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644 ratings, 4.34 average rating, 75 reviews
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published
May 1989
by Doubleday Books
binding
Hardcover, 736 pages
setting
Unknown
isbn
1568650337
(isbn13: 9781568650333)
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| Sci Fi and Fantas...: * Master Science Fiction Book List | 18 | 593 | 2 days ago, 08:02AM | |
| Best science fiction I have read in years | 1 | 4 | 08/21/2008 02:46PM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 919)
Okay, so, how dare I give anything Octavia Butler wrote four stars instead of five? I think that if I read some of her later stuff first, I would have understood this narrative to be part of her growing process as a theorist/novelist. Being that it was my first book of hers to read, after hearing so much about her gay genius and feminist protagonists, I was really disappointed with her tendency to fall back on tired notions of femininity/masculinity, imperative to breed, and the alien third gend...more
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Lilith's Brood is actually three novels: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, which have since been published in one volume. The basic story is this: humanity has virtually destroyed itself and the earth in a nuclear conflagration. Just after we've done so, a strange and powerful alien race called the Oankali arrive to save us. Sort of.
The Oankali are strange in a number of ways. They have horrifying snake-like sensory tentacles all over their bodies, they have three genders, and one...more
The Oankali are strange in a number of ways. They have horrifying snake-like sensory tentacles all over their bodies, they have three genders, and one...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Melanie by:
Angela
i just finished the first book of the trilogy: so far, i'm loving it. it combines some of the elements i find most fascinating about science fiction: strange, new worlds, strong characters who have to make complex choices, interpersonal relationships and the development of new societies, psychological warfare, morality, questions of what makes us human, space travel... chock full of good stuff.
book 2 was also a good story, interesting, a compelling story about lileth's firstborn son,...more
book 2 was also a good story, interesting, a compelling story about lileth's firstborn son,...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in November, 2007
Octavia Butler uses this book to explore what makes us human by taking humanity completely out of its known context and giving it a whole new one with fundamental restrictions and specifically chosen opportunities. This allows her to put humanity in high-relief, and I have to say a lot of what she says strikes a chord -- her definition of the Human Contradiction, for example, is spot-on. I think she does get a little bit heavy-handed -- I feel there's a little more gray scale to human behavior t...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
this is the first science fiction book i have read since i was a teenager, and it was so good, i fell in love with octavia butler, and my interest in science fiction was rekindled.
when i started to develop a critical consciousness in college i found that i couldn't read my formerly favorite science fiction books, i.e. stranger in a strange land by robert heinlein, because while they could imagine amazing technological and magical futures where the human mind could overcome previous...more
when i started to develop a critical consciousness in college i found that i couldn't read my formerly favorite science fiction books, i.e. stranger in a strange land by robert heinlein, because while they could imagine amazing technological and magical futures where the human mind could overcome previous...more
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Read in August, 2007
This series covers an Earth destroyed by mankind but salvaged by the Oankali, a space travelling species who specialize in genetic engineering. Dawn features the story of Lilith, one of the few humans saved by the Oankali, and her slow and reluctant conversion to their goals. Lilith's an interesting character, who never quite relinquishes her strong individuality despite her deep attachment to her Oankali mates. Adulthood Rites changes POV to Lilith's son Akim, who is a cross-breed of human-O...more
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
scifi fans, anyone interested in human behavior, fans of a good story
I wouldn't normally define myself as a straight-up science fiction fan - in fact, I'm normally put off by techno fairy tales and scary alien stories. But I finally picked up Lilith's Brood after my father (who is something of a purist) bothered me enough. I was instantly intrigued.
