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linwin's review against another edition
4.0
Thought of giving it 4 stars because I did really enjoy this book and the entire series. I was, however, surprised at the direction this book took. It feels like the series veered off into something entirely different than what was the focus of the first book (and even the second one). The horrifying picture painted of the world in the first two books and of the morally questionable actions comitted by everyone (including some of the protagonists) have almost been forgotten in this last part of the series. The world has pretty much ended, sure, but other than that it's almost a "feel-good" happy ending with some character portraits to fill in some of the blanks.
The Crakers were hilarious though and I really enjoyed story-time with Toby.
3.5 stars
The Crakers were hilarious though and I really enjoyed story-time with Toby.
3.5 stars
laerugo's review against another edition
3.0
so it pains me to say that i was disappointed by this one. or at least the ending of it. where oac and flood felt so intricately crafted and planned out well in advance of their publication (even if flood wasn't planned when oac was written), maddaddam just... didn't. and part of this is due to the fact that events are happening in real time, not as flashbacks leading up to the ending, like in the previous books. i felt excited when i finished flood, like 'finally, all the characters are in one place together, now things will start happening' - the things that happened didn't happen that often, and there was no real sense of threat aside from the pigs (which never attacked, and then oh, turns out they're good...) and the painballers, which felt more like boogeymen than real horrors.
the parts i enjoyed the most were zeb's flashbacks; his pov was one of my favorites of the entire series. along with practically any scene with jimmy and toby, because as my favorite characters, i jumped at the chance to see them interact.
which leads to my disappointment, really, because zeb and adam's story, while really well done, did not seem as... important to the main timeline as oac/flood's flashbacks did. so the best parts of the book (imo) were not always parts i felt had to be in the story, which is a really disheartening feeling. not that it wasn't super interesting to see how zeb was involved in the plot from the beginning, because that was genuinely pretty cool.
but i'm frustrated, still, with the 'resolution' of a few things. i admit i didn't think things would turn out happily ever after, but what bothered me in particular:
- there was a lot of rape in this book. or rather, the aftermath of rape. i think it's a cruel reality that the painballers would have raped ren and amanda - but why the crakers? why did atwood... let that happen? i didn't genuinely believe that in the chaos of the scene on the beach that there was even time for that to... happen (it struck me as a very fast ten second 'what-just-happened-where-did-the-painballers-go' kind of scenario), so finding out that meanwhile, the crakers were raping ren and amanda, was a surprise, and then it just made me kind of angry.
- which leads to another thing: pregnancy. there are a lot of pregnant women or new mothers at the end. and poor toby can't have kids and it's really upsetting for her and etc. which i get is a point of the book, that life should go on and human/craker life is the possible future of homo sapiens, but considering that most of these infants arrived as a byproduct of rape... it's seriously unnerving how accepted it is at the end.
- i wasn't a huge fan of toby and zeb's romance but i grew to accept it in the end just cause i liked their chemistry. but toby's jealousy of swift fox was very... juvenile and misplaced and (imo) added a lot of unnecessary schoolkid drama to a situation that i really believe toby was more sophisticated enough to handle maturely. was the point just that toby was wrong in the end? why include that at all? i started wondering if i was really reading a margaret atwood book; it felt like the kind of dumb plotline male authors throw in, like, the woman in a relationship will always be jealous/suspicious over the younger ~sluttier~ woman trying to steal her man, blah blah.
- and the very ending, the last fifty or so pages. with a book that has very little conflict, i was disappointed when they did get to the battle, we just... don't get to see it? or we get to see it through the eyes of blackbeard after it all happened. it felt a little jarring, which didn't bother me so much as the fact that it felt unpolished and just kind of lazy. i know the point here is probably to emphasize that blackbeard is becoming a new storyteller, and to emphasize that oral tradition will continue (and has to) long after the main characters are gone; but after we spend three books getting to know these characters, seeing some of them killed offscreen in such a detached way felt really just... cheap and boring. why would you spend all this time building up zeb's desire to find and save adam just to kill him in the end - adam, who we haven't seen in a book, whose side of the story we don't know, who we just found out was alive two seconds ago? and jimmy sacrificing himself for someone he doesn't know... i can buy that a little more readily because i think that jimmy was trapped in grief and would never really ever recover from losing oryx and crake. but it still really stung - even if i saw it coming - when we didn't get to really mourn him or adam, or even see the moment that it happened. (i honestly think atwood was just looking for a way to get rid of jimmy in the end, which sucks, but i get it. why would he collapse and fall to piece in this moment and not when he saw oryx and crake's bodies earlier, when he revisited rejoov at the end of oac?)
