Michael's Book Babble

The Year of the Flood is another brilliant installment in the MaddAddam series. Even though it’s the second book in the series, a good majority of it deals with past events leading up to the man-made plague we saw spread in Oryx and Crake. But we also get to see a little of what happens afterwards, and the cliffhanger left in the first book comes to a resolution.

Instead of focusing on a single character, this time we see the story unfold from the points-of-view of two different characters, Toby and Ren. Both women were members of a movement, God’s Gardeners--which we saw briefly in the first book, but saw them more as a sort of eco-terrorist movement. Here, you find out they really weren’t. They were a peaceful group who didn’t believe in wasting earth’s resources, especially the senseless murder of animals. The group has predicted the extinction of mankind, known as the Waterless Flood. The book jumps back and forth in time, showing the two characters and their lives after the group, and why they each had to leave. And we also see how they cope and fight for survival after the Waterless Flood” finally hits.

When you first begin the book, it can be a bit jarring switching from the different points-of-view, but you do become used to it after a while. In the end, it only enriches the storytelling. I loved how characters from the first book were either referenced to, or made appearances in some way. If you’ve already read the first book in the series, chances are you’ll enjoy this a lot more since we know a lot more than most of the characters at this point.

As much as I loved the first book, I have to say The Year of the Flood is better when it comes to character development. Since we only saw things from Jimmy’s (Snowman) point-of-view in the first book, Oryx and Crake, characters didn’t always seemed fully realized. That book focused more on the build-up to where we are right now. Still an excellent and perfect book, don’t get me wrong. But here, we get a fuller picture of almost every single character even if we’re really only following two characters for the most part. I felt more invested with what was going on.

I loved the audiobook, which is read by Bernadette Dunne, Katie MacNichol, and Mark Bramhall (he reads the part of Adam One when he’s going through his sermons). This audiobook was much more enjoyable than the one for Oryx and Crake. The readers really got into their roles, and you could tell they were extremely passionate (not to say the reader wasn’t in the first audiobook; his delivery/manner wasn’t as strong).

The Year of the Flood is another triumph for Atwood. I’m looking forward to the final installment, although I must confess a part of me is worried I won’t like it as much as these other two. Concluding a series is always a tricky business. If it’s done in a haphazard way, the reader will most likely never want to revisit the series.

However, I have faith in Atwood.

5 stars