Oryx and Crake (19/09/14)

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian style post-apocalyptic novel which for the majority focuses on one character, Jimmy, otherwise known as Snowman. The book centres on his life before the fall of a modern civilisation as well as how he move through life afterwards. This world (before the fall) is a perverted but in my opinion not too farfetched realisation of our future. The rich live in compounds with access to all sorts of medications and rejuvenating procedures to lengthen youth and help them remain beautiful. The poor live in the pleeblands, which appears to be not to different from the world we live in now. Food production has been streamlined with scientists creating ‘chicken’ style life forms that have no head/legs as these are not necessary, they just exist in a basic form with no brain function other than to grow. Also in this would entertainment has taken a leap and reality style TV has been twisted so much that it is almost incomprehensible that anyone would watch these shows. It is on one of these shows that Jimmy and his friend Crake first come across Oryx as a young girl. Jimmy and Crake grow up, go to different Universities and begin very different careers. Crake is an enigma, never really part of the human race, although he really does seem to be Jimmy’s friend. He is a genius and begins to develop science in leaps and bounds that could be the end of everything.

This book really got my mind asking questions of myself and science. Often at times it also made me feel anxious and tense in a way not many books have. I don’t see this as a negative, on the contrary I believe it was a positive element to the book. I personally am not a fan of reality shows, and the way entertainment is shown in the book doesn’t seem like a far stretch from what we are currently doing anyway. How many people only watch these shows to see people come to blows? When something horrendous happens on the news, how many people go and try and watch the act online? I am not say in the next few years I expect to see live executions on the TV, but it doesn’t seem like it could never happen. Which is more than worrying. The animal/food production element also doesn’t seem too far off, we can already grow meat in a lab, so how long till we can produce a chicken style organism like in this book. How long till science tries to combine different genes from animals to create new ones.

This is one of the best books I have come across this year and I fully intend to carry on the series. Fully entertaining, fully engrossing, horrific in an addictive way. There is no way to read it without questioning it. I would highly recommend.