The Year of the Flood

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Katie MacNichol, Mark Bramhall

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

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

a very enjoyable journey, with unexpected music

Voice of Ren and Adam 1 were excellent, but I found Tobi's reading a bit stiff. Of course, that was in -character for Tobi,but it was a bit grating

So Hard to get throw

Would you try another book from Margaret Atwood and/or the narrators?

Yes, I love Margaret Atwood.

Would you recommend The Year of the Flood to your friends? Why or why not?

This book is just too hard to follow. Not really enjoying it just trying to get throw it

How could the performance have been better?

Not really enjoying the singing parts

a refreshing parallel to oryx & crake

dark like the first book, but maybe not as much and certainly better balanced given the nature spirituality perspective. a little disorienting to jump between perspectives and spacetimes early on but it comes together quite nicely

Worthy Sequel

Good story, good characters, good continuation of the trilogy except for the sermons of Adam at the end of each chapter and the songs really graded as well. thank God for skipping ahead lol!

Always a great read.

Atwood is one of my favorite authors. Oryx & Crake has been a great dystopian carnival. The Year of The Flood shows us where the story is pointing using multiple points of view and great description of what the world has become. A frightening look at what could be happening around us right now.

Great story telling

Let's start with the singing... It is controversial, and and I am squarely on the fence. By the time I got to the end of the book, I started warming it up to it. But I am not convinced that it really add that much to the book.
The story itself was very engaging and occasionally funny. It makes me think about the kind of things we are doing to the environment. But like the characters in the book, there is a tension between us humans and our fellow creatures. May be the 'right thing to do' is to apologize and thank the animals before we eat them.

Fantastic!

This is Margaret Atwood at her finest. I loved Oryx and Crake, but I think this book surpasses it. As I listen to more and more audiobooks, I find the narration is almost as important as the story and these readers prose and pace was excellent! I can't wait for the next Atwood creation.

Great listen - deeper than just the plotline

Would you listen to The Year of the Flood again? Why?

I enjoyed this listen and would listen to it again. Yes, the songs are cheesy. Yes, the book meanders and, besides for the end of the world as we know it, not much happens. However, there are a number of highly redeeming features about the book. The end-of-the-world theme (as with the time travel theme) is notoriously difficult to write about - as the scenarios for the most part are already covered - is it by asteroids, nuclear war, plague, or is it just endless and depressing a la "The Road". But instead of focussing on plot, which can be frustrating - with a non-end to the story - she uses it as a backdrop to explore deeper issues - what is it to be human? To be truly alive? What is our role as humans as guardians of the planet? What is our relationship to spirit one one side and to flesh on the other?

It would be easy to see Adam One and the Gardeners as an anachonism - idealistic and simplistic. However, once I saw clips from the documentary about Atwood's book tour, and especially the ministers reading the Adam One sermons in church, and the choirs singing the Gardener's songs, I saw past the irony to the truth that Atwood was getting at. This undertaking was quite serious for her - and though there is humor and irony in the story (i.e. the sexual habits of the Crakers, the Painballers, etc.), it's possible to see this as a deadly serious work, and to see Adam One truly talking as the mouthpiece of the author - presenting quite straightforwardly how she sees us, our relationship to the planet, and to the flesh and the spirit.

The performances were quite good, and I did enjoy the Adam One sermons - the music provided a nice backdrop to my walks to work through the city.

If you’ve listened to books by Margaret Atwood before, how does this one compare?

I enjoyed this as a companion piece to Oryx and Crake

Great novel bad annoying performance

This story was typical Margaret Atwood. The overall story was well written and is told in distinctive dystopian bleak fashion. Much like Oryx and Crake this book warns of disastrous outcome of environmental destruction as well as the destructive side of consumerism. The novel paints a bleak picture of a future world with few natural species of animals and enduring a life of daily violence at the hands of those that are still hanging on to an existence. Overall the novel is well done in audio format however I had one major complaint. The story is narrated through multiple characters points of view. Adam 1 who is a religious leader of a non-violent vegetarian cult like group is hear throughout the book giving various sermons. The sermons serve as insight into the group’s philosophy as well as what is going on at that point and time with the group. There are also religious songs that follow all of his sermons. Early on I found the songs to be mildly comical however, quickly the songs became annoying. I really wish the producer or director would have simply stuck with a poetic reading of the lyrics instead of a full on well-worn production that the songs became. The really get annoying quickly.

dear God why this singing

do not interpret music lyrics. I do not want to hear your musical interpretation of the songs.

as for the story, it's very monochrome. basically just advancing narrative, I haven't been enriched in anyway. the story is interesting enough, but they lost a lot of the feel from oryx and crake.