Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    MaddAddam: A Novel
    Unavailable
    MaddAddam: A Novel
    Unavailable
    MaddAddam: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    MaddAddam: A Novel

    Written by Margaret Atwood

    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne, Robbie Daymond and Bob Walter

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A New York Times Notable Book
    A Washington Post Notable Book
    A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail
    A GoodReads Reader's Choice

    Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love.

    Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb.

    Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.

    Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood-a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 3, 2013
    ISBN9780739384008
    Unavailable
    MaddAddam: A Novel
    Author

    Margaret Atwood

    Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

    More audiobooks from Margaret Atwood

    Related to MaddAddam

    Related audiobooks

    Dystopian For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Muddy Waters

      Sep 6, 2021

      If you want to write something that sells, write nature. The bookshop shelves are rammed with tomes about walking in the countryside, stopping to sniff the flora and fondle the fauna, taking time out of your hectic dash to the grave in order to appre

      2 min read

    • Article

      Looking For Fresh Reads? Western Authors Weigh In.

      Dec 1, 2020

      THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC may have disrupted much of what boosts new book releases — bookstores, events and author signings, attention spans — but Westerners need good reading material as much as ever. Fortunately, writers have obliged, with new works

      5 min read

    • Article

      New Titles

      Apr 10, 2019

      By George Keithley George Braziller, Inc. “The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length American poems ever written.”—Poetry. “Out of the western migration of the 1840s…Keithley has made a lean, taut narrative poem that moves with

      5 min read

    • Article

      Creature Comforts

      Aug 27, 2021

      Creature Comforts
      5 min read

    • Article

      Watership Down

      Nov 2, 2022

      IN a passage in his autobiography, The Day Gone By, Richard Adams, discussing the children’s literature he’d read, or which had been read to him, referred to C. S. Lewis’s possibly misattributed maxim: ‘A book that’s not worth reading when you’re 60

      3 min read

    • Article

      Community

      Sep 3, 2020

      IN “SINKING INTO THE ARCTIC” (Summer 2020), Barbara Hurd weaves hope, ecology, and climate together. As I first began reading this essay, it felt untimely given the trajectory our society has followed this summer. When cops are killing Black people a

      4 min read

    • Article

      New Titles

      Feb 13, 2019

      By George Keithley George Braziller, Inc. “The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length American poems ever written.”—Poetry. “Out of the western migration of the 1840s…Keithley has made a lean, taut narrative poem that moves with

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Books Briefing: The Best Books to Get Lost in This Summer

      Jul 9, 2021

      Memoirs and novels that satisfy the urge for high drama: Your weekly guide to the best in books

      3 min read

    • Article

      Gripping Reads

      Oct 21, 2022

      Charlie Reade looks like your regular high-school kid but he carries a heavy load – after his mom died in a road accident, grief drove his father to drink. Eventually, at his wits’ end, Charlie makes a promise to God: he will do good if his father st

      2 min read

    • Article

      March Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Mar 4, 2019

      The 20 new books we're most excited to read in March. The post March Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 8, 2021

      It’s a brave and undoubtedly foolish author who produces a novel that is in effect a declaration of war on the entire publishing industry. Not one who values career longevity, say, or a future of cosy, drunken lunches on expense accounts, or, like, a

      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Smith, Harpman, Haber, and More

      May 10, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Bud Smith, Jacqueline Harpman, Mark Haber, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Smith, Harpman, Haber, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Winter Book Reviews

      Sep 4, 2020

      by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books, Port Elliot. A prolific journalist, essayist and sportswriter, Sydney-based Malcolm Knox is well known for his Walkley Award-winning exposure of Norma Khouri’s false memoir and highly regarded for his writing on cr

      4 min read

    • Article

      Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2021 Book Preview

      Jul 15, 2021

      We've just an entered an amazing six-month stretch for book-lovers. The post Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2021 Book Preview appeared first on The Millions.

