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Amazon.co.uk Review
Snowman may be the last man on earth, the only survivor of an unnamed apocalypse. Once he was Jimmy, a member of a scientific elite; now he lives in bitter isolation and loneliness, his only pleasure the watching of old films on DVD. His mind moves backwards and forwards through time, from an agonising trawl through memory to relive the events that led up to sudden catastrophe (most significantly the disappearance of his mother and the arrival of his mysterious childhood companions Oryx and Crake, symbols of the fractured society in which Snowman now finds himself, to the horrifying present of genetic engineering run amok. His only witnesses, eager to lap up his testimony, are "Crakers", laboratory creatures of varying strengths and abilities, who can offer little comfort. Gradually the reasons behind the disaster begin to unfold as Snowman undertakes a perilous journey to the remains of the bubble-dome complex where the sinister Paradice Project collapsed and near-global devastation began.
This, Atwood’s 11th novel, confirms her as one of our most contemporary novelists. Darkly humorous and icily prescient, Oryx and Crake shows a writer deeply concerned with the stark moral issues facing the human race, and accords a glimpse of a future that lies all too uneasily within reach. --Catherine Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Atwood herself is one of our finest linguistic engineers. Her carefully calibrated sentences are formulated to hook and paralyse the reader (Saturday Telegraph )
Observer ('enlivening, deadpan wit and the mix of empathy and insight she always brings to her characters. . . Saturated in science, the novel is simulatneously alive with literary resonances. . . This superlatively gripping and remarkably imagined book joins The )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Paradice Lost,
This review is from: Oryx and Crake (Hardcover)
This is the first time I've read a book by Margaret Atwood (my interest piqued by the intriguing cover) and I'm pleased to say it won't be my last.This is a book that grabs your attention from the very first sentence and never lets go, dragging you further and further into the nightmare world of an all to possible near future. Who is the Snowman? Why is he alone? Who/what are the Children of Crake? The answers Atwood reveals slowly, as she describes a world not unlike our own - apart from the pigoons, wolvogs and rakunks and the fact that the midday sun can burn the skin from your back. The geological world has changed but the human world certainly hasn't. If anything, it's got worse. Technologies such as the Internet, GM food and genetic engineering are taken to their logical and depressing conclusions. Anyone familiar with 'Transmetropolitan' won't be surprised by the themes explored. In terms of 'lone survivor in a hostile environment' genre, 'Oryx & Crake' shares similarities with 'I Am Legend' - Snowman (short for Abominable Snowman), sees himself as a creature of myth; the last human left alive. But unlike Matheson's book, the explicit reasons for the final catastrophe are revealed in a horrifying climax, the causes of which are slowly hinted at as the story unfolds through Snowman's memories. Atwood's skill lies in taking what is merely theory now and having it treated as commonplace by her characters. The horror of the book lies in the fact that it could happen. In some instances events have already overtaken fiction and the seeds of our (possible), destruction have already been sown. Not a preachy, or po-faced book by any means (there's a surprising amount of humour) but certainly one that makes you stop and think, with characters and events that will haunt you long after the final page. Thoroughly recommended.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The elimination of one generation means game over forever.",
By
This review is from: Oryx and Crake (Atwood, Margaret Eleanor) (Hardcover)
Set sometime in the future, this post-apocalyptic novel 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 unknown 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. We never see Jimmy/Snowman engaging in the kind of personal conflict which would have led to such a grand-scale disaster, nor do we ever 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 an environmental 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. The other characters are remote and distanced. 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 scientists run amok in a society which has failed in its guardianship of the environment and of life itself. The novel is more light-hearted than terrifying, and more allegorical than heart-stopping. Mary Whipple
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Progress could lead to peril!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oryx and Crake (Hardcover)
Oryx and Crake has kept me reading through the night.It is the sheer possibility of it all that has provoked a deep down feeling of ," has Atwood seen the future?" She has built the characters,their relationships and the plot page by page leaving the reader desperate to turn to the next. The power and cynicism of those within global organisations, our susceptibility to their manipulative marketing campaigns and our sheer ignorance of cause and effect are all explored in the book.We experiment with nature at our peril! A fantastic read!Let's hope we are not already in the Pleeblands.
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