So, I'm going to be part of the group reading the Windup Girl. I actually read the book a while back, so this will be my second time through it. There's been a lot of talk about how difficult this book is to read, and I just wanted to say a few things about this: the early frustrations experienced at the beginning of this book (and they do fade after the first few chapters) are not as bad as some reviews you might read make them seem, and the whole story is definitely worth sticking around for.
The author creates one of the most detailed, believable, and lived-in worlds that I have ever read in science fiction. But he doesn't spend any time setting up the world or explaining the history/politics/sciences/terminology, you are just immediately thrown into the thick of things. This can be a bit disorienting, but it also keeps you from getting pulled out of the story by outside-the-narrative explanations interjected for clarity, which is a problem in sci-fi that can ruin the flow or result in some very contrived scenes where characters stop to describe some piece of technology or idea that most people in that world are so familiar with that they would never think twice about it. This kind of exposition can drive me nuts (I'm looking at you Robert Heinlein (read For Us the Living if you don't believe me, these explanations are the whole gosh darn book!)), but it does make the audience's job easier. You won't find any of that here.
And it wouldn't really work anyway with this setting. The richness and believability adds so much to the story, and it would suffer if overburdened by all of theses expository intrusions. And I think that Bacigalupi goes a good job at this. When done correctly (see anything by C.J. Cherryh) it allows the book to immediately pull you in. So please don't be discouraged. It will fade after the first few chapters. The story you will experience is worth the price of admission.
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