Maddaddam is the final book in Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam Trilogy, following the survivors of a deadly pandemic in a dystopian future. The story is driven by strong characterisation, particularly Toby and Zeb, and explores themes of love, redemption, and the contrast between religion and science.
Maddaddam is the third and final book in Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam Trilogy, which also includes Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. Although each book can stand alone, this one requires knowledge of the previous two to fully appreciate the context. The story is set in a future where most humans have been wiped out by a pandemic, and a few survivors live alongside the Crakers, a man-made species designed to replace humans. The book is full of inventive and humorous details about this future world, including transgenic animals and the contrast between the religious God's Gardners and the technological CorpSeCorps. The story is driven by the love between Toby and Zeb, who both featured in the previous book. Toby grows into a heroine as she finds meaning for the Crakers and teaches a young boy named Blackbeard. The world is harsh and often ugly, but ultimately the story is redemptive and satisfying. The Crakers' naivety is charming, and the characters are delightfully Dickensian. The natural world is still lush, and the story is beautifully written and utterly engrossing.
Quick quotes
It’s the gloaming: deeper, thicker, more layered than usual, the moths more luminous, the scents of the evening flowers more intoxicating: the short-term Enhanced Meditation formula has that effect. Zeb’s hand in hers is rough velvet: like a cat’s tongue, warm and soft, delicate and raspy.
While the futuristic world that Atwood creates in all of the books in this series is pretty wild, it never strains credulity.
Although this is a story that is all too likely to happen, and therefore a bit scary, ultimately the Maddaddam Trilogy is, as Blackbeard puts it, a “thing of hope”, beautifully written and utterly engrossing.