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A review by jwells
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
dark
emotional
hopeful
The first half of this book seemed really slow, compared to the tension of the first book. There are also a LOT of Earthseed verses, which I can't claim are all that meaningful to me. I'm not really getting into the God is Change stuff.
It's an interesting question to what extent Butler wanted her invented religion to actually inspire us readers. Did she make it up just to tell a great story? Or did she hope we'd come away from these books with new levels of commitment to achieving space colonies, because that's the spiritual destiny of the human species?
The community building aspects of Earthseed are lovely, but I can't really buy into the idea that we need space colonies as a communal goal. I mean, it would be cool if we could, someday, but I could think of lots of other good communal goals we could work on.
It's an interesting question to what extent Butler wanted her invented religion to actually inspire us readers. Did she make it up just to tell a great story? Or did she hope we'd come away from these books with new levels of commitment to achieving space colonies, because that's the spiritual destiny of the human species?
The community building aspects of Earthseed are lovely, but I can't really buy into the idea that we need space colonies as a communal goal. I mean, it would be cool if we could, someday, but I could think of lots of other good communal goals we could work on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Sexism, Physical abuse, and Slavery
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Rape, Gun violence, and Confinement