Reviews

Survivor by Octavia E. Butler

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cindywho's review against another edition

3.0

This is the one that Butler did not want to have reissued in the Patternmaster series. I kept trying to figure out why, but there's no way to know. It's bizarre and original like most of her stuff. Alanna is the survivor who survives homelessness on a savage Earth, as a missionary child on an alien planet and as an alien amongst the inhabitants of the planet.

sophiessofa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

tinygriff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

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

3.0

NB: This is out of print (I was able to get a pdf copy from Sistah Scifi - https://sistahscifi.com/ . The quality of the pdf was a little questionable in places, but I am so used to reading children's work that I could overlook the typos and still access and enjoy the story! The only really frustrating thing was that there was NO formatting that signalled the change between POVs and timelines, that was jarring in every single chapter.)

With that caveat out of the way, this was Octavia Butler's personal least favourite in her Patternmaster series. It still fits into the overall themes of society, privelege and opression; but explores these in an alien setting on a world far from Earth.
A group of Missionaries have left Earth on a custom-built starship and have settled in a green valley. They have made trade deals with the local people, the Garkohn, in return for protection and knowledge of the world they find themselves on. However, things aren't simple and the humans are caught up in a power struggle between the Garkohn and a neighbouring tribe, the Tehkohn. When people start going missing it is up to Alanna, the daughter of the Missionaries' leader, to try and save her people.
Through a series of first person narratives we hear Alanna's story and then switch to that of the Missionary colony in third person. Octavia Butler balances these dual timelines and gradually builds a picture of a crumbling utopia. Through this story she examines prejudice and personhood and religion, what it means to belong, and how outsiders to a culture might adapt to survive and what advantages and disadvantages this brings for them and their adoptive society.

I enjoyed this story, I was engaged by Octavia Butler's prose and the story that she was weaving, and enjoyed the foreign planet setting. Would recommend if you want to read her whole body of work, it is worth not overlooking this one.

literaturesciencealliance's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

I can see why this would be a work Octavia Butler would not want in her cannon, although I still find it to be a pretty enjoyable story. I enjoyed the format of once again having a past timeline and present timeline side by side to keep the pace moving along. I do think it was pushing against some tropes that existed in the 70s and 80s around humans interacting with "primitive" alien cultures but also is not perfect. I enjoyed the love story and was surprised that it was similar to a beauty and the beast retelling, which is not something I would expect in a Butler work. I think all of these things are probably why she eventually disavowed it but I enjoyed the story and seeing the work in all its messiness. I found the Kohn species interesting and although the one push against colorism and genetic rights to be strong was the villain I felt other parts of their creation and study were really interesting. Alanna is a really interesting character to follow as a mixed race person, an adoptee and then a hostage and how she uses her learned instincts to survive. There is more good than bad in this one and I am glad I was able to get a hold of it.

equalopportunityreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging fast-paced

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

3.0

bookiecharm's review against another edition

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This book dragged on and on and I imagine Butler didn’t want this in print anymore because she knew it wasn’t her best. I feel like it’s unfair to critique it.

Content Warnings