"Oryx & Crake" First Impressions *no spoilers*

[Brad]

Welcome to our Sci-Fi theme book. Oryx and Crake, the constant second place finisher in dozens of polls, has finally won. Jump in.

[Amanda]

I have this to listen to, but won't be starting it for the next week or two. I have a couple to finish off before I start another.

[Candiss]

I have been sitting on this book for over a year (apparently attempting to hatch it) and will finally set my lazy reader self to reading it this month. I have a couple of other books in queue first, but I'm looking forward to this read, as I do enjoy Atwood.

[Maggie]

I read this not too long ago, and must say I truly loved it. Am quite interested in everyone's reaction.

[stormhawk]

I really disliked this book. I was predisposed to liking it, I really enjoyed Handmaid's Tale, and was hoping for a book with similar power.

Didn't get it.

[[deleted user]]

Hm. Judging from the reactions so far, this should be an interesting discussion.

Also, if anyone wants to lead this month, feel free.

[Banner]

I'm in. Just downloaded from Audible.com. I listened to the sample and was hooked. Hope it's as good as it seems. I'll start in the morning.

[Zulfiya]

I was fascinated by its cover and could not pass by without buying it. And besides, Handmaid's Tale is an excellent recommendation. I am looking forward to an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

[Evilynn]

I'm an unapologetic Atwood fan, and O&C is one of my favourite books (not quite as good as The Handmaid's Tale, but very good nonetheless), so I'm looking forward to the discussions. I probably won't reread it now since I read it last year (before reading The Year of the Flood).

[Amanda]

I loved The Year of the Flood. I didn't realise it was a sequel at the time but I felt it worked fine as a standalone. Unfortunately I now have high expectations of Oryx and Krake.

[Evilynn]

Amanda wrote: "I loved The Year of the Flood. I didn't realise it was a sequel at the time but I felt it worked fine as a standalone. Unfortunately I now have high expectations of Oryx and Krake."

I think it's mostly fine to read them in whichever order, although TYOTF continues on a little after O&C has ended, so I think it might impact the end of O&C a little to have read TYOTF first.

[Peggy]

OK, so I THOUGHT I had a copy of this book tucked away in the Great Unread, but apparently not. Gonna work on The City & the City until the library comes through on Oryx and Crake.

[Regina]

I read this years ago, it is an amazing book. I listened to The Year of The Flood and the audio is amazing, it is a true production with music and performances. I am not sure if Oryx and Crake is the same, but I heard the audio is very good.

[[deleted user]]

So I'm a third of the way through and all i can say about it is that it falls somewhere between meh and interesting.

I think I'm just a shallow kind of reader, more in tune with the Michael Bay style big-fun-explosions style of books or something.

Also, snowman is annoying me.

[Maggie]

He gets better, I promise....lol

It takes a little bit to figure out what's going on here, and the characters are not very redeemable, but this book had me thinking about it for weeks!

[Kevin]

I'm 25% into the book and dying for some exposition. You've heard the writers' maxim to tell a story through the events rather than directly explain it to the reader? Atwood's taken it to an extreme. The book, so far, is something of a tease.

The reviews are good, so I'll bravely carry on. :)

[Kevin]

I spoke to soon. 1/3 in now, and it's the story of Oryx's life, written more traditionally.

[Banner]

I've finished. This is one of the most intense books I've read in awhile. That's all I'll say for now.

[Ami]

Ok, I'm done. I can't say I enjoyed it as it was pretty darn depressing. But it was a great book in that it is one I can't get out of my head and will continue thinking about for a while. Atwood is good like that. I found the genetic theory very interesting. Totally far fetched, but it's supposed to be.

[stormhawk]

I was already not liking it when I hit the (view spoiler)[kiddie porn (hide spoiler)] at which point she totally lost any regard I was having for the book. I finished it, but it didn't get any better.

[Ami]

stormhawk wrote: "I was already not liking it when I hit the [spoilers removed] at which point she totally lost any regard I was having for the book. I finished it, but it didn't get any better."

Yes, I agree. That definitely downgraded things and made me not like the not very likeable characters even more.

[Banner]

stormhawk wrote: "I was already not liking it when I hit the [spoilers removed] at which point she totally lost any regard I was having for the book. I finished it, but it didn't get any better."

Ok since you went ahead and said it..that's what I was waiting to comment about. The author is certainly talented and imo could have communicated the same characterization without the graphic details.

