Status
Available
Series
Publication
McClelland & Stewart (2013), Edition: 1st Edition, 416 pages
Description
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, which is being fortified against man and giant Pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasihuman species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. While their reluctant prophet, Jimmy--Crake's one-time friend--recovers from a debilitating fever, it's left to Toby to narrate the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb. Meanwhile, Zeb searches 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. Now, under threat of an imminent Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center is the extraordinary story of Zeb's past, which involves a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.… (more)
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Media reviews
Atwood's prose miraculously balances humor, outrage and beauty. ... It's a pleasure to read a futuristic novel whose celebration of beauty extends to the words themselves. And words are very important here; by the moving end of "MaddAddam," we understand how language and writing produced the
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beautiful fiction that described our beginnings. Show Less
MaddAddam is slightly crazed, usually intriguing and often great fun. I would have enjoyed it even more, however, were it not for the nagging voice that said: instead of this, we might have had another Alias Grace, or another The Blind Assassin.
User reviews
LibraryThing member rosalita
What is there to say about this one that hasn’t already been said by all of my LT pals who weren’t #224 on their library hold list? My first reaction after turning the last (virtual) page in my e-reader was to sigh, sad that I’m finished with this trilogy after living with it and thinking
I’m tempted to crown Atwood the Queen of Dystopia. There aren’t many authors who can make the grim not-so-distant future seem so … inevitable. Her conception of a North America taken entirely over by corporations and their private security forces — CorpSeCorps, one of her many sly bits of wordplay — might have seemed a bit farfetched in 2004 when she wrote the first book of the trilogy, Oryx and Crake, but in 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that money is equal to free speech in politics, and a major presidential candidate glibly declared “Corporations are people, my friend” during an appearance in my home state, I doubt many people would feel Atwood stretched her point very far at all. After reading about Atwood’s vision of a desperate, ecologically damaged future, the idea of a worldwide pandemic that destroys (almost) all of humankind doesn’t seem like such a bad thing at all. It's not, so to speak, the end of the world.
Of course, it is a bad thing, and the beauty of MaddAddam lies in how Atwood further explores the reality we first encountered in The Year of the Flood, and yet manages not to repeat herself. Flood gave us an up-close and personal look at how one woman, Toby, copes with her total isolation from other humans. In MaddAddam, Atwood ruminates on how that same woman copes with the small group of humans that she encountered at the end of Flood. Not to mention the small group of non-humans, the Crakers, a genetically engineered people meant to rebuild civilization by preserving the best human attributes and eliminating the worst.
The book’s theme is so grim that it might be unreadable except for Atwood’s deft use of humor. In addition to her lively fun with names mentioned earlier, she uses Toby’s interactions with the childlike Crakers to leaven the gloom. Some of the best parts of the book are the passages in which Toby tries to explain the violent, cruel, selfish ways of humans to the kind, gentle, essentially humorless people.
It’s always difficult to read the end of a series peopled by such vivid characters, but overall I was pleased with how Atwood managed to bring a sense of closure to the trilogy. She doesn’t exactly tie things up in a neat little bow, but she plays fair by giving readers a real sense of what life will be like going forward into this not-so-brave new world.
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about it for a couple of years, but also satisfied with how the story wraps up.I’m tempted to crown Atwood the Queen of Dystopia. There aren’t many authors who can make the grim not-so-distant future seem so … inevitable. Her conception of a North America taken entirely over by corporations and their private security forces — CorpSeCorps, one of her many sly bits of wordplay — might have seemed a bit farfetched in 2004 when she wrote the first book of the trilogy, Oryx and Crake, but in 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that money is equal to free speech in politics, and a major presidential candidate glibly declared “Corporations are people, my friend” during an appearance in my home state, I doubt many people would feel Atwood stretched her point very far at all. After reading about Atwood’s vision of a desperate, ecologically damaged future, the idea of a worldwide pandemic that destroys (almost) all of humankind doesn’t seem like such a bad thing at all. It's not, so to speak, the end of the world.
Of course, it is a bad thing, and the beauty of MaddAddam lies in how Atwood further explores the reality we first encountered in The Year of the Flood, and yet manages not to repeat herself. Flood gave us an up-close and personal look at how one woman, Toby, copes with her total isolation from other humans. In MaddAddam, Atwood ruminates on how that same woman copes with the small group of humans that she encountered at the end of Flood. Not to mention the small group of non-humans, the Crakers, a genetically engineered people meant to rebuild civilization by preserving the best human attributes and eliminating the worst.
The book’s theme is so grim that it might be unreadable except for Atwood’s deft use of humor. In addition to her lively fun with names mentioned earlier, she uses Toby’s interactions with the childlike Crakers to leaven the gloom. Some of the best parts of the book are the passages in which Toby tries to explain the violent, cruel, selfish ways of humans to the kind, gentle, essentially humorless people.
It’s always difficult to read the end of a series peopled by such vivid characters, but overall I was pleased with how Atwood managed to bring a sense of closure to the trilogy. She doesn’t exactly tie things up in a neat little bow, but she plays fair by giving readers a real sense of what life will be like going forward into this not-so-brave new world.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
Given how different from each other Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood were, I wasn't sure what to expect going into MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. I knew a few things though: 1. I would be highly entertained, 2. I would finally get some answers, and 3. I would experience fantastic writing.
Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on September 3, 2013.
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All three counts were expected and fulfilled easily. But I want to elaborate more on the first one.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on September 3, 2013.
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LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
‘MaddAddam’ is the final volume in the near future dystopian trilogy that started with ‘Oryx and Crake’ and continued with ‘The Year of the Flood’. While the events in the first two novels about the end of the world as we know it took place at the same time, albeit with different casts
While the plot that moves the book along is how the group deals with the Painballers, it really doesn’t take up much of the text. The majority of the story is Zeb’s history: how he and his brother (who became MaddAddam) grew up tortured by their father, the head of the Church of PetrOleum; and the close calls he had after running away. This history serves to tell us about how the world right before the apocalypse was functioning.
It’s a horrific world that God’s Gardeners and the rest inhabit, but t he real horror is that humans already possess the technology to make all the creatures in this book, including the deadly diseases that wipe out humanity and the Painballers with their inability to care about anyone other than themselves. We are already on the course of megacorporations taking over our lives and government. Ice caps are already melting and permafrost thawing. The gap between rich and poor widens.
