However, this was clearly not a mere game anymore. This granted him access to a secret playroom, which he accessed by clicking on a saved image of Oryx much to Jimmy’s unease. Jimmy and Crake went on to different colleges, but, upon paying a visit to his old school friend, Jimmy was surprised to find that Crake was still playing Extinctathon and had become a Grandmaster. It was while playing this game that Glenn took on the codename Crake, and Snowman cannot think of him under any other guise-it is as though Glenn were a mask. They also started playing a game called Extinctathon, which involved identifying extinct animals. When she looked into the camera with a gaze that seemed to be one of contempt, Jimmy felt both ashamed and fascinated. One of the child pornography videos featured a girl, later known as Oryx, who captured Jimmy’s attention. The two boys were of differing personalities (Jimmy was imaginative and artistic while Glenn was scientific and logical), but they became friends and spent much of their free time watching online videos of executions, pornography, and assisted suicide. While he was at school, Jimmy met a transfer student called Glenn, and this event changed the course of not only his life but humanity as a whole. Later, Jimmy finds that she has been executed. She felt so strongly about this that she not only left business but ran away and became a revolutionary. However, they argued frequently, with Jimmy’s mother feeling that companies were no longer acting in an ethical manner. We then find out that Snowman’s real name is Jimmy and that his parents worked in the field of genetic engineering.

Who are these people? And what has happened that has caused Snowman to feel like a relic? Moreover, who is this mysterious “Crake” who seems to have decreed that this should have happened? The novel therefore sets out by piquing the reader’s curiosity. There are other people nearby, known as the Children of Crake, but he cannot relate to them.

He is dishevelled and gaunt, and it is clear that he is the last of his kind-humankind. The novel begins by establishing its central character, “Snowman,” who we find sitting near the sea.

Oryx and crake by margaret atwood