However, there is a lot to be commended about the book and I'm trying not to let that total turn me off, but it was a big negative.

[Regina]

I can see why that part was upsetting, but it was supposed to be. I believe it is included to demonstrate how degraded the society has become -- not that we don't have that now, but the level of it and the acceptance of it. The story is written as a trilogy of sorts and there will be a third book. I will say that book 2 The Year of the Flood is more hopeful and less depressing, although I do believe Oryx and Crake ends with hope. The characters that are focused in Year of the Flood are different than those in Oryx and Crake, it is from the point of view of two women.

[[deleted user]]

hey...hey


use the other thread. you don't even have to use spoiler tags there.

[Regina]

:) I will re-post there.

[[deleted user]]

:P

Thanks ;)

[Zulfiya]

I have read the third of the book so far, and the setting is a little bit too long, but it is an interesting teaser when you view the story from both sides: the beginning and the end, and let me tell you something: these scientific labs and their projects are very disturbing and unsettling. I can even sympathize with Jimmie's mother - she is in a perpetual existential depression. And when she disappears, there is one more reason to worry: there are some hints that the society they live in is fear-ridden and ominous. It is getting darker and darker with every page.

[stormhawk]

Ala wrote: "hey...hey


use the other thread. you don't even have to use spoiler tags there."

There wasn't the other thread when I posted my comment ...

[[deleted user]]

stormhawk wrote: "Ala wrote: "hey...hey


use the other thread. you don't even have to use spoiler tags there."

There wasn't the other thread when I posted my comment ..."

I know. I actually made the thread after reading your comment. ;)

[Valerie]

I'm about a third in... I can't say yet whether I like or dislike it, because it's getting under my skin so much. It makes me feel icky to the point where I put it down and wonder whether I actually want to pick it up again. While The Handmaid's Tale was frightening, it didn't make me react like this on an emotional level.

[Kim]

Have finally gotten around to starting it. Only a little bit through and even though it's interesting it feels like a very long setup and I hope I can get through it.

[Bill]

Atwood is a favorite author. I liked O&K a lot, but liked the sequel a bit more. IMO, they should be read together. I've got them in multiple genres—literary fiction, SF, ecofiction...

[Jenny]

Oryx and Crake is my next book to read so I'll be starting it in the next day or two. I meant to read it in June or July for another group read but I didn't get to it.

[Katy]

I meant to start this earlier, but soon, soon.

[[deleted user]]

No rush :)

[Michael]

I've finished and I think Margret Atwood does an exceptional job. What I liked best is here style of writing. This was my first book by her and I'll definitely be picking up more.

[[deleted user]]

Michael wrote: "I've finished and I think Margret Atwood does an exceptional job. What I liked best is here style of writing. This was my first book by her and I'll definitely be picking up more."

Post your thoughts in the other threads too ;)

[Zulfiya]

Out, out, brief candle. This is a lovely quote from Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It is definitely one of the brightest foreshadowing clues you can find in this book. Atwood is masterfully portraying our possible bleak future.

[Veronika KaoruSaionji]

I don´t like this, I read this only this Club. It is good book, worthy of reading, but too sad for me. I don´t need such warning for our future, I believe, I know about it. And I hope in better future. :o)

[RB]

I'm going to start reading this tomorrow morning :)

[[deleted user]]

Hope you enjoy it, Rita :)

[RB]

Thanks Ala :) I think I am so far, but in all fairness, I'm only a few pages in.

[Richard]

Started to read it a couple of days ago. About a third of the way in and enjoying it, which surprised me as I didn't enjoy the style of The Handmaid's Tale, which is the only other book by her that I've read.

Seems like nicely written interesting post apocalyptic / environmental SF to me, whatever the author says about the genre.

[Michael]

Okay, I'm at 25% and I better jot down my impressions while they are still "first" impressions:

I definitely like it so far; I like the combination of slowly revealing the world and the history while at the same time keeping me engaged with vivid imagery/occurrences and poignant, true-to-life ruminations. Also, Love the chapter section titles!

I have some vague mixed feelings about the parts told from a teenage boy perspective: on the one hand, I am really quite amazed how well Atwood appears to be channeling these thoughts (the objectification and sex obsession sounds just like my brain at 13, and occasionally remind me of Stephen King's stuff (Christine, maybe?)), but on the other hand it can be a bit tiring and there is a reason I am glad I am no longer 13!

