Science Fiction Annotation: Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake Annotation

On an Earth wrought unrecognizable by human activities ranging from genetic engineering to biological warfare, humanity has been brought to the edge of extinction. Indeed, as far as he knows, Jimmy is the sole human left alive--though he shares the wasteland of a beach he calls his home with a society of genetically-modified near-humans called “The Children of Crake.” As Jimmy forages for food and scrap material in order to prolong his survival day by day, the mystery of his current situation--and the Children of Crake--is revealed through Jimmy’s reminisces into the past. For it was not so very long ago that Jimmy inhabited a different reality, and one eerily similar to our own. As he remembers a near-past characterized by the increasing power of corporations to define the structure of society, not only is the explanation for Jimmy’s lone survival revealed--so, too, is a tragic love story and a bitter warning of what the future might hold should humanity fail to take responsibility for their actions.

Appeal Terms

-Science-fiction: Rich with new technologies and scientific developments, clones and lingo, and a society whose morals and ways are at once alien and familiar.

-Apocalyptic: Oryx and Crake is set in a world rendered barely recognizable as our own by ecological destruction and the social irresponsibility of humans.

-World-building: Wanting to be swept away into a different reality--even if that reality is bleak, strange, and even disturbing? The devastated landscape that Atwood constructs, and the past and present societies which inhabit it, are both foreboding and intriguing.

-Fast-paced: Despite most of the novel following Jimmy’s solo reflections on the past, this book has reveals and cliff-hangers galore.

> Extra! Extra! < Oryx and Crake is part one of the Madaddam Trilogy, which not only digs into the history of Jimmy and his world, but also invites readers into the points of view of numerous other characters introduced in Oryx and Crake.

Read-Alikes

Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing: In a distant future plagued by drought, a seven-year-old girl, accompanied by her brother, encounters a variety of strange peoples in her insatiable thirst for self-knowledge. (NoveList)

The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq: A future world in which humankind as we know it has vanished is seen through the eyes of Daniel, a writer who has made a fortune with his comedies capturing the follies and foibles of humankind, and his subsequent clones.. (NoveList)

Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins: In the wake of a devastating Southern California drought, two idealistic holdouts fall in love and scavenge for their needs before taking charge of a mysterious child and embarking on a perilous journey in search of water. (NoveList)