Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Der Spieler | 2008 | Paolo Bacigalupi | N/A |
| 2 | Pump Six and Other Stories | 2006 | Paolo Bacigalupi | Buy |
| 3 | 2009 | Paolo Bacigalupi | N/A | |
| 4 | The Windup Girl | 2009 | Paolo Bacigalupi | Buy |
The Windup Universe collects Paolo Bacigalupi’s fiction set in a shared future where fossil fuels are gone, bioengineered plagues have wiped out most crops, and powerful calorie companies control what the world eats. The centerpiece is The Windup Girl, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and brought the biopunk subgenre to a wider audience.
The series also includes Pump Six and Other Stories, a collection that contains several stories set in the same world, along with related shorter works. Bacigalupi built this setting across multiple years, creating one of the most detailed and disturbing near-future worlds in modern science fiction. The questions it raises about genetic engineering, corporate power, and environmental ruin have only become more relevant since the first stories appeared.