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‘It’s a powerful and exuberantly imagined book, and it’s characteristic of its author that she exerts her imagination not in creating scientific monsters but in delineating the human world. The adolescent games of Crake and Snowman are meticulously and intricately done, and the whole atmosphere of arrogant irresponsibility within the institutes is a real tour-de-force. Brilliantly done, too, is the world after the apocalypse ... this is a powerful and impressive fable, more fantastic and less imminent than The Handmaid’s Tale, but much less optimistic.’ Philip Hensher, Spectator — in full ‘From the very beginning of this novel, you feel that you are setting out on a journey masterminded by a sure and energetic guide. Atwood is putting across a relevant and intelligent political message. She is always intelligent and energetic in the way that she puts the jigsaw together — and, at the end, threatens to dismantle it ... she is rightly celebrated for her explorations of the female point of view, but here she manages to write convincingly from the point of view of a man — and a man, what's more, brought up in an emotionally stunted environment saturated with pornography and commercialism. Jimmy comes rather poignantly alive ... throughout the book the wheels of the plot turn relentlessly; sometimes you feel almost breathless. It is a cracking read.’ Natasha Walter, Guardian — in full
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