I have been writing for several years now, but my undergraduate degree is in geochemistry and I have always had a keen interest in science. For me, writing and science go hand-in-hand because both represent an attempt to describe our world in different ways. Throughout my time studying science and spending time with other scientists, I became fascinated with the culture of academia and the competition that pushes people to compromise in the name of progress. We know far less than we don’t know about the universe, and speculative fiction makes a creative effort to fill in this gaping lack of knowledge while presenting us with important thought experiments.
This is a fabulously wild ride into a dystopian world that carries all of humanity’s worst habits to their logical conclusions.
Atwood uses science, specifically unrestricted and unregulated genetic engineering, to demonstrate how a technology that was developed with a noble goal (in this case, creating pigs that can grow human organs for transplant) can spiral out of control.
There is a lot more to this twisted tale but I’d rather not spoil it, the slow reveal of what has carried the protagonist from bad to worse is what makes him a sympathetic character, who despite all his flaws we can’t help but root for.
The writing is impeccably full of a dark humor that makes the narrative exquisitely pessimistic because, in the end, humor may be all we have left.
By the author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and ALIAS GRACE
*
Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.
*
Praise for Oryx and Crake:
'In Jimmy, Atwood has created a great character: a tragic-comic artist of the future, part buffoon, part Orpheus. An adman who's a sad man; a jealous…
I love this book because it cleverly uses a piece of fictional technology to reveal both personal and universal dynamics that confront us in real life.
The technology is a very visible brain implant called a Pilot that improves the user’s ability to multi-task, theoretically making work or school much simpler. But, everyone’s experience with the device, whether or not they have one themselves, is different (and not necessarily positive).
The novel takes place from the perspectives of four family members and Pinsker does a wonderful job of showing us how each unique personality is affected by the Pilot, demonstrating how a piece of technology can create divisions and teaching us to approach technological advances in a prudent way.
From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.
Get one - or get left behind.
Val and Julie just want what's best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when David comes home from school begging for a new brain implant to help with his studies, they're torn. Julie grew up poor and knows what it's like to be the only kid in school without the new technology, but Val is terrified by the risks and the implications.
Soon, everyone at Julie's work has the implant and she's struggling to keep…
This story is almost too close to reality, but that is what made it so engaging for me.
Mae begins as a very relatable and down-to-earth college graduate who is thrilled to be offered a job at the Circle – a tech behemoth. She is blinded by reverence and ambition as her job quickly sucks up her every moment with demands for pseudo-social interactions through the Circle’s constantly evolving network.
A commentary on all of the privacy issues we already face, this novel pushes them to their limits. The question is whether Mae will continue to bend to her new employer’s demands or whether she will break. The stakes continue to rise as her new job and her former life battle over her soul.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - a dark, thrilling and unputdownable novel about our obsession with the internet
'Prepare to be addicted' Daily Mail
'A gripping and highly unsettling read' Sunday Times
'The Circle is 'Brave New World' for our brave new world... Fast, witty and troubling' Washington Post
When Mae is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Run out of a sprawling California campus, the Circle links users' personal emails,…
The technology that features in this book is more of a single-edged sword and a sharply-edged one at that, but it is one of my favorite fictional science tales of all time. Hilarious and devastating, it showcases the very worst of carelessness.
In Cat’s Cradle, a brilliant scientist has created a catastrophic substance simply because he could. Upon his death, he left a sample of it to each of his three children and as our narrator tries to keep track of these deadly samples, he becomes entangled in their absurd lives along the way.
We want pure science to be pure but, of course, scientists are just people and consequences are all that matter in the end. I love this book because it is absolutely outrageous and yet incredibly human.
One of America's greatest writers gives us his unique perspective on our fears of nuclear annihilation
Experiment.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it.
Solution.
Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to…
I found the premise of The Candy House very intriguing – the novel is built around a new technology that allows you to download your consciousness.
The science is a little far-fetched (I certainly hope it is, anyway) and yet the reverberations of this fictional technology are easy to imagine in real life. The unique way in which the book is written, each chapter a window into a different life, shows how technology affects us all in small and large ways, whether we subscribe to it or not.
What I love most about this book, though, is the contrast between the intended altruistic uses for ‘Own Your Unconscious’ and the various uses which devolve from it. It all rings too true.
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD A Time Magazine Must-Read 'A complex, compelling read that showcases Egan's masterful storytelling' TIME 'A dazzling feat of literary construction' VOGUE
From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time comes an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy, and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own--featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad.
It's 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He's forty, with four kids, and restless when…
In the not-so-distant future, organs can be regrown from a handful of stem cells. Even the most complex organ of all can be reproduced in the lab with nearly perfect accuracy. Nearly. Spurred by personal tragedy, scientist William Dalal works feverishly to improve the lives of brain regeneration patients. For every success however, there is a consequence, and the question arises in his mind: Are they worth it?
Walking a fine line between altruism and ambition, Will must decide how much he is willing to compromise in order to make his mark on the world.
I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.
Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.
Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…
A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.
Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…
