MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

[AntoinetteCosway]

It was SO worth the wait. If you read Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, go and get MaddAddam.



If you've never heard of any of them, go and buy them ALL and read them. Seriously. Go now. Three of the most compelling books out there. Best read as a trilogy.

Ok, can't string a sentence together anymore. Am going to bed to think about it and be a bit sad that it's over.

[NormanTheForeman]

Is MaddAddam new then? Have read the other two, they were brilliant!

[AntoinetteCosway]

Yes-just released. I definitely recommend it!

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

I liked the other two.

I'm not bowled over by Maddaddam yet, but only on p.18, so there's still time.

[sinistersal]

I wish Atwood hadn't turned to dystopia. Gives me the fear. She is one of my favourite writers but that post apocalyptic stuff scares me silly.

[MaddAddam]

I loved them too, as my username perhaps gives away. Oryx and Crake gave me nightmares so I didn't read YOTF til recently but that meant only a short wait for the final book.

I love Toby. And the pigoons. And I've been lusting after Zeb.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

I'm now on p.95 and it's definitely growing on me.

[Peacocklady]

Oh wow didn't know there was another! Cannot wait. May read first two again first!

[ElbowPrincess]

Just finished The Year of the Flood, didnt enjoy that as much as Oryx & Crake.

[rosabud]

Read Oryx and Crake years ago and enjoyed it but didn't realise it was first in a trilogy. There must be lots of detail I have forgotten. Would I have to go back and re-read it for the next two books to make sense? I suppose I would really, not sure I want to as it was pretty harrowing!

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

At the beginning of MaddAddam, there's a little synopsis of the other two books.

[duchesse]

I think most of MA's output is dystopia, isn't it? Handmaid's Tale most definitely dystopian.

Have only read Oryx and Crake in that trilogy, about ten years ago. Will have to re-read O & C before reading the others.

[sinistersal]

Most of her earlier work is much more character driven. Up to about The Blind Assasin, I think, it's much more informed by social and personal dynamics, from a feminist perspective.
The Handmaid's Tale is speculative fiction, but it's more a political dystopia than post apocalyptic/post environmental catastrophe/social collapse.

Though you can see the germs of it there, the Gilead revolution was set against the backdrop of several environmental disasters, some of the effects of which was a decline in human fertility.

She has such an amazing mind.

[fromparistoberlin]

I love her, I was going to get this but its bloody expensive on kindle!!!

[ChaircatMiaow]

I have read Oryx & Crake, didn't realise it was part of a trilogy and freaked the hell out of me.

She has to be one of my favourite authors. Agree with Sinister that she has the most incredible mind. The Blind Assassin is by far my favourite book and makes me me cry every time I read it.

The Edible Woman is another great one of hers. It's quite a feminist novel, which is amazing because I believe she wrote it before feminism became such a major movement in the States in the sixties.

[MyNameIsWinkly]

I read YOTF, forgotten quite a bit of it now but adored it. Just started Oryx & Crake and intended to re-read YOTFanyway, so will read this last. Oooh excited!

[ThurlHoHoHow]

Coming late to the party but just finished it... I agree that Toby is great but Oryx & Crake was definitely the best of the three books. There was something strangely charismatic about Crake (probably makes me a weirdo but in my head he was quite good looking) and the other two books suffered from the lack of him. MaddAddam was good but not Atwood at her best. For me, there was nothing new in the story she'd told won't name the character for those who haven't read it as it was all quite similar to Jimmy and Toby's stories.

The stories told to the Crakers made me laugh a lot though, Atwood has such a wonderful way with words. "Please don't sing" I laughed out loud when a Craker is telling a story and even they end up asking everyone to stop singing!