For November, the WEN book club turned to a new genre – science fiction. Though it must be said that famously Margaret Atwood doesn’t refer to her books as science fiction, but speculative fiction. Oryx and Crake, our book for November, certainly fit into this category, with Atwood taking modern themes such as genetic engineering and projecting them forward into the near future. The novel introduces us to a post-apocalyptic landscape inhabited solely by the main character, Snowman, and a group of genetically advanced not-quite-humans, the Crakers. Departing with the traditional idea of the post apocalyptic hero, as in Mad Max and similar, Snowman is feckless, often drunk, and is in constant fear of his environment, fending off genetically engineered wolvogs and pigoons. We are immediately left with questions – who are the Crakers? What has happened to society? Why is Snowman the only human left? Atwood’s narrative weaves in [...]