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A review by outcolder
Imago by Octavia E. Butler
5.0
Although it starts out slow and maybe, for Butler, a bit choppy, it began to feel a little rushed at the end. Normally with Butler, if I have questions along the lines of, “if they can do that, why don’t they do this?” she is usually ahead of me with quick-and-dirty Q&A type exposition to clarify the rules of the story-world but here she has these new (for this series) aliens that can shapechange and can change other people’s shapes, but somehow human gender relations remain relentlessly heterosexual, even with these shapechanging third sex aliens in the mix.
Some other reviewers have rightly pointed out that consent is , uh, not done right here. The aliens believe they have consent to mind-fuck you, even impregnate you with alien babies, even though 1, you verbally said “no” 2, you don’t really have a choice since the other options are prison camp on Mars, sterility and a long life working like a 19th century pioneer, or 3 permanent coma on the spaceship. Making it worse is that they drug you, first with pheromones and then with some intravenous substance that makes you physically dependent on the invader. But whether or not Butler’s own understanding of what is consent was as flawed as her aliens, she is making an excellent point, or at least starting an excellent conversation about rape and colonialism, about rape and genocide. Forcing the reader to identify with rapey alien invaders and then making the humans be mainly Spanish speaking people of color turns this into a fascinating remix of the Mars-needs-women trope, and a criticism of humanitarian aid; humanitarian aid as imperialism.
It does seem that Butler truly believes that humans have a genetic “contradiction” as she calls it that will lead to our inexorable destruction. Try as much as I can, it is hard to disagree with her in a summer when the permafrost is boiling and Greenland is melting.
It also seems that there might have been a 4th book, with the new colony started at the end of this book somehow resisting the destruction of the Earth, or with the Martian colony at war with the Oankali. In this imaginary 4th book, Butler might have introduced pregnant men, or women fathers... considering what these new ooloi can do, that seems possible.
For all the problems and rushed feeling, this is still a full 5star book, some of the best SF I have ever read!
Some other reviewers have rightly pointed out that consent is , uh, not done right here. The aliens believe they have consent to mind-fuck you, even impregnate you with alien babies, even though 1, you verbally said “no” 2, you don’t really have a choice since the other options are prison camp on Mars, sterility and a long life working like a 19th century pioneer, or 3 permanent coma on the spaceship. Making it worse is that they drug you, first with pheromones and then with some intravenous substance that makes you physically dependent on the invader. But whether or not Butler’s own understanding of what is consent was as flawed as her aliens, she is making an excellent point, or at least starting an excellent conversation about rape and colonialism, about rape and genocide. Forcing the reader to identify with rapey alien invaders and then making the humans be mainly Spanish speaking people of color turns this into a fascinating remix of the Mars-needs-women trope, and a criticism of humanitarian aid; humanitarian aid as imperialism.
It does seem that Butler truly believes that humans have a genetic “contradiction” as she calls it that will lead to our inexorable destruction. Try as much as I can, it is hard to disagree with her in a summer when the permafrost is boiling and Greenland is melting.
It also seems that there might have been a 4th book, with the new colony started at the end of this book somehow resisting the destruction of the Earth, or with the Martian colony at war with the Oankali. In this imaginary 4th book, Butler might have introduced pregnant men, or women fathers... considering what these new ooloi can do, that seems possible.
For all the problems and rushed feeling, this is still a full 5star book, some of the best SF I have ever read!