- and the epilogue. for such a strong woman, i am just. blown away by toby deciding to just walk up and die after zeb was gone. am i meant to believe the woman who survived for months by herself in anooyoo, who now had a community and purpose in it, ultimately decided to just give up and commit suicide in the forest after her husband died? like, yeah, i get it again that it's meant to be a reflection of how life will go on and the community will survive after she's gone. but it just feels wrong to read it after everything else we've seen her do and push through.
i dunno. i did enjoy it. again, zeb's pov - and jimmy's and toby's humor - were very strong points in this book's favor, and pretty much saved it from 2 stars. but i felt like this series was leading up to something great and then didn't deliver on it. where the other two books felt very well structured and thought out and had me gasping every other page, i felt like in this one, atwood just didn't know what to do with the stage she'd set up.
the parts i enjoyed the most were zeb's flashbacks; his pov was one of my favorites of the entire series. along with practically any scene with jimmy and toby, because as my favorite characters, i jumped at the chance to see them interact.
which leads to my disappointment, really, because zeb and adam's story, while really well done, did not seem as... important to the main timeline as oac/flood's flashbacks did. so the best parts of the book (imo) were not always parts i felt had to be in the story, which is a really disheartening feeling. not that it wasn't super interesting to see how zeb was involved in the plot from the beginning, because that was genuinely pretty cool.
but i'm frustrated, still, with the 'resolution' of a few things. i admit i didn't think things would turn out happily ever after, but what bothered me in particular:
- there was a lot of rape in this book. or rather, the aftermath of rape. i think it's a cruel reality that the painballers would have raped ren and amanda - but why the crakers? why did atwood... let that happen? i didn't genuinely believe that in the chaos of the scene on the beach that there was even time for that to... happen (it struck me as a very fast ten second 'what-just-happened-where-did-the-painballers-go' kind of scenario), so finding out that meanwhile, the crakers were raping ren and amanda, was a surprise, and then it just made me kind of angry.
- which leads to another thing: pregnancy. there are a lot of pregnant women or new mothers at the end. and poor toby can't have kids and it's really upsetting for her and etc. which i get is a point of the book, that life should go on and human/craker life is the possible future of homo sapiens, but considering that most of these infants arrived as a byproduct of rape... it's seriously unnerving how accepted it is at the end.
- i wasn't a huge fan of toby and zeb's romance but i grew to accept it in the end just cause i liked their chemistry. but toby's jealousy of swift fox was very... juvenile and misplaced and (imo) added a lot of unnecessary schoolkid drama to a situation that i really believe toby was more sophisticated enough to handle maturely. was the point just that toby was wrong in the end? why include that at all? i started wondering if i was really reading a margaret atwood book; it felt like the kind of dumb plotline male authors throw in, like, the woman in a relationship will always be jealous/suspicious over the younger ~sluttier~ woman trying to steal her man, blah blah.
- and the very ending, the last fifty or so pages. with a book that has very little conflict, i was disappointed when they did get to the battle, we just... don't get to see it? or we get to see it through the eyes of blackbeard after it all happened. it felt a little jarring, which didn't bother me so much as the fact that it felt unpolished and just kind of lazy. i know the point here is probably to emphasize that blackbeard is becoming a new storyteller, and to emphasize that oral tradition will continue (and has to) long after the main characters are gone; but after we spend three books getting to know these characters, seeing some of them killed offscreen in such a detached way felt really just... cheap and boring. why would you spend all this time building up zeb's desire to find and save adam just to kill him in the end - adam, who we haven't seen in a book, whose side of the story we don't know, who we just found out was alive two seconds ago? and jimmy sacrificing himself for someone he doesn't know... i can buy that a little more readily because i think that jimmy was trapped in grief and would never really ever recover from losing oryx and crake. but it still really stung - even if i saw it coming - when we didn't get to really mourn him or adam, or even see the moment that it happened. (i honestly think atwood was just looking for a way to get rid of jimmy in the end, which sucks, but i get it. why would he collapse and fall to piece in this moment and not when he saw oryx and crake's bodies earlier, when he revisited rejoov at the end of oac?)
