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Jan 31, 2012

smetchie rated it:

**update**
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ ORYX AND CRAKE FIRST. The Year of the Flood is not a sequel even though goodreads lists it as Maddadam trilogy #2. It's more like a completely different story about the same event. There is hardly any character crossover and absolutely zero information in Oryx and Crake that you need to love/enjoy/understand The Year of the Flood.

I love that this story just dumps me off in the future. Lots of things aren’t explained More...

14 comments like (13 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Kemper rated it:

I’m really tempted to take a cheap shot at Margaret Atwood and call her the George Lucas of literature since I was very disappointed in this follow-up to Oryx & Crake.

She built an intriguing world in O&C where corporations ruled and profited through genetic engineering and gene splicing animals in a way that would give Dr. Moreau some ethical concerns. And she tied that to the devastating story of how it ended along with the tale of Jimmy (Snowman), his mad scientist friend Crake, an More...

10 comments like (33 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

The Year of the Flood is a companion novel (or, as I've seen it sometimes called sidequel) to Oryx and Crake. While the book is inferior to its predecessor IMO, it is still a remarkable work of speculative fiction.

Set at approximately the same time as Oryx and Crake,The Year of the Flood follows the fates of two female survivors of the Waterless Flood - an epidemic orchestrated by Crake. Ren is a trapeze dancer at a sex club locked in its quarantine room and Toby is barricaded in a s More...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Tanu rated it:

I feel like I got hit by a car, got rolled over by a truck and then got dumped from an airplane.

And, then I feel sad that it’s over.

That is what Margaret Atwood does.

Every line you read feels like a whiplash and still you want to continue reading. You want to finish the book in one day, but the themes make you stop and think about it. She conveys such hard hitting messages through such simple words that it never fails to astonish you. She will have you mentall More...

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Jamie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2010

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

**a few hours later**

In light of Jason pointing out some glaring inconsistencies in my Atwood ratings, and upon further reflection (like this stuff matters): I'm going to drop O&C to a low 4 and raise this one to a mid- to high 4. The reality is that, compared to lots of other stuff, they should both probably be 5, but we are hardest on those we love best.

***********************************

It might be my current state of mind; it might be that I read this too More...

25 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Nate rated it:

In college, I read few books outside of my coursework, but a couple of those that I did read turned out to be pretty influential for the kinds of things I started devouring immediately upon graduation, mostly tending towards post-modern reconstructions of genre fiction. The House of Leaves for one, then Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, a strange tale of the end of the world built along converging lines of More...

10 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lauren rated it:

Profoundly brilliant. Had I not read this directly after reading Oryx and Crake, I would have missed so many things - little nuances, passing comments made by the characters... it just enriched the earlier story and brought so much depth, context, and elegance. Like looking at the Rubin's vase optical illusion and only seeing it one way for so long, and then someone points out the other image right before your eyes. Of course, it was Ms. Atwood herself who constructed the image and slowly sh More...

16 comments like (21 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

Margaret Atwood does not write safe books. She doesn't write books that make you comfortable or happy or sure of yourself. She doesn't prop up her readers. She scares them. She freaks them out. She throws things at them. She plants rocks under the mattress so you can't sleep. She leaves obstacles in your path that you will trip over, no matter how careful you are. That is, of course, why I love her. It's also why her books are only slightly more difficult to write about than they are to read.
More...

22 comments like (70 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2011

Jen rated it:

I wish I could give this book more than five stars. I re-read Oryx and Crake before picking this up, and when I finished I not only wanted to pick up Oryx and Crake and read it a third time, but I also immediately wanted to re-read this book. To summarize for those unfamiliar with Atwood's latest books, these are dystopian views of future society that depict a reality that is eerily possible given the current direction of world affairs. Pigs spliced with baboons to result in animals that produce More...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2010

Kathryn rated it:

This is what I call a slogger, one of those books I slowly slog through, rather like mud or jello. Don't ask me to explain too much but it's an image I often use.

