Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

On my kick for reading dystopian novels, I came across Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I've read Atwood's novels before, well, just one, The Handmaid's Tale. I enjoyed that book very much (rated it 9/10 back in January 2009). I'm not sure if this happens to anyone else, but after reading a good book by a particular author, I find that the author's other books can't compare to the first one I read.

But not with Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake is deep, sinister, framed within a rather normal hedonistic society. But isn't that true of our current society? It focuses on Jimmy/Snowman, the seemingly last normal man on Earth. In the "present," he lives in a tree and some strange "perfected" people live nearby, asking him questions, wanting stories, providing one fish per week as ordered by Crake. These people are always naked, eat only plants, have green eyes, and do not understand much about the world. And so the story of Jimmy, Crake, and Oryx unfolds through a series of flashback chapters that slowly reveal how things came to be in the present. I can't say much else, because the key ingredient of this book is the slow reveal and what is revealed is well...awesome.

Atwood apparently did quite a bit of research when writing this book and it shows. There's a bit of science in the novel, but it's nothing a common reader cannot grasp. It's a beautifully written book all the way until the end. Apparently, 6 years after writing Oryx and Crake, Atwood released a sequel: The Year of the Flood. After finishing Oryx and Crake, I'm bleeding to read the next installation.

Oryx and Crake gets a 10/10. It's just that good!

Feed....Part Deux

As it turned out, this book didn't go anywhere. By the time I realized this, I was halfway through the novel and there was no turning back. I reluctantly made it to the end and felt glad to be done with it.

The book had an interesting premise, but was too focused on the two main protagonists and their completely boring teenage ramblings (made worse by the use of teenage slang and lazy dialect). And as I read on, I began to despise both protagonists - Violet for being so damn chatty (and then ridiculously depressed when she wasn't talking) and Titus for being so lame, speaking his mind then taking it back. Violet and Titus were extremely annoying characters.

And because the book is written through Titus' eyes, it makes everything that much more annoying. What's strange is that the author adds little hints about world politics throughout the chapters, things you'd THINK would impact the main characters. But these little glimpses into world politics end up meaning nothing to the plot. That's what's so very disappointing about this book. Why bother telling the reader about "The United States annexation of the moon," and "Global Alliance is pointing weapons at the United States" if it doesn't mean anything? If it has no influence on Violet or Titus or any other characters? It was like a carrot dangling, making me read further, expecting it to have a point, and then realizing the carrot is rotten.

Feed by M.T. Anderson gets a 2/10. Horrible, would not recommend, not even to teenagers.

Feed by M.T. Anderson

I've started a new book...okay, I'm halfway through this new book. It's called Feed by M.T. Anderson. You'll find it in the Young Adult section of your local bookstore/library. I can understand why it's categorized as young adult science fiction - imagine reading a book that's written exactly how teenagers talk. Every other, like, word, has the word "like" in it. You know, like, whatev.... Nonetheless, it could very well get reluctant teenage readers to read, not only due to the "likes" but also because there's so many f***ing curse words in it.

At first, I thought that maybe this book was some high school student's attempt to write a novel...and he was lucky enough to get it published, probably because of the concept of the book (which I'll explain in a second). But no, M.T. Anderson is in his 40's, which makes the writing style even more grotesque.

The concept of the novel is one many science fiction novels have explored: everyone has a chip in their head, mainly used to advertise products and places, but also is good for watching television, movies, listening to music, and chatting. Basically, it's a computer with internet...in your head. Then, one day, the protagonist and his friends go to the moon for Spring Break and at a club, some guy comes around and hacks into their chips. See, not everyone thinks the chips are a good idea... That's as far as I've made it through the book.

I'm not sure where this novel is going, but it's an easy read so...I'm sure I'll be done by Tuesday.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

So, I finished The Road last night. I somehow devoured 110 pages yesterday and couldn't put the book down, not even at 1:30 in the morning. All that I hoped to know, the questions that were left unanswered...were never explained. Instead, Cormac McCarthy decided on the sad (but I suppose inevitable) ending and left the reader to feel, well... je ne sais quoa. It's not that I'm disappointed in the ending. I'm just left wanting more. MORE!! MOOOOORE!!!

Thankfully, there is more to have. The Road was wonderfully made into a movie. And movies take liberties with books, as we all know. So, I'm hoping (just this once) that the movie actually answers the burning questions, the unexplained mysteries surrounding the apocalypse!

The Road receives: 8/10. Interesting, engrossing setting, likable characters, and impressive imagery. -2 for grammatical confusion and leaving the "history of the world" almost completely unexplained. All in all, a good read!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I'm 120 pages into The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a book I picked up back in May, but then due to work, was unable to complete. So, with the summer, I decided to pick up where I left off.

This is an unusual novel in a number of ways. It's unconventional - no chapters, just paragraphs separated by big spaces from one another. The characters are unnamed and since both main characters are male, it can become dubious who's talking or doing something. I probably wouldn't teach this book to a group of high school students due to the horrific amount of incomplete sentences, the lack of apostrophes in conjunctions, and again, the fact that using the pronoun "he" is confusing when there are two male characters...and really only two male characters. But of course, this is a STYLE and it works rather nicely as a means to set a long, frightening tone throughout the novel.

Oh, so, a quick synopsis: A man and a boy are wandering down a road on foot to go south. The world is post-apocalyptic, but I only say this because that's how the book jacket describes the setting. As an independent reader/thinker, I find it hard to say. As of yet, why the world is this way hasn't been described, only what is: Everything is dead. Trees, grass, a large portion of the human race. Everything is covered in ash, including the sky which allows a minimal amount of sunlight through the ashy haze. Buildings have been ravaged for any supplies - food, clean water, gasoline. There are gangs of brutal people out to slaughter anyone in their path. There are slaves. You get the idea. Civilization is gone.

And really, what kind of plot do you need when you've stuck a father and his son in this setting? For the past 120 pages, they've simply wandered. Most of what I've read is simply descriptions of the wasteland they're walking through and the simple exchanges between father and son. But there's tension. Because you know they're afraid. They're starving. They'll make a wrong turn somewhere. You just don't know when things are going to go from bad to worse.

I can't wait to finish this book to find out what happens next.