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The Year of the Flood  By  cover art

The Year of the Flood

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Katie MacNichol, Mark Bramhall
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Publisher's summary

The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life - has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible.

Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers...

Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: The lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move. They can't stay locked away...

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.

©2009 Margaret Atwood (P)2009 Random House

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Apocalyptic audiobooks all have one big thing in common: each is set in a world that is ending or just on the brink of collapse. Outside of that, apocalyptic and postapocalyptic stories take on all sorts of topics, twisting and turning into so many different genres and directions. Whether you love sci-fi adventures or prefer character-driven stories that reflect on real-world issues, this collection of listens has something for everyone.

What listeners say about The Year of the Flood

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    5 out of 5 stars

Fav from this Atwood Trilogy!

Excellent, unique and engrossing; her dystopian Maddaddam trilogy is a genre-bending delight...I esp. like this middle book

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • SM
  • 11-03-18

Holy Moly

I loved how the Oryx and Crake story was woven in! I thought the pet named Killer was an odd coincidence.
However the Adam 1 songs, I just skipped over. That was completely unnecessary.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!

One of the best books I read lately, with an excellent story. The audio book contains songs, the first were nice, but there must be about 10-20 of them, at some point I just fast forwarded them.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great series! I have a new binge.

I hadn't read any of Margaret Atwood's books other than The Handmaids Tale so I thought I'd try another one. So glad I did. This is the 2nd in the trilogy and when I downloaded the first I didn't realize there were more. I've been binging these and can't wait to start the last!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible story and splendid delivery

Margret Atwood's incredible second work in the maddaddam trilogy is brought to life though talented narration and musical scores! a list read/listen for anyone that enjoyed Oryx and Crake. The tales weave a multitude of new characters into the timeline and the gripping story quickly endears the new protagonists to you. Simply amazing!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, but beware of the folksy singer

I really liked the various readers, but the guy doing the singing parts was like a bad extra from a Family Ties PBS telethon.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A "page turner"

I loved that there were 3 readers, each were good in their parts. Also, if you weren't sold on Oryx and Crake but were left curious by the ending, I recommend continuing with this book. So much better as a story. Though I admit, this may be because I hated Jimmy as a character.

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Great story

Amazing story with powerful reading and singing. Highly recommend that you go though Oryx and Crake first

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Kill the preacher

Good thing about audible is you can fast forward. Adam 1 is a bit over used and the songs didn't add anything to the story. Other story lines were great and tied in well with the 1st book in series.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but could do without the songs

I don't often write reviews but I felt like I had to justify the performance rating of a 3. The narrators were great but I really did not care for the added songs. I always rushed to skip them, I know others disagree but I found them very disruptive.

As for the story, also mentioned by other reviews it adds very little to the world created in the first book. It was still a great listen and well worth it but the author does seem to have chosen a point in time she does not want to write past, and to be honest I was hoping the plot would move foreword night sideways.

Overall still with worth a listen but not as exciting or dynamic as book one.

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