Reviews tagging 'War'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

8 reviews

growintogardens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I've been meaning to read her work and this book fit one of my reading challenges. A great collection of stories. Some were super disturbing at times, but all them were well written and made me think. The second to last one was probably my favorite. So strange, but powerful. She's definitely great at Sci fi and I'm excited to read more of her stuff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Medical trauma, War, Grief, Misogyny, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Incest, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Slavery, Body horror, Confinement, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Drug use, and Racial slurs

I'm probably forgetting stuff- there's a lot of triggers.

lycheejelly's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, Addiction, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, War, Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Grief, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Ableism, Incest, Abortion, Addiction, Bullying, Classism, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Racism

koberreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love strong, smart black women. Refreshing because saw far sadly I am only able to read white men authors.

I am glad she regarding quite well in the science fiction community

Bloodchild and other stories by Octavia Butler - Review 

Older Stories:

1. Bloodchild - Horrified me. And stephen King or any other thirller writer has never had. 
2. Evening and morning and night - A world with a certain kind of extreme destructive disease alienates you 
3. Near of Kin - Taboo. If you like some of the familiar plot of game of thrones. Here it is. And I am not talking about Dragons and knights and shit.
4. Speech sounds - Post apocalyptic - Soviet bomb or war virus made everyone either dead or mentally impaired to the point of not being able to speak or read or write.
5. Crossover  - a semi autobioc of the author is in her 5 year life at a day job at the factory (She needs the day job to sustain her daily expenses until she is able to sell her writng and quit her day job.) 

Essays:

1. Positive Obession - Her birth as a writer. She hates the title of Birth  of writer but for me Positive obsession is enough
2. Furor Scribendi - Some advice on writing 

Further new stories:

1. Amnesty - (From Google: an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses."an amnesty for political prisoners")  - The aliens she creates are as unique as Ted Chiang’s. And I never though political things could be so weaved well in Science fiction about aliens. And also Noah should have began with the short history of strangers/community human wars to quiet down the disbelieving, war hungry applicants.
2. Book of Martha - I like stories about God or meeting God. And I dont give a damn if the author belives in God or not. As long as he writes it well and provokes thoughts regarding the question of God, Philisophy (or in other words, a love for wisdom or the insights regarding the best way to live. This is Octavia's Utopia Stories. 

I never read something like this before. Another person attempt for a utopian world for everyone that actually works. She is right to say that for one to have a Utopia, the other person might think it would be there hell. 

But personally, I would have just ask God to make peopel more mindful by making everyone in the world at an age they understand to meditate daily for every 10 mins each morning. And they can meditate further if they want to during the rest of the day. But dreams that you have control of well that could work: 

" “THE BOOK OF MARTHA” is my Utopia story. I don’t like most Utopia stories because I don’t believe them for a moment. It seems inevitable that my Utopia would be someone else’s hell. So, of course, I have God demand of poor Martha that she come up with a Utopia that would work. And where else could it work but in everyone’s private, individual dreams?"

I love her way of describing God.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, Sexual content, War, and Emotional abuse

alspacedout's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

A mostly great mixed bag! Favorites: Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, and Amnesty (plus the author essays). 
Least Favorites: Crossover by a good margin, can't remember what happened in it for the life of me, even after rereading the afterword to try to spark my memory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Self harm, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Incest, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Every short story has its own number of content warnings as they are all pretty dark, but none are tittilating or explicit with the exception of BloodChild. light spoiler ---->

Description of non-sedated surgery involving parasites. Doesn't go on for pages and pages on end but its gross!

noahsingh's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Medical trauma, Genocide, Colonisation, Confinement, War, Violence, Suicide, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, Torture, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Incest, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Violence, Incest, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Colonisation, Gore, War, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Kidnapping, Vomit, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Pregnancy

elisanisly's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Rape, Incest, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: War and Grief

seawarrior's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I had high hopes when I started reading this short story collection, and am thrilled to say that all of them were met. Butler's work is masterful, she developed dynamic, complex worlds and characters with more skill in thirty pages than some writers have in hundreds. Each of these stories were told with a precision that made them seem much longer than they actually were, leaving me with the feeling that I had read in epic involving her alien and apocalyptic societies when in reality I had absorbed them in only a half-hour. I also appreciated that this collection included afterwords and essays written by Butler. It was interesting to understand the inspiration behind each of her pieces, and her perspectives on writing in general. Her resolve that writing is a skill to be practiced, and one enhanced not by talent but by persistence, is necessary for any wannabe writer, including myself, to accept. Such an attitude made us fortunate enough to read her award-winning works despite the professors and publishers who did not initially recognize their value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicide, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, Blood, Animal death, Confinement, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content