Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

     The entire story is a build up to the eventual discovery of how Snowman ended up being the sole surviving human in this wasteland of a world and surrounded by a mutated imitation of nature.
   The people of this time play god by the splicing of animals and the creation of dangerous chimeras. Bodies can be reconstructed and customized accordingly, a concept that is not so far-fetched today. In this book, war and vulgar acts become video games for the the two boys and everyone else in this world. Entertainment comes in various forms, but for the most part going to the extreme, anything to gain a reaction. In this future the value of life is trivialized. For a world that seems to be falling apart, society is still focused on appearances which is horrifying. There is also a clear division in status, the split of the poor and the rich. There is no attempt to remedy any economic problems, rather time and effort is spent on such frivolous things that make the rich richer. The majority of the English language had been discarded and replaced with spliced words, devoid of meaning but sound pleasant enough.
     The transition from the perspective of Jimmy to "Snowman" kept me reading at a faster pace, since it did not dwell on one point in time too long. When Jimmy goes to work for AnooYoo (A New You), he just adds to the problem by writing the copy for false advertisement on enhancement products. This fits his personality, since he thrives off of gaining people's attention and manipulating the emotions of each of his girlfriends. It's his nature to advertise, and unknowingly advertises the very product responsible for human extinction.
     There are various comments on medication, especially on the views we hold about prescriptions today. More studies reveal that the medications that we have become so dependent on have multiple side effects. In order to cure the source of the disease, one needs to risk the possibility of contracting other problems when taking any kind of medication.
     In the novel Crake takes the game of "Extinctathon" and turns it into reality, by gathering all of the top scoring individuals of the game and puts them to work on projects. They create new animals and a deadly virus which is distributed through BlyssPluss. Crake even created "people" who could not succumb to violence, think for themselves, or supposedly create. These skewed people were supposed to replace humanity, when they lacked various cognitive abilities and were complacent with their entire situation.
     I had mixed feelings about the ending. Of course a bunch of humans wouldn't just spring out of nowhere and everything would be fine and jolly, but even still it was depressing notion that humanity would be replaced by these manufactured imitations. Although it is mentioned that the Crakers show signs of self expression that could possibly mean that they may begin to think for themselves. This hope, added to the discovery of a few rogue humans leaves the novel ending on a pivotal question of what will happen next.