Year of the Flood/ Atwood/ 448 pgs

I have always admired Atwood. In fact, one of my all time favorite books is Alias Grace. I was told that I didn't have to read Oryx and Crake in order to enjoy this one. These books are supposedly in a trilogy and Flood has been described as a companion book. I think I am glad I read this one first as it is told from the women's point of view. Crake is from the men's point of view. We are in a world that has been taken over by mercenary companies and their security forces. It is almost a perfect picture of Stalinist Russia. We have two narrators Toby and Ren (short for Brenda) that have survived the Waterless Flood: both thinking they are the only ones left alive. We see what has brought them to their present situation in alternating chapters. We meet AdamOne (who is important to both women) and his followers, the Gardeners as they try to adjust to living on the fringes and make do with whatever they can scrounge. The tension is slowly ratcheted up as the reader is aware of what will happen. Will the human remnants survive? Only Atwood knows and she is working on the third volume right now.