Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake

Mary Kasparian

I do enjoy most of Margaret Atwood's novels. I found this one to be one of my favorites. This novel takes place in a future world filled with biotechnology. It tells the story of Snowman, who I believe is possibly the last real human left alive on earth. His duty is to guard Crake's Children, a group of people who are sort of like our definition of human. Snowman sets off on a journey to search for supplies. 

The main narrative of the novel is Snowman's memories of his past; when he was just Jimmy. He remembers growing up in a world where true prosperity was enjoyed only by a select parasitical corporations who wanted to use all the wealth of the impoverished masses. We as the reader get the feeling that Jimmy was unsatisfied with his life, but things change for him when a new boy moves into the neighborhood, known as Crake. Crake is a genius even in a cop orate world of immaculate genes. Together him and Jimmy do a lot of exploring and engage in many mental games. Only many years later are they united along with Oryx when Crake decides to embark on a corporate project focused on changing humanity. 

Therefore the main plot of the story is focused on the past; we are not told that much about post-apocalyptic earth. The reader does learn that the land is filled with genetic alterations that have gone wrong, and humans have essentially fallen off the evolutionary ladder. 

Atwood does a great job of building her three main characters with Snowman's memories. Only Oryx character ends a little flat since she seems to serve as an impetus for Crake and Jimmy. However, I found the world of this novel so very rich, dark, and frightening. The conclusions she draws from the major theme of corporate corruption are very intriguing, as well as frightening. 

The most enjoyable part of this novel is the writing style. Such a delicate prose and the pieces of the story are very well connected. There are never any slow parts to this novel, even the small parts are very riveting. The only problem I had with this novel was the ending. It is left too open for me and doesn't seem to answer some of the gripping questions posed earlier in the novel. But I did enjoy this read despite the poorly executed ending.

A novel of the future explores a world that has been devastated by ecological and scientific disasters.

Oryx and Crake : a Novel. 01

MaddAddam Trilogy

Stefanie Viens

I had a love/hate relationship with this story, primarily because of Snowman's character. I disliked him at the beginning, because of his cynicism, his lack of purpose etc. I became much more interested in him when he was recounting his time with Crake, and slowly uncovering for us the mystery of these new humans, and how they came to be. I feel like the end was tied off quite well. I actually did not know there was a sequel at first, and I felt that it worked quite well as a standalone book.

neko

This was four stars until the ending, because what the hell, ending.

Kind of generic post-apocalyptic dystopian last-man-on-earth etcetera... but well-written and very readable. Wanting to find out what happened and how all the pieces fit together made for a compelling read.

But. None of the three characters seemed especially like multidimensional people with real personalities. It was like...

CRAKE: The immoral scientist who doesn't really have or understand human emotions(view spoiler)[, and thus thinks it's a good idea to destroy civilization and create a new, "better" species to replace humans on the planet (hide spoiler)].
ORYX: The remarkably beautiful, compassionate, perfect woman(view spoiler)[ who teaches the Children of Crake about empathy and stuff, and whom both of the other characters idolize and love (hide spoiler)].
SNOWMAN: The ordinary guy who just happened to end up in the middle of events.

Crake, meh, I'm sick of the "scientists just don't understand ART or EMOTIONS or WHAT MAKES HUMANS HUMAN and therefore they are going to destroy the world" trope. I don't buy it, it's an unrealistic strawman -- a projection of people's fear of technology. And anyway Vonnegut already did it, so can we just move on?

Oryx, cringe. She was a symbol, not a person. Presumably because that's what she was to Snowman and Crake, but ugh. She'd been through all sorts of shit but her fucked up past basically only affected Snowman, she didn't really seem bothered by any of it. She was sort of canonically ineffable and mysterious and blah blah women they are such strange creatures, like goddesses, so full of wisdom but you can never understand them(view spoiler)[, and then of course she gets put in charge of the realm of emotional stuff for the Children of Crake. She spends the whole book being a symbol and providing oblique, pseudo-deep non-answers to questions, and then gets killed without even being conscious for it, so that's cool I guess (hide spoiler)]. I don't have enough suspension of disbelief for Oryx.

Snowman/Jimmy, he's just this guy, you know? He makes a bunch of stupid mistakes throughout the book which I assume is supposed to show that he's JUST AN AVERAGE GUY and not really that bright or anything. I get that he's supposed to be pathetic, I just spent the book not really caring what happened to him and not being able to identify with him at all. Oh, he's also really passive and basically just lets stuff happen to him for the entire book.

