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Jan 09, 2008

Lex rated it:

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...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

John rated it:

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...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Eleven rated it:

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...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2011

Kaethe rated it:

There aren't very many books that really address how the utopian vision went wrong. Butler gives us our world almost destroyed by war, with the survivors, and the planet itself, rescued by aliens. Then she shows us how a peaceful society can be destroyed by dissent and hopelessness, and saved when hope is found.

It's the sort of profound overview upon which classic science fiction is based, and it is amazing. It's quite clear why the trilogy would be so lauded with awards.

L

11 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2010

Max rated it:

Octavia Butler is playing with fire here - these books probe the deepest topics that fiction can explore, and drive straight to the heart of many of the most important issues humans deal with. Fortunately, she's up to the task, and indeed the entire first third of this series is an extravagant setup; while Dawn is somewhat frustrating to read, it is completely necessary. Were Butler to have plunged straight into the kind of things she writes about in Imago, it would have felt cheap and crass, bu More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 31, 2009

Aerin rated it:

I don't think I can take it anymore. I strongly disliked the first volume, Dawn, but figured I'd give Vol. 2 a chance - I've liked Butler in the past, and this series is supposed to be very good.

But now I'm five chapters into Adulthood Rites, and not only does it still have humans under the sadistic thumb of the most boringly evil aliens of all time, now we have my Least Favorite Trope Ever: obnoxiously precocious children! Obnoxiously precocious HUMAN-ALIEN HYBRID children! AUGH More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2008

Melanie rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 12, 2007

Elise rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2007

Owen rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2007

S.A. rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2007

Blaire rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2007

Jess rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

Jessica rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Stevelvis rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Tyler rated it:

The same co-worker who introduced me to China Mieville gave me Octavia Butler's trilogy for Christmas another year; and again she shared these with me because it's kind of screwed up and she knew that was just right for me.

Octavia Butler formulates a much more realistic science fiction universe vis a vis human experience and reaction when genuinely confronted with something Other and Superior. Probably taking some cues from the characters in Lovecraft's stories, Butler reminds us th More...

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Jan 30, 2009

Honeycarmel rated it:

Well, I read "Dawn" and loved it.

I was really unhappy because it is extremely hard to buy these 3 books separate. So, I bought the huge book and started in the middle.

I read "Adulthood Rites" and was not as good as "Dawn". I think the thing "Dawn" had that really got it... was the closeness to being now. Octavia Butler is really good at giving you something that is so slightly different than know and creeping you out! I love in a w More...

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Jan 13, 2012

Anna marked it as to-read

After reading the three books, I found myself almost surprised to have enjoyed them. It was like a revelation that a.) I was done and b.) I had made it all the way to the end. And stranger still, the experience had been a largely pleasant one.

The books don't really, I think, take the easy way out when it comes to dealing with their own subject matter. The novel's aliens scare human beings on some deep down level, and this thread of fear is never forgotten, never truly abandoned. The books deal More...

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Sep 20, 2011

S rated it:

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Feb 27, 2011

Betsy rated it:

I read this book for my ENG 472 class titled “American Nature Writing”. When I started this book I didn’t understand how “Lilith’s Brood” had anything to do with nature, but after getting through the first part of this science-fiction novel it became clear. This book is very science-fiction in the way that it starts by earth as we know it being destroyed and finding out that aliens really do exist. Now I’m not a very big fan of sci-fi or aliens, so I immediately had an aversion to this book, but More...

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Nov 15, 2010

Scott added it

Three great books in one. The stories of various individuals in one family -- Lilith and some of her descendants -- are used to explore what happens when a humanity almost destroyed by nuclear war is saved by an alien species that travels the universe and seeks to 'trade' with other species by interbreeding with them. Butler's greatest strength, I think, is her use of stories of compelling personal journeys as basic building blocks for exploring fascinating worlds. Lots of authors try to do this More...

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Sep 02, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

The cover for the edition pictured here sucks. Luckily my book didn't have this cover, as I would have been embarrassed to read this book in public.

This is a trilogy that starts with the story of Lilith, a woman who survives nuclear war only to be rescued and put into suspended animation by aliens for 250 years. When she is awoken, she's given the task of awaking other humans and convincing them to join genetically with the aliens in order to create a new species. Lilith abhors th More...

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Apr 12, 2009

Phoebe rated it:

Lilith's Brood, actually an omnibus of three novels (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) by Octavia Butler, is amazing. These three works are easily the best science fiction novels I've read in the past several years, and the first two are certain contenders for the best novels I've read in years, period.

They tell the story of a woman named Lilith, who is resurrected on an alien ship nearly three hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, as well as the stories of her half-human, half-a More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 10, 2009

Barky rated it:

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14 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 17, 2010

Josh rated it:

This is, in my opinion, an insightful book on life, love, and free will in slavery masquerading as a science fiction book about aliens and people. It brought me into contact with deeply counter-cultural questions like: What does it mean to love someone that was chosen for you? How do you love your children when they embody your slavery? How do you love your children when they do not look like you?

Octavia Butler also deals with genetic determinism, which is always interesting to me, e More...

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Sep 10, 2010

Karl rated it:

Lilith's Brood is a collected trilogy of novels by Octavia Butler. Butler deftly sets up a future where mankind has all but destroyed the planet in nuclear war. From the very brink of utter destruction, mankind is saved by an alien race which gathers the remaining humans and heals them and holds them in stasis as the Earth is healed.

Lilith is one such human, who upon awakening aboard the alien ship is eventually told the price of humanity's salvation. The aliens mean to blend with hu More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Jaime rated it:

Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy has been collected and released in this new omnibus edition as "Lilith's Brood" (names after the matriarch of the new race). The three books, "Dawn," "Adulthood Rites," and "Imago," are so intertwined they read like one book anyway, and the larger size is better for more comfortable reading. Because, you'll be unable to put the book down once you start! Butler's writes compelling science fiction rooted in social values and exam More...

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Jun 26, 2011

dejah_thoris rated it:

Once again I wish there was a way to give half stars. I really enjoyed the compilation of the three novels with the common world tying them together. I found the first one harder to get into than the other two because of the slow progression with Lilith but it made sense within the story. I am still uncertain if I would've done what she did but she's a very sympathetic character considering her circumstances. I also liked how the other two books continued to push boundaries. Adulthood Rites is a More...

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Nov 21, 2008

Ruthie is currently reading it

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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Dec 03, 2011

Melissa rated it:

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Sep 18, 2011

Jeff rated it:

I actually read this about a year ago and just realized that I never got around to reviewing it. Of course, given the quality of my memory the details have grown quite fuzzy, but I do recall that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ms. Butler's writing is incredibly smart and her observations on human nature are so keen - nuanced & precise. Or maybe I just feel that way because her opinions on the subject (at least as presented in this trilogy) coincide so neatly with my own. She presents humanity as flawe More...

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