The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi cliff notes chapter 1

Sunrise a couple days ago

Chapter 1: I'm still looking for more steampunk and this book is often recommended alongside Boneshaker so why not. However this takes place in the future which sort of defeats the purpose of steampunk. Oh, but there's a twist! (Isn't there always.) The oil supply has run out...or something. I'm not sure. So now things are run by manpower or megadont power. Computers are operated by foot treadle. (Can you generate enough power old-fashioned sewing machine style to run a word processor?) The food situation is messed up, somehow. Corporate conglomerates (in America, of course) rule food supplies with an iron fist. Fresh fruit and vegetables are extinct, I'm not really sure about animals, they aren't mentioned. Crop diseases are out of control. Calorie is king! Apparently. Hopefully that'll be run by us in more detail.

 Our main character, Anderson Lake, is operating a fake business in Thailand so he can scout the generipping done there to bring back old foods. Yeah, gene engineering is rampant which must be the source of the food problem. So he buys a funny-looking fruit called a ngaw and goes back to his cover spring-making factory where the process of kink spring manufacture is explained in way too much detail and then he gets flattened by a megadont. (He'll be fine.)

 I hadn't read the main cover blurb or the inside flap but I did after a couple pages. "...astute social commentary in poignant, revelatory prose" gushes Publishers Weekly. Oh dear, Paulie's got a Message. The windup girl is apparently going to be a genespliced, creche grown sex doll created for a Japanese businessman. So what I've gleaned so far is: Soulless, scheming corporate American business drones ruin and run the world food supply; Shifty-eyed, lazy, betelnut-chewing Thais create new food in an exotic, superstitious, literarily exploitable location; the Japanese are perverts. Well, that about covers it. I don't know about this one. We'll see.