Margaret Atwood: Oryx und Crake (German language, 2003, Berlin Verlag)
380 pages
German language
Published April 4, 2003 by Berlin Verlag.
Oryx and Crake is a 2003 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She has described the novel as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not deal with things "we can't yet do or begin to do", yet goes beyond the amount of realism she associates with the novel form. It focuses on a lone character called Snowman, who finds himself in a bleak situation with only creatures called Crakers to keep him company. The reader learns of his past, as a boy called Jimmy, and of genetic experimentation and pharmaceutical engineering that occurred under the purview of Jimmy's peer, Glenn "Crake". The book was first published by McClelland and Stewart. It was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, as well as for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction. Oryx and Crake is the first of the MaddAddam trilogy, followed by …
Oryx and Crake is a 2003 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She has described the novel as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not deal with things "we can't yet do or begin to do", yet goes beyond the amount of realism she associates with the novel form. It focuses on a lone character called Snowman, who finds himself in a bleak situation with only creatures called Crakers to keep him company. The reader learns of his past, as a boy called Jimmy, and of genetic experimentation and pharmaceutical engineering that occurred under the purview of Jimmy's peer, Glenn "Crake". The book was first published by McClelland and Stewart. It was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, as well as for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction. Oryx and Crake is the first of the MaddAddam trilogy, followed by The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013).
I really hate the main character, which makes it a tough read for me, but the story is super interesting
Atwood hat vor 20 Jahren schon genauestens erkannt, wo das alles hinführt. Eine höchst aktuelle und aufrüttelnde Geschichte!
The things I liked: Atwood's writing (natch), the chilling plausibility of corporate evil bringing about our demise, Alex the parrot
The things I didn't like: the somewhat dated tech references (as if it were difficult at the time this was written the obsolescence of the CD-ROM), the corporate names (the compound words and capitalizations didn't really make sense), the shallowness of all the characters, and most importantly the underdevelopment of the relationship between Oryx and Jimmy.
As an Atwood fan, I was really disappointed by this book; as a sci-fi fan I was as well. I liked a lot of the concepts presented, but I felt like she could have done a better treatment of this whole book all around. Only her beautiful writing and humor, along with the relevance of the biotech (and its potentially ugly outcomes), save this from a 2-star review.
Like A Handmaid's Tale and mumble's Mumble Mumble Mumble, Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel exploring the post-apocalyptic future of sex and the human race by following a small number of characters very closely.
In this case, the main character appears to be the only member of homo sapiens left alive, and the sole caretaker of a new human-like species, the Children of Crake, genetically re-engineered to be peaceful, happy, naturally insect-repellant vegans perfectly suited to their environment. The book focuses on the main character's life, from childhood, through his friendship with the aforementioned Crake and later with Oryx, eventually building up to the catastrophe that left him the last man on earth, victim and friend of a genius and a madman.
The first 2/3 of the book or so goes very quickly -- she starts you off at 90% of the way through the story, and the …
Like A Handmaid's Tale and mumble's Mumble Mumble Mumble, Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel exploring the post-apocalyptic future of sex and the human race by following a small number of characters very closely.
In this case, the main character appears to be the only member of homo sapiens left alive, and the sole caretaker of a new human-like species, the Children of Crake, genetically re-engineered to be peaceful, happy, naturally insect-repellant vegans perfectly suited to their environment. The book focuses on the main character's life, from childhood, through his friendship with the aforementioned Crake and later with Oryx, eventually building up to the catastrophe that left him the last man on earth, victim and friend of a genius and a madman.
The first 2/3 of the book or so goes very quickly -- she starts you off at 90% of the way through the story, and the foreshadowing and sense of pacing Atwood employs as she backfills all the details make for highly motivated reading. Once the backstory is resolved however, she dumps the main character at the beginning of a brand new plot element and gives up. Feel free to stop reading after the Children of Crake try to fix his foot -- the remaining pages of the book add nothing, and you'll be less frustrated than you will be when you turn the page and see "About the Author" instead of a proper ending.
Okay, so I read a book after taking Rob's History of Sci-Fi half-course, that I thought was by Atwood but turns out it wasn't, and damned if I can't remember the title or the author. A human anthropologist visits another planet, where the native humanoids are sexless except when in estrus. During this period they can take either form -- meaning that someone with two kids could have been the father of one and the mother of the other. At a monastery, they have developed a way to form a group of individuals into a sort of oracle, where one of the roles in the group must be filled by someone with a disorder leaving them constantly in estrus. The culture is otherwise analogous to Earth humans of the late 20th century, and the story is character-focused. It's not post-apocalyptic, but it's definitely melancholy and certainly saying something about how ridiculous human sex is.
