false 52397 15 Octavia E. Butler, the grande dame of science fiction, writes extraordinary, inspirational stories of ordinary people. <I>Parable of the Sower</I> is a hopeful tale set in a dystopian future United States of walled cities, disease, fires, and madness. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old woman with hyperempathy syndrome--if she sees another in pain, she feels their pain as acutely as if it were real. When her relatively safe neighborhood enclave is inevitably destroyed, along with her family and dreams for the future, Lauren grabs a backpack full of supplies and begins a journey north. Along the way, she recruits fellow refugees to her embryonic faith, Earthseed, the prime tenet of which is that "God is change." This is a great book--simple and elegant, with enough message to make you think, but not so much that you feel preached to. 59258 1993 Parable of the Sower total:2758|5:1156|4:1018|3:461|2:93|1:30| 2758 11451 3798 392 5 5 true false Thu May 08 05:39:56 -0700 2008 Tue May 29 06:12:37 -0700 2007 Thu May 08 05:39:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 6 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 04 20:39:52 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 08 14:03:43 -0800 2007 Parable of the Sower isn't the easiest book to read. The prose is clear and uncomplicated, but the content can be hard to take. This is a close-to-home dystopia, one which I found hard to dismiss as improbable. And the world that it depicts is cruel and ugly. Even the well-meaning must do ugly thing...more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Dec 15 17:22:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jul 09 16:31:13 -0700 2009 1
Octavia Butler creates all of this in her ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 17:14:25 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 17:21:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 08:26:21 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 08:35:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 02 17:24:44 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 18:00:27 -0800 2009
Octavia challenges the contemporary thinking of what/who God is and even goes one step further to create her own religion. One of the reviewers (luckily only 5 of t...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 04:31:14 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 05:35:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 15 11:27:34 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 11:27:49 -0700 2009
i kept contrasting Parable of the Sower with Cormac McCarthy's The Road and to a lesser extent with McCarthy's Blood Meridian. where McCarthy's The Road failed Butler succeeds extraordinarily--feminist perspective, social commentary that doesn't f...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 11:19:45 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 11:21:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jun 05 09:56:16 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 05 10:10:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Jan 07 06:10:44 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 06:29:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 21:54:06 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 17:47:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 12:41:39 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 14:16:01 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 19:19:04 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 25 08:11:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 17:05:35 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 24 00:09:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 05:52:13 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 11:16:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jun 15 08:45:54 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 08:45:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 13:11:50 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 13:14:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 11:07:31 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 14:35:28 -0700 2009 Parable of the Sower too difficult to read. Butler is unsparing in her creation of a dystopia which seems scarily possible; a world where global warming has devastated the planet, ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 18:06:01 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 20:51:22 -0700 2009 more...]]>