Oryx and Crake cover art

Oryx and Crake

MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1

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Oryx and Crake

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: John Chancer
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About this listen

 Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, 2003.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, 2004.

Margaret Atwood's classic novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is about the future. Now, in Oryx and Crake, the future has changed: it's much worse. The narrator of this riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he's sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories?

©2003 Margaret Atwood (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd. Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Scary

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Critic reviews

"Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its fast-paced 'what if' dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as brilliantly provocative as it is profoundly engaging." ( Booklist)
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What a story this is. It is quite hard to review without giving away the plot too much but I listened to this in 2 days and would happily go back to the start right now. The Narration is first class, along with the plot and the characters. The story leaves you thinking about it when you are not listening, wondering "could that really happen?" to which the answer is most often yes it could. Highly, recommend this. I will remember this one for a long time to come and probably shudder as parts of it become true in the future.

Engrossing, disturbing, amusing, entertaining

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This is really worth listening to. Several important contemporary issues are explored in science fiction form, and the narrator delivers the story very well indeed.

Oryx and Crake (Unabridged)

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It's easy to see why some who read this will become enamoured by it and hopefully those who love it will equally be able to see why others won't like it. Aside from the desire to shock throughout - as far as I could tell there's never really any explanation as to how society becomes so depraved - the book is told in such a strange manner, as though the narrator is holding the reader at arm's length throughout, especially with the events from the past. Presumably this was intentional, showcasing Snowman's haze in regards to his memory, but it only served to turn me off yet further, especially when I didn't particularly care for any of the three main characters. Even so, the idea of all this experimentation with animals was certainly fascinating and I don't regret reading it. Alas, the book just didn't quite work for me in the way I'd hope. That being said, I might read the sequel in future as many appear to prefer it.

The narration is pretty good for the most part; any complaints I might have would only be down to the way the book presents itself.

Interesting but not for me

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Margaret Atwood’s novels are utterly terrifying, they’re so close to home that I’m not sure they aren’t actually already happening and the matter of fact writing is frankly downright scary. Oryx and Crake is yet another enormously credible short step into the future where mankind has run itself into the ground and there’s only one homo sapien sapien left. Jimmy (or snowman as he calls himself). Is that last man standing and we hear his story as it is now and in flashback to his former life.

I didn’t like John Chancer’s narration to start with, I don’t think I liked his accent to be fair, but it did grow on me and in the end I did decide it worked well for the novel. It looks like the second part of the trilogy has a different voice which I am not overwhelmed about, hopefully they do as good a job on it as Mr Chancer has done on this one!

A must listen

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It took me a while to get into the story but once I did it intrigued me so much...I love how the storyline evokes bit by bit and backwards, so only towards the end of it you're able to pull all pieces together. Also the last paragraph of the books leaves you wanting to get to part 2 of the trilogy right away.

intriguing

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An enthralling and scarily prescient tale from the queen of dystopia. Perfectly voiced by John Chancer. I'm so glad there are 2 more in the series!

Fascinating, enthralling. I'm totally hooked.

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The narration was spot on . When it’s first person narrative you need a superb narrator and this held my attention completely. A scary but totally believable future can only be written by a great writer . So much is already recognisable today . I will give it a couple of weeks and listen again . Brilliant

Brilliant

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Compelling story. Interesting listening to it again 20 years after I read it the first time. Prophetic in many small ways, hopefully not in the larger ones. Very well read with good voices.

Great story, great narrator.

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I really like Margaret Atwood, and what I've read of this series, it's well read and well written, but there are some dark themes in this one and I nearly had to turn it off a few times. I made it through and I suppose it was worth it, but I would've liked a warning before I dove in.

Not for the faint of heart

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Took me a while to get into, and the plot is deliberately opaque to begin with, but it's worth persevering with. An interest idea of the future - and Chancer reads it well.

A slow burner but worth persevering with

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