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  • The Year of the Flood

  • MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 2
  • By: Margaret Atwood
  • Narrated by: Lorelei King
  • Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (169 ratings)

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The Year of the Flood cover art

The Year of the Flood

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Lorelei King
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Publisher's Summary

Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, and the tending of the Earth - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life.

Two women have avoided it: the young trapeze-dancer, Ren, locked into the high-end sex club; and former SecretBurgers meat-slinger turned Gardener, Toby, barricaded into a luxurious spa. Have others survived? And what are the odds for the human race?

By turn's dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most effective.

©2009 O.W. Toad. All rights reserved. Margaret Atwood has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic Reviews

"Atwood's mischievous, suspenseful, and sagacious dystopian novel follows the trajectory of current environmental debacles to a shattering possible conclusion with passionate concern and arch humor." ( Booklist)
"Another stimulating dystopia from this always-provocative author, whose complex, deeply involving characters inhabit a bizarre yet frighteningly believable future." ( Kirkus Reviews)

What listeners say about The Year of the Flood

Average Customer Ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story and reading but....

I really enjoyed the story but for some reasons the hymns included as part of the story have been turned into actual songs and it's fairly jarring to go from the narrator to a song then back to the story.

If these had just been read normally it would have been much more enjoyable

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great reading, awful musical interludes.

Excellent continuation of Oryx and Crake, and a great reading. However the musical interludes were awful and not what I want from an audiobook. You can skip through them, but it was still very annoying.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

I Loved it I could not stop listening. Great sequel to oryx and crake. Good

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

always wonderful

this whole performance just gets better with age. the God's Garden Oral Hymn Book really makes this special.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brutal and Beautiful

This book has a way of jumping between the tragic and the joyous that is really gripping. I love the world that it is set in. It is a parody of the direction we seem to be headed with corporations. In a way I see our future in this story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The plot !! She just keeps me looking into every corner of my soul

I loved this second novel to the series! What Margret is able to achieve is to take the human world as we don’t see it and make it to a work in which we need to see it ! And once we do that we then start to look at every corner and cravis of the mind and soul and look deep within to know if you are capable of pushing the limits. Also the water loss flood was brilliant the music in this audbile version with the oral hyms is amassing . I have adhd so I read the physical book and also listen to it on audible at 5.5 x speed and read every night before bed espically and this scares me this book in my own brain. I don’t know if I could survive the waterless flood…

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Probably how things are going to pan out.

Atwood dusts off her crystal ball for a glimpse into what is now our very near and very wacky impending doom. The singing is a bit bad but the writing makes up for it.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

It was ok, just ok though.

I didn't find this book to be a 'can't put down' listen at all, but pretty slow throughout. It was ok, a few good imaginings of what the future may look like but nothing super interesting. It was ok, to be honest it was a bit disturbing with a description/s of to child abuse which I wish I hadn't listened too and didn't in some parts. I don't think this trilogy is worth a purchase on audible to be honest. The writing is not fantastic and characters aren't developed enough. SPOILER: A huge chance of piquing the readers curiosity and giving us more information about Jimmy's mum and developing her character was totally lost in book #2. I'm almost through the last book and it's different narrators for each book and the last is crap. Also the story gets pretty bland and predictable at the start of book #3.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Sheesh, those voices

Genuinely felt the narrator took significant, and unwarranted liberties, with the characters.
Caricatures that GOT IN THE WAY of the story.

I could not imagine Atwood herself vocalising these characters like this. Some were so hamfisted I needed to speed up to get that particular characters section over and done with. Ren was one of those characters.

To be fair, she was one of the least believable, 2d of the characters. Strange that coming from a female author, there were many flat, seemingly simplified female characters.
But sheesh - narrator pls tone it down, let the words speak, theatrics do not help here.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Confusing narrative Annoying music

Probably more than an hour of the recording is songs. Really. With music.
Not what I wanted.
Another hour is the sermons of Adam, the leader of a group. These sermons are a device to tell the audience what has happened recently. But I found them boring.
I still don’t understand the chronology of the book. Most of the action takes place in year 25 but we were never at year zero. We start at year 15 when the world is already very different.
I kept waiting for the story to get going. I’m very disappointed.

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