A Reading Vocation

A friend of mine told me that if I'd liked the other two books in this series, this one wouldn't disappoint me.

That was true. As usual, Atwood's writing flows almost flawlessly, her observations wry and insightful. Most of this book is "storytelling," leaning heavily on backstory. Most of the backstory is Zeb's, and while it's interesting, it did give me the uncomfortable feeling that the final book in the trilogy wasn't really moving the story *forward*. There is a concurrent storyline that takes place in the "present" that gets about equal screentime to the backstory, and the "forward story" interested me more. Still, based on the way the book ends, the emphasis on storytelling makes sense.

The Crakers were my favorite part of this book. The way that Toby tried to explain the world to these innocent, trusting creatures was at times humorous, at times heartbreaking. It's hard not to agree that Crake did in fact create a superior race, as endearing as they are.

Overall, this book held my interest and even made me giggle when it wasn't making me cringe (distasteful descriptions of violence, etc., not bad writing). Atwood is still in top form in her fascinating post-apocalyptic world, even if I do get the sense that she "made it up as she went along" rather than doing a full series arc starting with Oryx and Crake -- perhaps that's why so much backstory didn't appear until the very end.