Rating: 
Summary: Oryx and Crake
Review: The speculative elements in this novel were excellent, frighteningly realistic: genetic manipulation, reality TV, websites of all (generally nasty) description. As an extrapolation, an "idea story", this worked well.However, despite smooth sentence-level writing, I found the characters somewhat limited and, especially, found the plot a bit weak. Not a lot happens here, and the crisis, told in flashback, seems underwritten. The ambiguous end works well, but overall the plot structure didn't draw me in.
Rating: 
Summary: Decline and Fall of Our Species
Review: This is a tale of how our species will decline and fall, a tale which does not appear within the realm of possibility as seen by the current rulers of the American Empire which conquers nations left and right these days. "Oryx and Crake" extrapolates a future of unsavory details leading to eventual doom and destruction in a plot reminiscent of Mary Shelley's "The Last Man". Its main character, "Snowman" (formerly Jimmy) picks through the wreckage of our civilization (as with "The Last Man," a plague destroys everything) while recounting to himself the story of how our civilization met its doom. The adventure of all of this is in the revelation of detail as to how things got so bad. Global warming is out of control; it's so hot that all the snow has melted and Jimmy's college graduation has to be held in early February to avoid the "wet season" and the tornado season. Culture is all decadent; it's all a corporate product, with brand names made out of cute misspellings of ordinary English-language words ("HelthWyzer High School," "RejoovenEsence," "BlyssPluss," etc.), and with food basically synthetic (the "real stuff" being a privilege of the richest people). The class structure has created a sheltered upper class living in gated Compounds connected with bullet trains, and dispossessed masses living in the rusted "Pleeblands." Slavery has grown, insects are everywhere. Democracy is dead; direct corporate rule is the norm, the police force has the scary name "CorpSeCorps". Jimmy plays these decadent games "Blood and Roses," which measures the world's atrocities against its cultural achievements, and "Extinctathon," which makes a game out of global extinction. That beside the kiddie-porn and publicly-filmed executions Jimmy gets off the Web, which completes Atwood's picture of decadence. What's great fun about all of this, of course, is that (as the author herself said in an interview) everything in it is a direct extrapolation from a current trend. Atwood's future is most extreme in its ideas of genetic engineering. "Pigoons" are a growth industry -- they're pigs that have been genetically manipulated to grow human body parts for transplant. "Rakunks" are a combination raccoon-skunk intended as a pet, but which become wild animals in the end. "Wolvogs" are combination wolf-dogs; they're dangerous. In the pre-plague world of Jimmy's memory, the storyline concerns Jimmy's growing up in the Compounds, of a corporate scientist father and of a mother who complains incessantly about the state of the world (while chainsmoking cigarettes) and who eventually joins a cadre of environmental radicals. Thereafter, we are led through the tale of Jimmy's friendship with Crake (this is the name taken by a boy genius after a then-extinct species of Australian bird in the game "Extinctathon"), which leads us through Jimmy's attendance at a sleazy humanities institute, and on to his career as the publicity man for Crake's utopian project "Paradice." Paradice is a walled community somewhat reminiscent of the compounds inhabited by the villains of James Bond movies, and just as sinister. "Paradice," amusingly enough, is informed by the ideology of evolutionary psychology, as has been popularized by the likes of Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins. We know of Crake's belief in this, the idea that genes are what determine psychological proclivities, by his self-anointment as one possessed of the "genius gene." Evolutionary psychology, nastily enough, points Crake to use "Paradice" as a horrific solution to the global disaster -- kill off all humanity with a virus that kills faster than a vaccine can be devised, and design a new, genetically-superior humanity to take its place. The new humanity, then, will be pacifistic (thus no war), will be unintelligent enough not to think about metaphysics or God (thus no religious disputes), will be able to eat grass (thus no starvation), and will die after reaching thirty years of age on average (thus no old age). Their teacher is Oryx, a young girl who grew up as a slave in Asia and who becomes Jimmy's sex partner when he's at Paradice. This story of genetic engineering gone wild magnificently highlights the negative slant of today's chic ideologies (amidst its manic "prosperity,") from evolutionary psychology to capitalism to global warming to the various impotent protests against today's reality. Given such a present, and given such a fashionable unwillingness to change as is endemic in today's society, we can expect the writers of our world to revel in visions of dystopia. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Just Kidding
Review: The Plot:
Jimmy, a man living in a post-apocalyptic world (and who now calls himself 'Snowman'), creates an accidental gospel for a new race of homo sapien like creatures, while tormented by dreams of his childhood, visions of his disappeared mother, and apparitions of a former lover. Atwood's Take:
In an interview about this book, Atwood remarked that scientists and novelist are driven by the same question: what if? I am not certain that all novelists would agree with that statement, but it certainly drives this novel. For Atwood, God and science are interchangeable; one happens to be a three letter word, the other a seven letter word- makes no difference. My Take:
