Rating: 
Summary: Is this where we are heading?
Review: Having never read, or even heard of, Margaret Atwood, I had no idea what to expect when a coworker loaned me this book. Little did I know that it would capture me like a fat guy in a comic shop.The book opens with the main character, who calls himself Snowman, on a dim-future beachfront in a daily daze and slowly works itself back to his beginning through a series of flashbacks. The book reveals a past (future) full of bioengineering and mankind playing god to the tune of "Jeopardy!" Quite reminiscent of a modern "Brave New World," the book takes the headlines of today and makes them into the sinister ailments of a yesterday that let mankind down. But more than that, it is also a novel about people. Setting up a dichotomy between "Snowman" and "Crake" much like the one that exists in Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund", with Snowman acting as the emotion/body and Crake as the theorist/mind. With dark scenes like something out of Orwell's "1984" as well as displays of unambiguous love the story of Snowman and the fall of mankind play out in a personal story that brings this tenacious bum from the realm of pergatorial observer to sainthood. In reading it, I couldn't help but think of it as an answer to Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" and "The Story of B" and the question of where are we headed as a people....
Rating: 
Summary: Plausible and Unsettling
Review: I finished this book the same weekend I went to see "28 Days Later"...potent combo. In one of the previous reviews, someone had criticized the book for being "too real" which I thought was silly, but upon completing the book, I knew what the reader was trying to say. You're not left feeling at all happy, I for one felt sad and disturbed because the books premise is entirely possible. The more I look around at present day events, it looks almost obvious that humanity is heading into it's closing chapter similar to that detailed in the book...yet one holds out hope. The writing itself is excellent and Snowman is a prosaic character as well as a credible narrator. I put this one in my list of top shelf Speculative/Science Fiction novels.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: This was definately one of Atwood's best. The Blind Assassin is still #1 but Oryx and Crake is close to the top. It is very reminiscent of Handmaid's Tale. Definately a bleak look at the future- but it makes you think. I love how she slowly reveals information of the world and gives you a piece at a time.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood's Best?
Review: Perhaps not. In terms of her use of language, form, depth of charaterisation etc. the 'The Blind Assassin' is technically Atwood's greatest novel so far. But having read all her novels, I've got to say that 'Oryx and Crake' is my personal favourite. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book, how engrossed I was with every word, and how moving, shocking and disturbing I found it. It's one of the best books I've ever read. It's one of those books that, once you've finished the last page, stays with you, and when you're not reading it you're thinking of it. And it's one of those books that, when you finally close it, you so wish that you could've put your name to it yourself. It's an immense work of imagination. I finished it well over a week ago and still think of it. I found it extraordinary. The way Atwood evokes her distopian futuristic world in every detail and makes it come alive and breathe is quite incredible. I was hooked. I was hoping it would be good but it far exceeded my expectations. The book's nightmarish vision of the future makes 'The Handmaid's Tale' look like a picnic, and while you're reading Atwood makes you live in that world, makes you feel what Snowman is feeling. What horror. Frighteningly, plausibly, brilliant!
Rating:
Summary: very good, but not as brilliant as i had hoped
Review: Ever since I read The Handmaid's Tale, I have been a fan of Margaret Atwood. She is fiercely creative and a major talent. Just as The Handmaid's Tale is a dark vision of a possible future, so is Oryx and Crake. Oryx and Crake takes a future where genetic manipulation and genetic engineering is now the norm and the science of the future. It is gleamed out of some realities of the present and stretched to a dystopian conclusion. Even though I made a comparison to The Handmaid's Tale, that comparison will stop now because Oryx and Crake (as well as everything else that Atwood wrote) will come up short in comparison to that masterpiece. Suffice it to say that Oryx and Crake isn't quite as good or as deep as The Handmaid's Tale, but that is an unfair comparison. The only thing the two books have in common is that there is a dystopian vision of the future. The narrator is a young man named Snowman. He is essentially alone on a beach. There is nobody else quite like him alive. Snowman is an un-altered human. There are other people, whom he calls Crakers, but they are images of perfection and genetically altered so much that there is little vestige of what we might imagine as being human. Most the true humanity has been wiped off the planet and what is left is genetically altered humans/Crakers and altered wildlife/plant life. The novel works in two ways. One, we follow Snowman as he lives in the present (as far as the novel is concerned) and how he interacts with the Crakers. We follow him on a journey as he travels across the land to get to where everything started. Two, Snowman remembers the past and we are given glimpses into his life as a child, and as he grows up and how the catastrophe occurred. It is in this way that we meet the title characters Oryx and Crake. Crake was his childhood friend and also the architect of how the world turned out. Oryx was the woman that Snowman fell in love with not long before humanity was destroyed. This is a fast reading novel and it was very interesting to read. It did not seem to have the social and emotional depth that I have come to expect from Margaret Atwood, but I did like the book. Ultimately, Oryx and Crake will probably turn out to be a forgettable novel, but it was well done and was interesting enough to keep me reading.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent and engrossing "scientific fiction"
