shoes review Liliths Brood Octavia E Butler
I purchased this trilogy, bound quite differently, from the SF/F Book Club many many years ago. The cover was so childish and stupid-looking I actually never read it.
I ran out of things to read lately and noticed it.
My goodness.
The story explains the almost-end of human civilization, and the subsequent "saving" of it by an alien race. But the only way the aliens will "save" humanity is by genetically altering it to be something completely different. The three books mainly deal with humans' reactions to this. Some would rather die than be changed. Some would rather live and be changed. Some would rather kill the ones who want to live, so the change won't happen to anyone.
What's fascinating about the series is the way the focus changes throughout. The first book is written in third person, and is focused entirely on Lilith, a human. The second book is also written in third person, but focuses entirely on Akin, a child born of the union (sort of) between Lilith and an alien. The third book also focuses entirely on a human/alien child (sort of) named Jodahs, but this time in first person. What this change of focus accomplishes is amazing; it draws the reader closer into the aliens' culture and motivations just as the characters are drawn in closer. I didn't actively notice this while I was reading, but after thinking about what I had read, I realized it. I like that very much.
Very detailed, and incredibly realistic. And left rather open-ended, which is a good thing as far as this series is concerned. It's grand enough to be left open and still not leave the reader aching for more.
One thing I don't like, though. "Lilith's Brood" as a title makes no sense. Lilith is a background character after the first book. The original name was "XenoGenesis", and I find it much more appropriate. But that's not the author's fault, I'm sure.
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BalasHapusLilith's Brood is wonderfully complex and believable, December 11, 2000
BalasHapus5.0 out of 5 stars
BalasHapusOne of the best sci fi books I've read in quite awhile (and I read a lot of them). The complexity and believability of the story make it fantastic. Butler also succeeds at creating a new species and actually showing us our world and society through their eyes, quite a feat to do well. She also creates a diverse atmosphere of all kinds of people (different backgrounds, races, languages) coming together under adversity. The struggles that the humans in the story have with accepting ideas and concepts completely outside of their experiences makes for very thoughtful reading. This book (actually 3) makes for very interesing exciting reading (I couldn't put it down) combined with lots of thought provoking material.
BalasHapus16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
BalasHapusOctavia Butler recently died in Seattle. Her passing is a great loss to literature in general and science fiction in particular. She once said that she didn't really write `Science Fiction' as such because she did know much about science. In fact her books do tackle some of the big themes of SciFi, but are not in the `hard science' genre. Her themes were race, sexuality, and the nature of `reality.'
BalasHapusMs Butler was dyslexic, [...], above average in height, African American, and a genius. She lived as a hermit in the middle of a major city and created a body of work which stands with the very best. She won both Hugo and Nebula Awards several times and the MacArthur Foundation `Genius' Award in 1995. I think she is one of the few SciFi writers to have received this recognition.
I am posting this review on each of the Xenogenesis Trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) sites as well as the volume where they are collected; `Lilith's Brood.' All are excellent and recommended.
In this series Ms Butler took on sexuality and the nature of `humanity' in a startling new way. She gradually takes the reader from the perspective of a `human,' specifically an Earthling who encounters an alien race to the perspective of the `alien,' specifically the descendent of interbreeding between humans and aliens who is now the `human' and sees Earthlings as the aliens.
Ms Butler skills are so great that this change in perspective goes so slowly that the reader is largely unaware until it has been accomplished. While some will dither about which of Ms Butler's novels are her `greatest,' few will argue that this series is superb. I have read nearly all of Ms Butler's works and enjoyed them all. I think she was one of the finest writers of speculative fiction in recent history and will miss her work.
BalasHapusI purchased this trilogy, bound quite differently, from the SF/F Book Club many many years ago. The cover was so childish and stupid-looking I actually never read it.I ran out of things to read lately and noticed it.My goodness.The story explains the almost-end of human civilization, and the subsequent "saving" of it by an alien race. But the only way the aliens will "save" humanity is by genetically altering it to be something completely different. The three books mainly deal with humans' reactions to this. Some would rather die than be changed. Some would rather live and be changed. Some would rather kill the ones who want to live, so the change won't happen to anyone.What's fascinating about the series is the way the focus changes throughout. The first book is written in third person, and is focused entirely on Lilith, a human. The second book is also written in third person, but focuses entirely on Akin, a child born of the union (sort of) between Lilith and an alien. The third book also focuses entirely on a human/alien child (sort of) named Jodahs, but this time in first person. What this change of focus accomplishes is amazing; it draws the reader closer into the aliens' culture and motivations just as the characters are drawn in closer. I didn't actively notice this while I was reading, but after thinking about what I had read, I realized it. I like that very much.Very detailed, and incredibly realistic. And left rather open-ended, which is a good thing as far as this series is concerned. It's grand enough to be left open and still not leave the reader aching for more.One thing I don't like, though. "Lilith's Brood" as a title makes no sense. Lilith is a background character after the first book. The original name was "XenoGenesis", and I find it much more appropriate. But that's not the author's fault, I'm sure.
BalasHapus
BalasHapusLilth's Brood is a great read on two different planes, either of which would have been sufficient to make it a good book. The first is the story, it is creative, unique and plausable--not just a wild flight of science fiction fantasy! The briefest of summaries--the earth distroys itself in war, an alien race rescues the few remaining people, but as payment for the rescue "trades" with them, the trade being genentic material, and thus a new being is created as a combination of the two. The second plane of the book is the deep, complex look that Butler takes into the soul of the human race, human sexuality, human society and human morals--all using the facade of the alien race's needs and desires as the looking-glass. This is the most facinating aspect of the book. Butler's ability to express emotional need and yearning is amazing, and very real. She must be a wonderful person herself to even understand this aspect of the human soul.
BalasHapusThis book illustrates the need for cleaner defintions of the genre "science fiction". It is a book that would appeal more to readers of serious psychological work than science fiction.
BalasHapusBy A Customer
BalasHapusCompiled in this single book are the 3 books of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. A well written, engrossing story of the cultural and physical integration of two very different species, human and Oankali, and their progeny.
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