The sister and daughter of scientists, Atwood's "gallows humor" is the main character in this book. She is lying to us. Will you laugh at her joke? Or will you take her tragic nightmare seriously? Or will you do both? I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Timely and Frightening
Review: In this age of cloned sheep and genetically altered beakless chickens created for KFC, this novel could not be more timely or relevant. While it is obviously fantasy, it doesn't take much to place ourselves in the hellish future Atwood paints in this novel. Corporations have their own military forces, their employees live in segregated "clean" communities, and new viruses run rampant through the outside population (that would be us, by the way). The potential horror this novel depicts can't get any worse...until it gets worse. As a previous reviewer rightfully noted, Atwood has pared down the prose and tells this story through a narrator who is literally losing his language in a world in which he has no one left to share it with. The male gender of the narrator is completely convincing: I never once doubted that he was male through and through, and I'm astonished that Atwood managed to pull this off so successfully. As usual, Atwood requires us to fill in some of the blanks and refuses to provide us with an easy way out of her story. Only one (very minor) gripe: As she did in "The Handmaid's Tale," Atwood creates names for imaginary products of the future that are just ridiculous and hard to take seriously. Knowing Atwood, however, this is intentional and serves an ironic purpose...I just haven't quite figured it out yet. "Oryx & Crake" is a fascinating novel and, in my opinion, one of Atwood's very best.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood does it again
Review: Though much-compared to "Handmaid's Tale" this book is totally different and deals (remarkably well) with even larger questions than Handmaid: What is it to be human? Where should science draw the line?
Long-time readers will be thrilled that Atwood's distinct voice and style remain true even in a sci-fi format. New readers couldn't ask for a better introduction to this amazing writer's work.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite novelists. She has an astonishing ability to blend revelation of plot and story inside a character's voice in a completely compelling and absorbing way. I loved "The Blind Assassin," "Alias Grace" and "Cat's Eye" for all of those reasons. Naturally, I wanted to read "Oryx and Crake" and bought it the day it was released. I was disappointed. This new novel, an end-of-the-world story, just doesn't hold together in the ways I expect from an Atwood novel. The premise is interesting (and thoroughly researched!) but the story doesn't have the emotional impact that I wished it would. Nothing really happens in the first half of the book'it's all recollection, and the actual story of the book is distilled in about 25-30 pages it seems. The characters of Snowman, Oryx and Crake seem pretty flat, like types more than people, and before readers have a chance to know them, the "end" has come, and they are gone. I actually started reading "The Handmaid's Tale" the day after I finished this novel, and 100 pages in, I can say that I enjoy this novel much more. It reads like it was written by the Atwood I enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: "The elimination of one generation means game over forever."
Review: Set sometime in the future, this post-apocalyptic novel takes scientific research in the hands of madmen to its logical and frightening conclusion. Inspiring readers to pay more attention to the world around them, Atwood offers cautionary notes about the environment, bioengineering, the sacrifice of civil liberties, and the possible loss of those human values which make life more than just a physical experience. As the novel opens, some catastrophe has occurred, effectively wiping out all human life. Snowman (known as Jimmy in his youth) is the lone survivor, a man on the verge of starvation in this desolate new world, now living in a tree for protection against "wolvogs" (part dog, part wolf) and serving as the protector of a bioengineered strain of humanoid children. As Atwood alternates between the unexplained disaster in which Snowman finds himself at the outset of the novel and flashbacks to his youth and early adulthood, which he shared with his best friend Crake, she brings a dismal future-world to life. Not surprisingly, Oryx, Snowman's love, has been involved in the devastation, as has Crake, though Atwood saves till the conclusion an explanation of the catastrophe, something which may frustrate some readers. Because we never see Jimmy/Snowman engaging in the kind of personal conflict which would have led to such a grand-scale disaster, we never really experience the intense reader involvement which might have developed from observing such a conflict. Most of the real conflict, in fact, takes place in the past and is revealed only in flashbacks. Snowman's primary conflict is his final, lonely battle with the environment to stay alive, something which advances the message at the expense of dramatic tension. Characters also are subordinated to message. We know only as much about Jimmy/Snowman as we need to know in order to empathize with him in his predicament as possibly the last man on earth. Crake is an anti-hero, remote and distanced, and Oryx remains a mystery. Despite its grim subject and cautionary message, the novel has a great deal of humor. With trenchant satire, Atwood pokes fun at aspects of our contemporary lives carried to extremes. Not hard science fiction, the novel is a vividly described picture of science and scientists run amok in a society which has failed in its guardianship of the environment and of life itself. More light-hearted than terrifying, and more allegorical than heart-stopping, the novel carries an environmental message of great relevance. Mary Whipple