It isn't just a post-apocalyptic novel... or an exploration of other worlds... or other races of beings, for that matter. No, Butler decided to use the aliens that have taken control of the dying human race...more
It isn't just a post-apocalyptic novel... or an exploration of other worlds... or other races of beings, for that matter. No, Butler decided to use the aliens that have taken control of the dying human race...more
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Read in November, 2007
This book is actually a trilogy: Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago. Ordinarily, I avoid trilogies because if I don't read them all at once I lose the thread and if I do read them all at once I'm bored by the end. I only give 5 stars to books that I think are something really out of the ordinary, and this is; not just for its genre (sci-fi), but for any fiction. I love being able to lose myself in a richly imagined world, and this book allowed me to do that. Ms. Butler's vision is expansive and...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
I read Dawn a few months ago, and while I liked it, I wasn't blown away. After I read Fledgling and was newly impressed with Butler's creativity and way with language, I decided to finish the series. It absorbed me for two days, and I ended up absolutely loving it. This series reminded me of Vonnegut without the humor--where he uses absurdity to make a point, Butler lets that same point seep into you a little at a time. These books are about perception, violence, independence, and most of al...more
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Like every good sci-fi book, this book about aliens explores what it means to be human. What makes this book amazing is that Butler quietly takes the usual aliens-invade-earth trope and gives it a good hard shake. Gender and race theory mix with an environmental consciousness and startling prescience regarding new science. I read once that she predicted develoments in certain scientific fields in these books. It is a sci-fi exploration of colonization - even a 'benevolent' colonizer still threat...more
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OCTAVIA E. BUTLER-- Lilith's Brood (aka Xenogenesis): Three books originally marketed as a trilogy under the title Xenogenesis with newer editions published under the title Lilith's Brood. A story which takes place after Earth has been destroyed by war and pollution leaving only a handful of humans still alive but imprisoned by a strange horrific species of aliens who are willing to make a deal with the humans to save the Earth and humanity. In exchange for a total terraforming makeover of th...more
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Um. This trilogy (the three novels are, respectively, Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago) is some seriously weird stuff. (Duh. Sci-fi is weird.) But Butler is a helluva story teller. This is another instance in which I'm pimping an author I read for class. Butler is rightly renowned for her artistry, her characters and, of course, her imagination. Imagination in the case of this writer means not, "wow the author really effectively imagined how that conversation between those two ex-lovers ...more
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Read in January, 2003
Butler does not let up. She presents you with the alien, and then doesn't let you flinch or look away. She is quietly relentless, and the tension in her stories builds and builds...and doesn't explode, like the cliche, but subsides. Along the way, you get an excellent story presented through the kind of excellent and innovative ideas that mark superb SciFi.
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recommends it for:
sci-fi lovers, people interested in feminism or queer theroy
The four books that make up this series are some of the most engaging and fascinating literature I have ever read--besides being the best science fiction. This is a weird and terrifying world that Butler creates, one where aliens take from the humans the ability to reproduce on their own. But that's not the numbing part--it's when the humans begin to find their alien captors sexually desirable.
This book introduces some really interesting concepts, like the idea of a third gender, a...more
This book introduces some really interesting concepts, like the idea of a third gender, a...more
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Strangers are different. Life is part distorter part creator.
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Read in January, 2006
there's sex, aliens AND social commentary
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Read in November, 2008
Well written, but not terribly thoughtful. The real problem of humanity is that we're both intelligent and hierarchical? In other words, all the troubles of mankind come from a combination of reason and order? Apparently, things would be much better if we were emotional and disordered...
But even that doesn't work, since Butler doesn't talk much about emotion ("emotion" seems to be mostly biochemical anyway). Despite all of her talk about mating, marriage, etc, only in the end of ...more
But even that doesn't work, since Butler doesn't talk much about emotion ("emotion" seems to be mostly biochemical anyway). Despite all of her talk about mating, marriage, etc, only in the end of ...more
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Read in June, 2008
Lilith’s Brood by Octavia E. Butler is actually a novel trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago), evidently published separately, then gathered in the one novel. I became interested in reading the trilogy after hearing Lynn, from my writers group, talk about it. I couldn’t be more pleased that I did.
In Ms. Butler’s work, the people of earth have destroyed the viability of the planet through war. An extra-terrestrial race of beings rescue the few remaining inhabitants, place ...more
In Ms. Butler’s work, the people of earth have destroyed the viability of the planet through war. An extra-terrestrial race of beings rescue the few remaining inhabitants, place ...more
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Read in October, 2008
I would not say I loved this book, but there were parts I enjoyed. I need a story that is more character driven and I never grew to care about any of the characters in the book. Part of this is due to Butler's writing, which often seems distant, therefore it was very difficult to make any connection. This can also be due to the genre of science fiction, but I've read other scifi books I've enjoyed much more. I will say I love the concept of this novel and I appreciate the feminist qualities, but...more
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Read in June, 2008
Lilith's Brood is an omnibus edition of the three novels Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. The three novels tell the story of humankind after nuclear apocalypse, rescued by an alien race, then returned to Earth... but at a price. The aliens are compelled by their nature to merge with new species, forcing humanity to cross-breed with them, to evolve and change - whether they want to or not.
The trilogy follows Lilith, one of the first human beings to be returned, and her family, as t...more
The trilogy follows Lilith, one of the first human beings to be returned, and her family, as t...more
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