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.
This was the first Margret Attwood book I've read and I must say I found it quite impressive. Any fan of futuristic "end of the world" type Sci-Fi is certain to enjoy this book. The story follows the plight of a cult of religious environmentalist thru the waterless flood of a civilization ending pandemic.
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