Reviews

“I believe you. I just thought I had already broken out of the mental cage I was born and raised in—a human God, a white God, a male God …”

“If it were truly a cage,” God said, “you would still be in it, and I would still look the way I did when you first saw me.”

“There is that,” Martha said. “What would you call it then?”

“An old habit,” God said. “That’s the trouble with habits. They tend to outlive their usefulness.”

Such a wonderful set of stories! Honestly, I'm not a big fan of sci-fi but Octavia Butler managed to capture me anyway. The author has an incredible imagination and took so many bold, interesting and innovating choices for her stories. I didn't know much about the author when I started to read this, but I certainly saw a genius in the vivid, rich and intense writing. Reading about Octavia Butler made the stories even better, my admiration bigger, and I can't believe I was so lucky to read so many fascinating stories by her.

Please note that I've stayed away from the word beautiful. This word, I think, doesn't do justice to the short stories. They make you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, they ask too many questions and you don't feel ready to answer. They are gross, sometimes, horrifying. They are complex and intriguing, not meant to be called just beautiful. The concepts are just... something different, evocative and ingenious. And Butler's ideas are just mesmerizing. I couldn't believe we got such intricated stories in a few pages.

Talking about the stories, my favourite one was, no doubts, Amnesty. I know Bloodchild is the star of this collection, but the writing, setup and message of Amnesty make it one of the best stories I've ever read. Every story was good on their own right, though, and my low rating comes from my personal taste as well as some questions that weren't answered in pro of a more fluid narrative.

Still, this is certainly one of the best collections out there, Octavia Butler was such a genius and nobody should miss the opportunity to read them!

zellreads's review

Go to review page

5.0

Absolutely flawless storytelling, so well put and with perfect pacing. These were gorgeous rich stories while still moving quickly enough. I love Butler's masterful ability to drop the reader into a world and allow them to understand it without extensive world building or exposition. Truly remarkable, possibly the best short story collection I've read.

corinney22's review

Go to review page

4.0

I have never met an Octavia Butler book I didn’t devour. These were such interesting thought experiments, and I loved how this edition had afterwords following each story that gave Butler’s perspective on what each meant and why she wrote it.

ayanayokie's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

lavender_matter's review

Go to review page

4.0

A collection of disturbing, existential, distressing hopeful stories. If you like SciFi tropes and speculative fiction, you’ll like these a lot :).

As with many short story collections some are better than others. My favorite story was the last one.

More...