Oryx and Crake (Paperback)

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Review
'Atwood at her best - dark, dry, scabrously witty, yet moving and studded with flashes of pure poetry. Her gloriously inventive brave new world is all the more chilling because of the mirror it holds up to our own' Lisa Appignanesi, The Independent Magazine 'Atwood herself is one of our finest linguistic engineers. Her carefully calibrated sentences are formulated to hook and paralyse the reader' Saturday Telegraph ' Oryx and Crake is a parable, an imaginative text for the antiglobalisation movement' 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 Handmaid's Tale in the distinguished company of novels that look ahead to warn us about the results of human short-sightedness.' Sunday Times 'A success and a breakthrough ... Who would have guessed she could do male teenagers so brilliantly, or produce such a fast-paced thriller? And that she could so smoothly integrate these effects with a tightly worked out and intellectually gripping sci-fi mystery?' Elaine Showalter, London Review of Books 'A fable of genetic engineering set in an indeterminate future. One of the book's strengths is the way in which this future only gradually comes to seem less like our own time, and the experiments that result in global catastrophe seem plausibly connected to what we read in newspapers...Atwood has an advertiser's eye for naming, and her coinings make the novel glitter.' Erica Wagner, The Times 'A complex and effective exploration of a futuristic nightmare.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent 'The Canadian master's most successful venture into the near future since The Handmaid's Tale.' Fiachra Gibbons, The Guardian 'A novel that absolutely sizzles with ideas ... A writer of supreme literary intelligence.' Nigel Reynolds, The Telegraph 'a triumph of intelligence and imagination working in sizzling cooperation' - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'an intellectually refined hybrid of philosophical ideas (subtle, Beckett-like intimations of language itself shuddering to a halt) and prophetic vision, full of chimerical beasts and feverish imaginings in which we see our own world through a glass darkly' Sunday Times 'Troubling and lyrical, Atwood stays faithful to her trademark futuristic infatuations, while neatly critiquing the status quo.' Daily Telegraph '"In the beginning, there was chaos..." Margaret Atwood's chilling new novel Oryx and Crake moves beyond the futuristic fantasy of her 1985 bestseller The Handmaid's Tale to an even more dystopian world, a world where language--and with it anything beyond the merest semblance of humanity--has almost entirely vanished. 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, AMAZON.CO.UK

Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
‘A complex and effective exploration of a futuristic nightmare’