‘MaddAddam’ is brilliantly written and serves as a warning about the path we’re headed down. But it’s not preachy; it’s a damn good adventure story. My only complaint was with the character of Toby; in ‘Year of the Flood’ she is an incredibly strong person, focused and capable. In ‘MaddAddam’, we witness her relationship with Zeb turning her into an insecure, jealous woman, tortured by doubts about Zeb’s feelings for her and whether he is having sex with other women- especially one who is putting on a display of her sexual readiness for all the males of the camp. This bothered me a lot to see Toby reduced to this state, but later I wondered: was she written like this to compare her to the Crakers, who have no sexual jealousy? Or to show that in a situation where the world has ended and must be rebuilt, the fertile woman is reduced to her ability to repopulate the world? Or perhaps just that no matter what happens in the larger world, human beings will be human beings. I don’t know, but I found it very irritating.
The best part of the book is the way that big parts of it are told by Toby to the Crakers in their nightly story time. You only hear Toby’s voice; what the Crakers are saying and doing is implied by her answers. I found their naivety funny and felt sympathy for Toby’s frustration with their incessant questions. One of the most surprising things in the book is who became the allies of the God’s Gardeners in the end.
While it wasn’t the most satisfying conclusion, it’s still a very good book. It’s a standalone novel and has a ‘the story so far’ section in the front, but I recommend reading the first two volumes before this one.
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of characters, ‘MaddAddam’ moves us forward in time and unites the two sets of characters. Jimmy, once Crake’s best friend, now deathly ill with an infection, is in the care of the remnants of God’s Gardeners, an ecological/religious group, who also find themselves the caretakers of the Craker’s, those innocent, leaf eating people who Crake created as replacements for the fatally flawed human race. The group is also imperiled by two of the Painballers- former prisoners who earned their freedom in gladiator style fights that burned out their ability to feel empathy and left them with a huge appetite for torture- who are lurking in the forest that surround their home and garden. An even bigger peril they face is the fact that food and other supplies are rapidly running out; it’s getting harder and harder to find anything useful in the remnants of the city, and they have no ideas how to survive in Stone Age conditions. While the plot that moves the book along is how the group deals with the Painballers, it really doesn’t take up much of the text. The majority of the story is Zeb’s history: how he and his brother (who became MaddAddam) grew up tortured by their father, the head of the Church of PetrOleum; and the close calls he had after running away. This history serves to tell us about how the world right before the apocalypse was functioning.
It’s a horrific world that God’s Gardeners and the rest inhabit, but t he real horror is that humans already possess the technology to make all the creatures in this book, including the deadly diseases that wipe out humanity and the Painballers with their inability to care about anyone other than themselves. We are already on the course of megacorporations taking over our lives and government. Ice caps are already melting and permafrost thawing. The gap between rich and poor widens.
‘MaddAddam’ is brilliantly written and serves as a warning about the path we’re headed down. But it’s not preachy; it’s a damn good adventure story. My only complaint was with the character of Toby; in ‘Year of the Flood’ she is an incredibly strong person, focused and capable. In ‘MaddAddam’, we witness her relationship with Zeb turning her into an insecure, jealous woman, tortured by doubts about Zeb’s feelings for her and whether he is having sex with other women- especially one who is putting on a display of her sexual readiness for all the males of the camp. This bothered me a lot to see Toby reduced to this state, but later I wondered: was she written like this to compare her to the Crakers, who have no sexual jealousy? Or to show that in a situation where the world has ended and must be rebuilt, the fertile woman is reduced to her ability to repopulate the world? Or perhaps just that no matter what happens in the larger world, human beings will be human beings. I don’t know, but I found it very irritating.
The best part of the book is the way that big parts of it are told by Toby to the Crakers in their nightly story time. You only hear Toby’s voice; what the Crakers are saying and doing is implied by her answers. I found their naivety funny and felt sympathy for Toby’s frustration with their incessant questions. One of the most surprising things in the book is who became the allies of the God’s Gardeners in the end.
While it wasn’t the most satisfying conclusion, it’s still a very good book. It’s a standalone novel and has a ‘the story so far’ section in the front, but I recommend reading the first two volumes before this one.
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LibraryThing member Niecierpek
An interesting foray into the nature of religion, mythmaking, genetic revolution and the ideas of the Noble Savage. Communing with nature and depths of one’s consciousness included. I enjoyed this part very much, probably more than the other two. It's intelligent, funny and poignant in places.
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Granted, you have to suspend belief, but it’s the same way you have to suspend belief when reading Murakami’s 1Q84. Show Less
LibraryThing member lisally
The final book in the “MaddAddam” trilogy merges Oryx and Crake with the Year of the Flood in both style and storyline. Here Toby, Amanda, and Ren have joined a colony of the surviving God’s Gardeners, bringing with them an unconscious Jimmy and his Craker followers. The present sections
The sermons and present day sections are interspersed with the story of Zeb, Toby’s lover and God’s Gardeners strongman. Zeb’s story connects nearly every plot thread and character, and explains the origin of God’s Gardeners, the plague “flood”, and even how the group knew to prepare for this coming catastrophe. There’s also a few new things added to Atwood’s world of unchecked corporations, including a bizarre church that tries to use Christianity to justify fossil fuel consumption.
This was definitely a satisfying conclusion, wrapping both books together and closing all loose ends of the story, although there’s definitely room for future installments. There’s also an amusing new character, a curious little Cracker boy named Blackbeard, who latches onto a somewhat exasperated Toby. Maddaddam is a good book and a better read than Year of the Flood, even strengthening the previous installment.
A review copy was provided by the publisher.
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largely follow the point of view of Toby, who must now take up Jimmy’s position as official storyteller and preacher to the Crakers.The sermons and present day sections are interspersed with the story of Zeb, Toby’s lover and God’s Gardeners strongman. Zeb’s story connects nearly every plot thread and character, and explains the origin of God’s Gardeners, the plague “flood”, and even how the group knew to prepare for this coming catastrophe. There’s also a few new things added to Atwood’s world of unchecked corporations, including a bizarre church that tries to use Christianity to justify fossil fuel consumption.
This was definitely a satisfying conclusion, wrapping both books together and closing all loose ends of the story, although there’s definitely room for future installments. There’s also an amusing new character, a curious little Cracker boy named Blackbeard, who latches onto a somewhat exasperated Toby. Maddaddam is a good book and a better read than Year of the Flood, even strengthening the previous installment.