      47 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Aug 19, 2022

      By Bradley Somer Ben is a ranger who watches over the last surviving grizzly bear, in a climate-ravaged future in which most of humanity has departed the Earth. When a trio of trophy hunters turns up, Ben must protect his charge, and soon himself. Wh

      2 min read

    • Article

      Cabin Fever Reads

      May 24, 2020

      Apeirogon by Colum McCann A powerful, heart-breaking novel based on the author’s experience meeting two men, one Palestinian, one Israeli, who became friends amid conflict. Cleanness by Garth Greenwell At the heart of this evocatively written book is

      1 min read

    • Article

      May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      May 4, 2020

      May brings continued social distancing and new books by Lydia Millet, Richard Ford, Tracy O’Neill, J.M. Coetzee, Kate Zambreno, Ilana Masad, and Emma Straub. The post May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Milli

      7 min read

    • Article

      Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels

      Feb 3, 2022

      The paradox of imagined apocalypses is that they’re always more about the present than the future. Here's a list of a few haunting and evocative titles. The post Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Danticat, Bolick, Zhang, Machado, Smiley, Crain, Rowell, and More

      Aug 27, 2019

      A deeply memorable story collection from Edwidge Danticat and Carmen Maria Machado, Jane Smiley and Jenny Zhang's takes on 'Little Women'. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Danticat, Bolick, Zhang, Machado, Smiley, Crain, Rowell, and More ap

      5 min read

    • Article

      Drain the Swamp

      Sep 28, 2017

      Drain the Swamp
      6 min read

    • Article

      International Books

      Oct 13, 2019

      Ever heard of the US Camel Corps? Me neither. The short-lived experiment (1855-1864) saw camels introduced into the US Army because they could bear enormous weights. (Turns out they had downsides, too.) Lurie, a young outlaw, falls in with the Turks

      4 min read

    • Article

      August Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Aug 1, 2018

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast semi–annual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around).  Here’s what we’re looking out for this mon

