I got an ARC of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood (due out in September). I've tried to read Atwood in the past with little luck. Her bleak futuristic settings just aren't any fun.

Well, The Year of the Flood wasn't a barrel of laughs but there is a hopefulness in the book. The story follows three women who met as members of God's Gardeners, an urban back-to-nature cult that preaches against the indulgences of a dystopic future society. The disasters that global-warming advocates warn of have already taken place in Atwood's novel. God's Gardeners teach their members how to find food in nature and in the city and they prepare their flock for the "waterless flood".

The flood comes in the form of a virus that runs across the entire world.

Atwood does a good job of piecing together the stories of her characters.

When I read the book, I didn't realize that it is actually the second book in a planned trilogy. So, this week I read the first book, Oryx and Crake. I liked reading them in reverse order. Both books end at almost exactly the same point in time. I liked not knowing the origin of the virus, just reading hints in The Year of the Flood, and then having my answers questioned in Oryx and Crake.

Oryx and Crake chronicles the story of Jimmy, a minor character in the second book, his friendship with the aloof biogen genius, Crake, and Jimmy's obsession with Oryx, Crake's mysterious and beautiful mate.

I preferred the characters of Ren and Toby in The Year of the Flood to Jimmy and Crake in Oryx and Crake. This might be one of those trilogies in which the books get better as the trilogy advances.