A review copy was provided by the publisher.
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LibraryThing member Vivl
A delightfully fitting end to the trilogy. Laughter, tears and other assorted feels were had in abundance. I particularly loved the hilarious chapters in the voice of somebody, usually Toby, talking to the Crakers. Fabulous stuff, in all senses of the word.
LibraryThing member rlycox
I seem to be in the minority here, but I...very much did not love this. I mean, a disappointing Margaret Atwood book is still better than most other things published, but this was not at all the conclusion to the series I was hoping for.
I just can't wrap my head around why she chose to go in this
Larger point: I'm pretty sure she had no intention of making this a trilogy. I know nothing about the writing process of these books, but after reading the third, the second two books just feel like one giant retcon. I was actually really floored when I initially realized Oryx and Crake even had a sequel--that book felt so complete and perfect to me. The ending with Jimmy, finally realizing he wasn't alone in the world, ready to take that first step into the unknown, couldn't have been better. It didn't need a sequel, let alone two, especially with a series-ender that would ruin the whole thing. Now, I liked The Year of the Flood, and I liked the way it fleshed out the world from a different perspective than Jimmy's. I had assumed, however, that once the storylines converged, it would result in a satisfying ending. Something bigger, something more. Honestly, it seems like she wrote Oryx and Crake, realized she had an opportunity to make a point, and then wrote a storyline that would vaguely hang around it, rather than letting the story, and what would make sense within that story, dictate what she was to say. It feels like she did a disservice to her own story, and that is unfortunate.
The whole point of the trilogy was to make the world safe for the Crakers? Wait, really? Why were three books and, in the end, a huge amount of irrelevant backstory, necessary for that? Why even bother introducing other characters? In the first book, the world is at an end, everyone but Jimmy and the Crakers are dead, no bad people exist. Boom, problem solved. Taking the first book alone, the world was safe for the Crakers! Crake succeeded! The conflicts were introduced in and exist solely in the sequels. I know, I know, she's making bigger points, but I truly think every point she wanted to make was done so beautifully and most interestingly in Oryx and Crake. Everything that came afterwards robbed it of its poignancy, and turned it into sappy clichés. Work together, racial/ethnic(?) cooperation is best, be excellent to each other. I really thought the story deserved better than that.
By the by, I find it irresponsible that the Crakers get to essentially be the ultimate heroes of this thing without either really discussing exactly how reprehensible Crake's actions were, nor exactly how disturbing some of the Craker's actions were. "Cultural misunderstandings"? For fuck's sake.
Let's talk about the "connections," shall we? I usually like it when authors do this--make all of the characters connected in interesting ways. This was pointless and implausible. So...basically everyone in the world dies, except for Jimmy and every single person he's ever met? Oh, ok. Some of them worked fine--Crake knowing Pilar from a former life, Ren and Jimmy dating, etc. I was even basically ok with Ren's former Gardener friend (I can't remember her name!) ending up as Jimmy's crazy roommate, implausible though it was. The first one that really annoyed me was realizing that Amanda was the Amanda from book one, and that Ren and Amanda both dated/loved Jimmy. After that, the hits just kept coming: The Gardeners sheltering Jimmy's mom, Adam somehow ridiculously knowing that Katrina Woo Woo chick, Mordis, Amanda not only being apparently the only person outside to live but also to find Ren, Shackleton and Crozier happening by the club, Blanco's entire existence. When all is said and done, Oryx's entire history. I legitimately put the book down and walked away when I realized she'd pointlessly, stupidly, resurrected Wakula fucking Price. Even the damn pigoons got to be interconnected! It all got so eye-rollingly absurd after awhile, especially when you realize these are the only people left in the world. Out of the 6 billion or so people on the planet, these specific people, who just happened to know each other in random and ridiculous ways, were the only ones who survived and they all just happened to end up in the exact same tiny geographic location. It's like she wasn't even trying to make it make sense.
Also, can we talk about how this book totally destroyed the characterization of the first two books? Jimmy, our protagonist from the first book, was relegated to a background character, at best. I had assumed that the storylines converging meant that this book would either be from his point of view, or the pov would be split, but no dice. Poor, sad, dumb but loveable Jimmy spent most of the book in a coma until getting casually killed at the end, off-screen. Just...why? Also, Toby. I had no real issue with Toby being the main pov character again in this novel. Well, awesome, kick-ass Toby from The Year of the Flood, that is. Not...whatever the hell this was. Why is Toby suddenly a whiny, clingy, love-sick Lifetime movie character? Why was Ren, also a former pov character, also relegated to background territory? Her most memorable appearances in the book were playing nursemaid and a horrific (yet oddly yada-yada-yada'd) rape-induced pregnancy (Oh, those silly Crakers! Ugh). Most importantly, who actually gives a hot damn about Zeb and his backstory?
I think this is the big crux of my problem with this book and, now that it's complete and this is its ending, the series as a whole. Naming the trilogy "Maddaddam," having Crake discover and be obsessed with the game, dubbing Zeb with the nickname "Maddaddam," naming this book after it, all indicated it was building toward something bigger. Some sort of big conspiracy, or...something. At the end of the day, Maddaddam was totally and completely irrelevant. There was no big picture. Just a fucked up kid with nihilistic tendencies who was given too much control and free time. Obviously, there's a point to be made there, but why all the Maddaddam bullshit? After the second book, after learning the kids called Zeb Maddaddam and seeing that he had something vital to do with the Maddaddam website, I thought maybe he was the mastermind behind it all. Somehow this was his whole grand plan, that he'd duped Crake and made him end the world so he could take over. Or something along those vague lines. Then, in the third book, when we learn that Adam was actually the one who brought Zeb into the world of Maddaddam, I thought maybe it was actually Adam who was behind it all. Either of those books would have been very good, made sense within the context of the story already established, and created a satisfying ending to this weird and mind-bending trilogy. But no. Maddaddam ended up being a non-entity. We never even figure out a) who created it (only that it wasn't Zeb or Adam), or b) why the kids called Zeb Maddaddam. How would they have even known about that, cut off from the world as they were? They wouldn't have. The whole Maddaddam thing ended up being nothing more than a convenient and hilariously contrived way to connect all of the characters and make them interact with each other. There's nothing "bigger" to it.
