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thestoryprofessor 's review for:
Adulthood Rites
by Octavia E. Butler
Alright, and now for the second of the Lilith's Brood trilogy.
Again, as I said in my review for Dawn, the world-building in this story is masterful. The craft that went into building not only the Oankali and their culture but also their biology, their worldview, their sexuality, their understanding of humans, and their purely altruistic but tyrannical intentions is perfectly crafted. The first book has incredible world-building, and then with the next two books, the world-building only gets better and more complicated because it too evolves as the story and the cross-bred characters mature as well.
The only thing that holds this book back is that the pacing slows to a crawl for a better part of this story. While I still greatly enjoyed this novel, I believe this one to be the weakest of the three but only by a hair. The action of the story feels a little... subplot-like within the trilogy as a whole. When I started reading the third novel, other than a decision made at the end of the second affecting parts of third (involving Mars), I wasn't quite sure why that character was important to follow in terms of plot. Having said that, the character of this novel is important because it takes the world-building of the previous novel and dives deeper. Now we have commentary about colorism, masculinity, and the identity within culture. Just as the first, though the plot and action could be strengthened, the world-building and its commentary make for wildly powerful storytelling.
Again, as I said in my review for Dawn, the world-building in this story is masterful. The craft that went into building not only the Oankali and their culture but also their biology, their worldview, their sexuality, their understanding of humans, and their purely altruistic but tyrannical intentions is perfectly crafted. The first book has incredible world-building, and then with the next two books, the world-building only gets better and more complicated because it too evolves as the story and the cross-bred characters mature as well.
The only thing that holds this book back is that the pacing slows to a crawl for a better part of this story. While I still greatly enjoyed this novel, I believe this one to be the weakest of the three but only by a hair. The action of the story feels a little... subplot-like within the trilogy as a whole. When I started reading the third novel, other than a decision made at the end of the second affecting parts of third (involving Mars), I wasn't quite sure why that character was important to follow in terms of plot. Having said that, the character of this novel is important because it takes the world-building of the previous novel and dives deeper. Now we have commentary about colorism, masculinity, and the identity within culture. Just as the first, though the plot and action could be strengthened, the world-building and its commentary make for wildly powerful storytelling.