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Book Review: Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood.
Title: Oryx and Crake
Author: Margret Atwood
Published: New York: Doubleday (Random House), 2003
Page Count: 376
Total Page Count: 26,085
Text Number: 76
Read For: my enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: After an genetic apocalypse that has wiped out the human race, a man who calls himself Snowman watches over a band of genetically-modified humans. He is running out of supplies, and so he makes the decision to leave his treetop camp and trek across the jungle wasteland of a town in search of supplies. As he journeys, he thinks back to his childhood, his friend Crake, his lover Oryx, and the civilization and sequence of events that lead up to the apocalypse. The flashbacks and the current story come together when Snowman makes it to Crake's laboratory, the Paradice Project. A book of inventive, logical fictional science, Oryx and Crake is a gripping, engrossing, and though-provoking read. Atwood's analysis of human nature and society's future is incredibly realistic and unsettling, her exploration of genetic engineering is based in science and is similarly unsettling, and these concepts are told in a witty, dark writing style and surrounded by complex and realistic characters all with their own stories. I greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
This is the third book by Atwood that I've read, and I was surprised and greatly impressed by it. She has always been an accomplished writer, but Oryx and Crake shows maturity combined with innate talent. The concurrent plotlines, one of Snowman's journey, one of his childhood and the events that lead up to the apocalypse, are interwoven in a way that adds depth to both and keeps the story engaging and fast-paced without cheap tricks or excessive cliff-hangers. The characters of Snowman, Oryx, and Crake reveal themselves gradually, exposing realistic depth and back story, and each is fascinating, attractive, and sympathetic in an individual way. The science behind the genetically-centered plot is intelligent and obviously based in research: this is fictional science more than pure science fiction. Finally, the social commentary in Oryx and Crake makes this book as relivant as Atwood's most famous novel, The Handmaid's Tale. All in all, it is a skillfully composed, intelligent, engrossing novel.
My only complaint is that, based on such an original idea and running into concurrent plotlines, the final resolution of the book seems a little mundane and anti-climatic. Obviously I can't talk about the ending in detail without running the story, but sufficed to say the explanation of the apocalypse and Snowman's involvement in the events that lead up to it all comes down to a fairly simple explanation as far as the facts go. With an entire book's worth of build up and so much mystery and unfolding in the plotlines, this ending seems a bit fast and doesn't have the impact that the reader hopes for. However, Atwood does leave enough unfinished ideas, including Crake's motives throughout the book and Snowman's eventual fate, to keep the end of the book sufficiently complex. By leaving questions and putting the events of the plot in a greater, post-apocalyptic context, the simple and explainable ending to the book feels less disappointing or limited.
All in all, I highly recommend this book to all readers, and I look forward to rereading it myself. I think it will appeal to science fiction fans and general fiction fans equally: while science fiction is an important aspect, the writing style and characters stay strong throughout and make the book widely appealing and readable. This is a unique, thought-provoking, well researched and highly intelligent text, and it manages to grab and hold the reader's attention as well. I encourage you to pick up a copy.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Margret Atwood
Published: New York: Doubleday (Random House), 2003
Page Count: 376
Total Page Count: 26,085
Text Number: 76
Read For: my enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: After an genetic apocalypse that has wiped out the human race, a man who calls himself Snowman watches over a band of genetically-modified humans. He is running out of supplies, and so he makes the decision to leave his treetop camp and trek across the jungle wasteland of a town in search of supplies. As he journeys, he thinks back to his childhood, his friend Crake, his lover Oryx, and the civilization and sequence of events that lead up to the apocalypse. The flashbacks and the current story come together when Snowman makes it to Crake's laboratory, the Paradice Project. A book of inventive, logical fictional science, Oryx and Crake is a gripping, engrossing, and though-provoking read. Atwood's analysis of human nature and society's future is incredibly realistic and unsettling, her exploration of genetic engineering is based in science and is similarly unsettling, and these concepts are told in a witty, dark writing style and surrounded by complex and realistic characters all with their own stories. I greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
This is the third book by Atwood that I've read, and I was surprised and greatly impressed by it. She has always been an accomplished writer, but Oryx and Crake shows maturity combined with innate talent. The concurrent plotlines, one of Snowman's journey, one of his childhood and the events that lead up to the apocalypse, are interwoven in a way that adds depth to both and keeps the story engaging and fast-paced without cheap tricks or excessive cliff-hangers. The characters of Snowman, Oryx, and Crake reveal themselves gradually, exposing realistic depth and back story, and each is fascinating, attractive, and sympathetic in an individual way. The science behind the genetically-centered plot is intelligent and obviously based in research: this is fictional science more than pure science fiction. Finally, the social commentary in Oryx and Crake makes this book as relivant as Atwood's most famous novel, The Handmaid's Tale. All in all, it is a skillfully composed, intelligent, engrossing novel.
My only complaint is that, based on such an original idea and running into concurrent plotlines, the final resolution of the book seems a little mundane and anti-climatic. Obviously I can't talk about the ending in detail without running the story, but sufficed to say the explanation of the apocalypse and Snowman's involvement in the events that lead up to it all comes down to a fairly simple explanation as far as the facts go. With an entire book's worth of build up and so much mystery and unfolding in the plotlines, this ending seems a bit fast and doesn't have the impact that the reader hopes for. However, Atwood does leave enough unfinished ideas, including Crake's motives throughout the book and Snowman's eventual fate, to keep the end of the book sufficiently complex. By leaving questions and putting the events of the plot in a greater, post-apocalyptic context, the simple and explainable ending to the book feels less disappointing or limited.
All in all, I highly recommend this book to all readers, and I look forward to rereading it myself. I think it will appeal to science fiction fans and general fiction fans equally: while science fiction is an important aspect, the writing style and characters stay strong throughout and make the book widely appealing and readable. This is a unique, thought-provoking, well researched and highly intelligent text, and it manages to grab and hold the reader's attention as well. I encourage you to pick up a copy.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.