Oryx and Crake

De: Margaret Atwood

Narrado por: Campbell Scott

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The first volume in the internationally acclaimed MaddAddam trilogy is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future—from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey—with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake—through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

Very Scary Stuff

Atwood does her usual great job of not only telling a gripping tale, but of cautioning us about the costs of technology in terms of not only the effect on our planet, but also on our society. I haven't been this concerned about our future since I read Nature's End back in the 80's.

The story takes place in two times, one the "present" day, sometime in the not too distant future, and the other outlining how things got to where they are. The latter is told very close to a linear fashion, but Atwood mixes things up to match up with the present day story.

Campbell Scott (son of George C.) is disarmingly laid back in his reading, but I felt he captured the inner thinkings of Jimmy/Snowman perfectly. He is a very consistent reader, important as the book has several repeating themes.

I liked the book well enough that I stopped listening about 1.5 hours from the end, and started over to hear it with my wife on a recent car trip. It held up incredibly well, and in fact I found my enjoyment increasing as I was able to note foreshadowing I'd missed in the first listen.

Some have said the ending fizzles, but in truth the back story comes to a very satisfactory conclusion, while the current story ends with a moral dilemma. Some don't like books that don't end with a tidy bow, but I'm not among them. I was quite pleased with the ending overall, the only book I've read recently with an equally satisfying ending was Gaiman's American Gods.

The writing is tight and consistent, the reader does a great job, and the story is tense and rich in plot and characters. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a good story or is concerned about the costs of genetic engineering.

Starts out interesting then....

kind of fizzels out. The interesting characters never develop much. The story could be interesting but never really goes anywhere. It get more interesting towards the end and then just ends abruptly.

Disappointed

Despite lukewarm reviews, I purchased this book because I love some of Margaret Atwood's other works, especially "The Blind Assasin." Having listed to "Oryx and Crake" I concur with those less than stellar reviews. The book seems like it was written in a hurry and concludes with a abrupt open-ending. Fairly lame and sophomoric science fiction, especially for a writer as good as Atwood.

A parable for the zeitgeist

I have to give Atwood credit. Her depiction of the Crakers shows a lot more imagination than most of the aliens invented by the sci-fi mainstream. At the same time, she manages to tap in to our key hopes and fears about genetic manipulation. And all this is merely a sideshow on top of a clever parable that extrapolates the social ills of today to a possible cataclysmic conclusion.

Atwood throws us into a chaotic present and only slowly fills us in on how things got this way. It's a device that suits this book perfectly, since our narrator only now has the time to reflect on it all. I'm not sure, when all is said and done, that the core story on which she bases it all is solid enough to support the outcome. One is reminded of Rick's comment in Casablanca that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this world. But one is also reminded of Margaret Mead's comment that only the determination of small groups of people have ever succeeded in changing anything.

Still, Atwood manages to evoke multiple ancestral myths, and who is to say that our own culture doesn't have an equally sordid origin. Is Snowman a stand in for Prometheus? For Satan? For Judas? Or just a sad dupe left to clean up the mess? Or something else?

Snowman, sadly, is not quite interesting enough to be the protagonist of his own story. And that name never did quite work for me. It seemed to lack the imagination shown by the rest of the book. Or maybe that was the point. Regardless, the book was intriguing enough that I definitely plan to read the rest of the trilogy.

IF YOU LIKE DYSTOPIAN NOVELS - YOU WILL LIKE THIS

Overall, I thought this was a great book. The main character, Jimmy is very well developed and the story line is not implausible given current science and our corporate culture. Supporting characters, Oryx and Crake lacked complexity. Oryx is depicted as passively positive, even in the most difficult situations; Crake as inherently evil. I felt that the lengthy explicit details of Oryx's experiences with child porn and sex trafficking were overdone. If I was reading, I would have skipped over much of these details...but that is hard to do when you are listening. That being said, I it was a good listen.