- and the epilogue. for such a strong woman, i am just. blown away by toby deciding to just walk up and die after zeb was gone. am i meant to believe the woman who survived for months by herself in anooyoo, who now had a community and purpose in it, ultimately decided to just give up and commit suicide in the forest after her husband died? like, yeah, i get it again that it's meant to be a reflection of how life will go on and the community will survive after she's gone. but it just feels wrong to read it after everything else we've seen her do and push through.
i dunno. i did enjoy it. again, zeb's pov - and jimmy's and toby's humor - were very strong points in this book's favor, and pretty much saved it from 2 stars. but i felt like this series was leading up to something great and then didn't deliver on it. where the other two books felt very well structured and thought out and had me gasping every other page, i felt like in this one, atwood just didn't know what to do with the stage she'd set up.
oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
3.0
Still don't know why this was a trilogy. Didn't need to be but hey. My advice is to read Oryx and Crake and leave it there, personally, not that this was entirely unsatisfying. Atwood is always entertaining, but this isn't her best by a long way.
lemon_drop's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
perusewithpol's review against another edition
5.0
Such a fantastic trilogy. To be able to start and finish them all so close together was the only way I could see it happening. Maddaddam is definitely the funniest of the three. Not sure you could say I laughed much at the first two, however.
So much explored and so well, what it means to exist and the inevitable development of ritual and culture within and between living beings - human or otherwise. These developments delivered with the excellent wit of Margaret Atwood, especially when navigating communication between the crackers and humans (can I even make that distinction?).
The inevitable nature of conflict and consequences for women, though their objectification by male characters persists throughout. Our absolute decimation of the planet we live on and supposedly love, and what it means to be human. Some of the major themes I can’t wait to discuss with friends who read the book. Also, the pettiness that accompanies the fact that we are, after all, only human. Highly chuckleable and a great finish to a series I will be treasuring on my bookshelf.
So much explored and so well, what it means to exist and the inevitable development of ritual and culture within and between living beings - human or otherwise. These developments delivered with the excellent wit of Margaret Atwood, especially when navigating communication between the crackers and humans (can I even make that distinction?).
The inevitable nature of conflict and consequences for women, though their objectification by male characters persists throughout. Our absolute decimation of the planet we live on and supposedly love, and what it means to be human. Some of the major themes I can’t wait to discuss with friends who read the book. Also, the pettiness that accompanies the fact that we are, after all, only human. Highly chuckleable and a great finish to a series I will be treasuring on my bookshelf.
grahamclements's review against another edition
5.0
Maddaddam is the third book in a Margaret Atwood apocalyptic science fiction trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake, followed by a prequel, The Year of the Flood. Maddaddam is a sequel to both of the earlier books.
The novels are set in a future that could be just around the corner. The Year of the Flood is set in a world on the brink of collapse due to environment degradation and the rampant and totally unethical business operations of a mega multi-national. Everything has been privatised, including law enforcement, and government welfare services are non-existent.
The story revolves around a commune of refugees from the world, who live in an abandoned apartment block. They grow food on its rooftop and recycle the detritus of society. The commune is led by Addam, who is set on getting his followers ready for the inevitable collapse of civilisation. Much of the story concerns Toby, a woman who escapes to the commune to avoid certain rape and murder at the fast food restaurant where she had worked.
Oryx and Crake is set after a virus, created by scientific genius Crake, decimates the population of the world. Only a few humans survive along with a small group of a new species of genetically engineered humans. A species created by Crake, so they are called Crackers. They are resistant to the plague. The Crackers are a gentle and innocent species that don’t require clothing and eat the abundant genetically engineered foliage that has spread across the planet. The Crackers have built in defences like urine that warns off dangerous animals, and they have a big desire to procreate.
Oryx and Crake achieved the rare distinction of a being science fiction novel that was short-listed for the Booker prize.
In Maddaddam Toby and Zeb join up with the Crackers to survive the threat of Painballers - drug addicted psychopathic killers created for the future’s violent entertainments. But Maddaddam is not just an thriller/adventure novel, it is a contemplation on the propensity of humans to destroy themselves and the world around them. The novel asks if the world would be a better place without humans, instead filled with a more community minded and environmentally friendly species like the Crackers. A world were a less dominate main life form is on more of a level playing field with other genetically engineered animals.
Maddaddam differs from the other two novels in the trilogy with its humour. Much of the humour is provided by the naive interactions of the Crackers with the humans. The Crackers lack of understanding of human emotions such as greed, lead to many questions that can only be answered with concepts unfamiliar to them.
As with The Year of the Flood, Toby is a very engrossing main character. She has the strength of mind to do what she thinks is right, while dealing with many personal insecurities, especially around her relationship with Zeb. She appears to be the opposite polar of Zeb, who is full of bravado of what he has done to survive.