      6 min read

    Reviews for MaddAddam

    4/5

    1,025 ratings82 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I always enjoy Atwood's writing. I read this book in 4 days - I wanted to see how Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood come together in the last book. I preferred the voice of the first two books, although I have to admit the infusion of the Crakers' voice in MaddAddam is a refreshing, comedic relief. What I didn't enjoy though, was the voice of an insecure Toby - I would wince every time the character would lapse into it. Other than that, the storyline is good, though I found it slightly anti-climactic in the end.
      I do recommend the series if you like sci-fi and/or dystopian fiction, with a "this could possibly happen" flavour to it.
    • 2/5
      I am not sure if the book actually deserves 2 stars, but I expected so much more from this book in particular and the trilogy in general. I love Margaret Atwood but I am inclined to believe that here she either bit off more than she could chew or cynically kept milking the dead cow. The series went from good (I did like Oryx and Crake) to completely disappointing. MaddAddam felt unnecessary and repetitive in a sense that the main plot line was artificially created from the last book's ending by accidentally letting the main villains loose. Throughout the book we learn nothing about them and most the other characters remain similar to cardboard cut outs along with the villains. The character story that is actually developed here is an inferior version of the Oryx and Crake's smart guy/sidekick conflict that doesn't add much to the trilogy's story. I wish I had stopped at Oryx and Crake.
    • 3/5
      I liked the first book the best.
    • 4/5
      I always enjoy Atwood's writing. I read this book in 4 days - I wanted to see how Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood come together in the last book. I preferred the voice of the first two books, although I have to admit the infusion of the Crakers' voice in MaddAddam is a refreshing, comedic relief. What I didn't enjoy though, was the voice of an insecure Toby - I would wince every time the character would lapse into it. Other than that, the storyline is good, though I found it slightly anti-climactic in the end.
      I do recommend the series if you like sci-fi and/or dystopian fiction, with a "this could possibly happen" flavour to it.
    • 5/5
      Together with ORYX AND CRAKE and IN THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD, this novel comprises the author's MADDADDAM trilogy in which the civilized world (already crippled by global warming) is upended by incredibly irresponsible genetic engineering.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this final instalment in Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy. I think she did a great job of tying this novel together with the previous two and explaining so much that needed to be explained.Recommended to anyone who has read the previous two novels as this is not really a standalone book.
    • 4/5
      Wrapping up a trilogy can be a difficult task, but Ms. Atwood is up to the challenge . She begins with short summaries of the first two books which was a very helpful memory refresher before she unites the characters in the books. She cleverly uses storytelling as a device to both tell the backstory of how the characters and events fit together and to create a new mythology to bond the genetically engineered Crakers with the humans that survived the pandemic that threatens the future of life on earth.Atwood brings back some characters from the previous books and introduces some new ones.The survivors are thrown together in this book to work together to ensure that the human race prevails. Zeb's story gives us more information about Adam One, although I would have liked to know him better. Jimmy is deathly ill and is cared for by Toby with her knowledge of herbs and flesh-eating maggots and the "purring" of the peace-loving Crakers. I know that sentence is gibberish to those who haven't read Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. I strongly advise reading those two books first. I liked this book very much even though it lacked the novelty and urgency of the previous books. There was more humor and gentleness between the characters. The character of Blackbeard learning the art of writing from Toby was both an example of Atwood's affective writing and a great source of hope for the future. For lovers of words and books, these words of Blackbeard make the heart soar:"Now this is the Book that Toby made when she lived among us. See, I am showing you. She made these words on a page, and a page is made of paper. She made the words with writing, that she marked down with a stick called a pen, with black fluid called ink, and the made the pages join together at one side. and that is called a book...And she showed me, Blackbeard, how to make such words on a page with a pen, when I was little. And she showed me how to turn the marks back into a voice, so that when I look at the page and read the words, it is Toby's voice that I hear...And in the book she put the Words of Crake, and the Words or Oryx as well, and of how together they made us, and made also this safe and beautiful World for us to live in."
    • 3/5
      This was the final book in Atwood's trilogy. I had a hard time getting into the final book. It felt a bit flat.
    • 5/5
      Given how different from each other Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood were, I wasn't sure what to expect going into MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. I knew a few things though: 1. I would be highly entertained, 2. I would finally get some answers, and 3. I would experience fantastic writing. All three counts were expected and fulfilled easily. But I want to elaborate more on the first one.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on September 3, 2013.
    • 4/5
      Read from July 25 to August 21, 2013It took me a long time to get in sync with this book, but I didn't want to give up because I love the ideas Atwood presents in her writing. I'm glad I stuck with it. It is a satisfying conclusion to an amazing series by one of the best authors on the planet. If you have time, read the first two books again before picking this one up -- I wish I had.I still think there were problems with the book, but I also have to acknowledge that I was in a reading funk when I started it. By the halfway point, I was invested in the book though and no longer full-on reading slump. So 3 stars for the first half (maybe there was a Toby and me disconnect), 4.5 stars for the second half (Zeb's story finally got meaty and interesting.).
    • 5/5
      Great finish to a wonderful trilogy. These books introduced me to the author and demonstrate what a masterful novelist Margaret Atwood is. I will not hesitate to read anything of hers I come across in the future.
    • 4/5
      This novel is still great. I think it's a great commentary on technology, capitalism, religion, and of course, the environment and how we as humans commune with it. There's also an exploration on what it means to be human, is it specifically our DNA? Is it possible organisms that share less than 100% of human genetic make-up still be human?

