These are dystopic novels that take place after a virus killed most everyone on earth. In Oryx and Crake we learn of a new group of people that were genetically modified and were able to survive the virus.
The narrator of the story is Jimmy, or as these new people (The Crakers) call him - Snowman. As far as he knows he and the Crakers are the only ones alive. He watches after the Crakers as they are rather simplistic in mind and don't understand everything they see.
Jimmy was friends with Oryx and Crake and it is their story he tells along with the Crakers. Crake was a computer geek and mastermind. He worked for the Microsoft of their times in a compound that was safe from the cities and their disease ridden populations.
Before Oryx and Crake died with the rest of the population of the world, Crake created the genetically modified humans and Oryx was their teacher. Prior to being their teacher, Oryx had survived in the sex trade which was a booming and legitimate business in the cities.
Jimmy's journey is figurative as well as a literal one - he leaves the Crakers to walk back to the compound where everything started so he can find more food. It is on this journey that we find out the most about Oryx and Crake.
Rating: 10 / 10
ISBN: 0385503857
Publisher: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
Edition: 1st Edition