Then in the end (view spoiler)[you finally find out what led up to the destruction of civilization, but Crake's behavior isn't explained, and Oryx's true feelings are never revealed, and then the first really exciting thing happens in the present day and Snowman is hesitating, trying to decide what to do about it AND THEN THE BOOK JUST ENDS. (hide spoiler)]

Literally almost threw this one across the room when I got to the end.

Actually, the more I think about the plot, the more I suspect it of being somewhat moralistic... e.g. (view spoiler)[Oryx and Jimmy, by their actions, convinced Crake that he was right about humanity (or just made him jealous), therefore them sleeping together indirectly brought about the fall of civilization (hide spoiler)]. Which means it's just another book where an honest conversation or two (and maybe some open relationships) would have solved all problems, but NOPE, BETTER JUST DESTROY CIVILIZATION.

Second edit: It's possible I'm just sick of dystopian stories about how basically human nature is going to inevitably lead to the apocalypse. (view spoiler)[It's even in the story that humanity destroys more than it creates (in the Blood and Roses game, where artistic and cultural achievements are weighed against acts of violence). (hide spoiler)] I read this book right after Cloud Atlas, and feel like Cloud Atlas tackled that message better and in a way that makes more sense to me. Or at least made me feel less like not getting out of bed for a week.

edith w.

(Very mild spoiler.) 

Now THAT'S how you write dystopia. There wasn't a moment when I didn't find myself in trepidation about what was going to happen. Only one thing was certain: this was not going to end well. And, from what I can tell, it really didn't. 

I read Year of the Flood ages ago - not realising then that it was part of a trilogy - so I'm about to do so again in its correct running order. I loved it the first time so all this context and set-up will make reading it again all the more enjoyable. If Atwood wrote 1000 books, I swear I would read them all.

John Philpin

a simply STUNNING piece of literature - there is no point me writing lots of stuff here - if you want to read it - read it - and if you want a synopsis = go here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and...

Fran Lewis

very interesting read. I am not usually a reader of this type of fiction but I liked it.

Cams Campbell

I started this in audiobook format in 2010 and, for some reason, gave up on it. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that some books are actually better in written form than audio. That said, my second and successful attempt were also with the audiobook and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I would like to return to it in written form some day, because the language is so good. This here is no pulp fiction, this is literature, baby! 

As many others have stated in their reviews, what is so striking about this dystopian science-fiction story is its plausibility. We're kind of half way there already with genetic engineering and gene splicing. It's like the Frankenstein conundrum, but in the modern age. just because we can doesn't mean we should. 

I see from the header on Goodreads that this is the first of a trilogy. I'll have to look into that, although I did think the ending of the story was just right. I could imagine high-school and university students discussing the ending in tutorials and essays. Brilliant!

Courtney 

It's no secret that I am not a huge fan of Jimmy/Snowman, so this book was a little difficult to get through. That being said, I do enjoy the world of the novel and the peripheral characters of Oryx and Crake.

Julie D.

Crake is seriously so perfect, aside from the evil conniving pretentious asshole part.. well, maybe a little bit of that too.

Ines Childs

I’m kicking myself I didn’t read it sooner! Heartbreaking in all the best ways. I’m not usually a big fan of science fiction, but this was very easy to love!

Oryx & Crake

Bruno Padinha

Great speculative fiction, set in a post-apocalyptic future caused by genetic manipulation. Can't wait to read the following book in the trilogy.

Davina Noffke

Margaret Atwood is a master of world-building but I did not feel particularly engaged with the characters in this book.

By the author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and ALIAS GRACE * Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility. * Praise for Oryx and Crake: 'In Jimmy, Atwood has created a great character: a tragic-comic artist of the future, part buffoon, part Orpheus. An adman who's a sad man; a jealous lover who's in perpetual mourning; a fantasist who can only remember the past' -INDEPENDENT 'Gripping and remarkably imagined' -LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

Oryx And Crake

B34TR12 

The world building was very well done. I appreciated the character development and the characters' flaws because it makes you relate to the characters to a certain extent. This book also makes you think about what future you hope your descendants have, because of everything the human race has done to environment. 

lizbet koval

i was intrigued at first.
and then i was disappointed.
it’s an interesting take on the genre, but. personally for me it was undone, unfinished, raw.

