A fine short story embedded in acres of flabby prose - Rated 
Margaret Atwood's best novel Surfacing was written over thirty years ago, and on the evidence of 'Oryx and Crake' and other recent work she is unlikely to surpass it. This is the tale of a maverick scientist, aided by media and advertising types with blunted sensibilities, attempting to improve human nature and social arrangements by taking the chance out of reproduction. The core of this book relates how Snowman, one of the last few unmodified humans on earth, and a participant in the recent catastrophe, makes a journey back to a deserted science institute in search of food, and what he finds there. These episodes raise the most poignant questions about our reliance on technology, even when it implodes; they are fine stuff and could probably stand alone. Then there are the other 300 pages; life before the catastrophe, recognisable as a rather gross satire on our own time, and datable by the appearance of a dotcom veteran to approx. 2030. Atwood works hard at the sheer accumulation of detail, but this is journalism in place of fiction. She tells us what there is, instead of showing us in the course of the story. The inner world of the characters is itemised in the same way; these people register what they see, experience appetites and sensations, and that is all. Atwood's protagonists are conditioned by the instant gratification war games and web porn that saturate the culture. Unfortunately, her prose recapitulates the same trashiness, which makes for some lazy writing. Some of it can barely be called writing at all. "Snowman thinks. What was he telling me. How could I have been so stupid? No, not stupid. He can't describe himself, the way he'd been. Not unmarked - events had marked him, he'd had his own scars, his dark emotions. Ignorant perhaps. Unformed, inchoate." These short-winded jottings belong to a writer's notebook, not a mature novel.
Admirers of this book will be more impressed by its subject matter than its literary qualities. The author is not exactly anti-science, but she leans towards the non-experimental subdisciplines where there is most room for doubt and outright voodoo; climate change, evolutionary psychology. She appears to share the anti-human assumptions of some science writing about the hard-wiring of human nature and the irrelevance of history; pigs with a human cortex would develop certain human characteristics without going through aeons of social development. Experimental science comes off badly in this novel; her world has no beneficial genetic interventions beyond the purely cosmetic, and even these contain the logic of human extinction. While she deplores the profit motive in technology, her alternatives seem no more attractive; as a lesson in why scientists should stick to science and leave morality to the rest of society, Craik couldn't be surpassed. Atwood claimed recently on British radio that all of the biological inventions in her novel are based on reality. This is absurd, and I hope I heard misunderstood her. There are, thank god, no Pigoons or Chickienobs. Rabbits with green jellyfish protein would not glow in the dark; you'd have to shine an ultraviolet light on them. If she understands the point of green jellyfish protein (2008 Nobel Prize for chemistry) she does not say so, for all that her brother is a neuroscientist. The same green rabbits and humanised pigs recur in her 2009 novel, The Year of the Flood. Atwood excites the reader's anxiety about science, and if that was her intention in writing it, then this novel succeeds. I could enjoy her pessimism and technophobia more if the scraps and patches of good writing were more sustained.
Instant favourite - Rated 
After reading Handmaids Tale (HMT) I then The Peopliad which I found pretty disapointing. But as I thought HMT was amazing I decided to give Atwood another chance and read Oryx and Crake.
I was not disapointed, it's so clever, provocative and really was an instant favourite. It's very hard to explain, I found the blurb really bad and overly simplistic for such a complex book. Just give it a go, it will not disapoint!
Wonderful speculative story - Rated
This is one of those stories that has stuck in my head for a good few months since I've read it. Crake is one of the most intriguing characters I've ever read about. You can imagine him so clearly and see his logic every step of the way, which is what's spooky about the book. The switch in narrative from the present, where he's a sad drifter living in a tree, to the past where he's a boy in a functioning world keeps the story interesting as the differences at the start are so huge that you know something dramatic's coming up to join point A to point B.
I'd give it 3.5 if that rating was available. - Rated 
This novel has divided my opinion somewhat. It is a intriguing novel with a very good concept and an interesting storyline, however, I did feel that a little more could have been done with this wonderful concept, and at no point during this book was I fully absorbed as I would have hoped. The set up of the story was more than enough to nab my curiosity and I was titillated by the possibilities that lay in the pages ahead, however, for me, it never really fulfilled these possibilities from a story point of view, and seemed a little more concerned with the creation of futuristic websites, pastimes and other ancillary ideas, than pushing a wonderfully created speculative future to it's full potential. This was my first Margaret Atwood novel, and perhaps a little of my disappointment comes from an expectation of a more lyrical prose style from Atwood based on her reputation (that's my mistake), and perhaps, overly high expectations for the novel for the same reason, as well as its Booker shortlist nomination. I was expecting genius, what I got was very good, certainly worth a read, but no classic, and not one I would be pushing into anyone elses hands. That said, I saw enough here to warrant reading another Atwood novel. I think The Handmaid's Tale will be my next Atwood venture.
Oryx and Crake - Rated 
Well, the only reason I bought Oryx and Crake was for my A Level English Literature coursework, to compare with another (The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter)
Atwood's novel is dystopian and has been classed as science fiction which has brought up arguments from science fiction fans who believe it doesn't meet the correct elements.
However, the plot itself - I think - is good but can get confusing due to the fragmented stories being told by Snowman.
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