Laura's Reviews > Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)
by
by

Character focused post-apocaliptic novel whose science was noooot exactly believable, but at least made me curious to read the rest of the series.
The plot isn't hard to predict, as the book focuses more on describing two post apocalyptic societies: one (view spoiler) and one showing the surviving engineered humans. The focus of the novel is primarily on the devastating effects of inaction in the face of climate change, and despite that I have no doubt about the damage we've caused and that we will pay for it, I found the book a bit...preachy? Definitely biologically unfeasible. If we're that brilliant that we can splice species together like this in the future (I doubt we'll get there that quick, if ever), then why would we be so absolutely dumb to try to reduce childhood and speed up growth (no other species wastes so much time in childhood? It's not waste time, it's brain development). The poor children of Crake are mighty dumb, especially considering their rabbit style of feeding (there's a lot more to feeding this brain of ours that the book wants to admit). I wonder if the author knows about genetic drift? Because if she did, then her character Crake should have been terrified that his beloved creations' DNA would ultimately escape his perfect planning. Especially with such a small population, even if they're sparingly mating. Ultimately, there are hints of religion emerging in the Crakist society ... but somehow storytelling has been abolished? No it hasn't because the kids want to hear stories. And somehow singing is more hard wired in the brain than storytelling? I think some brain scientists would strongly disagree. It's also kind of funny that a fiction book tries to deplore human storytelling as one of the big evils of human civilization...unless the author was being sarcastic and I missed that.
I was not interested in continuing the series until I got to the end (view spoiler) I'm willing to give Margaret Atwood a chance in the next two novels of the trilogy, but I have a feeling she'll mess up the science even more. Let's see though.
The plot isn't hard to predict, as the book focuses more on describing two post apocalyptic societies: one (view spoiler) and one showing the surviving engineered humans. The focus of the novel is primarily on the devastating effects of inaction in the face of climate change, and despite that I have no doubt about the damage we've caused and that we will pay for it, I found the book a bit...preachy? Definitely biologically unfeasible. If we're that brilliant that we can splice species together like this in the future (I doubt we'll get there that quick, if ever), then why would we be so absolutely dumb to try to reduce childhood and speed up growth (no other species wastes so much time in childhood? It's not waste time, it's brain development). The poor children of Crake are mighty dumb, especially considering their rabbit style of feeding (there's a lot more to feeding this brain of ours that the book wants to admit). I wonder if the author knows about genetic drift? Because if she did, then her character Crake should have been terrified that his beloved creations' DNA would ultimately escape his perfect planning. Especially with such a small population, even if they're sparingly mating. Ultimately, there are hints of religion emerging in the Crakist society ... but somehow storytelling has been abolished? No it hasn't because the kids want to hear stories. And somehow singing is more hard wired in the brain than storytelling? I think some brain scientists would strongly disagree. It's also kind of funny that a fiction book tries to deplore human storytelling as one of the big evils of human civilization...unless the author was being sarcastic and I missed that.
I was not interested in continuing the series until I got to the end (view spoiler) I'm willing to give Margaret Atwood a chance in the next two novels of the trilogy, but I have a feeling she'll mess up the science even more. Let's see though.
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Reading Progress
July 19, 2021
–
Started Reading
July 19, 2021
– Shelved
July 24, 2021
–
Finished Reading