≡ Download Free The Year of the Flood A Novel Margaret Atwood 9780385528771 Books

The Year of the Flood A Novel Margaret Atwood 9780385528771 Books

Download As PDF : The Year of the Flood A Novel Margaret Atwood 9780385528771 Books

The Year of the Flood A Novel Margaret Atwood 9780385528771 Books

This trilogy is very slow to develop; during the first half of the first book, I doubted that I would read them all. By the end of the first book, I was hooked. Thoughtful, engaging exploration of a post-apocolyptic world, using the private lives of individuals as the adjust to a new reality. Now, I recommend to any one who likes dystopian novels.


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The Year of the Flood A Novel Margaret Atwood 9780385528771 Books Reviews

I have enjoyed many of Margaret Atwood's books, and I would group "In the Year of the Flood" with some of my favorites. It is not quite as fresh and original as "The Handmaid's Tale" was for its time, nor as richly drawn as "The Blind Assassin", but it is a very strong entry in the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction.

Although this book is the second in the MaddAddam trilogy, as several other reviewers have noted, the first two books are independent enough that it is not necessary to read the first book ("Oryx and Crake") before reading this one.

Both books are set about a year after a man-made plague wipes out basically every organized society and nearly all of humanity, but both books spend at least half of their narrative space flashing back to the events that lead up to the plague, which is sometimes referred to as a "waterless flood". "Oryx and Crake" is told from the point of view of Jimmy, whose best friend apparently created and distributed the deadly virus, and so includes much more detail on how the plague was developed and why. In Jimmy's recollection, we begin to understand some of the vivid futuristic horrors (hybrid species like pigoons and rakunks, rigid social stratification, etc) that make the posthuman world even more terrifying than a simple devastated wasteland. That said, although Jimmy's character felt plausible, if unhinged, his best friend (Crake) and his lover (Oryx) both read as flat, unconvincing caricatures.

"In the Year of the Flood" focuses instead on the story of an environmentalist cult call the God's Gardeners, many of whose members will ultimately survive the plague for reasons that are hinted at but not decisively revealed in the first two books. The structure of the novel is similar to O & C, but instead of one POV character, there are two women who lived with the God's Gardeners before the plague and who each separately happened to survive. There is both more psychological development and more present day action in this book. Whereas O & C details Jimmy's solitary meanderings and reflections, the two narrators in Year of the Flood were much more meaningfully engaged in the world both before and after the flood. I don't want to include big spoilers; it is enough to say that more happens to them and between them.

The third book promises to bring the first two together and to resolve many unanswered questions. It should not be read before reading either of the first two. Which book a reader SHOULD start with is a slightly more complicated question. About half of reviewers strongly prefer O & C, while half consider Year of the Flood the better book. I'm in the second group, but I think the real question is whether you value the exposition of an interesting science fiction concept ("Oryx and Crake") or the nuanced development of characters working together to adapt and adjust in a post-apocalyptic landscape (In the Year of the Flood). If you found the creepy world developed in the "The Handmaid's Tale compelling", I would start with "Oryx and Crake". If you appreciated the psychological complexity of "The Blind Assassin" (my favorite Atwood novel), you might be happier starting with Year of the Flood. For me, "Oryx and Crake" was worth reading because it provided enriching backstory for "In the Year of the Flood", but otherwise I might have skipped it. As a standalone book, O & C didn't draw me in or convince me that there was enough at stake.
I read this book once some years back. Atwood is telling a long complicated story about the end of civilization and this is the second book. Reading it without having read Oryx and Crake leaves you with a not very great understanding of how civilization got to the place it is in "The Year of the Flood". This time around I started with "Oryx and Crake" and am now in the middle of "The Year of the Flood". It is much better now. Atwood has explored and assembled a number of complicated ideas about how civilization will change including the ideas scientists will have about splicing genes,creating multisubstance pills, and how groups will develop for or against some of these ideas. She is also extraordinarily well versed in the effect that one person has on another, how people can or do support or harm one another which she entwines in daily happenings of a number of characters. Certainly she gives me many thoughts on how what I do is hurting or harming my loved ones. Great reading.
This second book in the MaddAdam Trilogy is just as engrossing as the first. It goes back to before the pandemic and follows two separate women, Toby and Ren. Through their eyes, we learn much more about this world and how it ended up the way that it did. It doesn’t progress the events from the first book until the last few pages, but that was fine with me.

I continued to be thoroughly impressed with the world building and overall story.
This is the 2nd book of the MaddAddam trilogy by Canadian Margaret Atwood. She has created a post modern world where most humans have fallen sick and she is focusing on the survivors. The world is very interesting but not very nice or pretty. Most of us would not want to live there! It is fun to read the books in order and to try to guess who someone is from an earlier book. The first and second books take place at the same time and the third right after. I think the total time is under a year plus flashbacks of up to 25 years in the past. Atwood is decidedly anti large corporations taking over the world and this trilogy imagines what might happen if that happens. The pages fly by as the reader worries about the fate of the characters and whether the world can longsurvive. The inventiveness of her made up creatures, both animal and human, is outstanding. One can understand how we could go down this slippery slope of artificial creation. Start with Oryx and Crake and you will find you cannot get enough of this story. MaddAddam is the third book's title.
This trilogy is very slow to develop; during the first half of the first book, I doubted that I would read them all. By the end of the first book, I was hooked. Thoughtful, engaging exploration of a post-apocolyptic world, using the private lives of individuals as the adjust to a new reality. Now, I recommend to any one who likes dystopian novels.