      'MaddAddam' lacks the power of 'The Year of the Flood' and the horror of 'Oryx and Crake', still it's a fine Margaret Atwood novel and 100% enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Margaret Atwood's last installment was neither as good as Year of the Flood (the best book of the trilogy, and among the best of the decade), nor as interesting as Oryx and Crake. MaddAddam wraps up the series with a bow. It doesn't quite answer the long term question of if or how humans might survive the waterless flood, and it features an epilogue worth of a Victorian novel- fast forwarding an undisclosed number of years and telling what ultimately happened to the main characters. My biggest complaint was how small the world is; in the end, it turns out that everyone crossed paths with everyone, and that over the course of three books we actually met everyone at the top of the food/ information chain.
    • 4/5
      MaddAddam was a nice conclusion to the trilogy ( along with Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood). It tied things together pretty well for such a strange story and world, and it finished with some hope for the future. For a dystopian tale, it was almost believable which occasionally was a bit disturbing. The author did a nice job of character development, and this book helped interlace the characters and complete their stories.. The storyline lagged a bit in some places for me, but all in all, it was a well done conclusion to a remarkable story.If you have the slightest interest in future world tales, I would highly recommend this series. Margaret Atwood has written a masterwork, and the trilogy will keep you in exciting reading material for a good long while.
    • 5/5
      The first two books of this trilogy (Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood) were like excellent meals that nonetheless left me hungry. MaddAddam is an intelligent, bright, and witty conclusion to the trilogy. The narrative voices were distinct and felt honest. This read like a return to epic storytelling, with deep back stories to fill in the voids. The end is solid, an emotional and haunting transition to a new world; a fitting end to a gourmet feast. Overall, I thought it brilliant. I'm not sure why Margaret Atwood is not yet among the Nobel authors.
    • 4/5
      The final book. The world's population has been destroyed by a virus hidden in BlyssPluss pills and only a handful have survived - some of The MaddAddams and God's Gardiners., who are also caring for the Crakers, (a newly engineered race of people ) and the murderous Painballers. The Pigoons and other genetically altered animals are also on the loose.This book begins by summarising the previous two, a good thing as alot goes on, and expands on how the survivors got to where they are. It also gives an incite into how life will be in their future.An entertaining trilogy. Good not to leave too much time between reading each book.
    • 5/5
      My only big complaint about the first two books of this trilogy was that their endings were unsatisfying. This book finally provides the satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.MaddAddam covers a lot of the same events as the first two books, again from a different perspective. It also portrays what happens to the small handful of humanity that remains after the apocalypse brought on by Crake.Although this book is grim, like the rest of the trilogy, it also has a lot of humor in it. The humor largely revolves around the naivete of the Crakers, who are portrayed very convincingly. There are some laugh-out-loud funny moments in this book.Atwood is a master of her craft, and that made this book a pleasure to read.I listened the the audiobook, and the cast was generally very good, although the guy who read Zeb's parts has a really weird rhythm to his sentences that got annoying.
    • 5/5
      This is a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy beginning with Oryx and Crake. It focuses largely on Toby and Zeb, with a subtle approach to filling in past events. Present conditions develop the Crakers' role; their viewpoint is given a voice in the appealing young character Blackbeard. Living conditions are much reduced by the demise of the modern world. There are hostile forces to be faced, with good and bad results. Atwood creates a compelling vision of this world. Much of our world and its consequences for the environment and the human race is presented negatively, but she does so with acute judgement and a hugely inventive imagination. She delights in forming new words to describe things eg prostibots, an obvious advance on the blow up doll! I do wonder why , in the new world, characters dress everyday in a fresh bed sheet, appropriate for the mood or event- seems surprisingly awkward as a practical garment doesn't it. Her clever language use and flowing narrative pace ameliorate the grimness of the story as it develops to a momentous finale.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed the first two books in the series, and the third lived up to my expectations.