I don't know what she was attempting here, but she did it under the guise of a genre novel, without actually putting the story together in any coherent way. And, like I said earlier, knowing that kills the entire series for me, and robs it of its poignancy. She made clear what she wanted to say in the first book, and she did it better and more succinctly there than anything the sequels managed. Everything else was overkill and drudgery.
Moral of the story: Read Oryx and Crake, for it is excellent, then pretend the sequels don't exist. The Year of the Flood was wonderful, too, but reading it will probably make you want to read the third. Resist the impulse. It's not worth it.
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direction. Nothing really happened in this book, and the nothing all led up to a conclusion that seemed totally pointless, especially in the grand scheme of things. Arguably, nothing really happened in the first two books, either, but all of the glorious back-story of how things got to be as they were was fascinating, and it felt like we were leading up to something worthwhile. At no point in the first two books did I assume that the final, series-ending conflict would revolve around offing a couple of Painballers. That's it? After all of Crake's schemes, after the world ends, after 99% of the people in the world are destroyed, the climax is killing two nameless ex-cons? Especially in a battle that mostly takes place off-screen? ...Really? I'm sure she was attempting to make a larger point here about human nature, but it just seemed unworthy of all the work she'd put into the story beforehand.Larger point: I'm pretty sure she had no intention of making this a trilogy. I know nothing about the writing process of these books, but after reading the third, the second two books just feel like one giant retcon. I was actually really floored when I initially realized Oryx and Crake even had a sequel--that book felt so complete and perfect to me. The ending with Jimmy, finally realizing he wasn't alone in the world, ready to take that first step into the unknown, couldn't have been better. It didn't need a sequel, let alone two, especially with a series-ender that would ruin the whole thing. Now, I liked The Year of the Flood, and I liked the way it fleshed out the world from a different perspective than Jimmy's. I had assumed, however, that once the storylines converged, it would result in a satisfying ending. Something bigger, something more. Honestly, it seems like she wrote Oryx and Crake, realized she had an opportunity to make a point, and then wrote a storyline that would vaguely hang around it, rather than letting the story, and what would make sense within that story, dictate what she was to say. It feels like she did a disservice to her own story, and that is unfortunate.
The whole point of the trilogy was to make the world safe for the Crakers? Wait, really? Why were three books and, in the end, a huge amount of irrelevant backstory, necessary for that? Why even bother introducing other characters? In the first book, the world is at an end, everyone but Jimmy and the Crakers are dead, no bad people exist. Boom, problem solved. Taking the first book alone, the world was safe for the Crakers! Crake succeeded! The conflicts were introduced in and exist solely in the sequels. I know, I know, she's making bigger points, but I truly think every point she wanted to make was done so beautifully and most interestingly in Oryx and Crake. Everything that came afterwards robbed it of its poignancy, and turned it into sappy clichés. Work together, racial/ethnic(?) cooperation is best, be excellent to each other. I really thought the story deserved better than that.
By the by, I find it irresponsible that the Crakers get to essentially be the ultimate heroes of this thing without either really discussing exactly how reprehensible Crake's actions were, nor exactly how disturbing some of the Craker's actions were. "Cultural misunderstandings"? For fuck's sake.
Let's talk about the "connections," shall we? I usually like it when authors do this--make all of the characters connected in interesting ways. This was pointless and implausible. So...basically everyone in the world dies, except for Jimmy and every single person he's ever met? Oh, ok. Some of them worked fine--Crake knowing Pilar from a former life, Ren and Jimmy dating, etc. I was even basically ok with Ren's former Gardener friend (I can't remember her name!) ending up as Jimmy's crazy roommate, implausible though it was. The first one that really annoyed me was realizing that Amanda was the Amanda from book one, and that Ren and Amanda both dated/loved Jimmy. After that, the hits just kept coming: The Gardeners sheltering Jimmy's mom, Adam somehow ridiculously knowing that Katrina Woo Woo chick, Mordis, Amanda not only being apparently the only person outside to live but also to find Ren, Shackleton and Crozier happening by the club, Blanco's entire existence. When all is said and done, Oryx's entire history. I legitimately put the book down and walked away when I realized she'd pointlessly, stupidly, resurrected Wakula fucking Price. Even the damn pigoons got to be interconnected! It all got so eye-rollingly absurd after awhile, especially when you realize these are the only people left in the world. Out of the 6 billion or so people on the planet, these specific people, who just happened to know each other in random and ridiculous ways, were the only ones who survived and they all just happened to end up in the exact same tiny geographic location. It's like she wasn't even trying to make it make sense.
Also, can we talk about how this book totally destroyed the characterization of the first two books? Jimmy, our protagonist from the first book, was relegated to a background character, at best. I had assumed that the storylines converging meant that this book would either be from his point of view, or the pov would be split, but no dice. Poor, sad, dumb but loveable Jimmy spent most of the book in a coma until getting casually killed at the end, off-screen. Just...why? Also, Toby. I had no real issue with Toby being the main pov character again in this novel. Well, awesome, kick-ass Toby from The Year of the Flood, that is. Not...whatever the hell this was. Why is Toby suddenly a whiny, clingy, love-sick Lifetime movie character? Why was Ren, also a former pov character, also relegated to background territory? Her most memorable appearances in the book were playing nursemaid and a horrific (yet oddly yada-yada-yada'd) rape-induced pregnancy (Oh, those silly Crakers! Ugh). Most importantly, who actually gives a hot damn about Zeb and his backstory?
I think this is the big crux of my problem with this book and, now that it's complete and this is its ending, the series as a whole. Naming the trilogy "Maddaddam," having Crake discover and be obsessed with the game, dubbing Zeb with the nickname "Maddaddam," naming this book after it, all indicated it was building toward something bigger. Some sort of big conspiracy, or...something. At the end of the day, Maddaddam was totally and completely irrelevant. There was no big picture. Just a fucked up kid with nihilistic tendencies who was given too much control and free time. Obviously, there's a point to be made there, but why all the Maddaddam bullshit? After the second book, after learning the kids called Zeb Maddaddam and seeing that he had something vital to do with the Maddaddam website, I thought maybe he was the mastermind behind it all. Somehow this was his whole grand plan, that he'd duped Crake and made him end the world so he could take over. Or something along those vague lines. Then, in the third book, when we learn that Adam was actually the one who brought Zeb into the world of Maddaddam, I thought maybe it was actually Adam who was behind it all. Either of those books would have been very good, made sense within the context of the story already established, and created a satisfying ending to this weird and mind-bending trilogy. But no. Maddaddam ended up being a non-entity. We never even figure out a) who created it (only that it wasn't Zeb or Adam), or b) why the kids called Zeb Maddaddam. How would they have even known about that, cut off from the world as they were? They wouldn't have. The whole Maddaddam thing ended up being nothing more than a convenient and hilariously contrived way to connect all of the characters and make them interact with each other. There's nothing "bigger" to it.
