Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 1844080285 Global Overview for this book
Registered by xoddam of Springwood, New South Wales Australia on 9/21/2005
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4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, September 21, 2005
I should note that the cover art is not as shown: this copy has a mirrored nude oil painting with breasts prominent.

Alright! This did end up being pretty gripping after all, Atwood did not disappoint me! This is a hard-core SF story centred around genetic engineering and the same sort of class-based social segregation demonstrated so painfully in New Orleans this year.

The GM stuff is pretty out there, but not at all inconceivable: the first chapter explains pigoons, specially altered pigs designed for growing replacement human organs (for transplants) alongside their own. Accept the premise that this is possible and potentially profitable (and I have little doubt that in the real world it could be within fifty years), and the rest of the fantasies of the book, no matter how nightmarish, are only obvious.

There are sub-plots involving slave trading, child pornography and online gaming -- but the cast of characters is a very small bunch of very dislocated individuals. It's hard to love them, but not hard to identify with them.

Excellent story, beautiful prose as always.

Journal Entry 2 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, November 13, 2005
On offer as a bookray. I'll add participants here.

hunnyb (Sydney)
leeny37 (Melbourne)
BellaMack (St Helens)

Journal Entry 3 by xoddam at Letterbox, Anzac Parade in Moore Park, New South Wales Australia on Friday, November 18, 2005

Released 18 yrs ago (11/18/2005 UTC) at Letterbox, Anzac Parade in Moore Park, New South Wales Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Interesting -- just as I pass this book on, I receive another copy. henceforth this is a book*ray*, not a book*ring* :-)

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2374367

Shoved into what I *hope* was hunnyb's letterbox!

Journal Entry 4 by hunnyb from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, November 19, 2005
Retrieved from the letterbox - thanks for dropping it off, xoddam!

Journal Entry 5 by hunnyb from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Just an update - I'm about halfway through this now and absolutely loving it! Snowman/ Jimmy is an amazing character and I really like the flashback style of writing.

Journal Entry 6 by hunnyb from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, December 1, 2005
Wow. This was utterly amazing. By turns hilarious and frightening - I loved it. I even liked the characters, sort of - though they were definitely hard to like.

The plot reminded me of 1984 mixed with Brave New World mixed with Waiting for Godot - especially the ending. It captured the absurdity and beauty of life - in that love is the most important thing, but in the end it doesn't really matter at all. The language expressed the themes wonderfully and I found some real gems that I just have to put here:

"These things sneak up on him for no reason, these moments of irrational happiness. It's probably a vitamin deficiency."

"The Children of Oryx, the Children of Crake. He'd had to think of something. Get your story straight, keep it simple, don't falter: this used to be the expert advice given by lawyers to criminals in the dock. Crake made the bones of the Children of Crake out of the coral on the beach, and then he made their flesh out of a mango. But the Children of Oryx hatched out of an egg, a giant egg laid by Oryx herself. Actually she laid two eggs: one full of animals and birds and fish, and the other one full of words. But the egg full of words hatched first, and the Children of Crake had already been created by then, and they'd eaten up all the words because they were hungry, and so there were no words left when the second egg hatched out. And that is why the animals can't talk."

"Don't Drink Death! said the posters. Union dockworkers in Australia, where they still had unions, refused to unload Happicuppa cargoes; in the United States, a Boston Coffee Party sprang up."

"Crake had the kaga-lamb, a new Australian splice that combined the placid character and high-protein yield of the sheep with the kangaroo's resitstance to disease and absence of methane-producing, ozone-destroying flatulence."

Finally: "Can a single ant be said to be alive, in any meaningful sense of the word, or does it only have relevance in terms of its anthill?"

Thanks xoddam for sharing this. It was utterly amazing! It's now off to leeny37.

Journal Entry 7 by leeny37 from Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Thursday, December 8, 2005
Woo hoo, I was offsite for a few days and when I went back to the office today, there were quite a few books waiting for me! This was one of them, thanks hunnyb for sending it to me. I'm currently swamped with bookrings myself, xoddam, so please be patient with me too! :) I hope to get through all of them as soon as I can though, especially with the Christmas break coming up, that will definitely help. Watch this space!

Journal Entry 8 by leeny37 from Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Friday, February 3, 2006
Oopsies, I have held this book for way too long, and I see there is a new participant after me too! Apologies for the delay and I will try to have it on its way asap. Thank you for your patience!

Journal Entry 9 by leeny37 from Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Saturday, October 28, 2006
I finally got to reading this book recently and finished it last night. My apologies for holding on to this book for soooooo long, it's a record for me! Anyways, back to the book. I found it very slow at the beginning, I think it was probably due to me unable to read it for long periods of time and there were constant interruptions, so I didn't get get into it initially. However, as I got to more and more of the flashbacks, the book got more exciting and it was hard to put down. A very scary scenario but as xoddam has pointed out, entirely possible in the near future. The description of ChickieNobs gave me a chuckle; I remember a friend telling me about a myth/rumour that KFC were rearing headless chickens or something like that. Maybe there's a secret ChickieNob factory at KFC headquarters!

A question though, I guess I'm kinda thick, Snowman/Jimmy was constantly wishing that he would meet others like him, why did he have such an extreme reaction when he learnt about the others? I didn't understand that...

Anyways, I already have BellaMack's address, so I will have this mailed off to her on Monday. Once again, sorry for taking ages with this one; thanks, xoddam, for being so patient with me!

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed off to BellaMack via a prepaid Express Post satchel today!

Journal Entry 11 by BellaMack from St Helens, Tasmania Australia on Monday, October 30, 2006
Received today, thank you leeny37, looking forward to reading it, have three before it but will journal again when read. Thanks to xoddam for sharing :)

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