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21st out of 800 books
—
621 voters
Dawn (Xenogenesis #1)
Lilith lyapo awoke from a centuries-long sleep to find herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. Creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased strength, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to Earth--but for a price.
Paperback, 248 pages
Published
April 1st 1997
by Warner Books
(first published 1987)
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I have such conflicted feelings about this book. I found it both brilliant and disturbing in equal measure. The beginning introduces the reader to a strange and terrifying situation that sucks you in right away. The horror at some revelations is delivered so realistically that I found myself clenching my teeth and trying to hide in the pillows I was reading on. I was very impressed. The more I read on though, the more unsettling things became. Near the last quarter of the book Octavia crossed a...more
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I like the way this book is starting..... OK , so I'm finished now. I really, really loved this book. It was like the Matrix without a constant war and all that fighting. I saw someone else's review about the book cover. Interestingly, I read the book with the big red letters and the two white women on the cover. I did not know that the main character was black. I assumed she was the white lady on the cover. So, a quarter the way through the book I realize that she is black. Also, realize that a...more
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This first book in Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy takes place entirely aboard an alien race's massive living spaceship. Confining events to a few rooms is not good if you're looking for lots of fast paced action. The story rather focuses on thoughtful development of main character Lilith. This is what you should expect from 1995 MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant" recipient Octavia E. Butler.
In short, Lilith is one of a few survivors of man's nuclear war on earth. She was "rescued" by an alien rac...more
In short, Lilith is one of a few survivors of man's nuclear war on earth. She was "rescued" by an alien rac...more
I was afraid to start the Xenogenesis trilogy because I knew there’d be issues with consent. Some reviewers described it as graphic, horrific, disturbing—and they were right on all accounts, but Dawn wasn’t as graphic as I’d initially feared. That’s not to say it was an easy book to read. The Oankali violate personal boundaries, both physical and mental, and genuinely believe their actions service humanity. The Oankali strip Lilith of her right to her mind, her body, and a life of her choosing....more
This is the first book I've read by Butler and I had mixed feelings about it. The plot was interesting and the ideas behind it were pretty intriguing, but the book just seemed to lose me after about a hundred pages of the same old things happening over and over. It seemed to me that Lillith would have her own thoughts about how terrible the genetic engineering that was happening to her was, but then she would turn around and reason herself into almost accepting it.[return][return]The book just f...more
Ново начало за човечеството в кръстоска с чужда раса: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/z...
Е, трябваше да се случи най-сетне. Серията “Галактики” на “Колибри” (на която отделих цяла статия), която включва както класици като Робърт Шекли и модерни фантасти като Саймън Мордън, така и любимия ми Джо Абъркромби, от който се започна изобщо манията ми по фентъзи литературата, досега само ме радваше, но последното заглавие от нея – “Зора” на Октавия Естел Бътлър – вече ме разочарова силно. Истината...more
Е, трябваше да се случи най-сетне. Серията “Галактики” на “Колибри” (на която отделих цяла статия), която включва както класици като Робърт Шекли и модерни фантасти като Саймън Мордън, така и любимия ми Джо Абъркромби, от който се започна изобщо манията ми по фентъзи литературата, досега само ме радваше, но последното заглавие от нея – “Зора” на Октавия Естел Бътлър – вече ме разочарова силно. Истината...more
Going from Hardy to this was a strange transition, but luckily Octavia Butler is a good writer. Her pacing, tone, and character development were well-done: the novel moved at a gentle lope, feeling neither rushed nor slow; the story wasn't silly but it also wasn't depressing, despite the death of 95% of the world; and Lilith was a likable and intelligent character. Likewise, the aliens began as creepy (well, likely to most people - I thought they were intriguing from the start) and moved towards...more
This was my introduction to Octavia Butler, and I think it's a great place to start on her fiction. All of the archetypal Butler elements are here: humans as a brutal and flawed species made into something better by entering into a symbiotic relationship with a non-human intelligence, brutality, people making do in the remnants of a civilization that self-destructed, strong female protagonist, but it's all "lite" compared to some of her other series. The brutality is nothing like that of the ext...more
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Dawn is a emotional and imaginative book. But it has serious issues which, because the first part is a "where am I? what's going on?" type of story, can't be discussed without SLIGHT SPOILERS... except to say that the second part is weaker and less believable.
