3/5 stars.
ebook, 416 pages.
Read from January 21 to 30, 2016.
This book was a fitting ending to a trilogy that unintentionally took me a few years to finish.This is because I didn’t even know this was meant to be a trilogy when I picked up Oryx and Crake all that time ago. This book is an action packed dystopian that questions our current societal values along with what it is to be human. Heck, there is even a bit of romance that’s worth reading.
A waterless flood has wiped out humanity. Those that remain are struggling to survive and those from the passive religious group God’s Gardener are finally rejoining. Toby and Ren manage to save Amanda from the ruthless Painballers, though Amanda is left with severe mental trauma from the ordeal. They then return to a safe house but are accompanied by the Crakers, a gentle and subhuman creation of the deceased Crake. With them they bring their “prophet”, Jimmy-the-Snowman, who is very unwell. Their prophet tells them the stories of Oryx and Crake to them every evening before bed but since Jimmy is so unwell the strange task is left to Toby. Zeb has been out looking for Adam-One, the creator of God’s Gardener’s. Zeb is Adam’s brother, and the creator of the MaddAddamites, an active resistance group in the fight against the CorpSeCorps. While learning about their horrible and destructive childhood, together, the two of them help unearth the deception and lies against the CorpSeCorps, all while trying to survive in this post-apocalyptica setting.
One of the most intriguing parts of this book is getting to know the Crakers. Crakers were created to be non-violent in hopes to create a better race than that of the humans. Yet their naive beliefs and practices do not play out well outside of the walled-utopia they were living in. Admittedly, they are very annoying in the beginning as they are so very naive with the real world; that, and they never stop singing. However their role is crucial as they counterpart the violence, and other challenging human instincts and emotions, which help portray a wide-scope definition of humanness. There are also a few Crakers that come to understand certain human ways, implying that they might become more human like, which can be good or bad, depending on how your own views.
What really made this book for me though is Toby. She has always been my favourite character so I was glad to read even more about her in this book. You also finally get the in-depth story on Zeb and Adam and just how the Gardener’s and the MaddAddamite’s were created.
While you could potentially read this book without having read the other two books in the trilogy, I really would not recommend it. The world that Atwood has built takes the full 3 books appreciate and understand its depth. They can also get a little convoluted even when read together so it helps to have all of them as reference. Overall, a great read that I would recommend to anyone interested in a unique and well-plotted trilogy.
The Pluviophile Writer 