The Windup Girl
By Paolo Bacigalupi
This book was billed as a 'worthy successor to William Gibson', and since I haven't read any cyberpunk for a good long time, I thought I'd give it a go. Alas, this is not cyberpunk as far as I understand that term, but it is a pretty decent science fiction novel. Set in a future, dystopian Thailand, the story follows several characters who live in a kingdom ravaged by pollution and genetic engineering, a near total loss of natural bioodiversity and the sweltering onslaught of global warming.
Not quite as bleak as it could have been, the book almost glosses over the horrible implications of this future to look at the possibilities of next generation humanity.
A good read on the whole, I rather liked the premise, even if it was a tad depressing, and I found the execution to be much better than most contemporary American science fiction I've encountered in the last decade. 4/5