I don't know what she was attempting here, but she did it under the guise of a genre novel, without actually putting the story together in any coherent way. And, like I said earlier, knowing that kills the entire series for me, and robs it of its poignancy. She made clear what she wanted to say in the first book, and she did it better and more succinctly there than anything the sequels managed. Everything else was overkill and drudgery.
Moral of the story: Read Oryx and Crake, for it is excellent, then pretend the sequels don't exist. The Year of the Flood was wonderful, too, but reading it will probably make you want to read the third. Resist the impulse. It's not worth it.
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LibraryThing member mojomomma
The saga continues. We see the back-story of the trilogy and learn the origins of Crake and Oryx, Zeb and Toby and the Crakers.
LibraryThing member ReginaR
Really great conclusion to an amazing trilogy. Atwood is a goddess of literature.
Ten years after the release of the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake) and four years after the release of the second book in the trilogy (Year of the Flood), Margaret Atwood releases the final book in
Each book in the trilogy is told form a different point of view and at a different point in time, yet it is the same story and the same characters. The entire story is told in the present, but it is done with memory and flashbacks of the characters. Each book is about the time before the collapse of the world’s society and each book is also about the time after the societal collapse.
There are no zombies, no aliens, no floods and the moon didn’t fall out of the sky. Instead Atwood’s book (and series) is really a critique of what she sees as a major movement in our culture and our world – corporate control and dominance. Can you imagine a world where the corporations call the shots? Where the governments are so weakened that the corporations are the ones truly running things? What if the motivation to earn profit by those at the top of the corporation is what ruled the world? And these corporations controlled all scientific endeavors and the production of all food? Hmmmmmm ….. These are the topics explored by the Maddaddam trilogy and Atwood does this with really well developed characters, an amazingly intricately built (but believable) future world. Atwood began writing about this topic in the early 2000s. She is such a visionary (yes I have written that word twice now in this review — but remember her book The Handmaid’s Tale?, yeah she is brilliant).
But it is also about relationships with our fathers and mothers. It is about sexuality, desire and how gender roles are constructed. The series takes on concepts of the building of myth and religion. And it is also funny.
Rebecca’s having a cup of what they’ve all agreed to call coffee.
But you know what it is not? The post-apocalypse is not fun and it is not romantic. In Atwood’s imagined world, there is no coffee, there is no abundant supplies free for the taking and even with the majority of the population gone it is hard to find food. Empty buildings are dangerous as untended electrical wires and water pipes often mal-function causing fires and flooding. City centers can be filled with tainted water and structurally unsound buildings due to lack of human maintenance. Without family members around to support us and no hope for the future, motivation is hard to maintain:
Daytime becomes irrelevant. You can get careless, you can overlook details, you can lose track. These days she’ll find herself upright, in the middle of the room, one sandal in her hand, wondering how she got there; or outside under a tree, watching the leaves riffle, then prodding herself: Move. Move now. Get moving. You need to …. But what exactly is it that she needs to do?
I would categorize this series as both literary fiction and science fiction. Readers who enjoy Margaret Atwood books or readers who read science fiction/post-apocalypse books to think about broader concepts beyond just the story would enjoy this trilogy. Fans of the first two books may be slightly disappointed by the beginning of Maddaddam, but stick with it. The story does start slow and has a different feel but it is very rewarding and addicting.
Ten years after the release of the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake) and four years after the release of the second book in the trilogy (Year of the Flood), Margaret Atwood releases the final book in
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her apocalyptic/post-apocalypse series – Maddaddam. When Atwood first released Oryx and Crake, the post-apocalypse wasn’t as fun and romanticized as it is right now – hard to imagine I know but ….: the Walking Dead was not yet on TV, Red Dawn had not yet been remade, and main stream romance publishing houses weren’t regularly releasing post-apocalypse romance themed books. I think it is fair to say that in 2003, the apocalypse was not yet the rage. It is interesting that when the series ends, Maddaddam finds itself nestled on bookshelves next to other mainstream and best sellers that deal with the what-happens-when-society-collapses. Atwood is a visionary. But Maddaddam and the trilogy is not just about the collapse of society, it is about so much more.Each book in the trilogy is told form a different point of view and at a different point in time, yet it is the same story and the same characters. The entire story is told in the present, but it is done with memory and flashbacks of the characters. Each book is about the time before the collapse of the world’s society and each book is also about the time after the societal collapse.
There are no zombies, no aliens, no floods and the moon didn’t fall out of the sky. Instead Atwood’s book (and series) is really a critique of what she sees as a major movement in our culture and our world – corporate control and dominance. Can you imagine a world where the corporations call the shots? Where the governments are so weakened that the corporations are the ones truly running things? What if the motivation to earn profit by those at the top of the corporation is what ruled the world? And these corporations controlled all scientific endeavors and the production of all food? Hmmmmmm ….. These are the topics explored by the Maddaddam trilogy and Atwood does this with really well developed characters, an amazingly intricately built (but believable) future world. Atwood began writing about this topic in the early 2000s. She is such a visionary (yes I have written that word twice now in this review — but remember her book The Handmaid’s Tale?, yeah she is brilliant).
But it is also about relationships with our fathers and mothers. It is about sexuality, desire and how gender roles are constructed. The series takes on concepts of the building of myth and religion. And it is also funny.
Rebecca’s having a cup of what they’ve all agreed to call coffee.
