A Review of The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

This is the sequel to Oryx and Crake, reviewed previously on this blog. In this part of the continuing tale in the MaddAddam trilogy, we meet Ren (short for Brenda) and Toby, two of God's Gardners, neither of whom feels worthy of being in the greenie sect, mostly organized by Adam One, but truly and more honestly by Zeb. All of the leaders of GG are named Eves or Adams, and Adam One has missives that begin each chapter, or each change of narration between Toby and Ren. Each of these ladies has survived the Waterless Flood, foretold by Adam One to be forthcoming. Ms. Atwood weaves in Jimmy and Glenn/Crake from the first story, but deepens the story and adds more narration of the time after the virus has wiped most of humanity out. We discover that there are quite a few survivors, other than Jimmy/Snowman, who only emerges at the end of this book.
This tale has a lot less of the originality of the first one, but in many ways is more satisfying, as a story of a terribly fragile, SeksMart worker (Ren) and an extremely resilient Eve Six (Toby). Amanda Payne, Jimmy's girlfriend from the first book, is Ren's best friend, and quite an interesting character in this story. We learn her origins and her survival afterward, mostly from Ren's tale.
While this book was enjoyable, I liked it both more and less than the first book. At the beginning of each section, Ms. Atwood writes Adam One's sermon for each "saint" that the Gardeners worship. Everyone from Dian Fossey to Karen Silkwood is a saint to the Gardeners. These "sermons" followed by a hymn from The God's Gardeners Oral Hymnbook, were abundant, and quite boring. I stopped reading them halfway through, except to skim in case I missed any narrative detail. I didn't enjoy that part of this story. I understand that it was important to understanding the God's Gardeners, but it was uninteresting and irrelevant, except to sermonize.
Overall, I liked this story. It was different and similar to Oryx and Crake, but less depressing with a lot more hope at the end, and truly all the way through. In this tale, we are given more narration and understanding of all that has occurred, and less of the hopelessness of the situation. Not all of humanity is dead; many have survived, and other humans besides the Crakers.
I do intend to read the final tale in the MaddAddam trilogy.

Update

Hello all,

I recently began another school year (I am a public school teacher for any of you who don't know me personally). I also switched grade levels. It's been interesting and quite busy. I have not had as much time to read, so it may be a while until I get to something I can review. My writing class begins again on the 30th, so I should definitely have some things to post then. Looking forward to it....

Regards,

GBG

A Review of The Passage by Justin Cronin

Funny enough, The Passage is a post-Apocalyptic tale in much the same vein as Oryx and Crake- life after a virus has destroyed most of the world. Unlike Oryx and Crake, the virus in Mr. Cronin's book is one that changes human beings into vampires with one bite. These are not the typical suave and sexy vampires that have been depicted since Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, these are beasts. Mindless, bloodthirsty, rip people into literal pieces beasts.
This book was interesting on several levels. First, it was nearly 800 pages long. That's a lot of set up, and a lot of post-virus world. This story is apparently part of a trilogy as well, although this first story was just published. The story is broken into many sections, and written in many different formats, which was both interesting and annoying. The story is not narrated by any one character, perhaps because their lives are often so fleeting. There are sections written as journal accounts, written by different characters.
The best part about that is that the story doesn't get boring because you are only hearing from one character. The "main" character in the story, if there is one, is Amy. Amy is both from the "Time Before" (our time now- the story begins about 8 years from now) and the "Time After". Before and After refer to the virus wiping most everyone out. Amy is young girl purposely infected with the virus in the Time Before and who is still around in the Time After. She is the one piece that gives the story its continuity and she is the least understood character.
I know I normally write a summary of the story, but I find that the scope of this book is such that I would have to write quite a lot- too much really- to explain adequately without giving things away that the reader should find out for him- or herself.
I will say that the second half of the book was better than the first. I enjoyed the characters and the story better in the Time After than the setup for how the virus has come to be and how it escapes.
There are clear good and bad guys in this story, and truly, it is a tale of good versus evil. But the last third contains a group of friends who set out on a mission and this is the part that was the most entertaining.
I feel it is necessary to point out a few specifics about this story. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the author's writing style. His writing is truly beautiful. He has a real talent for making it easy to visualize his world and for making you feel the intense pain and suffering his characters feel. He is an extremely talented writer. However, this story borrows heavily from quite a few other books I've read, and while this is an original story, it is also not original. There was quite a bit of The Stand, Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones and even The Lottery, for those of you who remember that short story from high school English syllabi. While Mr. Cronin makes the story work, it also feels like he borrowed too much at times.
I really can't explain much more than that. I do intend to continue whenever the next book comes out (too much suspense not to!). I would recommend it, but be prepared.

In Progress