Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Once again, Ms. Atwood bends her imagination to the future of Western Civilization, and what she sees isn't good. This story takes place in the northern Western Hemisphere, where the "haves" and the "have-nots" are strictly delineated. The "haves" have access to foods, education, transportation, work, and - basically - what ever they want. They protect their lifestyle behind walls and guards. The "have-nots" get everything not consumed by their intellectually and monetarily advantaged brethren.
Into this lifestyle come Jimmy and his reticent, but super-intelligent, friend. They grow up together in less than functional circumstances. One day, while surfing the porn sites on the Net, they are introduced to Oryx, who is the star of a child porn act. Jimmy and his friend become fixated on her and, as they mature, they find her and bring her into their lifestyle.
Jimmy's friend, who becomes known by his Net nick - Crake-, ends up at a research facility doing biological research into immortality. He is so good at it that the company/state he works for literally gives him carte blanche. He brings Jimmy in to handle publicity, both internal and external, and Jimmy brings in Oryx and becomes her lover.
Crake meanwhile, finds his answers to immortality - and its opposite. And he releases both upon an unsuspecting world.
While Ms. Atwood's style has never been my favorite, there is simply no denying the power of her writing. As the author, she doesn't judge nor make us privy to the characters judgments of each other's actions. Her presentation in morally neutral. But her subject matter is horrific and fascinating, it would seem to demand some type of moral judgment. But in her wisdom, Ms. Atwood leaves that to her readers, thereby placing the demand on them to make their own judgments. In other words, she makes you responsible for thinking through the actions of the characters against your own morality. God, but I LOVE that!
I've said it before, but I'll say it again. There is no higher calling in a science fiction novel than to entertain the reader while making them think. Ms. Atwood reasserts her mastery of this process as she asserted it in The Handmaid's Tale. Read this book! It'll scare the pants off of you -- as it should -- and make you take a good, hard look at your place in your society. How can it get any better than that?