But you know what it is not? The post-apocalypse is not fun and it is not romantic. In Atwood’s imagined world, there is no coffee, there is no abundant supplies free for the taking and even with the majority of the population gone it is hard to find food. Empty buildings are dangerous as untended electrical wires and water pipes often mal-function causing fires and flooding. City centers can be filled with tainted water and structurally unsound buildings due to lack of human maintenance. Without family members around to support us and no hope for the future, motivation is hard to maintain:
Daytime becomes irrelevant. You can get careless, you can overlook details, you can lose track. These days she’ll find herself upright, in the middle of the room, one sandal in her hand, wondering how she got there; or outside under a tree, watching the leaves riffle, then prodding herself: Move. Move now. Get moving. You need to …. But what exactly is it that she needs to do?
I would categorize this series as both literary fiction and science fiction. Readers who enjoy Margaret Atwood books or readers who read science fiction/post-apocalypse books to think about broader concepts beyond just the story would enjoy this trilogy. Fans of the first two books may be slightly disappointed by the beginning of Maddaddam, but stick with it. The story does start slow and has a different feel but it is very rewarding and addicting.
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LibraryThing member norabelle414
We've heard the story of The Waterless Flood twice now - the Crakers' story (via Jimmy) and the eco-cultist God's Gardeners'. Now these two stories have come together along with another - two vile, sadistic painballers intent on raping and pillaging the few remaining women on earth. As
Just like the previous two books, copious flashbacks make this Maddaddam much more world-building than plot-driven. There are an infinite number of questions about the past desperate to be answered, both by the characters and by the reader. What kind of planet was this to lead Crake to take such drastic action? Did he do the right thing? How close is our planet to that tipping point? What will the future hold? Will all of Crake's work have been in vain?
What more can I say? If you enjoyed the first two then you're already desperate for an ending. If it sounds like you'd like it, go read the first book. In terms of the world as a whole, this is a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. We can clearly see the direction this world is headed in. On a character-basis, however, the lives of the people the reader has come to understand so deeply just fizzle out, almost as if they were real people and this was a real future. Almost as if half the things Atwood made up in Oryx and Crake have come true already.
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anthropologists currently wonder about the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons - will these groups interbreed, or exterminate each other? Who will be the founders of the rebirth of humankind? Just like the previous two books, copious flashbacks make this Maddaddam much more world-building than plot-driven. There are an infinite number of questions about the past desperate to be answered, both by the characters and by the reader. What kind of planet was this to lead Crake to take such drastic action? Did he do the right thing? How close is our planet to that tipping point? What will the future hold? Will all of Crake's work have been in vain?
What more can I say? If you enjoyed the first two then you're already desperate for an ending. If it sounds like you'd like it, go read the first book. In terms of the world as a whole, this is a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. We can clearly see the direction this world is headed in. On a character-basis, however, the lives of the people the reader has come to understand so deeply just fizzle out, almost as if they were real people and this was a real future. Almost as if half the things Atwood made up in Oryx and Crake have come true already.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
MaddAddam is the final book in Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic trilogy, following Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.
In many ways, MaddAddam is a quiet denouement to the frenzied dystopia depicted in the previous two books in the series. MaddAddam takes up right where both the previous
A lot of the story is taken up by flashback, relating the back stories of brothers Zeb and Adam, founder of the God's Gardeners, and answering many of the questions left hanging in the previous two books. This storytelling technique leaves the reader feeling removed from much of the action and not fully invested in the outcome. For instance, when Zeb and the others decide to go take out the Painballers, those events take place "off-camera," related only as a story to the Crakers, which steals a lot of suspense from the climax.
I suspect this is purposeful on Atwood's part, who seems to be painting the picture of a near-perfect utopia in her post-apocalyptic world. A utopia which, I might add, doesn't really need men -- at least, not non-Craker men. Other than Zeb, the most fully realized characters are the surviving women, with Toby (a major character from The Year of the Flood) providing their voice. Most of the women eventually become pregnant by the Crakers, giving the reader the assumption that human and post-human will eventually merge, eliminating the traditional male qualities like aggressiveness, jealousy and ego.
That's all well and good if we're fantasizing, but it doesn't make for a particularly exciting read. Also, I found it a bit problematic that even though the post-apocalyptic society seemed to be forming itself along matriarchal lines, the bulk of the story still focused on male characters. It was a jarring contrast. Oryx is the character who has gotten short shrift in all three of these novels, as she has now literally been turned into an unknowable goddess.
Atwood is a terrific writer, and her books are always enjoyable. But I can't help feeling that she ran out of steam with this idea. In my opinion, Oryx and Crake remains the best book of the trilogy, a significant contribution to the post-apocalyptic genre. MaddAddam can't quite measure up to that.
In many ways, MaddAddam is a quiet denouement to the frenzied dystopia depicted in the previous two books in the series. MaddAddam takes up right where both the previous
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books left off, joining Snowman-Jimmy and the bioengineered post-humans called the Crakers with the remnants of the God's Gardeners cult who survived the plague that wiped out most of the human race. The remaining humans decide to live with the Crakers and protect them from the last threat: other surviving humans, particularly the vicious Painballers who they know are lurking nearby. A lot of the story is taken up by flashback, relating the back stories of brothers Zeb and Adam, founder of the God's Gardeners, and answering many of the questions left hanging in the previous two books. This storytelling technique leaves the reader feeling removed from much of the action and not fully invested in the outcome. For instance, when Zeb and the others decide to go take out the Painballers, those events take place "off-camera," related only as a story to the Crakers, which steals a lot of suspense from the climax.
I suspect this is purposeful on Atwood's part, who seems to be painting the picture of a near-perfect utopia in her post-apocalyptic world. A utopia which, I might add, doesn't really need men -- at least, not non-Craker men. Other than Zeb, the most fully realized characters are the surviving women, with Toby (a major character from The Year of the Flood) providing their voice. Most of the women eventually become pregnant by the Crakers, giving the reader the assumption that human and post-human will eventually merge, eliminating the traditional male qualities like aggressiveness, jealousy and ego.
That's all well and good if we're fantasizing, but it doesn't make for a particularly exciting read. Also, I found it a bit problematic that even though the post-apocalyptic society seemed to be forming itself along matriarchal lines, the bulk of the story still focused on male characters. It was a jarring contrast. Oryx is the character who has gotten short shrift in all three of these novels, as she has now literally been turned into an unknowable goddess.
Atwood is a terrific writer, and her books are always enjoyable. But I can't help feeling that she ran out of steam with this idea. In my opinion, Oryx and Crake remains the best book of the trilogy, a significant contribution to the post-apocalyptic genre. MaddAddam can't quite measure up to that.
