MaddAddam

A Novel

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Bob Walter, Robbie Daymond

Audie Award Finalist, Science Fiction, 2014

A New York Times Notable Book

A Washington Post Notable Book

A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail

A GoodReads Reader's Choice

Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love.

Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb.

Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.

Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood - a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.

©2013 Margaret Atwood (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"The final entry in Atwood’s brilliant MaddAddam trilogy roils with spectacular and furious satire.... Her vision is as affirming as it is cautionary, and the conclusion of this remarkable trilogy leaves us not with a sense of despair at mankind’s failings but with a sense of awe at humanity’s barely explored potential to evolve." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Ten years after Oryx & Crake rocked readers the world over, Atwood brings her cunning, impish, and bracing speculative trilogy - following The Year of the Flood - to a gritty, stirring, and resonant conclusion.... Atwood is ascendant, from her resilient characters to the feverishly suspenseful plot involving battles, spying, cyberhacking, murder, and sexual tension.... The coruscating finale in an ingenious, cautionary trilogy of hubris, fortitude, wisdom, love, and life’s grand obstinacy." ( Booklist)

A Fine Finish

Any additional comments?

If you loved the first two, this will be no disappointment. Lots of new viewpoints, questions answered, loose-ends tied, and completion.

"Oh, Snowman, Oh, Tobi"

What did you love best about MaddAddam?

This is really for all three books as a series. I love a story that draws you into a completely different world instead of just telling you about the world. You have to live with the characters as their stories unfold. Atwood works the tempo well to bring you into this dystopian future. I am waiting for "Extinctathon" to be released

What was one of the most memorable moments of MaddAddam?

So many, but I do not want to give any spoilers. For me, unveiling the God's Gardeners in "The Year of the Flood" was just delightful and so fully formed as a world view.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

They all did fine. For me the Crakers' use of "Oh" as part of every address to another person just rings in my mind. The music in the second book was way better than I first thought it might be. I can't imagine how the impact is achieved int he print version.

If you could rename MaddAddam, what would you call it?

Never Mess with Mother Nature

Any additional comments?

When a full world like that has been imagined, I hate that it ends. That for me is the best compliment I can offer.

Great book, great performance.

Excellent book by Margaret Atwood. The performance is top notch. Worthwhile listen.
Excellent for a long road trip as long as the kiddies aren't around.

Brilliant but a bit disturbing

This is a brilliant work, combining gripping human survival drama with a continuation of the arch and pointed social satire of the first two novels. Atwood has a naughty and delicious sense of language. It's always an enlightening and enjoyable experience to be among her words. Her prose scintillates with humor, especially when she describes the cultural communications between the survivors of the old world and the inheritors of the new one.

The only problem I have with this novel is that we are dealing with genocide, after all, and there's only so far you can go with whimsy and romance and humor and satire in the shadow of genocide. I think the end would have read better if the pack of affectless eco-geeks left alive after the disaster showed at least a tiny bit of empathy for the billions who were eliminated in the so-called Waterless Flood. Like maybe a moment of silence for the victims, or something. That's the only place where the novel falls flat for me.

Wow! This was the best of the three

I am amazed at the author and the readers. Such feeling and timing. Wonderfully done. I don’t usually sob as a book ends... I’ll say no more on that.

I wished there was more to read.

An excellent capstone to the series. While the loose ends are all tied up nicely. I grew to love her characters, and wish there was more to read.

So Good!

If you could sum up MaddAddam in three words, what would they be?

Haunted but Hopeful.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Toby is my favorite character, followed closely by Blackbeard.

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

Toby's voice is so patient, so, well, motherly. She is tired, and that is conveyed, but she's not sarcastic and she isn't apathetic. The tenderness with which she treats the "crakers" is truly heartening. I loved these parts of the book.

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

Life finds a way...

Any additional comments?

This was the final installment of an excellent trilogy. The narrator highlighted the storyline and I really enjoyed it. Highly recommend.

Awesome Book!

This is a good book hands down. Kinda scary reading it for the 1st time in the middle of the Covid-19 epidemic. But wow the Author has such an imagination!

Very Interesting

I reviewed the book 5/5 because the story telling was amazing with multiple narrators and the ending of the book was a interesting ending to say the least. I really enjoyed reading this book as well as the series of Oryx and the Crake and I look forward to reading more books from this author. I hope however is reading this review may enjoy the trilogy as much as I did.

wow

This was the best post apocalyptic book series EVER!!! I'm so glad I found it.