Reviews tagging 'War'

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

68 reviews

franklola's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Abandonment, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Body horror, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Vomit, War, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

crondeau_yvr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-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? N/A

4.5

This book was incredibly challenging to read. One can’t help look at the state of the world currently and see how we could be heading this way. Hopefully not… although there’s hope at the end, there’s so much terrible human behaviour. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, War, Racism, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Slavery, and Confinement

gabivitale's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Slavery, Rape, Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: War

plainpaige's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

I think I liked this book more than its predecessor, despite the often disturbing, challenging storyline. Butler again made predictions that seem to be coming true to some degree. I enjoyed this book's foray into the politics of a crumbling society, though I suspect it may be difficult for some people who endorse Christianity to swallow. I love a good cautionary tale, though, and if you can struggle through the hard concepts, you will be rewarded with a beautiful story of the human experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment, Torture, Medical content, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide, Gun violence, Pregnancy, War, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Addiction, Excrement, Infidelity, Infertility, Cursing, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

simareading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, War, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Child abuse, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

stevia333k's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So I'm white, and I read this series because anti racist black tiktokers recommended this book series over the handmaid's tale. I took them up on their recommendations because I often cited THG for about a decade for similar purposes & yeah this series has a lot of overlap. So hence I read this 2nd book. I'm thankful for this series because for a while I was thinking of using religion preaching with uncommon canons as praxis, and this series has discouraged me from that in addition to hearing about the Jim Jones people's church, etc.

I came into this book wondering how to deal with a civil war situation & I came out wanting to get a good cry in about the social constructs of family. (Looking back I actually had a similar reaction with THG #1)  I came to this book to cry, yet that topic shift startled me.  While the plot does rely on certain technologies that don't exactly map onto our world it still has helpful info & strategies. For example the laying low & collecting info etc was inspiring & helpful in affirming lessons I had gotten.

I've also learned the teacher praxis was emphasized again. While I often hear this in reference to the GPCR & MLM (including Peru) it seems that Maoism's arena can be more generally described as "civil warfare" & political terror against people's war.

As a white disabled queer muslima feminist, this shit hits hard, especially considering that the 10 generations of enslaved people who were mentioned had muslims when they were kidnapped. Like holy shit this book touched on a mood. I read about half this book on a Friday, but it took nearly 2 weeks to read the first half. I've been busy but still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

miles862's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

Great book - Butler is a fantastic writer. I really enjoyed the additional POV and the complex wrestling with different views of the same sets of events. Definitely pay attention to content warnings, but awful and horrific things are used very intentionally and fittingly in the book rather than being simply for shock value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: War, Violence, Trafficking, and Suicide

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD*

HOLY SHIT. This is a great book (and series), but DAYUM, it's an emotionally destructive read on so many levels. I had to stop for breaks at several points just because it all became too much for me. Ms Butler wrote The Parable of the Talents in 1998, but damned if she wasn't describing what happened in the 2016 US elections!! 🤯

I feel like Larkin was too harsh in her reflections on her mother Lauren, given everything that Lauren went through and the fact that Larkin was literally stolen from her. Larkin only met her mother 'occasionally' after she found Lauren - when they were in their 30s and 50s, respectively. She had no clue what her mother had done to find her, despite reading her journals, which are only glimpses into the past - and had definitely been brainwashed by Marc (who I pretty much detest). If anything, Larkin had already made up her mind about her mother before they even met, and damned her without any evidence. 

It's sad to see the deterioration of the US in the books, which seems to be coming to pass in real life, although without the level of violence and destruction in the book... yet. It's also sad to see that the 'good Christians' are up to their same old, violent bullshit - trying to convert the heathens by killing the heathen in them to save the person, to paraphrase. Even in a fake future, it never changes. Religious fascists always think their religion is the one and only true faith, and others WILL convert - by any means necessary - or they will die.

I think that's what Earthseed's tenets speak to me so much. They're not trying to force anyone to believe in some imaginary being. They are deep truths that we can all see happening around us. Like the saying goes, "the only constant in life is change". 

There are some bright spots in the series, such as Lauren finding people who loved her, managing to reconnect with her daughter - no matter how strained their relationship was, at least she knew Larkin was alive and doing well, and living to see Earthseed grow and getting to watch the first 'seeds' shoot off into space to fulfil her Destiny.

I really wish Ms Butler had lived long enough to finish writing the series because I think books about Earthseed's struggles to create better lives on new planets would have been super cool, with a lot of possibilities to encounter other life forms. Guess we'll have to leave that kind of story to other writers...

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Slavery, and War

balladofreadingqueer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

I love Octavia Butler and I loved this book. It amazes me that she predicted our recent realities. Covid 19 and the ‘pox’ and she also predicted a conservative demagogue with ‘make America great again’ as his slogan.

The story follows Lauren Olamina as she survives the collapse of society and tries to create a life for Earthseed, the religion based on God is Change. It starts positively with building community, skills and teaching. It is difficult in sections with enslavement and rape in the middle section as well as the murder of her husband and kidnapping of her child. The end is positive for the religion but not so much for her relationship with her estranged daughter.

I think that Butler encourages readers to consider their own power and influence to change the world, the negative impacts of climate change, religious right demagoguery, othering of poor or unhoused and more.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Murder, Kidnapping, Rape, and War

ambarleti's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Incest, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Addiction and Xenophobia