Margaret Atwood's THE TESTAMENTS The Chill is Nil in HANDMAID's Sequel

Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE published in 1985 was a shocking depiction of a dystopian future which was Hell on wheels for women.  The novel received the 1st Arthur C Clarke Award and a Booker nomination.  The fictional country of Gilead created by Atwood was a living nightmare that gave serious pause as to what horrors could come to pass.  Atwood's ORYX and CRAKE was another classic sci-fi apocalyptic future of sheer terror.  About to turn 80, Atwood is one of Canada's most talented & beloved writers.  Returning to THE HANDMAID'S TALE in a greatly anticipated sequel, THE TESTAMENTS proves to be a thriller that offers little in literary fiction.  There is a prequel, plodding escape & exacting revenge leading to the demise of Gilead but fails to deliver a revolutionary communique.  THE TESTAMENTS reads as a sequel for another successful TV series but it's staid and unremarkable.  The oppressive society against women and back stabbing espionage is entertaining, nevertheless, its power to evoke a sense of impending doom is sorely lacking.  There are parallels to the US's history of slavery and the devised Underground Railroad.  The novel overtly preaches warnings of diligence in maintaining a just society.  "We must continue to remind ourselves of the wrong turnings taken in the past so we do not repeat them."  THE TESTAMENTS is an equanimous novel in comparison to the imbedded & imaginative messaging in Atwood's earlier works.  I admire her ability to spin a twisted yarn but THE TESTAMENTS is more of a yawn.  I do agree with her concerns regarding  memory and thus how history is perceived.  "Such a cruel thing, memory.  We can't remember what it is that we've forgotten.  That we have been made to forget." "The collective memory is notoriously faulty, and much of the past sinks into the ocean of time."  THE TESTAMENTS fails to deliver a worthy tribute to THE HANDMAIDS TALE or her legacy of literary brilliance.