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starsal 's review for:
Lilith's Brood
by Octavia E. Butler
I may eventually upgrade this book to four stars, depending on how well it marinates in my mind. Like [b:Seed to Harvest|7172001|It's Harvest Time! A Book with Foldout Pages|Jean McElroy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61kgq2-aIoL._SL75_.jpg|7590907], Lilith's Brood is a trilogy of three books published in one volume. Like Seed to Harvest, it deals heavily with the idea of what it means to be human, what it means to be loyal to one's species, and the quandary of having possibly un-human children. And like Seed to Harvest, it's an extraordinarily well-written story, though, yet again, I was too entranced by the plot to notice the actual writing very much.
My only complaint (and the reason for the current three stars) is that the pacing of this book seemed a little slow. In the middle, it bogged down a bit, and I got impatient waiting for the story--say, toward the end of Adulthood Rites to move on. However, the first and third books, Dawn and Imago were wonderful, so perhaps it was just a middle-of-the-trilogy slump.
Butler does an exceptional job dealing with the notion of a completely alien species, evolved to fill a completely different ecological niche. She also does a phenomenal job of introducing a non-male, non-female sex and making characters of this sex feel like genuine characters, not just constructs. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to think big thoughts, and to anyone who enjoyed [a:Ursula LeGuin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg]'s [Book: The Left Hand of Darkness].
My only complaint (and the reason for the current three stars) is that the pacing of this book seemed a little slow. In the middle, it bogged down a bit, and I got impatient waiting for the story--say, toward the end of Adulthood Rites to move on. However, the first and third books, Dawn and Imago were wonderful, so perhaps it was just a middle-of-the-trilogy slump.
Butler does an exceptional job dealing with the notion of a completely alien species, evolved to fill a completely different ecological niche. She also does a phenomenal job of introducing a non-male, non-female sex and making characters of this sex feel like genuine characters, not just constructs. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to think big thoughts, and to anyone who enjoyed [a:Ursula LeGuin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg]'s [Book: The Left Hand of Darkness].