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45 Reviews 5 star:  (16) 4 star:  (17) 3 star:  (5) 2 star:  (4) 1 star:  (3)           Average Customer Review 3.9 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   28 of 31 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A serious message *and* an enjoyable read, 18 Oct 2006 By  Hooligween "Rowena the Red" (Kernow, Great Britain) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    I enjoy Science Fiction (or Speculative Fantasy, if you prefer) when it extrapolates from the current situation and develops themes to give us a 'What If?' world of the future. What If... we used pigs to grow organs for human transplant? What If... we developed guard dogs that couldn't be tamed? What If... a mad scientist tried to wipe the slate clean and return the world back to its Garden of Eden status? Margaret Atwood has neatly and enjoyably tied all these threads together, and thrown in half a tonne more social commentary about parental relationships, child abuse, sexual trafficing, globalisation, the ethics of genetics and whether it's right to lie to your girlfriend (or boyfriend). Her exceptional talent is that you don't feel as if you're being lectured, nor do you get bogged down in a sudden deluge of righteousness. This big novel scampers along at a good pace. You can empathise with Jimmy-the-Snowman who is our lead character, and you can hope for his eventual redemption (even if it is a touch unlikely). I suspect it panders to the audience a little, in that we can feel smug when the idiot-savant genius mad scientists inevitably destroy their own world, but that's no bad thing. Atwood has pulled together the threads of SF to build a relevant novel which comments on our society, but which is entertaining and involving even if you don't much care for the underlying message. It's easy to read in chunks -- took me four or five days of a half hour each day -- and is the kind of book which inspires you to take an extra half hour off, just so youy can see how it turns out. Will it date? No more than Animal Farm, 1984, Frankenstein or The Time Machine have dated, and they all use much the same format. Science Runs Wild! Humanity Perishes! Serves us Right! Etc. I've not read any Atwood for a while -- this was probably the first of her novels I've picked up for 7 or 8 years -- but enjoyed this one so much I'll look out for her next. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   11 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put this book down!, 6 Oct 2004 By  "redelfin" - See all my reviews This book is certainly a tantalising peek at what could be our future. Experimenting with the very fibres of nature itself, Margret Atwood leads the reader through a world of genetically modified creatures and complex characters. I disagree with other reviews that said the story was confusing. I thought that it grabbed the attention of the reader and encouraged them to read on to discover who the "Snowman" and "Crakers" were, and why the book was called "Oryx and Crake". Like a jigsaw puzzle Atwood pieces together elements of the past and present which eventually fit together to reveal a clever and chilling storyline. I found this book was a real page-turner and even as I read the last line on the last page I was left wishing there was more to read! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   10 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thought provoking, 16 May 2006 By  chocolat_eclare (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews Having read other Atwood novels, and science fiction novels, I found this book an entertaining mixture of both. Yes, she may not explain the science bits in detail but that's not really the point. She gives you enough detail to set the scene and explores the character of Jimmy/Snowman in a post-apocalyptic world. I found it gripping and darkly comic. Ignore all the moaning about this book, I would definitely recommend it!! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 45 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars I'd give it 3.5 if that rating was available. This novel has divided my opinion somewhat. It is a intriguing novel with a very good concept and an interesting storyline, however, I did feel that a little more could have been... Read more Published 1 month ago by John Black 3.0 out of 5 stars Oryx and Crake Well, the only reason I bought Oryx and Crake was for my A Level English Literature coursework, to compare with another (The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter) Atwood's... Read more Published 4 months ago by Ms. Z. E. Joyce 5.0 out of 5 stars An Immediate Classic Whilst "The Handmaid's Tale" remains more in the public eye and in the words of critics, "Oryx and Crake" remains my favourite. Read more Published 7 months ago by The Grackle 4.0 out of 5 stars Great but didn't quite reach full potential This was really very good but I wanted the author to spend less time on the background of Snowman and Crake and, without giving anything away, more on what happened to result in... Read more Published 7 months ago by Alison 1.0 out of 5 stars Pseudo-intellectual drivel I was sent a copy of this book by my sister who knows I like science fiction. However I only like science fiction written by people who like science fiction, not people who sneer... Read more Published 9 months ago by Tim McNulty 5.0 out of 5 stars The book is way too short As with any really good story, when you live it you don't want it to end. For me the only criticism of this book is that it is too short. Read more Published 10 months ago by Dystopian Reader 5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the new world Snowman... 'Oryx and Crake' tells the story of Jimmy, who is now known as Snowman, a name he has given himself. Read more Published 10 months ago by Weave 4.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent and satirical vision of the future of humanity "Oryx and Crake" is the eleventh novel by celebrated author Margaret Atwood. The man who calls himself 'Snowman' is the last survivor in a future Earth in which the human race has... Read more Published 14 months ago by J. Aitcheson 4.0 out of 5 stars A bleak vision of the future of mankind ... Not her best, (I'd pick The Handmaid's Tale), but certainly readable and a truly thought-provoking comment on modern society's excesses and one vision of what could happen... Read more Published 15 months ago by Annabel Gaskell 5.0 out of 5 stars Not science fiction I'm a Margaret Atwood fan, the Handmaids Tale was the best book I had read until I read Oryx and Crake, WOW, this isn't science fiction, this could very well be the day after... Read more Published 20 months ago by Ms. S. Jones Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 45 customer reviews...

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