Rating:
Summary: An engaging story...but not our future
Review: The only other book I read by the author was "Handmaid's Tale" and it was a great story. The fact that I agreed with the message of the book made it better. This novel, the latest by the author, is also a great story, and remains so even though I completely disagree with the author's message. The author's view of biotechnology is extreme and outlandish, and deeply cynical, but the story is captivating and one can find oneself totally engaged in it from the very first page. The story revolves around someone called "Snowman", an apparent loner in a world completely disrupted by biotechnology via the techniques of genetic engineering. It is a world containing many new transgenic creatures: the pigoons, rakunks, wolvogs, cane toads, snats, and flourescent rabbits. It is a world brought about by biotech industries going by the name of OrganInc Farms, HelthWyzer, and Nanotech Biochem. These industries used to exist on "Compounds", which were distinct from the "pleeblands", and "Compound" people did not go the pleeblands, the later being inhabited by addicts, muggers, identity-stealers, paupers, and crazies. The "human soul" has been discarded in this world, with this leading to a deeply apathetic populace desensitized to killing and torture. Transgenic animal creation was brought about by "biolab hotshots" who liked to fool around with the creation of animals: it made them "feel like God." And religion and God have been exposed as resulting from a "cluster of neurons", a "G-spot" in the brain, the elimination of which by genetic engineering was tricky but accomplished, giving people who were neither zombies nor psychopaths. Ironically, the author has more confidence in the efficacy of genetic engineering than those who even now are practicing it. Biotech managers and investors would wish that things were as easy as they are in the story. But they are not, and patience and millions of dollars in investment are needed to bring about a successful product. The biotech industry is very volatile at the time of publication of this book, definitely not the powerful behemoth able to bring about products and techniques as efficiently as they do in the story. The many transgenic animals that populate the planet in this future world are actually intriguing if viewed from another vantage point. The rapidity in which they come about as distinct species should not dissuade us from caring for them as we would any other lifeform. If biotechnology is efficacious enough to increase the diversity of life on this planet, this is indeed a virtue, not a vice. Will the story frighten many into an anti-biotech stance? It might, but this should not cause those who support biotechnology any concern. To attempt to refute a fantasy is a missappropriation of time; to attempt to create products that enrich life on Earth is time definitely worth spent, and a goal definitely worth striving for. The future holds much promise, and will be unlike anything the author envisages: yes, a world populated by thousands of new species of plants and animals, but also a world populated by billions of thinking machines, both human and non-human. If human history is the guide, it having been one of brilliant technological and scientific innovation, and, as statistics shows, an overwhelming repugnance to violence and war, then there is indeed much to look forward to. The author is a great story-teller, and this book (and others of hers) is ample proof of this, but she is a bad statistician. For humans are not the anxious, maladjusted, violent creatures of her books. Quite the contrary, as a mere counting will indicate, they have proved able to distinguish between good and bad, between what is worthy and what is not, and how to bring about change working for them, not against. In the words of the (jealous) deity in the most popular book in Western literature, humans definitely know good from evil, and with this ability, along with their wisdom and remarkable intelligence, have become as gods...
Rating:
Summary: I didn't like it
Review: I have read all of Atwood's novels. I loved The Handmaid's Tale but did not like this book. It just didn't work in the end. Yes, there are some clever ideas, but the plot and characters did not pull together for me.
Rating:
Summary: This woman "out sci-fi's" the best of 'em!
Review: Amazing! This is a butch, almost brutal science fiction novel that can hold its own against Max Barry or any of the "cult" new writers. I had to keep peeking at the author picture to remind myself that I was still reading Atwood. I have felt that her books, though always beautiful and lucid, have gotten more cluttered lately. Oryx and Crake pares all that away and returns to basics: What does "extinction" really mean? What qualities make us human? Is scientific "progress" always for the good? This book's dustcover draws tired-sounding comparisons with Handmaid's Tale which bely the true essence of this book. Just about the only thing they have in common is that they're both set in the future. Where Handmaid's Tale was centred around women and their bodies, this newest work embraces us as a species, from a largely male viewpoint. It ripples with both vigourous youth and wise experience; it's absolutely a delight.
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