      Received the book free from First Reads.
    • 4/5
      A great finish to an epic trilogy. Atwood leaves the reader not only with closure after tying up all the loose ends from the previous two books, but also gives us an insight into the history being created as the storytelling within the story passes from one generation to the next.Favorite quote from the book... because it seems very relevant these days:"By extension, anyone who liked smelling the daisies, and having daisies to smell, and eating mercury-free fish, and who objected to giving birth to three-eyed infants via the toxic sludge in their drinking water was a demon-possessed Satanic minion of darkness, hell-bent on sabotaging the American Way and God's Holy Oil, which were one and the same."
    • 5/5
      I closed my review of The Year of the Flood (the previous book in the series) with, "We can only hope this turns into a trilogy." MaddAddam is the third book I hoped for.Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy is the story of a dystopian future where human greed and pride have clashed to unleash a plague that wipes out the vast majority of humanity. The first two books in the series tell of this"waterless flood" from two different perspectives. They loosely cover the same amount time. In MaddAddam, these two stories converge and the timeline moves forward, albeit with frequent flashbacks.At its core, MaddAddam follows the relationship between Toby and Zeb, two people who try to come to grips with their past lives as they live in the apocalyptic remains of their world. These characters are complex and surprising. Their past lives allow Atwood to explore themes like religious cults, the authority of large corporations, the ethics of genetic manipulation, and the role of law in a radically subverted context.Atwood's exploration of this world is shocking and even cringe-worthy at times, but her analysis left me thinking about important themes long after the novel was put back on the shelf.
    • 4/5
      This is the final book in Margaret Atwood's post apocalyptic trilogy. If you haven't red the first two books, there are summaries at the beginning of this one (also useful for those of us with short memories).Atwood does a great job story telling and making the tale believable. In our current culture it's easy to see how politics and big pharma could eventually result in the downfall of society. What I like about the book is how it provides an outsider's view on some of our everyday habits, and it's often done with a tongue in cheek approach. Some things are permanently destroyed when the political structure fell, but some things remain the same and others persist in a new form. In many ways, the book is a study of human nature, and I found it fascinating.
    • 4/5
      Nicely ties together the threads of "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood", while at the same time taking a different perspective on the artificial origin myth told to tthe genetically modified "Crakers". The act of storytelling as a world-building device is used very effectively and inventively throughout.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful! All the characters from the first two books come together in this final book of the trilogy which moves the plot forward showing us the present situation of the world and how the remaining humans and the genetically altered humans and animals are existing together. The second book, The Year of the Flood, is the weakest in the trilogy but I very much enjoyed those characters' return in this story. They were familiar faces and their characters were wonderfully developed in this book. It was also fantastic to finally get to know the "Crakers" so well, and a very important character develops from that group. Tension comes from the threat of three Painballers, gladiator-type survivors from a fight-to-the-death reality show, pre-Apocalypse. I was pleased to find no heavy emphasis on the eco-nonsense here and found Atwood's vision of her post-apocalyptic world quite plausible. I always enjoy Atwood's writing whether I'm thrilled with her books or not and this one is a page-turner that kept me glued to the book. I still think Oryx and Crake is the best of the trilogy, but this is a satisfying conclusion to the story.
    • 5/5
      I don't generally find my vocabulary lacking, but I don't have the words to describe how much I loved this entire series. This is a perfect ending to a fantastic trilogy.
    • 4/5
      The saga continues. We see the back-story of the trilogy and learn the origins of Crake and Oryx, Zeb and Toby and the Crakers.
    • 5/5
      Maddaddam is the final installment in Margaret Atwood's dystopian trilogy. Society's downfall is not caused by nuclear war, aliens, or paranormal love triangles, but the result of genetic engineering gone astray and the greed of the Corporation. Hmmm... doesn't sound that farfetched, does it? Atwood labels this series as speculative fiction instead of science fiction because all of the technology in this book is available today. Bitingly sarcastic, Atwood pokes fun at human nature and the greed and obsessions of our society. I really loved the end of this series. The first book, Oryx and Crake was disturbing and dark, but I found this one to still be an excellent critique of our world, but it was instilled with hope and possibilities.
