The Year of the Flood

Paperback, 448 pages

Published July 27, 2010 by Anchor.

ISBN:
978-0-307-45547-5
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OCLC Number:
491895639

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4 stars (86 reviews)

The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible.Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of …

22 editions

Review of 'The Year of the Flood' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The follow up to Oryx and Crake tells the story from a different perspective. While the first volume was male, from inside the Corps, this one is predominantly female, and its story develops outside, in the unruly pleeblands. Characters and events from the first volume intertwine and show up in fleeting glimpses, completing the picture for the reader, but at the same time highlighting how fragmented and incomplete the pieces are for the characters.
It is a great exercise in storytelling. The post plague world painted by Atwood takes better shape and the female characters drive the story.. making them justice after neglecting them severely in the first volume.

Review of 'The Year of the Flood' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

For the first half - for more than the first half - it was great, engrossing, fascinating, haunting. It was much better than [b:Oryx and Crake|46756|Oryx and Crake|Margaret Atwood|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327896599s/46756.jpg|3143431]. I was really into it.

And then, more than half way through, approaching the end, it just fell apart. Suddenly Atwood loaded coincidence upon coincidence, and started connecting various strands of the two books in unbelievable ways. I hated it, from that chapter on. I couldn't believe it degraded so rapidly and so completely.

Sigh.

Review of 'The Year of the Flood' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I do not often write reviews for the books that I've read, however, since I wrote such a rant for "Oryx and Crake", which was the first book about this world, I felt that I should comment on this one as well.

Since reading "Oryx and Crake," I've also read "The Handmaid's Tale," which I thought was -very- good, and which gave me far more faith in Margaret Atwood and the idea that she can write a bloody good book when she wants to. That, and my boyfriend's insistence that this book provides an ending to Jimmy/Snowman's story from "Oryx and Crake," is the reason that I finally got around to reading this book. And I have to say that I was not -completely- disappointed.

This book doesn't end, which is what I was promised before I read it, however it does provide some closure for "Oryx and Crake," albeit …

Review of 'The Year of the Flood' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I read the previous book, 'Oryx and Crake', in 2006, and my memory of it was pretty fuzzy. I recalled not liking it all that well, so I didn't feel very motivated to re-read it to prepare for this sequel. I generally love Atwood, which is why I bought the sequel anyway. I liked this one a lot! Damn, she's dark and funny. The books are set in a dystopian future, where corporations are much stronger than the government. If you are a professional working for a big corporation, you live in a gated community. If you aren't, you struggle to survive in the pleeblands.[return][return]'Oryx and Crake' is told from the point of view of privileged young men -- the children of scientists working for corporations. One of them is a genius, and ends up with his own well-funded research project. He claims to be on human aging, but he's …

Review of 'The Year of the Flood' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Stunning. I was really excited to get this book and it kept me that way right to the end. After reading her "Oryx and Crake" I was already anticipating a dystopian masterpiece but this parallel story brings the two of them into the league of modern classics.
I think anyone would benefit from reading "Oryx and Crake" first, although it's not strictly necessary, but then they wouldn't get all the resonances I did.

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Subjects

  • Literature & Fiction -- Authors, A-Z -- ( A ) -- Atwood, Margaret
  • Literature & Fiction -- Literary

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