Great start to an amazing trilogy! Atwood paints quite the interesting and unique image of the future. Hard to put this book down.

Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx & Crake” begins with the last human acting as a madman/Shaman to a group of pacifist humanoids who get their nourishment through the chlorophyll in their skin. His world is full of haunting memories from his painful past and dangerous, genetically animal hybrids in the surrounding countryside. Through his wandering memories we learn how this world came to be and his part in creating it. It took a long time for me to get interested, but when I did, I was all in and enjoyed it.

For me, this was the best of the trilogy. It kept me reading, even though I was tired and I never knew what was coming. I would describe it as "out there".

The story follows Snowman, formerly known as Jimmy, who the first character that is introduced. Snowman has companions who are unlike him and are better adapted to survive. They are called the Children of Crake and new species such as rakunks and wolvog who are called the Children of Oryx. The novel establishes the theme of evolution and extinction, consumerism and the costs of science progression. As the story continues the reader learns more about Snowman's past, during the flashbacks the readers are introduced to his mother Sharon, his father and two other main characters Crake (Glenn) his childhood best friend and Oryx his former love interest.

I especially enjoyed Oryx and Crake because it is different from other dystopian novels, as said by Margaret Atwood herself the novel is best described as a ustopian novel. I believe that the utopian and dystopian aspects and satire nature of the book represent the possible future of the current world. In order to project the message the issues are displayed in its extreme to have an influence. I definitely would recommend this book because Oryx and Crake teach you the severity and negative impact scientific exploration can have on society. In addition, the novel demonstrates the importance of humanities that is normally overlooked.

The first in Atwood's MadAddam trilogy, this book will immerse you in a dystopian world of genetic manipulation, scarcity, and survival. If you like The Handmaid's Tale, read this.

Michael R. Brown, Editor/Chief Ghettostone Publications Company and Leader of The BEST SELLERS BOOK CLUB review of "Oryx And Crake", by Margaret Atwood a science fiction novel. Our future world has ended badly...! Earlier technological discoveries in the bio-science have become out of control proliferating at a rate that will out do the normal world...! Blue humans who smell like citrus fruit are near perfect having no need for anything the previous world desired...! (The citrus smell keep mosquitoes away) Only one man has survived to tell the tale of what happened to wreak the world...! Told from the perspective of "Snowman" the lone survivor who lives in this weird world, the readers are taken through an historical accounting of events that lead this his survival and his living in a tree surrounded by unrecognizable animals and humans. The new animals of this future world are called "children of Oryx! And the new (near perfect) blue humans are called, "Children of Crake"! Once you begin this novel there is no return, you must keep reading in order to settle your mind melt and brain twists thrown at you from it's beginning pages...! "Readers be Warned!" How can we, any of us, move forward in our lives without knowing the Truth! Readers unless we find out what and the holly hell happened to the world, it's impossible to put this book down! Margaret Atwood has drawn us in to captivity with "Oryx And Crake" a science fiction novel that has a grip on mad science in our fearful dreams run amock...! We disagree strongly on the possibilities of realism, but we all know this was a great read for the entire group.

We the BEST SELLER'S BOOK CLUB highly recommend this title to our book lovers and science fiction fans all round the world! Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Michael R. Brown, Editor/Chief
Ghettostone Publications Company
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First off, Atwood is a brilliant and beautiful writer. I find that I literally drink up her language as I read. But I didn't really like this book. I thought there were problems on Atwood's end and on mine, too.

Atwood revisits writing dystopia again (The Handmaid's Tale), but less successfully this time for me. Crake and Jimmy aren't fully realized characters and the novel, told in flashback in half of it, is too coy for my tastes in revealing how we got to where we are. But I could have just had on my Lazy Reader Hat (my daughter Victoria describes it as having droopy flowers and mushrooms on it) and wanted things spelled out for me instead of working for it. Maybe, just maybe, Jimmy was too whiny and uninteresting for me. And the beautiful, elusive and mysterious Oryx - whose misfortunes flow off of her like a silvery waterfall - well, she was fun to read about but less based in reality than chickienobs.

I enjoyed the concept of this dystopian world and wonder how the human footprint will continue in this world. Will the Crakers be able to make a better world?
The "why" of the destruction of mankind isn't answered. At the time of publication the world was different. Perhaps then, the action of destruction wasn't a plausible idea. But in today's world, with the crazy shootings occurring where one mad man decides the fate of a group of others, this destruction took on a different feeling for me.

2019 Book Squad Reading Goals - Climate Fiction

A bleak dystopian novel where the world has been destroyed by disease. Sole survivor snowman tells the story of how one mad scientist got us here. --Lizzie G.