First off, let me start by saying that I am a Malay - not a Chinese Malaysian, an actual Malay Malaysian i.e the race of the genocidal Green Headband people that murdered and raped the Chinese in Malaysia, so I guess I should have been more offended by this book. However: 
 What is dystopian fiction after all but simmering real-world issues taken to their extreme conclusion? Something not completely based in the real world but not wholly uprooted either. This is after all, a world brought on by peak oil, GMO and raising sea levels - with whole societies collapsing, it's not an unreasonable scenario: the desperate 'poor' being goaded to take out their anger out on the richer, more prosperous 'other', this has happened before in the *real world*, in other countries. 
 All the same, I spent the first quarter of the book wincing everytime the Green Headbands are mentioned - Malays rarely get a mention in popular fiction as it is, and when we do, it is as violent, genocidal religious fanatics (like in this book), or simpletons (any Anthony Burgess book set in Malaya). 
 I could not help but draw parallels to a certain 'Green Flag, White Moon' political party, based in the northern states of Malaysia bordering Thailand. 
 I liked the general theme of Thailand as the last remaining holdout of independence - it gels with what Thailand *is* - a country that has never been colonised, a country where the monarchy is strong and respected, so it makes sense that in this dystopian future, Thailand remains independent of the coloning forces of the big 'calorie' companies, thanks to a visionary monarch with foresight. 
 I have never been to Thailand so I don't know how accurate the author's portrayal of Thailand is, but it has a 'as written by backpackers' feel to it. It has all the ingredients: prostitutes, street food, muay thai, mahouts and 'elephants', ladyboys... 
 it seems a very stereotypical view of Thailand to me. 
 There is a slight air of the 'colonials' looking down on the amusing 'natives' with their quirks - This would offend some, were it not for the fact that the people doing this are the villains of the piece. I was glad to see that the most sympathetic characters were the Thai characters and the refugee Tan Hock Seng. 
 I'm often wary of Western writers who portray non-Western 'native' characters who have no agency, whose only role is to play the victim who must be 'rescued' - I don't detect that here. Still, the characters are not this book's strong point, especially Emiko, the windup girl - for a titular character, she is not fleshed out very well. 
 The book's strongest point is its world-building - I like how the writer builds his world and its history - not through long expositionary paragraphs but as hints throughout the storytelling. For example: the Windups - they are genetically impaired with stutter-stop movements so they can never fully integrate with real humans and can be easily identified as androids - why was this done to them? Does that mean that some Windups in the past blended in too seamlessly and caused no end of problems? There are hints of the extinctions of entire species of animals - linked to the proliferaton of the genetically engineered chesire cats. Details such as this gives a tantalising glimpse into previous events in history, and the frightening impact of shortsightedness and greed.