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LibraryThing member albertgoldfain
Nicely ties together the threads of "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood", while at the same time taking a different perspective on the artificial origin myth told to tthe genetically modified "Crakers". The act of storytelling as a world-building device is used very effectively and
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inventively throughout. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mary_Overton
Delicious "green" revenge of the nerds novel -- We money-poor but spirit-rich politically-correct, witty & brainy nerd-activists will trigger & then survive the apocalyptic downfall of the evil, greedy corporations! Trash fantasy reading for leftists.
LibraryThing member ratastrophe
I don't generally find my vocabulary lacking, but I don't have the words to describe how much I loved this entire series. This is a perfect ending to a fantastic trilogy.
LibraryThing member ohsillytwigg
I loved Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood but the finale was disappointing. Atwood spent the first two books developing a rich speculative version of the future, the apocalyptic event that ends it, and the lives of those who survived. After over 700 pages of learning about this world and those
The plot revolves around the issues between the Gods Gardeners/MaddAddamites and the Painballers. There’s also the issue of the Crakers: they’re too naïve to really live on their own, but they are not of much help either. And of course there was the pressing need to figure out how to survive in a world with only each other and without basic technology.
Toby is not my favorite character, but I liked that MaddAddam was from her perspective. She seems to be one of the few characters that care about both immediate and long term needs. However, the strong and resilient character we met in Year of the Flood becomes overshadowed by her love for Zeb. She clings to him and seems put out if he doesn’t reciprocate immediately. She is often hostile towards the other women
Toby seems to be the only person to really care about the Crakers. She tells them Zeb’s story. I really enjoyed reading an adult’s perspective on the slow and sudden changes to society. However, I was more interested in seeing the characters’ future, not their pasts. Too much of the book is dedicated to Zeb wandering through seedy cities.
With all that said, the ending is bittersweet and it made up for a lot of the frustrations I felt reading this book.
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who are left, the plot came to a grinding halt in MaddAddam.The plot revolves around the issues between the Gods Gardeners/MaddAddamites and the Painballers. There’s also the issue of the Crakers: they’re too naïve to really live on their own, but they are not of much help either. And of course there was the pressing need to figure out how to survive in a world with only each other and without basic technology.
Toby is not my favorite character, but I liked that MaddAddam was from her perspective. She seems to be one of the few characters that care about both immediate and long term needs. However, the strong and resilient character we met in Year of the Flood becomes overshadowed by her love for Zeb. She clings to him and seems put out if he doesn’t reciprocate immediately. She is often hostile towards the other women
Toby seems to be the only person to really care about the Crakers. She tells them Zeb’s story. I really enjoyed reading an adult’s perspective on the slow and sudden changes to society. However, I was more interested in seeing the characters’ future, not their pasts. Too much of the book is dedicated to Zeb wandering through seedy cities.
With all that said, the ending is bittersweet and it made up for a lot of the frustrations I felt reading this book.
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LibraryThing member annejacinta
This is a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy beginning with Oryx and Crake. It focuses largely on Toby and Zeb, with a subtle approach to filling in past events. Present conditions develop the Crakers' role; their viewpoint is given a voice in the appealing young character Blackbeard.
Living
Atwood creates a compelling vision of this world. Much of our world and its consequences for the environment and the human race is presented negatively, but she does so with acute judgement and a hugely inventive imagination. She delights in forming new words to describe things eg prostibots, an obvious advance on the blow up doll! I do wonder why , in the new world, characters dress everyday in a fresh bed sheet, appropriate for the mood or event- seems surprisingly awkward as a practical garment doesn't it.
Her clever language use and flowing narrative pace ameliorate the grimness of the story as it develops to a momentous finale.
Living
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conditions are much reduced by the demise of the modern world. There are hostile forces to be faced, with good and bad results. Atwood creates a compelling vision of this world. Much of our world and its consequences for the environment and the human race is presented negatively, but she does so with acute judgement and a hugely inventive imagination. She delights in forming new words to describe things eg prostibots, an obvious advance on the blow up doll! I do wonder why , in the new world, characters dress everyday in a fresh bed sheet, appropriate for the mood or event- seems surprisingly awkward as a practical garment doesn't it.
Her clever language use and flowing narrative pace ameliorate the grimness of the story as it develops to a momentous finale.
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LibraryThing member TheWasp
The final book. The world's population has been destroyed by a virus hidden in BlyssPluss pills and only a handful have survived - some of The MaddAddams and God's Gardiners., who are also caring for the Crakers, (a newly engineered race of people ) and the murderous Painballers. The Pigoons and
This book begins by summarising the previous two, a good thing as alot goes on, and expands on how the survivors got to where they are. It also gives an incite into how life will be in their future.
An entertaining trilogy. Good not to leave too much time between reading each book.
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other genetically altered animals are also on the loose.This book begins by summarising the previous two, a good thing as alot goes on, and expands on how the survivors got to where they are. It also gives an incite into how life will be in their future.
An entertaining trilogy. Good not to leave too much time between reading each book.
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LibraryThing member jmoncton
Maddaddam is the final installment in Margaret Atwood's dystopian trilogy. Society's downfall is not caused by nuclear war, aliens, or paranormal love triangles, but the result of genetic engineering gone astray and the greed of the Corporation. Hmmm... doesn't sound that farfetched, does it?
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Atwood labels this series as speculative fiction instead of science fiction because all of the technology in this book is available today. Bitingly sarcastic, Atwood pokes fun at human nature and the greed and obsessions of our society. I really loved the end of this series. The first book, Oryx and Crake was disturbing and dark, but I found this one to still be an excellent critique of our world, but it was instilled with hope and possibilities. Show Less
LibraryThing member 4leschats
The final installment in the trilogy that began with Oryx & Crake looks more closely at Zeb's history with Crake, Adam One, and the MaddAddamites. Many years after Crake kills off the human population, Snowman-the-Jimmy falls ill and is carried to the compound now housing the MaddAddam survivors
Through flashbacks, Atwood reveals the interconnections of the various participants which on the surface could seem contrived but ultimately seems to be more a message of humanities interrelations. The main focus is on Zeb who acts a lynchpin between the groups.
While the survivors attempt to rebuild a semblance of existence, they must continue to battle the lingering evil of the escaped Painballers while protecting the Crakers who have no sense of the threat these humans pose.
