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| Oryx and Crake Cover, Margaret Atwood, 2009 |
In a near future Earth, self-sustaining walled compounds satisfy the residents' needs and provide a control environment for creating and testing new strains. These compounds employ the most brilliant minds they can attract. Secrets of genetic manipulation are guarded from the other compounds, all competing for the same market. Only the few are protected, those who live within the walls. Outside these compounds are the pleeblands, where everyone else lives.
When Crake, Jimmy and Oryx first meet as teens in the compounds, they play computer games as a form of mental jousting. Most of the games require advanced skills. Jimmy's on the low end of those ratings.
Before the change, Jimmy and Oryx were lovers; but she also believed in Crake's vision of a world at peace and wouldn't desert him. A triangle forms, a situation that seems destined to create trouble for the three friends. Crake keeps his game name, as does Oryx throughout the book. Jimmy later becomes known as Snowman.
After the change, Snowman lives in the trees, like a jungle creature. It's necessary to avoid the altered species which now roam freely. One incident causes the change and leaves him in charge of a special experiment, one of Crake's secret projects.
In this apocolyptic tale, Margaret Atwood weaves an intricate pattern and introduces us to Jimmy's world, a changed Earth. This story continues with the next title in the series, The Year of the Flood.
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Have you read Oryx and Crake or any other books by Margaret Atwood? Have you read The Year of the Flood (the next in this series)?
Please share in the comments and thanks for dropping by.
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References:
Publisher: This edition with cover above, Vintage Canada, a division of Random House Canada, 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood - Margaret Atwood
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