Some sloggers are rewarding. For those I must be in the right frame of mind. Some sloggers I give up on, usually out of boredom. This book fell squarely in the middle. I think I'll continue this is the group thread...

Recommended for lovers of Atwood's writing (which I happily count myself among) or lovers of apo More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2009

Ben rated it:

This is a "sidequel" to Oryx and Crake. Though I believe Flood would stand alone pretty well, I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you read it first.

I really loved everything about this book. I liked it more than Oryx and Crake, but at the same time I believe it makes Oryx and Crake a much better book. It gives a wholly different view of the world from the viewpoint of the Gardeners, which provides a wide-array of great characters.

Really makes me want More...

12 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2011

Marty rated it:

Ultimately I enjoyed this, although I took time to warm to the frequent time and person shifts within the plot. I didn't feel the story flowed that well until the latter half. In the end the strands did come together well and I liked the fact that this story interweaves with Oryx and Crake. This is neither a sequel or prequel but covers different characters' experiences during the same time-period, so adds substance and fresh perspective to the pre and post armaggedon world first created within More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Cecily rated it:

This story is parallel to Oryx and Crake, and has several characters in common, though the writing style and overall format is quite different. Having read both, I can't decide whether it is better to read them in publication order (O&C first) or not, but it's certainly good to read them in quick succession. As with O&C, it is about the characters; many aspects are only ever partially explained, part way through, leaving the reader suitably disoriented in this distopian world.

It tell More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2010

Kathleen rated it:

I have been a huge fan of Margaret Atwood since reading her books in college. I think The Handmaid's Tale is a masterpiece. The Year of the Flood, while not quite as masterful as the Handmaid's Tale, is nevertheless an absorbing, sobering look at a fantasy future. The novel is beautifully structured. Each chapter opens with a sermon by Adam One -- the leader of a radical green group that has rejected the "advances" of science in the world outside the green compound. These advances More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

Diandra rated it:

Ho-hum. Not her best, definitely not a horrible book. It's quite hard to actually put down my feelings towards this book because I had so many issues with it. First issue: Continuity. I can pinpoint one precise excerpt where the continuity between Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood really did not match up at all. There were quite a few other instances where the timeline didn't make sense, but... whatevs. Second issue: Adam One's Saint Day speeches. So tedious, so pious, so boring. Re More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

zz-neena rated it:

I have always loved Margaret Atwood. I haven't read a single book of hers before this that I didn't love. But I am finding that The Year of the Flood is both tedious and twee --- as though constant tongue-in-cheek references to today's culture run amok are enough to carry the theme. They are not.

I chalk the multiple positive ratings it has garnered up to the fact that, hey, this is Margaret Atwood we're critiquing here. Well, it appears even Margaret can phone one in.

Unle More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2010

Abigail rated it:

Although I really enjoyed this book, I didn't like it as much as I liked "Oryx and Crake." However I liked seeing how the same events take place from the persepctive of different people. It gave the events a new spin, also we get to understand how Greg/Crake came to believe in the ideals he displayed in the first book.

The theology of the Gardners was well thought out and even though the main characters seemed to regard a number of the teachings as flawed, it gave them s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2010

Sara added it

The Year of the Flood is a story of the apocalypse, as told by two women who have lived through it. In a ruined world, Ren and Toby have persevered in part because of their participation in an environmentalist cult called God s Gardeners, which prophesied a Waterless Flood that would cleanse the world. The Flood has come in the form of a plague that kills almost all of humanity. When it strikes, Toby is managing a luxurious day spa, and Ren is an exotic dancer in a high-end strip club. The two More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Andrew rated it:

I accidentally read this one first, not realizing that Oryx and Crake came before. If anyone else is considering doing this, fear not! The book made perfect sense, although there are a few lingering mysteries which may or may not be answered in other books. I am on to Oryx and Crake next, but as of this point, I cannot think of any reason they need to be read in order.