It was a gripping and fascinating read. But in the end I wondered: how much of that was down to cheap shock tactics on Butler's part?
I'm drawn to compare Dawn with Le Guin's City of Illusions which is another distinctly yankee post-apolcaly...more
It was a gripping and fascinating read. But in the end I wondered: how much of that was down to cheap shock tactics on Butler's part?
I'm drawn to compare Dawn with Le Guin's City of Illusions which is another distinctly yankee post-apolcaly...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
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Although, I didn't read this as a standalone (I had read it in the Lilith's Brood anthology), I thought I would rate this on its own since I don't plan to be reading the rest of the series.
Overall, Dawn is not a bad book. It was assigned to me in my literature class and while it does have an interesting plot line, there was nothing about it that lead me to want to read more. The conflict in this book is very passive and the character development is pretty typical. I think I just expected more ou...more
Overall, Dawn is not a bad book. It was assigned to me in my literature class and while it does have an interesting plot line, there was nothing about it that lead me to want to read more. The conflict in this book is very passive and the character development is pretty typical. I think I just expected more ou...more
This first novel in the trilogy explores the human xenophobia and our unwillingness and rigidness to evolve, move on, and embrace inevitable changes. The novel itself is a metaphor and a bleak description of the humanity after the nuclear war. There are numerous references and allusions to the speculative nuclear conflict between the USA and the former USSR, and it is not accidental because the book was written during the final detrimental moments of the Cold War, when the antagonistic feelings...more
At the time of the writing of Xenogenesis, leading up to their publication in 1987, the Cold War was in full swing and nobody, certainly not the CIA, had any inkling that Ronald Reagan’s aggressive foreign policy toward the U.S.S.R. was helping that nation to spend itself out of existence*. This is mostly relevant because in the 1980s, with thousands of nuclear ICBM’s between them pointed at one another, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. genuinely created the context for a nuclear war – now, in 2012,...more
A big gap in my science fiction reading is Octavia Butler, so I was happy to find a copy of Dawn on the Maryknolls borrow-leave bookshelves. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but this wasn't it. Dawn is a somewhat old-fashioned science-fiction story—it has the feeling of those old '60s scifi stories where the idea somewhat squashes the characters. There's a lot of talk of people's emotions, but the people just felt a little flat to me. So I was surprised when I was looking it up for thi...more
This reminds me a bit of Timothy Zahn's Conquerors trilogy (although this came first), which I very much enjoyed.
A very engaging tale of a conquering alien race, only this time the aliens are more salvagers, after mankind has destroyed itself with nuclear war. Not the first or last time you'll read that basic premise, but a very well-told story with its' own distinct alien race.
There are only two things that don't quite sit with me ...
1) It seems everyone is so reluctant to believe their capto...more
A very engaging tale of a conquering alien race, only this time the aliens are more salvagers, after mankind has destroyed itself with nuclear war. Not the first or last time you'll read that basic premise, but a very well-told story with its' own distinct alien race.
There are only two things that don't quite sit with me ...
1) It seems everyone is so reluctant to believe their capto...more
Wow. A real thinking book.
This is the 2nd Octavia Butler book I have read. The first was Parable of the Sower, and I definitely see some recurring themes between the two. Human brutality, the concept of sharing feelings, loss of power over oneself, drastic changes to society.
I am very much impressed by Butler, she shows a definite realism and pessimism towards "human nature" in her works. It sounds bad, but I tend to agree with her.
In both Parable of the Sower and Dawn, the protagonist finds...more
This is the 2nd Octavia Butler book I have read. The first was Parable of the Sower, and I definitely see some recurring themes between the two. Human brutality, the concept of sharing feelings, loss of power over oneself, drastic changes to society.
I am very much impressed by Butler, she shows a definite realism and pessimism towards "human nature" in her works. It sounds bad, but I tend to agree with her.
