Reviews - Lilith's Brood: The Complete Xenogenesis Trilogy (The Xenogenesis Trilogy)

593 reviews for:

Lilith's Brood: The Complete Xenogenesis Trilogy (The Xenogenesis Trilogy)

Octavia E. Butler

4.37 AVERAGE

cici_supreme's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

rabidraygun's review against another edition

4.25

challenging reflective medium-paced

killie81's review against another edition

3.0

The overall plot of this collection is that after the end of human civilization in World War Three (a very typical sci-fie beginning) an alien species called the Oankali intervenes and rescues what it can from Earth. This alien race then begins an attempt to repair the planet prior to re-populating it with the rescued humans and other creatures. However, very soon it is revealed that as payment for this help the humans must "trade" with them. This "trade" entails inter-breeding to create a new species that takes genetic traits from the aliens themselves and the humans. As you can imagine some humans dislike this plan, especially when it is revealed that humans will not be able to breed amongst themselves anymore without the intervention of the Oankali and will therefore soon cease to exist as an independent species. The collection takes us through the lives of several Human and Human-Oankali hybrids as some members of humanity try and resist the "trade" whilst others are willing to accept this quasi colonisation attempt.

It is a rather complex and thoughtful book and I won't really say much more about the plot as I think it may ruin it for any readers. This is due to the fact that one of the most interesting aspects of this collection is the way in which Butler slowly reveals information to both the characters and readers about the full predicament that faces humanity and Earth itself. I will just say that the book's plot enables it to delve into various aspects of society such as slavery, freedom, eugenics, racism, sexuality, violence, rape and what it really actually means to be human.

One specific thing I am going to have to speak about is Butler's attempt at creating an alien species that has three genders. It is very strange concept to try and get your head around as a reader and I think that she has made a reasonable attempt at doing it. I will say however that in my opinion the characters that were from the third gender grouping mainly just came across to me as being male. I suspect that this is because any reader will understand a two gender species and therefore will usually try to typecast anything into the male or female box no matter what an author may try to do.

Other than this, the main issue I had with "Lilith's Brood" is that I found some of the various descriptions and points being made were being repeated throughout. I can understand that this was probably quite useful when the three stories were released over a period of time and it enabled the reader to re-mind themselves about overall plot points etc. However when reading the collection in one go I found that my overall desire to keep on reading diminished as I progressed so that I found it rather slow going. For example, I finished the first book in the collection titled "Dawn" in a couple of days whereas the final book titled "Imago" took me several weeks.

To summarise, I did like Lilith's Brood despite the fact I found it slow going as I progressed. It was quite enjoyable getting to read about an alien species that really was different to us and overall it was a very thought provoking book that didn't follow the normal alien invasion colonisation route of many other Sci-Fi stories.

deemn's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

rudolfsrocker's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

kibernick's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

What an incredible and unique series. I felt immersed in this world and while I think the scope of the book(s) was very ambitious, it explores rather deeply what makes us human.

The second book was a slog for me, but overall a really good trilogy. I was a bit concerned about how heteronormative all the humans were and there was a strong notion of biological determinism that permeated everything. Still, it was quite a challenge to cover gender, consent, fetishisation, colonialism, hierarchy… all the things we’re still confronting with today.

Oh and I hate the author for making me root for the aliens 😆

pferdina's review against another edition

5.0

challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The volume contains the whole trilogy: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. All are about the coming of the Oankali to Earth and how they both destroyed humanity and saved it.