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.)

couldn't stop listening! what an amazing story.

the narrator was absolutely perfect! will definitely listen again!

the story and the characters were relatable, things unfolded in a good time. definitely makes you think about the world and how fragile we are

A truly special book. Outstanding and maybe in my top 3 of all time.

I'm sure it's been said a million times here but this book is really special. I think what impressed me most was how the story unwinds and the plot reveals itself over the course of the book. The dichotomy between the post apocalyptic world that's shown and the flashforwards is so incredibly interesting, mysterious and exciting I couldn't put it down. I found this world infinitely interesting. The writing of this book is superb, the ability for Atwood to use language to world-build is unparalleled. This book was like a key in a lock for me- so many things I find interesting were linked ways that thrilled me. References to games, gaming and video games, references to technology and science and the medical Industry, references to nature, animals and the terrestrial word all cross referenced was absolutely flabbergasting and like nothing I’ve ever read. If you were a person who enjoys the idea of how the capitalism gone awry could inform our future this book will WOW you. It’s hard to describe this book without giving too much away but take a chance you’ll fall in love with the characters and want to be enveloped by the world. I found each of the characters so sympathetic I couldn’t believe the book ended and I had to leave them.

Wild Book

One of the more original spins on a dystopian future I’ve heard, at least in its narrative style. Interesting book. Decent reading as well, clear and stable audio.

Great story, read impeccably

What did you love best about Oryx and Crake?

Atwood's vivid imagination. She conjures up a future that you've sort of thought about, and brings your musings to full expression.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Oryx and Crake?

Snowman telling stories to the children.

What does Campbell Scott bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great use of pacing, awesome voice, awesome intonation.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Welcome to the future you feared.

Any additional comments?

I can't imagine a better reading of the book.

Grim predictive 1984-esque narrative

Oh boy, get ready for some flash backs! Apparently DVDs and CD ROM make a major comeback in the near future. Well thought out; apocalypse scenario seems almost plausible.

This is a bit too realistic, and scary

If you could sum up Oryx and Crake in three words, what would they be?

Lets hope not

What did you like best about this story?

I had a love hate relationship with the whole thing, many things sounded like good and bad ideas at the same time, thus I was often at a loss how to feel about all the tech and environmental development. Of course anything that could go wrong often did, but I often thought "this could have been a positive development..." But outcomes were often pretty believable, and so sadly it was easy to buy-in, I guess that's what makes a good read, it doesn't coddle you, often dragging you into new ideas and challenging you while you can't put it down (or stop listening in this case)

Any additional comments?

Jimmy is an average guy in a cruel world who finds himself in good and bad situations which he has no control of and can't seem to get a grip. A good character to follow.

Bizarre and Surreal

The juxtaposition between good and evil, makes for an alternative society. The mixture of the protagonist and antagonist makes for a strange plot line and bizarre themes.

What did I just listen to?

I’m not sure why this got such high ratings. I found it really annoying and scattered as it moved all over the place. I think she used new terminology a lot of the time just to make it sound more science fiction but I would have liked it better if she just called things by what we knew them as, it would make you feel more like you were truly in a dystopian setting. A lot of the imagery was really graphic and grotesque for no real reason and I found it off-putting. I’m not sure why this always comes up under a love story either, I saw no love in it, just sickness and obsession.

Now for spoilers, so stop reading if you haven’t read the book yet: I found it extremely annoying how Snowman kept lying to the Crakers, in my mind telling them the truth and being scientifically accurate would have been the best way to go about it, who knows what will happen in later stories but if he dies they’d be completely lost and unaware of the dangers of the world they live in.

I’m not sure why Snowman ever thought him and Crake were ever friends, the guy used him, and talked down to him. I think he was damaged by his childhood and unable to feel or see what real friendship and love really was so maybe that’s why he chose the people he did, but I just found it depressing and annoying.

So grotesque that you can't stop listening...

I was supposed to read this book in a graduate class over a decade ago. I started and skipped around to keep up with the teacher (it was one of those Maymester classes where you read a book every 3 or 4 days). Anyway, I remember it being good amd decided to pick it back up in audio form. It,s almost scary how dense, visceral, and accurate this dystopian novel is. The mystery propelled by the plot, the messages mixed into the details, and the dark humor all intertwined perfectly. I don't know if I want to keep going though. This part of the series is almost too much to digest already.

A really long build up

Not a book that I was always eager to get back to. I’m not sure if it was the stiff narration or the long, slow buildup. The last two hours or so were satisfying, though. I can’t decide if I liked it enough to read the next two books.