Over at his website, Paolo Bacigalupi is showing off the cover to his debut novel The Windup Girl. And what a cover! A little digging (i.e. a quick Google search) revealed the cover art was done by Raphael Lacoste (Link) who I don't know if I've ever heard of doing cover art before. But looking at that cover and some of the work on his website, I would like to see more covers from him.
The artwork is fantastic. I love the megodonts (genetically engineered elephants originally referenced in Bacigalupi's fantastic short story anthology Pump Six and Other Stories) and how "Mammoth" they look. The dualism of the trash littered slums versus the futurisitic high rises is a great visual and also ties into some of the themes that were prevelant in Bacigalupi's short stories "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man" both of which take place in the same future setting as The Windup Girl. Covers that actually echo the content of the book are few and far between in today's publishing landscape.
I also love the title font and it's placement. The two lines seperating the title really make it pop and emphasize some of the background artwork in interesting ways. I'm less entralled with the blurb and the author text but I have a sneaking suspicion that that might not be the final edit. The pixelation and simplicity scream Microsoft Paint.
The publisher's summary is also available on the publishers website (Night Shade Books)
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...The Windup Girl will be available in September. This is a must buy for me for sure. I absolutely loved Pump Six and Other Stories particularly the all-too-real feel of this future world in which calories are cash. If you haven't done so, I would recommend reading Pump Six before The Windup Girl is released.
Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.
What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man" ( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions.
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