His debut young adult novel, SHIP BREAKER, was a Micheal L. Printz Award Winner, and a National Book Award Finalist, and its sequel, THE DROWNED CITIES, was a 2012 Kirkus Reviews Best of YA Book, A 2012 VOYA Perfect Ten Book, and 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. The final book in the series, TOOL OF WAR, will release in October of 2017.
His latest novel for adults is The New York Times Bestseller THE WATER KNIFE, a near-future thriller about climate change and drought in the southwestern United States.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 2, 2020
Excellent, haunting, brutal writing infuses these novelettes that act as prequels to Bacigalupi’s novel The Windup Girl. A riveting combination of totally original world building and thoroughly convincing characterization.
May 14, 2020
The two interesting yet seriously depressing stories here (though one, definitely. has ) are not something to be reading during the coronavirus pandemic. Though the windup world has changed for a different reason than a human pandemic, it has vastly changed, and not for the better.
The stories are well written, though. And the world is sketched in quite well without a bunch of infodumps.
Read the stories before you read The Windup Girl.
The stories are well written, though. And the world is sketched in quite well without a bunch of infodumps.
Read the stories before you read The Windup Girl.
September 13, 2022
Fervent, pervading, heavily saturated world establishing around a compelling premise. An intense preview to The Windup Girl.
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Reading updates.
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Reading updates.
May 2, 2020
3.5 for the first story
4.3 for the second
The events described in both the titles take place in The Windup Girl universe, with each story having its strengths.
I'm not convinced that these should be read before the novel itself, I can see how one could enjoy them as a little extra, something to enjoy after reading The Windup Girl.
They are not in any way paramount for understanding the events of the novel or its characters.
4.3 for the second
The events described in both the titles take place in The Windup Girl universe, with each story having its strengths.
I'm not convinced that these should be read before the novel itself, I can see how one could enjoy them as a little extra, something to enjoy after reading The Windup Girl.
They are not in any way paramount for understanding the events of the novel or its characters.
February 18, 2021
Subplots and sidelines, two stories revisiting the Windup world. The Calorie Man clarifies the inner workings of post-genehack intellectual patent capitalism, a pointedly forcible totalitarian arrangement that effects a global corpocracy with an enforced alternative being mass-produced starvation. There is a glimmer of hope for an after-story here.
The Yellow Card is a far darker story: minimalistic, hellish, relentless. An old man, ethnic refugee of a genocide, stuggles with harsh policing, starvation and physical aging - a long way to fall from his younger trade-tycoon self. The straightforward plot dovetails into Wind-up Girl. The choice of ordering the two is wise.
True, we are no longer new to the brute realities of this eco-distopia*, but Bacigalupi does a good job of revamping the atmosphere of post-Bangkok, while tying up some loose ends to slake our curiosity. However, The Yellow Card goes some way into the comfort zone of a reader on a revisiting safari, Hoch Seng's existential banalities are presented in at least as unsettling a way as all humanity's maco-misery it is set against.
*better use that word sparingly: it doesn't appear overly implausible, so let's just call it a forbidding future vision, in any case
The Yellow Card is a far darker story: minimalistic, hellish, relentless. An old man, ethnic refugee of a genocide, stuggles with harsh policing, starvation and physical aging - a long way to fall from his younger trade-tycoon self. The straightforward plot dovetails into Wind-up Girl. The choice of ordering the two is wise.
True, we are no longer new to the brute realities of this eco-distopia*, but Bacigalupi does a good job of revamping the atmosphere of post-Bangkok, while tying up some loose ends to slake our curiosity. However, The Yellow Card goes some way into the comfort zone of a reader on a revisiting safari, Hoch Seng's existential banalities are presented in at least as unsettling a way as all humanity's maco-misery it is set against.
*better use that word sparingly: it doesn't appear overly implausible, so let's just call it a forbidding future vision, in any case
February 25, 2020
Both of these stories were at the end of my copy of The Windup Girl. There was also an interview with the author Paolo Bacigalupi. I love these kinds of extras to the book. For me, it adds to the story, providing depth and context. I hope author interviews become more standard and, when possible, extra scenes and stories as well.
What I liked.
I thought The Calorie Man was well plotted and had a good arc and ending. It absolutely fit the world and gave a glimpse of what The Windup Girl does so well. I especially enjoyed the bittersweet, hopeful finish to the tale.
Yellow Card Man provided a whole lot of context to Hock Seng. We get to see how he makes it to Bangkok and his struggles to survive in detail. This one felt almost like a cut chapter from the novel, though chronologically it poses some problems so I can see why it wasn't added.
What I did not like.
Man, life can be brutal. Hock Seng is not a character that I like. I think he is, as we see him in this story and in The Windup Girl, largely the victim of his circumstances but I don't agree with how he goes about it. I don't think he is wrong to do the things he does, I just don't like him and how he does what he does. He is certainly an intriguing character though and his role in the plot and his perspective lends a lot to both the world and the conflicts involved.
Both stories I would highly recommend to anyone who liked The Windup Girl. They add so much to the story that I cannot think of why you would skip them.
What I liked.
I thought The Calorie Man was well plotted and had a good arc and ending. It absolutely fit the world and gave a glimpse of what The Windup Girl does so well. I especially enjoyed the bittersweet, hopeful finish to the tale.
Yellow Card Man provided a whole lot of context to Hock Seng. We get to see how he makes it to Bangkok and his struggles to survive in detail. This one felt almost like a cut chapter from the novel, though chronologically it poses some problems so I can see why it wasn't added.
What I did not like.
Man, life can be brutal. Hock Seng is not a character that I like. I think he is, as we see him in this story and in The Windup Girl, largely the victim of his circumstances but I don't agree with how he goes about it. I don't think he is wrong to do the things he does, I just don't like him and how he does what he does. He is certainly an intriguing character though and his role in the plot and his perspective lends a lot to both the world and the conflicts involved.
Both stories I would highly recommend to anyone who liked The Windup Girl. They add so much to the story that I cannot think of why you would skip them.
June 17, 2019
2 short stories add more detail to the world of The Windup Girl. The first gives us a glimpse of the Midwest monocrop megafarms, and the second is about a character from The Windup Girl, Hock Seng. Through The Windup Girl you read of his horror of the refugee towers he escaped and of him favouring his injured leg and in this story you learn why. I think these are interesting additions to The Windup Girl if you've already read it, but they don't really stand alone.
November 30, 2022
“The Calorie Man” (2005) - 3/5 - pirms daudziem mēnešiem pabeidzu, tā ka nianses vairs neatceros, bet lasījās ļoti lēnu, kautgan nebija neinteresant - traucēja, ka termini, detaļas u.c. lietas bija grūta saprotamas, jo nav lasīts galvenais romāns;
“Yellow Card Man” (2006) - 2.5/5 - sākums pavisam garlaicīgs un tikai beigas OK.
“Yellow Card Man” (2006) - 2.5/5 - sākums pavisam garlaicīgs un tikai beigas OK.
March 5, 2020
Good stories that provide a little more background. I would not read till you have read the windup girl. Yellow Card man was good and told a story hinted at in the main book.
June 3, 2020
3.5 stars. think I would have rated these higher if I found/read them before Windup Girl.
June 3, 2015
Post-oil society where GMO calories rule. Interesting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews