SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this on the 20th December 2011.

In our future, the genetic-engineering of crops and animals has gone horribly wrong. A global ecological collapse has occurred and whole countries have been lost, their peoples dying by infection or starvation.

Emiko, a Japanese android assistant is abandoned by her master in Bangkok. It's cheaper to leave her there rather than to ship her back to Japan and frankly easier too. This is her story as she struggles to survive in the last days of Bangkok.

Now that should be enough to get you reading the book. A far better introduction, in my view, that the flood of detail in the Wikipedia review which will drain away all the power and poignancy of this very good novel.

It is a fine read with a richly textured, carefully woven plot. Think of it as “Dead Girls” written by Ian MacDonald.