Review: Honestly, at first I didn't think I liked this book. I bought it on advice, read one or two chapters, and lost interest. Then one day a few weeks later, I decided to pick it up and literally never put it down until I finished it. The first few chapters area sort of crash course in immersion, Atwood throws around images, words, and "people" that you can't really place. An impatient soul could get frustrated. But stay with her, and the payoff is big. What you get is every American's worst nightmare relaized, and you love every minute of it. The protagonist unfolds a story of love, friendship, and the worst betrayal imaginable. Almost all the characters in this book are already dead, but the protagonist makes them tangible with his reminiscing, much like the book "Rebecca." Oryx and Crake reminded me of Rebecca due to the fact that you heard their story through the one-sided view of someone else, yet they managed to become three dimensional through your own imagination of their motives.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful, Absorbing and truly Frightening
Review: Dystopian fantasies are all around us -- everything from The Matrix to Mad Max, from Farenheit 451 to Brave New World. Some are escapist entertainment, seemingly far removed from any future we can relate to. Others, like Orwell's 1984, are truly frightening, because we can place it along a trajectory that includes our own real lives. Margaret Atwood's _Oryx and Crake_ is similarly evocative. _Oryx and Crake_ takes us back and forth between a post-apocalyptic world and the earlier events which led to the disaster. In these pages, we're introduced to Snowman, the narrator, whose changed persona reflects the drastic changes around him -- and we get to observe the elusive, fascinating Oryx and Crake, who are just mysterious enough to keep us wondering and wanting to know more. The crisis is built upon ever escalating genetic meddling and environmental destruction -- neither of which is far removed from our lives today. Vivid characterizations and a well-constructed narrative kept me turning the pages. Atwood knows how to dangle that proverbial carrot, drawing the reader in deeper as the flashbacks draw closer and closer to the narrator's present situation. Read this book if you're looking for an exciting page-turner. Read it because it's a great yarn. You'll get something extra in the process -- something to ponder as the world of science celebrates the mapping of the human genome.
Rating:
Summary: Remember when voting mattered?
Review: Atwood's newest book is a fast-forward view of where technology seems to be propelling us; a bio-engineered Tower of Babel where we create new species for convienence and/or entertainment. As the other reviewers have said, there's nothing in this book that will go over the head of anyone who watches the news on a regular basis. I was particularly amused by Jimmy's talent for mocking his elders, which I am one generation senior to. I hear myself making those plaintive cries for a world half-remembered and reworked by imagination. Atwood's talent for taking her characters on intellectual sojourns in the midst of chaos is in fine form here; I too went for the dictionary to look up the words that tumbled through Snowman's mind as he wandered the new landscape. Entertaining enough to be a good read but ultimately too depressing to be totally enjoyable. I have a few issues with the book too, but I can't go into them without spoilers. Basically, I want to know why Glenn felt the need to compel Jimmy to do what he did. Was it to avoid guilt? To remove himself from the equation? Why did he have to destroy the other as well? One more point: this book seemed to be a removed cousin of the work of Chuck Palahinuk. If you're a regular Atwood reader who enjoyed the would-anyone-notice-if-the-world-ended? undertones you might want to check out "Lullaby" or "Survivor". Four stars; five for a solid underpinning and three for being a little too realistic.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully read by Campbell Scott
Review: I gave the audio CD of Oryx and Crake four stars, but the reading by Campbell Scott specifically deserves five stars. Scott reads the story so well that you forget about him and just listen to the tale. The story itself, a dystopian vision of unfettered genetic engineering married to oligarchic market economics, is smart and original. The first one-third of the story moves rather slowly, however. And I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying in that several questions about character motivation remain unanswered. Nonetheless, the story drew me in and continues to resonate in my mind.
Rating:
Summary: Atwood's finest book yet
Review: this chilling book is Atwood's best book yet.
| 
