Six Octavia Butler Books for Your Reading List
I mean, you should read them all. But here are six, in no particular order.
Kindred
Kindred is perhaps the most well-known book by Octavia Butler and genre-wise was defined by Butler as “a kind of grim fantasy” which is suiting as the protagonist, a Black woman named Dana, is violently uprooted from 1976 back in time to slavery and then back again. Each time Dana returns to her present life with physical and emotional injuries, it is clear the force pulling her back to slavery is a white boy named Rufus, who she saves multiple times. But this isn’t just any basic slave narrative with a time-travel twist—the word-choice, the themes, the characters are all intentional. Saving Rufus isn’t random, nor are any of Butler’s storylines in Kindred. This book reveals, through fiction and not academia, the horrors of slavery and how it is impossible to disentangle our present with our past—and while that is true, it is cliché. What does it mean?
For me, it means considering my own kin from that era who, may have been slave-owners and/or who otherwise certainly participated in violence towards Black people. And beyond that, this book pushes me to personalize how I am linked to that history, and how it is necessary for me to work on harm reduction towards Black women, like Dana, in present day. That’s still just scratching the surface as there are many directions & underlying themes to piece apart in Kindred.
“I closed my eyes and saw the children playing their game again. 'The ease seemed so frightening.' I said. 'Now I see why.'
'What?'
'The ease. Us, the children ... I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”
Follow the full-length book with a read of the graphic novel adaptation by Damian Duffy & John Jennings. You miss some of the subtler storylines, but the illustrations and use of color do the original novel justice. I guess that adds a bonus book to the list that is well worth your time.
2, 3, 4. Lilith’s Brood (The series includes Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago)
This three book series was previously called Xenogenesis, which is now out of print. Dawn begins with a human woman named Lilith who is being held captive in a prison cell after surviving a nuclear war. In this post-apocalyptic world, Lilith learns her new reality little by little. Earth has been destroyed and she is one of the few surviving humans living on a spaceship with an alien race called the Oankali. The Oankali are initially repulsive to Lilith and perhaps also the reader—oppressive, paternalistic, and cruel in some ways, but empathetic in others.
Dawn was certainly my favorite book of the series, as the reader learns about the fascinating Oankali culture through much dialogue-based writing and how Oankali think humans destroyed the world due to their hierarchical tendencies. The reader also learns about the sexes of the Oankali which includes male, female, and Ooloi who are referred to as “it”, the Ooloi’s abilities to manipulate genes and cure human cancer, and Lilith’s journey to finding her place in this foreign world.
“Intelligence is relatively new to life on Earth, but your hierarchical tendencies are ancient.”
Adulthood Rites continues the series with Lilith’s son, the first combined human and Oankali child, named Akin. Not all is well with the humans and Oankali since the Oankali have made the humans infertile, so the humans kidnap Akin. While Lilith was re-born into and adopted the Oankali world, Akin grows to learn the human one. The series ends with Imago and focuses on Jodahs, who is the first construct child of Lilith who chooses to be Ooloi. Jodahs is the first of it’s kind, and with that comes unknowns and dangers. The last book is written from Jodahs’s perspective, and intentionally confounding to the reader as Jodahs goes through their own metamorphosis.
There are some larger themes here of colonization, forced sterilization, sexual identity, genetics, etc. which are certainly complex. I’m guessing there are entire college semester courses dedicated to this three book series and I wish I was a part of those conversations.
There is also a lot of bizarre alien sex, just a heads up.
5. Fledgling
Fledgling was Octavia Butler’s last published book before she died. The protagonist is named Shori, a genetically modified vampire of the Ina species who has powers due to the extra melanin in her skin. Shori wakes up not knowing who she is or her own family, culture, or rituals. Someone is hunting her with intention to kill. There is ongoing suspense as Shori fights for her survival and navigates the vampire world, including a usually compelling but sometimes tedious vampire court-room proceeding following the murder of her family. The writing isn’t up to the usual Butler standard, but the story is curious enough.
“Or it's happening because Shori is black, and racists—probably Ina racists—don't like the idea that a good part of the answer to your daytime problems is melanin.”
Fair warning, Shori is allegedly 50-something years old, but appears as a 11-year-old girl. So, it is rather alarming that she has relationships with several much-older humans, not with intention to turn them into vampires but rather to develop a symbiotic relationship. Fledgling is unsettling due to this detail, but still overall worth the quick read.
6. Parable of the Sower
Wildfires in California are raging, there is an economic crisis, climate change is pushing people to the brink, violence and chaos are the norm in the United States. That isn’t the daily news, but the setting for Parable of the Sower, set in California, 2027. Perhaps Octavia Butler wasn’t far off.
Lauren lives with her family in a locked compound outside Los Angeles. They aren’t rich, but they aren’t living on the streets like so many others. This also makes them a target. Lauren’s father is a preacher, but Lauren is secretly creating her own religion of sorts, called Earthseed. She is sharp and wary of impending upheaval to her comparatively safe life, so she educates herself on survival. When the family’s compound is raided by painted faced people on a drug called “pyro” that causes a person to light fires and kill, she flees. Now Lauren must create a new community of people on the dangerous walk north. She must also be careful to hide her gender and disorder of hyperempathy, which causes her to feel another’s emotions to the point of impairment.
This book is fast-paced and terrifying. It examines many larger themes, as Butler’s books always do—this time focusing on religion, race, climate change, and violence among others.
“There is no end
To what a living world
Will demand of you.”
There is a sequel to Parable of the Sower called Parable of the Talents, which is on my very long “next” list.
And as a bonus, I highly recommend this article by Cree Myles—If you Really Want to Unlearn Racism, Read Black Sci-Fi Authors.
“Nonfiction, while important, still affords you the comfort of looking at the problem from the outside. You get to intellectualize the grief instead of sit in it. You can passively observe the percentages and statistics instead of giving the numbers names and mourning families. Instead of being one of the names or mourning family members. You get to step away.
In order for us to make any true strides in this fight, though, we can’t afford for anyone to do that.” -Cree Myles