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In Oryx and Crake, a science fiction novel that is more Swift than Heinlein, more cautionary tale than "fictional science" (no flying cars here), Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world that turns from the merely horrible to the horrific, from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland. Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. He is not entirely alone, however, as he considers himself the shepherd of a group of experimental, human-like creatures called the Children of Crake. As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites, Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell apart. While the story begins with a rather ponderous set-up of what has become a clichéd landscape of the human endgame, littered with smashed computers and abandoned buildings, it takes on life when Snowman recalls his boyhood meeting with his best friend Crake: "Crake had a thing about him even then.... He generated awe ... in his dark laconic clothing." A dangerous genius, Crake is the book's most intriguing character. Crake and Jimmy live with all the other smart, rich people in the Compounds--gated company towns owned by biotech corporations. (Ordinary folks are kept outside the gates in the chaotic "pleeblands.") Meanwhile, beautiful Oryx, raised as a child prostitute in Southeast Asia, finds her way to the West and meets Crake and Jimmy, setting up an inevitable love triangle. Eventually Crake's experiments in bioengineering cause humanity's shockingly quick demise (with uncanny echoes of SARS, ebola, and mad cow disease), leaving Snowman to try to pick up the pieces. There are a few speed bumps along the way, including some clunky dialogue and heavy-handed symbols such as Snowman's broken watch, but once the bleak narrative gets moving, as Snowman sets out in search of the laboratory that seeded the world's destruction, it clips along at a good pace, with a healthy dose of wry humor. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca
 Customer Reviews 
Margaret Atwood - at the outer edge of a wide-ranging author
Rating: 5
Recently I read Alias- Grace by the same author followed by this book.
I rate both books highly but this one is the more gripping and stimulating of the pair. The two are very different in style.
Jimmy, later known as Snowman, is the most interesting and developed character in this book as opposed to the flatter characters of Crake and Oryx.
The story is suspenseful although I haven't decided if the climax makes complete sense to me or not; it appears to be result of mutual misjudgements by the three main character or a suicidal impulse on the part of Crake (which is hinted at but does not quite jive with how I read his character). It has a touch of the deus ex machina plot device to me.
Nonetheless it is a rewarding book well-worth the read and perhaps an extrapolation, however exaggerated of the way things are going. Jimmy especially rings true as a product of the modern times.
Very little return on the investment
Rating: 3
The book didn't know what it wanted to be, I think. It wasn't the stark realism of The Road nor the weirdo, amusing, corporate-controlled future of Max Barry, but a combination of the two.
And I don't mind the no ending bit with literature, but that only works when A) it's literature and B) it's not set up for an ending.
We are set up for a decision, maybe a resolution. But instead we get nothing. It wasn't profound, it was a cop out.
Good writing, though.
Conclusion, please!
Rating: 3
The plot line was intriguing. I found the switching back and forth annoying with too much time spent on Jimmy's childhood and friendship with Crake.
I wanted to deeply immersed in the Robinson Crusoe aspect of her story.
While no one will regard me as a literary genius is it too much to ask an author to finish the book? Now begins the rolling of eyes by the illuminati...stories, like life never end yada yada. If I have to write my own conclusion I should get a discount on the book. Bah-Humbug!
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