As for the emotional themes - loss, isolation, vulnerability, alienation - I am finding them very poignant. The way love and loss is dealt with seems incredibly realistic, and so subtle. It is only at the end of sections that I realize I am tearing up and I am hardly aware where the sadness is coming from.

I've occasionally been reminded of Paolo Bacigalupi's Pump Six and Other Stories which we read in February. Some of the science content, for sure, but also there is something vaguely melancholy about this story (besides the obvious!). Where Pump Six was outright disturbing and horrifying, Oryx and Crake has seemed more unsettling and sad to me. Both in the events and also the overall flavor as I am reading. Anyone else feel that way?

Also, did anyone notice the foreshadowing at the end of Chapter 3: (view spoiler)[ "I didn't do it on purpose..." (hide spoiler)]

This is my first book by Margaret Atwood - anybody else? I'm wondering how this book might compare with her other work...

[Robyn]

Thanks for starting off the discussion, Michael. I don't have a ton of time to comment right now but will come back to it when I'm not supposed to be sleeping! I've just finished Oryx and Crake and my first impressions are, well, favourable. However, I have already read The Year of the Flood so I was returning to the world as Atwood imagines it, rather than discovering it anew.

The comparisons with Bacigalulpi seem apt, especially with some of his ideas of how the world will evolve during a long period of climate change. Without any spoilers, I think the two are about equally horrifying for me, and I definitely found Oryx and Crake to be the more depressing of the two books of the trilogy that I've read.

I've read The Handmaid's Tale and The Penelopiad, as well as most of her poetry and some of her short stories and non-fiction. I'd say that it fits in fairly well with her other books, though of course there are many that I haven't read yet. She tends to be interested in larger questions of society; The Handmaid's Tale is another dystopian work and a real classic at that. I think she engages in a more 'pop culture' style of writing for this trilogy than in some of her other works, but that it's a deliberate choice to set the tone of the world.

[Michael]

Robyn wrote: "Thanks for starting off the discussion, Michael. I don't have a ton of time to comment right now but will come back to it when I'm not supposed to be sleeping! I've just finished Oryx and Crake and..."

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Robyn! It will be interesting to compare this to the sequel, which I intend to read unless this book betrays me somehow before the last page!

The pop culture style was something else that reminded my of Stephen King, oddly enough. All the company names, and the things washed up on shore...

[MK]

I am just starting. At 25% now, as well. I didn't join the Pump Six read (b/c initial comments indicated it was very dark - not my usual cup of tea),so I can't comment on those comparisons.

I have read The Handmaid's Tale, and, I was going to say The Clan of the Cave Bear, but Clan ... is by Jean M. Auel, not Margaret Atwood! (Anyone else think those two authors remind you of each other?)

Too soon for me to compare how The Handmaid's Tale compares (and also, maybe too long since reading that other - read that in the 80s!). I know I liked that one tho. And, so far, yea, I'm liking this one.

[Edwin]

Michael wrote: "Okay, I'm at 25% and I better jot down my impressions while they are still "first" impressions"

I just finished last night. First impressions?

Well, I thought Atwood wove quite a engaging story, especially as she flipped back and forth between the "before" and "after", and she kept me interested the whole way through.

I also felt that there was an awful lot going on under the surface in this book, lots of subtle and not so subtle social commentary. Quite a bit to ponder.

[MK]

I'm at 43%. It's gotten very depressing. Well, I mean not that it WASN'T, afterall when someone breaks the world, it's bound to be a bit depressing :p.

But ... I feel like I'm in a sludge. Despite the fact that, somewhat contradictorialy (did I make that word up?), the writing is quite engaging.

Maybe it's the reading I'm blending it with. All three of the stories I'm actively reading at the moment are somewhat depressing.

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
A war section of War and Peace
and this one.

Thankfully, this one (which I'm also reading):
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

is HILARIOUS!!!

[Edwin]

MK wrote: "All three of the stories I'm actively reading at the moment are somewhat depressing."

You shouldn't take on too much darkness at one time, it's bad for the psyche. (view spoiler)[I wish I could say this book gets less depressing, but it really doesn't. (hide spoiler)]--(not really much of a spoiler, but I never know how people feel about these things) Focus on the messages Atwood is trying to convey. It isn't necessarily all grim.

I just finished Matilda on audiobook on my work commutes. Kate Winslet's narration was brilliant, and although the story was dark at times, it had a nice positive spin and was a good diversion from Oryx and Crake.