Monday, October 21, 2013

Maddaddam, by Margaret Atwood

In Oryx and Crake, we meet Jimmy (aka The Snowman), his friends the Crakers, and Oryx and Crake themselves.  In The Year of the Flood, we meet God's Gardeners and learn more about the waterless flood, a world-wide epidemic that wipes out nearly the entire human race.  In Maddaddam, Margaret Atwood completes her Maddaddam trilogy by bringing together the Crakers, the surviving God's Gardners, and the Maddaddamites, telling the story of their efforts to survive and preserve the human race, as radically different as it might turn out to be.

As the so-called waterless flood recedes, so to speak, these few survivors, whose lives have intersected extensively, come together to form a new community of sorts.  The humans, some of whom worked for Crake, unknowingly assisting as he planned the release of the global virus, mix and mingle with the children of Crake.  The Crakers, genetically engineered to be the next step in human evolution, and whose lives had been lived completely in an isolated biosphere, have had no contact with technology and human culture.  As they learn and adapt to human ways, the humans see that the survival of human life may depend on the thriving of the Crakers.

As with the first two books in this trilogy, the science is interesting, but frequently not very convincing, based more on fancy than science.  And the action of the story takes a back seat to the development of the characters and interactions of the groups.  The flashbacks, especially those of Zeb, whose brother Adam One founded God's Gardeners, shed more light on events before the waterless flood.

Readers of the first two books in this trilogy will likely be thrilled with Maddaddam.  I would recommend that you read Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood before you pick up Maddaddam.
The series as a whole is intriguing, somewhat though-provoking, and memorable.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!



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