This series looks at the evil that humanity can perpetrate on the environment, other species, and even each other, but this final book ends on a poignantly hopeful note of rebirth.
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and some of the God's Gardeners, in particular Toby, the focus of the 2nd book, The Year of the Flood. Through flashbacks, Atwood reveals the interconnections of the various participants which on the surface could seem contrived but ultimately seems to be more a message of humanities interrelations. The main focus is on Zeb who acts a lynchpin between the groups.
While the survivors attempt to rebuild a semblance of existence, they must continue to battle the lingering evil of the escaped Painballers while protecting the Crakers who have no sense of the threat these humans pose.
This series looks at the evil that humanity can perpetrate on the environment, other species, and even each other, but this final book ends on a poignantly hopeful note of rebirth.
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LibraryThing member kewing
The first two books of this trilogy (Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood) were like excellent meals that nonetheless left me hungry. MaddAddam is an intelligent, bright, and witty conclusion to the trilogy. The narrative voices were distinct and felt honest. This read like a return to epic
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storytelling, with deep back stories to fill in the voids. The end is solid, an emotional and haunting transition to a new world; a fitting end to a gourmet feast. Overall, I thought it brilliant. I'm not sure why Margaret Atwood is not yet among the Nobel authors. Show Less
LibraryThing member JoeYee
Enjoyed the first two books in the series, and the third lived up to my expectations.
Received the book free from First Reads.
Received the book free from First Reads.
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
A neat wrap to a messy series. It’s been a few days since I finished this final book of the MaddAddam trilogy and I am having a difficult time putting my thoughts together. Maybe because of the years between books and how different the first two are from each other. I really liked Oryx and Crake
I'm in awe of Atwood's ability to make Zeb's language and style unique. I loved his expressions. At least there wasn’t much chanting and more dealing with the changed world. I wish the Painballer threat had been more tangible though. It felt far-removed and distinctly nonthreatening. I did like the cross-species cooperation though. That was a new one for humans 1.0 and I think they did a good job. Finally the Crakers have some purpose other than being annoying. Translation work seems like it has a good future for them, although I think the humans 1.0 will miss bacon.
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because of the mystery. Everything was unknown from the big stuff like what the hell happened to little stuff like vocabulary. It engaged me tightly in a way that The Year of the Flood didn’t. I understood more, but found out less with that book. It was all quotidian detail, dogma and chanting. MaddAddam combines some of each in the sense that some of the story is told by Toby trying to explain things to the dim-witted Crakers, but not a lot actually happens in the short time frame that is presented. Because Toby has to dumb things down so much, the reader has to read between the lines and figure out what really happened. That was interesting, but kind of annoying and because some things are presented as fait accompli, it took the tension out of the story.I'm in awe of Atwood's ability to make Zeb's language and style unique. I loved his expressions. At least there wasn’t much chanting and more dealing with the changed world. I wish the Painballer threat had been more tangible though. It felt far-removed and distinctly nonthreatening. I did like the cross-species cooperation though. That was a new one for humans 1.0 and I think they did a good job. Finally the Crakers have some purpose other than being annoying. Translation work seems like it has a good future for them, although I think the humans 1.0 will miss bacon.
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LibraryThing member Gwendydd
My only big complaint about the first two books of this trilogy was that their endings were unsatisfying. This book finally provides the satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
MaddAddam covers a lot of the same events as the first two books, again from a different perspective. It also portrays what
Although this book is grim, like the rest of the trilogy, it also has a lot of humor in it. The humor largely revolves around the naivete of the Crakers, who are portrayed very convincingly. There are some laugh-out-loud funny moments in this book.
Atwood is a master of her craft, and that made this book a pleasure to read.
I listened the the audiobook, and the cast was generally very good, although the guy who read Zeb's parts has a really weird rhythm to his sentences that got annoying.
MaddAddam covers a lot of the same events as the first two books, again from a different perspective. It also portrays what
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happens to the small handful of humanity that remains after the apocalypse brought on by Crake.Although this book is grim, like the rest of the trilogy, it also has a lot of humor in it. The humor largely revolves around the naivete of the Crakers, who are portrayed very convincingly. There are some laugh-out-loud funny moments in this book.
Atwood is a master of her craft, and that made this book a pleasure to read.
I listened the the audiobook, and the cast was generally very good, although the guy who read Zeb's parts has a really weird rhythm to his sentences that got annoying.
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LibraryThing member JenLamoureux
A great finish to an epic trilogy. Atwood leaves the reader not only with closure after tying up all the loose ends from the previous two books, but also gives us an insight into the history being created as the storytelling within the story passes from one generation to the next.
Favorite quote
"By extension, anyone who liked smelling the daisies, and having daisies to smell, and eating mercury-free fish, and who objected to giving birth to three-eyed infants via the toxic sludge in their drinking water was a demon-possessed Satanic minion of darkness, hell-bent on sabotaging the American Way and God's Holy Oil, which were one and the same."
Favorite quote
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from the book... because it seems very relevant these days:"By extension, anyone who liked smelling the daisies, and having daisies to smell, and eating mercury-free fish, and who objected to giving birth to three-eyed infants via the toxic sludge in their drinking water was a demon-possessed Satanic minion of darkness, hell-bent on sabotaging the American Way and God's Holy Oil, which were one and the same."
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LibraryThing member Neftzger
This is the final book in Margaret Atwood's post apocalyptic trilogy. If you haven't red the first two books, there are summaries at the beginning of this one (also useful for those of us with short memories).
Atwood does a great job story telling and making the tale believable. In our current
Atwood does a great job story telling and making the tale believable. In our current
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culture it's easy to see how politics and big pharma could eventually result in the downfall of society. What I like about the book is how it provides an outsider's view on some of our everyday habits, and it's often done with a tongue in cheek approach. Some things are permanently destroyed when the political structure fell, but some things remain the same and others persist in a new form. In many ways, the book is a study of human nature, and I found it fascinating. Show Less
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2014)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2015)
Audie Award (Finalist — Science Fiction — 2014)
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2014)
CBC Bookie Awards (Nominee — 2014)
Orion Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 2014)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2013)
NPR: Books We Love (2013)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Fiction — 2013)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (Fiction — 2013)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2013-08-27
Physical description
416 p.; 9.52 inches
ISBN
0771008465 / 9780771008467