Oryx e Crake

alice nunes

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility. 'In Jimmy, Atwood has created a great character: a tragic-comic artist of the future, part buffoon, part Orpheus. An adman who's a sad man; a jealous lover who's in perpetual mourning; a fantasist who can only remember the past' - Independent 'Gripping and remarkably imagined' - London Review of Books

Amanda Wells

Firstly, I honestly think this is a very good book. I think readers of sci-fi/post-apocalypse types books would really enjoy this one. Very well written, extremely interesting idea. 

But! I do not like these books very much. In fact I was agonising about having to finish this, or to give it a low rating through about 70%. It did turn a corner once we got to the apocalypse part though, and I was suddenly engaged. 

I was intrigued by the logic that Crake used and how it did make sense. (Of course I don't agree with his conclusions). I liked the idea that society had started this slippery slide into mutation and creation, and that Crake's ideas and vision were almost the inevitable outcome of that when he seems to have been a person without compassion or an understanding of life and emotion beyond binary facts and biological forces. 

I think if this type of genre was my thing, this would be a four or five star read. As it is, I can't rate it above three, simply because of my own experience. I still love Atwood, and I'll still read her work, but I might avoid the remainder of MaddAddam, at least for now.

Olivera Mitić

Najbolja odluka 2020. godine je bila ta da ponovo probam da čitam Margaret Atvud. 

The Handmaid's Tale me nešto nije impresionirala davne 2017. i od tad nisam imala želju da se opet susretnem sa ovom autorkom. Očekivala sam da je prosto prehajpovana, kao što je to slučaj sa mnogim savremenim piscima koji se dotiču sličnih tema i da njena dela nisu po mom ukusu. 

Hvala svemu svetom pa se ispostavilo da ipak imam koji gram mozga više i da ne slušam baš redovno samu sebe. Antilopa i Kosač iliti Oryx & Crake je možda najbolja distopija/post-apokalipsa koju sam ikad pročitala. Brutalna i na trenutke teška za varenje, ova knjiga je prepuna ideja, odskočnih daski za razmišljanje i generalnog razumevanja ljudske rase u globalu (što se kaže - u dušu). Nije bilo malo trenutaka u kojima sam samo morala da se udaljim od teksta i kažem "wow, that Margaret really do be understanding us hoomans", jer zaista jeste tako. 

Iako je knjiga izašla pre 17 godina, sad je možda aktuelnija nego što je bila 2003. a, po svemu sudeći, možda ne dovoljno aktuelna koliko će biti za koju godinu ako kao vrsta nastavimo putem kojim smo pošli. Ovo treba da se čita i na nivou priče upozorenja, jer nijedna reč unutra nije izmišljena, koliko god se predstavljala fikcijom. 

Remek delo žanra i remek delo u svakom smislu. 

WE 👏 STAN 👏 MARGARET 👏 ATWOOD 👏 YOU 👏 GO 👏 GIRL

Jade Flynn

Definitely my least favourite Atwood out of the three I've read but with that being said it was still an enjoyable reading experience and I finished it in two days. Unsure whether I'm going to continue with the second novel because there's other Atwood books I'm looking forward to reading more.

This is a book that is great, but also lacks in enough places to make me wonder what could have been.

The ending in particular was a letdown, and while the inevitable explanation for Snowman's predicament was obvious, I had hoped for a faster pace. After realizing what Crake was doing and how it would happen, I wanted something more. Atwood made a great story to read in the present but the past got jumbled a bit and really didn't blend as well in transitioning between the two.

A great dystopian read that will keep you wondering about what the labels really mean on everything you buy, but not so great if you like knowing what is happening upfront!

Judy Hudgins

Ben Nathan

Great world building. I was very impressed with the ideas. Never was quite sure where it was going, and that wasn't the best thing in this case. That said, I did enjoy it. Don't think I'll read more of the series though.

Mahasin S Ameen

It is hard to explain what this book is about without providing massive spoilers but I'll try.

Oryx and Crake is a post apocalyptic novel that tells of how the world fell apart. This is one of my all time favorite books.

Halsted Mencotti Bernard

This is a remarkable book, an insightful commentary on biotech and today's culture of apathy. I was shocked and disappointed by the ending, and will have to re-read the last tenth to understand why the author chose to do it.

Oryx and Crake

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