The book is simple in structure and tone, much like The Handmaid's Tale, and it was a very quick and "easy" More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2012

Philippa rated it:

I didn't actually realise that this was part of a series until I read the author's note at the end, so admittedly that might have dulled my enjoyment of it slightly. Still, whilst this did mean that I didn't always understand some of the terms and concepts thrown about - Mo'Hairs, for example - the general plot can be understood fine without first reading Oryx & Crake.

The general premise of this book - two women surviving the Waterless Flood and then dealing with the fallout - is br More...

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2012

Lo rated it:

Very, very interesting book.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize The Year of the Flood was part of a trilogy; nevertheless, I didn't realize notice until the end where I saw the names Oryx and Crake (realizing that I probably should have read the book titled "Oryx and Crake" first...)

The Year of the Flood is a typical Margaret Atwood book, replete with all her flairs and nuances. Starting in media res, Atwood backtracks you through the history of a group called the " More...

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Dec 18, 2011

Lisa added it

The Year of the Flood begins after the plague from Oryx and Crake has killed off most of humanity. Two seemingly-different women have somehow survived; one, Toby, has barricaded herself inside a luxurious spa while exotic dancer Ren was fortunate to have been in quarantine at the time. Both women, however, share a common history as members of a religious group known as God’s Gardeners, who warned of a “waterless flood” that would wipe out humanity.

Most of the story focuses on Ren’s a More...

0 comments like

Dec 14, 2011

Charlotte rated it:

When I purchased this book, I fully expected to be giving it five stars. But as a follow-on from Oryx and Crake, I found it less compelling and gritty than the original.

The storey line is classic Atwood - apocalypse survivors dealing with day to day life, facing the harsh realities of surviving in a world turned feral and brutal.

The majority of the narrative is told in flashbacks, and these are woven together skilfully. Atwood is excellent, as usual, with revealing a little i More...

0 comments like

Nov 19, 2011

Steven rated it:

"The Year of the Flood" has an integrity of its own, a cast of memorable characters, and a frightening take on a post-apocalypse future that will curdle your blood. So it is a powerful novel in its own right. But its texture is made far more complex and its story line becomes sharper and more dramatic when the book is seen as a companion piece to "Oryx and Crake," interwoven with the structure and characterization of that even more powerful earlier novel.

As More...

0 comments like

Oct 28, 2011

Dave rated it:

An unusual book - and that's why it gets 4 stars - for being unusual. It's the other half of Oryx & Crake. It follows the lead-up to the plague that destroys most of humanity, but from the perspective of multiple other characters, some of which were introduced as secondary characters in the first book.

While Oryx & Crake followed characters who were mostly in the protected, walled Compounds where the well-off and scientists are protected from the Pleeblands. The characters in this book More...

0 comments like

Sep 27, 2011

Rod rated it:

Technically, this book is science fiction. It is set in the future and includes numerous examples of science – usually gone wrong as a result of genetic engineering. The flood referred to in the title is a ‘waterless’ one, a plague deliberately engineered in the hope of proving an opportunity for a new start.

Each section begins with an address by Adam One, followed by a hymn of Atwood’s own composition taken from ‘The God’s Gardeners Oral Hymnbook’. Adam is a Gardener, one of the many More...

0 comments like

Sep 05, 2011

Susan rated it:

This is a novel of a dystopian future in which all government is corporate, corrupt, and scientifically advanced. The opposition is a group called God's Gardeners, who are Christian vegans and pacifists. The story is told from the Gardeners' point of view, but we're never told how or why the tyrannical government became evil. There is an implied connection between corporate/governmental evil and the slaughter of animals and ungodly science in the form of gene splicing. In the hubris of ove More...

0 comments like

Sep 01, 2011

Alan rated it:

TAKEN FROM NOTES BEFORE FINISHING BOOK
I think part of what it is doing is predicting the potential chaos that could develop if we allow capitalism, or in her case a form of capitalism to take control.
The book was relatively successful. Nominated for awards. I think if she wasn’t the writer it may not have been published. Too harsh.
It is predicting private enterprise taking over the state, and security. And is predicting science being used to make money, opportunising on the selfis More...

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