A multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner’s powerful saga of survival and destiny in a near-future dystopian America. One of the world’s most respected authors of science fiction imagines an apocalyptic near-future Earth where a remarkable young woman discovers that her destiny calls her to try and change the world around her. Octavia E. Butler’s brilliant two-volume Earthseed saga offers a … Earthseed saga offers a startling vision of an all-too-possible tomorrow, in which walls offer no protection from a civilization gone mad.
Parable of the Sower: In the aftermath of worldwide ecological and economic apocalypse, minister’s daughter Lauren Oya Olamina escapes the slaughter that claims the lives of her family and nearly every other member of their gated California community. Heading north with two young companions through an American wasteland, the courageous young woman faces dangers at every turn while spreading the word of a remarkable new religion that embraces survival and change.
Parable of the Talents: Called to the new, hard truth of Earthseed, the small community of the dispossessed that now surrounds Lauren Olamina looks to her–their leader–for guidance. But when the evil that has grown out of the ashes of human society destroys all she has built, the prophet is forced to choose between preserving her faith or her family.
The Earthseed novels cement Butler’s reputation as “one of the finest voices in fiction–period” (TheWashington Post Book World). Stunningly prescient and breathtakingly relevant to our times, this dark vision of a future America is a masterwork of powerful speculation that ushers us into a broken, dangerously divided world of bigotry, social inequality, mob violence, and ultimately hope.
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Great read. In 1998 she wrote of a presidential candidate who motto was “let’s make America great again”!!! Very believable sci-fi.
I have been investing some time in getting reacquainted with Ms. Butler. Her books are well written with great characters but they all turn upon the same theme, so far. Perhaps I need to invest more time and read more of her work, but I have stopped for now since what I have read falls into one theme–a safe place for the protagonists children to be nurtured and raised.
There is a lot of dressing on this theme, but it is the same theme over and over again. I’ll read more, but for now I am done.
I really enjoyed these two books, I will be reading more of her books.
Too preachy. Would have been a pretty good post-apocalypic tale if the whole “Earth Seed” religion had been left out. The main character was an annoying teenage know-it-all.
Scarily prescient about what is occurring in the country right now.
This was a great series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love Octavia Butler. Characters are well developed and interesting. All of her books are original. I could not put the books down.
Absolutely fantastic!
So sad of a tale.
Octavia Butler makes the future we are likely to face, which makes this series both hard to read but immensely necessary. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths, but gives readers the most basic hope for the future.
The idea didn’t hold together for the first book, and slide away from there.
May be good for teen, spiritual sci-fi or something. Doesn’t translate well as adult sci-fi, for me.
Unable to suspend disbelief. The end of the world is coming. A teenager is the only one able to assess tactics, assemble and make survival decisions for a wandering group of strangers, lead her tragic band across hostile territory to find sanctuary in a place serendipitously given to her by one of the folks she’s picked up along the way, They manage to overcome contamination and she ensures the sensibilities of many of the group are protected by dong the necessary killings herself. All the while she is developing a philosophy/religion that everyone who stays on this sanctuary will have to adhere to. Not an objectionable spiritual perspective – just not especially original. That’s the first book.
Couldn’t stay with it.
Interesting; long but not boring.
I would not put on my read again list but entertaining weekend read.
When I taught Parable of the Sower at a private women’s college, students were so anxious to follow this story to the end that they arranged to share my copy of Parable of the Talents in two-hour shifts in the dorm over the weekend. Butler’s shocking prediction of America’s financial downturns and widespread levels of devastation gives these books a haunting realism. The Sower’s message of embracing change lingers in the reader’s mind for years afterward. Butler’s work is always thought-provoking and unforgettable.
Hooray for strong black women!
Enjoyable, light read.
I have a new favorite author in Octavia Butler. This is one that made me think and made me care, and I don’t often find both in one book. I find myself looking at lots of aspects of life differently after reading this. 🙂
Octavia Butler is an AWESOME writer — her works are futuristic, spiritual, and haunting, all rolled into a single novel!!!
This is an essential read – particularly in this world we find ourselves in.