2023 Reread: I'm really just rereading this series during a stressful move for comfort.
2021 Reread: I love what this book offers. Its not a direct cont2023 Reread: I'm really just rereading this series during a stressful move for comfort.
2021 Reread: I love what this book offers. Its not a direct continuation of Lilith's story but it allows you to see what she became and the family she builds with her Oankali mates. Akin is charming and one of my favorite characters of Butler's. This book deals with a fatal contradiction that I agree with Butler in many ways feels like its human nature. I don't agree thats our nature though. I think the last almost 600 yrs of brutality has been confused for human nature. I don't agree that white supremacy is human nature. I don't even think its a natural state for white folks. So I think this contradiction can be overcome with a honest look at who we actually are rather than the lies we ymtell ourselves. Still I would stick with the Oankali. I find the idea fascinating and always have.
Review from 2020 reread: This is every bit as good as I remember. This book picks up decades after Dawn and features the first human-born male Construct. I loved Akin and his adventures. He's right about a human Akjai. We probably will destroy it but we deserve the chance. Personally I wouldn't go but I'd be more peaceful knowing humanity was continuing unaltered somewhere far away from my descendants....more
I truly loved this novel. I reread it multiple times. I hate books that in any way deal with war or soldiers but this was so elegantly done. Be familiaI truly loved this novel. I reread it multiple times. I hate books that in any way deal with war or soldiers but this was so elegantly done. Be familiar with the Biafran War before you read this. I loved Half of a Yellow Sum by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie so I had a passing familiarity. Even the wikipedia article will be enough but try to understand what happened historically before reading this....more
I loved this! I found the beginning to be a seamless mix of so many genres: fantasy, sci fi, horror, mythology, incredible. Towards the end a few placesI loved this! I found the beginning to be a seamless mix of so many genres: fantasy, sci fi, horror, mythology, incredible. Towards the end a few places in the narrative snag a bit. I liked the ending a lot and I think how reviewers feel about the ending probably weights reviews...more
Reread this 4/21 and still love it just as much. I'm looking very forward to reading the sequel.
Original Review: This is the perfect blend of horror, fReread this 4/21 and still love it just as much. I'm looking very forward to reading the sequel.
Original Review: This is the perfect blend of horror, fantasy and alternate history. Blends beautifully with known history and current zombie myth. This is similar to but SO much better than Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. I can't wait for the next installment in this series....more
I'm unsure of the last time I read a book like this. In a way it reminds me of Cloud Atlas but much, much better. This story is told in such a neat, suI'm unsure of the last time I read a book like this. In a way it reminds me of Cloud Atlas but much, much better. This story is told in such a neat, succint, way. It's almost a literary trick. I'm floored this is a first novel. The novel pretty much covers the atlantic slave trade from the West African/Black perspective. Ms Gyasi cleverly covers and includes ALL the history of this 300 year time period. It's all there from tribal warfare and Asanteland led slave trade, cape coast castle, Anglo-Asante wars, colonialism and post colonialism taking place in what will later be called Ghana. On the US side we have capture in West Africa, being held for months on the coast waiting for the middle passage, we have sales/auctions, rapes, beatings, runaways, Underground Railroad, abolitionists (white), Fugitive Slave Act and capture of free blacks, after slavery we have the period where blacks were being charged with crimes and hired out as criminal slaves, unions, the great migration, passing for white, civil rights movement, heroine/crack epidemic, current prison crisis. Each chapter is 35/40 pages ( I used a digital reader and pages depend on word sizing) and a real story. So much is covered in a very non-rushed way, presented as a vignette of each generation. I've never read anything like this but I hope to again. The book includes the sources the author used and I've added those I haven't read to my to read list. This book is powerful and not to be missed....more
2021 reread: The beginning ideas of so many of my favorite stories and themes. Its interesting to see concepts played with here that were later dealt wi2021 reread: The beginning ideas of so many of my favorite stories and themes. Its interesting to see concepts played with here that were later dealt with more completely in novels. What a complex author lost far too soon snd far too young....more
2021 Reread review: The 2021 updated version of the audiobook narrated by Robin Miles is nothing short of divine. Well worth the repurchase. Now I deman2021 Reread review: The 2021 updated version of the audiobook narrated by Robin Miles is nothing short of divine. Well worth the repurchase. Now I demand an update to the rest of her books! What can I say, I adore Anyanwu...more
2023 Reread: I'm in the midst of a stressful move and have reread mindlessly most of Butlers books but found myself really relaxing into this.
OB is my 2023 Reread: I'm in the midst of a stressful move and have reread mindlessly most of Butlers books but found myself really relaxing into this.
OB is my favorite author, and I reread her novels every year. I only update them here when the reading is significant for me.
2021 Reread: I hate the audiobook narrator. Her voice is grating and annoying. Can Robin Miles redo these audiobooks as well????
Somehow, my reread created a 2nd entry for this book. I erased it. 2/16/20
This is the first novel I ever read by Octavia Butler. I'm now a grandmother, but when I read this, my daughter was 6 months old. I still have the paperback with the white woman on the cover. LOL! Imagine my surprise when the main character was a statuesque black woman, extremely capable, practical, and a natural leader. OB has been my favorite author ever since. This novel was published in 1987, and some of the politics and technology are dated. This deals with a future in which a nuclear holocaust has laid waste to the Earth. Western nations were especially hard hit. Lilith Iyapo is studying in South America when the crisis happens. She survives the initial explosion and is rescued. Her rescuers are not anything she could've ever imagined. The Oankali are the most unique aliens I have ever read about. They travel thorough space in a living ship looking for mates and are as much our captors as our rescuers....more
2024 Reread: This is chilling. Christian America feels similar to Project 2025. How terrifying.
2023 Reread: I've always found the aspect of Asha/Larkin's2024 Reread: This is chilling. Christian America feels similar to Project 2025. How terrifying.
2023 Reread: I've always found the aspect of Asha/Larkin's anger towards Lauren baffling. I was 'seduced' by Lauren, as Asha would phrase it immediately from the first novel. Yet what must it be like to have a fucked up and traumatic childhood, to be saved from that childhood and loved by a beautiful but empty and jealous liar. Only to find out the only family you ever had was ultimately responsible for leaving you in a traumatic situation so this grown adult could get revenge for what is in reality bullshit and perceived slights by a self-hating narcissist. Marcus is a turd and Olamina should've left him with Cougar...more