[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood
This is the second book (the first was "Oryx and Crake") in the MaddAddam Trilogy. (To date, only the first two books have been published)
But in actuality, the book is not a sequel. It's a companion book with both different characters and some of the same characters. The new main characters have larger roles while the characters from the previous book have smaller roles within the story.
The year of the flood is a biblical reference to the end of the world (as we know it). So, in that sense, it's a dystopian future story with a back-to-basics religious group called 'God's Gardners' as the focal point of the story. And there are quite a few references to life in this dystopian future which readers can see trending in that general direction today. For example, there's gene splicing, global warming, increased corporate power, and privatization of gov't functions. These future realities are referred to in a very matter of fact manner, even though the God's Gardners consciously try to live a more simple life, essentially living apart from the rest of society even as they live within the society as a whole.
There are plenty of books I don't add here for a variety of reasons. Usually, I just don't think they're necessarily worth recommending to someone to read over other books I do include. And this book might very well fall into that same category if it was a stand alone story. But since it's a companion story which offers some illumination into the earlier story, and it also seems to tie up some loose ends from the previous book, and it's an easy read with short chapters, despite it's 431 pages, I feel it's worth the time. You don't need to read "Oryx and Crake" first to read or understand this book. But frankly, I wouldn't recommend this book as a stand alone read since "O & C" is, in my opinion, the better of the two books.
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This is the second book (the first was "Oryx and Crake") in the MaddAddam Trilogy. (To date, only the first two books have been published)
But in actuality, the book is not a sequel. It's a companion book with both different characters and some of the same characters. The new main characters have larger roles while the characters from the previous book have smaller roles within the story.
The year of the flood is a biblical reference to the end of the world (as we know it). So, in that sense, it's a dystopian future story with a back-to-basics religious group called 'God's Gardners' as the focal point of the story. And there are quite a few references to life in this dystopian future which readers can see trending in that general direction today. For example, there's gene splicing, global warming, increased corporate power, and privatization of gov't functions. These future realities are referred to in a very matter of fact manner, even though the God's Gardners consciously try to live a more simple life, essentially living apart from the rest of society even as they live within the society as a whole.
There are plenty of books I don't add here for a variety of reasons. Usually, I just don't think they're necessarily worth recommending to someone to read over other books I do include. And this book might very well fall into that same category if it was a stand alone story. But since it's a companion story which offers some illumination into the earlier story, and it also seems to tie up some loose ends from the previous book, and it's an easy read with short chapters, despite it's 431 pages, I feel it's worth the time. You don't need to read "Oryx and Crake" first to read or understand this book. But frankly, I wouldn't recommend this book as a stand alone read since "O & C" is, in my opinion, the better of the two books.
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