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I also finished it last week, mainly in anticipation of the upcoming Hulu show. My biggest issue was the timeline. From what I could glean, the overthrow of th

by Cyph0n 10y ago

I also finished it last week, mainly in anticipation of the upcoming Hulu show. My biggest issue was the timeline. From what I could glean, the overthrow of the government took place only around 10 years before the events of the book, maybe less. Yet society had changed to the point that basically nothing remained from the past, resulting in the main character no longer remembering much of her early life. On top of this, the new order of society was way too organized given the drastic change in its policies and norms. In a nutshell, the formation of the new society and the acceptance by its citizens was a bit too sudden for my tastes. It would have been much more believable to me if the author had set it up such that the overthrow took place during the main character's childhood. Maybe it's because I'm used to the expert world building and long timelines of other popular sci-fi works (e.g., Foundation series, Red Rising trilogy, Ender's Game). I actually finished Liu Cixin's Death's End (hard sci-fi, multi-century timeline) a day before I started with The Handmaid's Tale, so that could be one reason why I disliked the progression of events. Otherwise, it was an excellent novel.

leejoramo 10y ago
If you read Robert Heinlein's future history stories there is often included a timeline chart. Heinlein wrote stories that spanned the entire timeline. Except he left a gap where the USA became a theocracy and entered a dark age. Heinlein could not bring himself to write about that depressing era. Many have observed that Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale fits perfectly in this gap. In fact, Heinlein's Revolt in 2100 feels like a description of the collapse of the dictatorship in Handmaid. To my knowledge, Atwood has never acknowledged a connection. And it doesn't change that I feel A Handmaid's Tale is a masterpiece.

by Cyph0n 10y ago

leejoramo 10y ago

If you read Robert Heinlein's future history stories there is often included a timeline chart. Heinlein wrote stories that spanned the entire timeline. Except he left a gap where the USA became a theocracy and entered a dark age. Heinlein could not bring himself to write about that depressing era. Many have observed that Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale fits perfectly in this gap. In fact, Heinlein's Revolt in 2100 feels like a description of the collapse of the dictatorship in Handmaid. To my knowledge, Atwood has never acknowledged a connection. And it doesn't change that I feel A Handmaid's Tale is a masterpiece.