MaddAddam

by Margaret Atwood

This is the third book in Marget Atwood's futuristic trilogy.  It ties together all the stories and moves the story forward.

In this story most of the remaining humans have gathered together and have the Crakers with them for their protection.  They are hiding from the two remaining paintballers who were accidentally released by the innocent Crakers.  They found Jimmy the Snowman and nursed him back to health. Some of the humans are pregnant, they fear the babies might be progeny of the paintballers.

We find out that Zeb, the brother of Adam One, killed their father, the crooked Reverend, with the dangerous capsules that they had taken from the labs.  We learn a bit more about Crake's life and how he got others working on his plans for new creatures and a disease that would wipe out humans to cleanse the world of bad people.

When the babies are born all are relieved that they appear to be Craker/human. 

Toby has become a storyteller to the Crakes, she starts making a diary and also teaches one of the Crakers (Blackbeard) to write and read.

The humans make a pact with the pigoons (not to kill each other) and they set off to find the painballers. They locate them in the egg (where the Crakers were created) and shoot them but one of the pigoons, Jimmy and Adam are killed in the battle.

As the story ends Zeb has gone off to check on smoke that looks like a fire.  He does not return.   Toby grieves for his loss and goes off into the forest never to return.  At the end of the story Blackbeard is now telling the story, and it sounds like they will  manage okay.
This was a good conclusion to the series, but I did find it was a bit slow with the amount of time spent on the life and exploits of Zeb.  It seems that the two races, the human and craker will be able to live/mate and they will now have the ability to read and write.  Will they gain the ability to invent? make things? And, what about the smoke on the horizon?