It's rare that I read a book that stays with me for years after I've finished it.
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It's rare that I read a book that stays with me for years after I've finished it. Octavia Butler's Parable duology is among the best books I've read.
Maybe it's because it's so prescient. Written in the 90s, it plays out in 2024, and has a fascist president candidate running with the slogan "Make America Great Again". We're only an el niño year with devastating forest fires (and empaths) away from her vision.
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It's rare that I read a book that stays with me for years after I've finished it. Octavia Butler's Parable duology is among the best books I've read.
Maybe it's because it's so prescient. Written in the 90s, it plays out in 2024, and has a fascist president candidate running with the slogan "Make America Great Again". We're only an el niño year with devastating forest fires (and empaths) away from her vision.
Not only does Butler tell a captivating story, she connects the dots between racism and poverty in the US. She deals with climate change and its effects on a USA under a fascist takeover (and the results in the second book) in a very visceral way.
It is also a deep reflection on the nature of God outside established religions.
If there ever is a hall of fame of sci-fi, this duology belongs there. It is at last on par with Asimov's "Foundation"
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Not only does Butler tell a captivating story, she connects the dots between racism and poverty in the US. She deals with climate change and its effects on a USA under a fascist takeover (and the results in the second book) in a very visceral way.
It is also a deep reflection on the nature of God outside established religions.
If there ever is a hall of fame of sci-fi, this duology belongs there. It is at last on par with Asimov's "Foundation"
@kazarnowicz I read Sower for the first time in 2023 and it was *shocking* how contemporary it felt
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Not only does Butler tell a captivating story, she connects the dots between racism and poverty in the US. She deals with climate change and its effects on a USA under a fascist takeover (and the results in the second book) in a very visceral way.
It is also a deep reflection on the nature of God outside established religions.
If there ever is a hall of fame of sci-fi, this duology belongs there. It is at last on par with Asimov's "Foundation"
@kazarnowicz I read it last year and it still reasonates a lot. After I read "The Handmaid's Tale" I felt similar, but reality seemed so different to the plot that I could cope with the story easier... But the "Parables"...? Right now...? Phew...
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It's rare that I read a book that stays with me for years after I've finished it. Octavia Butler's Parable duology is among the best books I've read.
Maybe it's because it's so prescient. Written in the 90s, it plays out in 2024, and has a fascist president candidate running with the slogan "Make America Great Again". We're only an el niño year with devastating forest fires (and empaths) away from her vision.
@kazarnowicz These books were my introduction to Octavia Butler. I had to read everything else she had written after that. I remember how sad I was to see in a (physical!) newspaper an article reporting her death. How many more stories might we have had? My favorite series of hers: the Xenogenesis Trilogy
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It's rare that I read a book that stays with me for years after I've finished it. Octavia Butler's Parable duology is among the best books I've read.
Maybe it's because it's so prescient. Written in the 90s, it plays out in 2024, and has a fascist president candidate running with the slogan "Make America Great Again". We're only an el niño year with devastating forest fires (and empaths) away from her vision.
@kazarnowicz could not pick up the second one, first was so grim. Maybe as I was living just up the coast from the setting of the first at the time I read it.
