This was one of the books I got for my birthday and I
absolutely devoured to so engaging was the story. I fell in love with this book
from the first page and was fascinated with the dystopian world conjured up by
the author and found the characters believable and human. The narrative was
nicely paced and the drama built good tension throughout the book. The twists
and turns were well hidden and the conclusion was very satisfying. I liked the
bio-punk sci-fi style of the setting and the environmental / political stance
of the author was interesting. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I
think it is worth a read if only for the quality of the writing alone.
‘Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s calorie representative in
Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok’s street markets
in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the Windup
Girl – the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko – now abandoned to the slums. She is
one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as
slaves, soldiers and toys, they are the new underclass in a chilling near
future where oil has run out, calorie companies dominate nations and
bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.
And as Lake becomes increasingly obsessed with Emiko, conspiracies breed
in the heat and political tensions threaten to spiral out of control.
Businessmen and military officials, wealthy foreigners and landless refugees
all have their own agendas. But no one anticipates the devastating influence of
the Windup Girl.’
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
This book was given to me by Jamie and it had sat on
my shelf for a while as I was not enthusiastic about the teaser on the back
(see below), but I was short of something to read so I gave it a go. It took a
while to get going and I struggled to accept the concept of the book, but
slowly it grew on me and at the end I was quite enjoying it and could
appreciate the details that the author had sprinkled through the narrative. It
is light and fluffy and naturally fantastical but fans of magical mythology might
well enjoy this book.
‘In the great city, in the dimly office of a mighty tower, two deadly
creatures meet. A dark bargain is struck, and the master of the House of
Hellebore gives on order: “War is coming. The child must die.”
In our own world, a young man discovers a manuscript written by his
great uncle. It seems to be a novel – a strange fairy tale of fantastic
creatures and a journey to a magical realm. But it is written as a diary…as if
the events were real…as if his uncle had sought and found another world.
Or as if another world had found him…’
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