Gabrielle's Reviews > Parable of the Talents

4 and a half stars.

I did not want to wait too long between my reading of “Parable of the Sower” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and the sequel, “Parable of the Talents”. The first book has a great momentum that made me very eager to find out the rest of Lauren’s story – even if the setting felt uncomfortably realistic.

The manipulation of religion for the benefit of political advancement is something that has always been a huge problem for me, and when good speculative writers toy with that idea, it inevitably ends up freaking me out (I’m referring to “The Handmaid’s Tale (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), but also “The Acolyte” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which took that idea down a pretty terrifying road). Using religion to exacerbate the worst sides of a group of people until they are riled up to the point where they forget their faith was supposed to be based on love and start hurting other people is the most egregious manipulation of a good thing I can think of. The very word “religion” means to “re-link” or “re-join”: it is supposed to bring people together, so as soon as it starts creating exceptions to ideas such as “love one another”, it's missing the point. In the second book of her “Earthseed” duology, Octavia Butler drives that point home by adding two new voices to her narrative: Lauren’s husband Bankole, and their daughter Larkin/Asha.

We know early on that something terrible has happened to the small Earthseed colony founded by Lauren and her companion, and my interweaving her journal’s, Bankole’s notes and Larkin’s own writing, Butler shows us a world that hasn’t gotten better since the end of “Parable of the Sower”. If anything, things have gotten much worse, and a hate-mongering, religious fanatic new president works his followers into an increasingly violent frenzy. I will not give any of the plot away, but this is a gripping story about resilience and survival in the face of oppression and destruction.

I have to admit that I got kind of annoyed with the Earthseed “gospel”, or whatever you want to call those little poems and texts that punctuate the book. There were fewer in “Parable of the Sower”, but here, it got on my nerves, as there are plenty and they are not especially well written, nor inspiring. The religious system created by Lauren in and of itself doesn’t really bother me, as it’s based in practicality, and tangible reality: things change constantly, and we must support each other through these changes. That’s a big fat “duh” for me, but I can also see why it bears repeating. But her preachiness gets tiring, which is why this book is stronger for having more than one narrator, who are well aware that Lauren’s convictions were strong and important, but could also be rather grating. Larkin’s voice comes to balance out her mother righteousness with the wisdom of regrets and hindsight – but also a certain admiration for the work done by this determined woman.

The balance between hope and despair is not easy to maintain, but just as she did in the first tome of her duology, Butler doesn’t let her readers sink, no matter how bleak things get. In fact, as hard as it can be to read sometimes, it is also strangely comforting to think of Lauren’s perseverance and strength.

Does it freak anyone else out that Butler wrote this in 1998? Not unlike the aforementioned “Handmaid’s Tale”, this work of fiction’s prescience is alarmingly accurate: we are currently experiencing the slow erosion of the world as we knew it, and we have no idea what the next few years have in store for us. And her President Jarret might have more brain cells to rub together than Trump does, but the tone is eerily alike. I did find the way Lauren perceives Jarret’s supporters, and what ultimately motivates them very interesting: there are very thought-provoking parallels to be drawn between them and a certain segment of American voters…

Just as good as its predecessor, this book is a must-read, now more than ever.