Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam

The MaddAddam trilogy concludes with the bioengineered Crakers from Oryx and Crake and the eco-religious cult known as God's Gardeners from The Year of the Flood. After the human race has been almost entirely wiped out by a man-made plague, Toby takes center stage once more, leading the small community of survivors besides the Zeb, a mysterious minor character from 'The Year of the Flood.'

The third installments of trilogies typically culminate with a lengthy epic battle, but an author as innovative as Atwood does not provide her readers with anything as predictable as this. Rather than building up tension for a big showdown, 'MaddAddam' is a much more subdued book than I expected, owing to the fact that much of the book is devoted to filling in the characters' backstories, recapping events that have already occurred from alternate perspectives.

As a result, there is significantly less plot momentum than in previous volumes. Although we learn more about Zeb and his brother Adam, I was hoping to hear more about Jimmy/Snowman from 'Oryx and Crake,' but he is unconscious for the majority of this book while Toby nurses him back to health. On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing how the characters adapt and exist in their new post-apocalyptic reality, and Atwood's sarcastic critique of corporate control continues with a near-perfect balance of bleakness and humor. "Although MaddAddam is a work of fiction, it does not include any technologies or biobeings that do not already exist, are not under construction, or are not possible," she says in the acknowledgements section.

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Without giving too much away, the book ends on a relatively hopeful note with the warning message that life will probably go on, just not as we know it, and not necessarily with us in it if modern lifestyles and technological developments continue on their current course. 'MaddAddam' is a mixed conclusion to the trilogy for me, though I believe this has a lot to do with the long gaps between reading each part. The summary of 'Oryx and Crake' and 'The Year of the Flood' at the beginning of my copy of 'MaddAddam' helped refresh my memory, but I'm curious if reading the three books in order would be a more engaging and satisfying experience for the reader.










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