Oryx and Crake

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Campbell Scott

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A stunning and provocative new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize

Margaret Atwood’s new novel is so utterly compelling, so prescient, so relevant, so terrifyingly-all-too-likely-to-be-true, that listeners may find their view of the world forever changed after listening to it.

This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers. For listeners of Oryx and Crake, nothing will ever look the same again.

The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

With breathtaking command of her shocking material, and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into an outlandish yet wholly believable realm populated by characters who will continue to inhabit our dreams long after the last chapter. This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers.

©2002 O.W. Toad, Ltd. (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Ingenious and disturbing.… A landmark work of speculative fiction, comparable to A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World.… Atwood has surpassed herself.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Oryx and Crake can hold its own against any of the 20th century’s most potent dystopias – Brave New World, 1984, The Space Merchants – with regard to both dramatic impact and fertility of invention.…Oryx and Crake showcases a nightmare version of the present era of globalization on a globe coming apart at its ecological seams.… It is a scathing (because bang-on) portrait of the way we live now.…Majestic.…” –Washington Post

“Atwood’s new masterpiece.…Extraordinary.… [Atwood pulls] back the curtain on her terrible vision with such tantalizing precision, its fearsome implications don’t fully reveal themselves until the final pages.… A darkly comic work of speculative fiction.” –W Magazine (U.S.)

mesmerizing!

couldn't put it down.
amazing post-apocolyptic thriller exploring ethics of modern inventions and tinkering with genetics. I find Margaret Atwood's foresight chilling. can't believe so many of the ideas she predicted in 2002 have now come true.

Oryx and crake

How I love this book. Strange, imperfect, yet oh so imaginative and thought provoking. Snowman the antihero protagonist, is probably someone most readers would have disliked in RL, but how you feel for him and root for him.

The book begins with Snowman, real name Jimmy, sleeping up a tree after an apocalypse, which has destroyed seemingly everyone else in the world. The only other beings Snowman knows are the Crakers strange child-like primitive people. The book flashes back to before the event, to Jimmy's friendship with the brilliant Crake, and to his life in a gated community surrounding a genetics lab where his parents work. The story moves between the current situation and Jimmy's history, moving towards the events that caused this apocalypse. It is a beautifully imagined story, warning of the dangers of experimenting with genetic engineering, but also of the adaptability and resilience of life and nature.

I have read and listen to this book a few times. At first, I was confused and it took me a couple of times to get into it, but persevering is rewarding. This is the first of the trilogy. If you like it, it is worth reading the other two, but they are not as good as this one.

Almost perfect

This is a really well written book and well-read audio experience. Some readers might find the ending a bit disappointing, but it is appropriate for the journey the main character makes. The writing is creative, visual, amusing, and heartbreaking. Definitely a book for you if you like tales of apocalyptic peril, science fiction with good emotional characters, or the subject of genetic engineering.

Good story - ending left hanging

The story was great, I couldn't wait to listen to more. But like all of Atwood books there is no clear ending. It just stops. Makes me a little crazy. I want a wrap up. Her books I've read to date tend to leave me with more questions than resolutions.

Too Preachy for me.

Margret Atwood is not the easiest author to read. Her books have a real substance to them. They challenge me to thing about her characters and the story she's telling. This book is no exception, but she just got a bit over the top preachy on the subject of bio engineering and her view of our future. It was worth the read, but it could have been a lot more if she'd toned it down a bit.

Strange but interesting

I had to read this for a class but I am glad I did. While it was a bit tedious at the beginning,she was setting up the story. Helping you understand the final ending. It's a strange book. Not for everyone but definitely realistic. That's what I liked about it. It's not some pie in the sky sci fi novel. It can actually happen right now. It's almost creepy in that way. I could have done without the pedo references though. That was very uncomfortable. Not quite sure why she felt she wanted to add that. It didn't take or give to the story. It was meaningless except to add depth to the characters. Again, it could have been done in other ways. Overall the novel is good. Less creepy than I like but good.

Enthralling !

Would you listen to Oryx and Crake again? Why?

Not sure if I would listen again, as the all-too-possible thought of mankind's dismal future is not exactly uplifting. But I loved the first listen... Atwood paints beautiful (or at least stunningly vivid) pictures with her words, and the narrator brought them to life. It was like watching a movie with my ears instead of my eyes, and as it is with any excellent movie, the message went right to my heart.

Wowzer. Check it out!

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in dystopian and or post apocalyptic fiction that is non-traditional. It is extremely well-written, has interesting characters, and great narration!

Loved Handsmaids Tale but couldn't finish this

The story was so slow and jumps back and forth in time giving you a little bit of the story with each jump. It wasn't worth it to me to spend more time on it to find out the details. I slogged through about half of it before giving up.

great read

My only problem with the story was I didn't want it to end. I wish the story kept going.