As usual, Atwood’s prose flows like a gentle meandering creek. She is so easy to read. This would have helped Maddaddam top a Goodreads’ poll as the best science fiction novel of 2013.
Maddaddam ends the trilogy with hope. Hope for an Earth that might rebound and sustainably provide the needs for all its life forms, including the few surviving humans. It is a worthy final book in an engrossing and thought provoking trilogy, one of the best science fiction apocalyptic series ever written.
The novels all have the added advantage of being standalone volumes without obvious hanging endings requiring the reading of another novel.
The novels are set in a future that could be just around the corner. The Year of the Flood is set in a world on the brink of collapse due to environment degradation and the rampant and totally unethical business operations of a mega multi-national. Everything has been privatised, including law enforcement, and government welfare services are non-existent.
The story revolves around a commune of refugees from the world, who live in an abandoned apartment block. They grow food on its rooftop and recycle the detritus of society. The commune is led by Addam, who is set on getting his followers ready for the inevitable collapse of civilisation. Much of the story concerns Toby, a woman who escapes to the commune to avoid certain rape and murder at the fast food restaurant where she had worked.
Oryx and Crake is set after a virus, created by scientific genius Crake, decimates the population of the world. Only a few humans survive along with a small group of a new species of genetically engineered humans. A species created by Crake, so they are called Crackers. They are resistant to the plague. The Crackers are a gentle and innocent species that don’t require clothing and eat the abundant genetically engineered foliage that has spread across the planet. The Crackers have built in defences like urine that warns off dangerous animals, and they have a big desire to procreate.
Oryx and Crake achieved the rare distinction of a being science fiction novel that was short-listed for the Booker prize.
In Maddaddam Toby and Zeb join up with the Crackers to survive the threat of Painballers - drug addicted psychopathic killers created for the future’s violent entertainments. But Maddaddam is not just an thriller/adventure novel, it is a contemplation on the propensity of humans to destroy themselves and the world around them. The novel asks if the world would be a better place without humans, instead filled with a more community minded and environmentally friendly species like the Crackers. A world were a less dominate main life form is on more of a level playing field with other genetically engineered animals.
Maddaddam differs from the other two novels in the trilogy with its humour. Much of the humour is provided by the naive interactions of the Crackers with the humans. The Crackers lack of understanding of human emotions such as greed, lead to many questions that can only be answered with concepts unfamiliar to them.
As with The Year of the Flood, Toby is a very engrossing main character. She has the strength of mind to do what she thinks is right, while dealing with many personal insecurities, especially around her relationship with Zeb. She appears to be the opposite polar of Zeb, who is full of bravado of what he has done to survive.
As usual, Atwood’s prose flows like a gentle meandering creek. She is so easy to read. This would have helped Maddaddam top a Goodreads’ poll as the best science fiction novel of 2013.
Maddaddam ends the trilogy with hope. Hope for an Earth that might rebound and sustainably provide the needs for all its life forms, including the few surviving humans. It is a worthy final book in an engrossing and thought provoking trilogy, one of the best science fiction apocalyptic series ever written.
The novels all have the added advantage of being standalone volumes without obvious hanging endings requiring the reading of another novel.
humito's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
outcolder's review against another edition
3.0
The conclusion to the sardonic apocalypse comedy is as much a mixed-bag of misanthropy, whiteness and groan-inducing puns as the first two, but a bit stronger on the ripping yarns/cracking adventure. Fun, and I will miss these characters for a bit.
kivt's review
1.0
This whole series was just miserable. The final book adds nothing to the development or exploration of themes, just ties every single fucking character into each other’s back stories & answers “plot hole” questions that no one needed answered. At least this book was short.
coffeequasars's review against another edition
3.0
(3,25/5)
I'm usually not the one to pick up sci-fi/dystopian future novels, but I truly enjoyed reading this trilogy.
Throughout the series, you get to know a bunch of characters. It was a pleasure to see them return in the books and gradually see the connections between them unfold. However, this last book had a couple of chapters that, to me, felt like their only purpose was to fill up more pages. The ending left me somewhat disappointed.
Overall, I had fun reading the first two books the most, but the last one was nice nevertheless.
I'm usually not the one to pick up sci-fi/dystopian future novels, but I truly enjoyed reading this trilogy.
Throughout the series, you get to know a bunch of characters. It was a pleasure to see them return in the books and gradually see the connections between them unfold. However, this last book had a couple of chapters that, to me, felt like their only purpose was to fill up more pages. The ending left me somewhat disappointed.
Overall, I had fun reading the first two books the most, but the last one was nice nevertheless.