    • 5/5
      MaddAddam is the conclusion, for now, of the Waterless Flood story begun with Oryx and Crake. This saga begins after the cliffhanger conclusion of The Year of the Flood, shortly after Snowman encounters another group of people on the beach, near the Craker encampment.What follows, is told through both a linear progression and a series of flashbacks, outright reminiscences, from the viewpoint of some of the main characters. As for the plot itself, there are some new elements that are carried to completion, but this story is mostly about tying everything together.I am trying not to introduce any spoilers, but the plotline involving one of the Craker children, Blackbeard, does not seem finished. He became significant enough that some of the story is conveyed from his direct viewpoint, in his own words. This is why I feel there may be more material, at least another book, to come.This is a very dark future written as only Margaret Atwood can perceive it. If you are a fan of the world of Oryx and Crake, you need this book to complete the cycle. Also suggested for fans of Dark Speculative Fiction in general and Science run amuck especially. The only thing that keeps this from a full five stars is there is some plot pacing slows to a plod about two-thirds of the way through the book. The finish, however, is worthwhile: four and a half stars.
    • 5/5
      The final installment in the trilogy that began with Oryx & Crake looks more closely at Zeb's history with Crake, Adam One, and the MaddAddamites. Many years after Crake kills off the human population, Snowman-the-Jimmy falls ill and is carried to the compound now housing the MaddAddam survivors and some of the God's Gardeners, in particular Toby, the focus of the 2nd book, The Year of the Flood. Through flashbacks, Atwood reveals the interconnections of the various participants which on the surface could seem contrived but ultimately seems to be more a message of humanities interrelations. The main focus is on Zeb who acts a lynchpin between the groups. While the survivors attempt to rebuild a semblance of existence, they must continue to battle the lingering evil of the escaped Painballers while protecting the Crakers who have no sense of the threat these humans pose.This series looks at the evil that humanity can perpetrate on the environment, other species, and even each other, but this final book ends on a poignantly hopeful note of rebirth.
    • 4/5
      MaddAddam is the final book in Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic trilogy, following Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.In many ways, MaddAddam is a quiet denouement to the frenzied dystopia depicted in the previous two books in the series. MaddAddam takes up right where both the previous books left off, joining Snowman-Jimmy and the bioengineered post-humans called the Crakers with the remnants of the God's Gardeners cult who survived the plague that wiped out most of the human race. The remaining humans decide to live with the Crakers and protect them from the last threat: other surviving humans, particularly the vicious Painballers who they know are lurking nearby. A lot of the story is taken up by flashback, relating the back stories of brothers Zeb and Adam, founder of the God's Gardeners, and answering many of the questions left hanging in the previous two books. This storytelling technique leaves the reader feeling removed from much of the action and not fully invested in the outcome. For instance, when Zeb and the others decide to go take out the Painballers, those events take place "off-camera," related only as a story to the Crakers, which steals a lot of suspense from the climax.I suspect this is purposeful on Atwood's part, who seems to be painting the picture of a near-perfect utopia in her post-apocalyptic world. A utopia which, I might add, doesn't really need men -- at least, not non-Craker men. Other than Zeb, the most fully realized characters are the surviving women, with Toby (a major character from The Year of the Flood) providing their voice. Most of the women eventually become pregnant by the Crakers, giving the reader the assumption that human and post-human will eventually merge, eliminating the traditional male qualities like aggressiveness, jealousy and ego. That's all well and good if we're fantasizing, but it doesn't make for a particularly exciting read. Also, I found it a bit problematic that even though the post-apocalyptic society seemed to be forming itself along matriarchal lines, the bulk of the story still focused on male characters. It was a jarring contrast. Oryx is the character who has gotten short shrift in all three of these novels, as she has now literally been turned into an unknowable goddess.Atwood is a terrific writer, and her books are always enjoyable. But I can't help feeling that she ran out of steam with this idea. In my opinion, Oryx and Crake remains the best book of the trilogy, a significant contribution to the post-apocalyptic genre. MaddAddam can't quite measure up to that.