In both Parable of the Sower and Dawn, the protagonist finds...more
I should really read this book again. I read it in an African American literature class, where the professor was enamored with the similarities between being Black in America, and being an alien in an alien world. I liked studying it that way, but the result is that it's no exaggeration to say that I have thought about this book at least every year since I read it twelve years ago, and at least once a week since I had my child. What takes my fancy is the way she describes the human trying to nav...more
This was my introduction to Octavia - a BRILLIANT book. There was absolutely NO downside to it. Dawn was suspensful and vivid. It questioned morals and the reasons people behave the way that they do. It was even sensual and provocative. She has the gift of the written description. She never uses words that perplex - words that you need to look up in order to "see" the surroundings or the characters. For example: In the book "Helix" by J. L. Bryan, the author - in an attempt to explain a scene of...more
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The book starts slow and rather predictable; human faced with alien being gets angry and suspicious. By the end, I was completely creeped out. It ends up being not just us v. them but an exploration of reality, perception, and truth. There is no resolution at the end for the question of the setting, and thus no resolution of whether or not the main character has been lied to or not. This is apparently the first in a trilogy, so it must be resolved at some point. There's also a continuous touchin...more
'Dawn' is the first book in Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, and as such it is difficult to asses without having read the subsequent volumes. Nevertheless, as a standalone I found it an insightful and intelligent take on the age old sci fi question of what it means to be human.
Whether one reads it as an alien abduction horror or a first contact/uplift story very much depends on one's take on the social and philosophical issues it raises. There is no simple answer to the humans' choice between survi...more
Whether one reads it as an alien abduction horror or a first contact/uplift story very much depends on one's take on the social and philosophical issues it raises. There is no simple answer to the humans' choice between survi...more
Lilith findet sich in einem spartanisch eingerichteten Zimmer wieder. Wo ist sie und was ist geschehen? Lilith wird von unsichtbaren Stimmen ausgefragt - diese beantworten jedoch keineswegs ihre Fragen, sondern stellen stur ihre eigenen: Wer ist Sie? Was hat sie früher getan? Liliths letzte Erinnerungen sind die an einen zerstörerischen Krieg, der sämtliche Lebensformen ausgelöscht hat.
Was Lilith zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht weiß: Ihre Retter, die Oankali, sind Außerirdische, die die Menschen...more
Was Lilith zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht weiß: Ihre Retter, die Oankali, sind Außerirdische, die die Menschen...more
Earth is destroyed by war and an alien civilization tries to rescue the few survivors. They are also traders in that each new civilization they come across they add their DNA to form a new improved Oankali. They Awaken Lilith and she finds out she's been asleep on-and-off for 250 years. Earth has been cleansed as much as possible by the aliens, but because of the destruction most large animals are extinct. A lot of the plants have been changed by radioactivity or because they were changed by the...more
Octavio Butler was an unique voice in science fiction. I have only read Wild Seed and a few short stories before, but Dawn, the first of the Xenogenesis series, is in keeping with her recurring themes. Lilith finds herself revived after a 250 years sleep on a alien spaceship. She discovers that she and other humans are the last survivors of a devastating war that ended life on Earth. They will be trained and returned to a rejuvenated Earth by the aliens. However, there is always a catch. The dis...more
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I've decided to split this into the 3 actual novels that were written (though I'm reading them as 1 book), mainly because it's a way to loophole 3 more books in my 50 book challenge...that no one cares about but me. Anywho... What a good read! Octavia Butler's writing never disappoints, and her creation of new beings that are so unlike humans pleased me. Usually when I read or see stories of aliens, they have distinct human or animal-like features. Fish-like scales, two eyes placed where they sh...more
SF. Almost three hundred years after the population of Earth has been decimated by nuclear war, Lilith Iyapo wakes up on a space ship among aliens. She learns that her rescuers/captors want to return humans to Earth, but there's a price. The Oankali survive by merging their genetic material with other species, and the humans they return to Earth won't be human for long.
Boy, is this book crawling with consent issues. Aliens: Not all that interested in your personal boundaries! One of them repeate...more
Boy, is this book crawling with consent issues. Aliens: Not all that interested in your personal boundaries! One of them repeate...more
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This was an interesting take on the post apocalyptic world. Earth has blown itself up but there are aliens around to grab some of the survivors who are kept in stasis and awakened periodically as the aliens work to figure humans out. Lilith Iyapo is chosen to be taught how to live on the newly cleansed Earth and to awaken and teach a small group of fellow survivors.
The aliens were interesting as was the way in which they "trade" with new species they come across. Lilith and her reactions seemed...more
The aliens were interesting as was the way in which they "trade" with new species they come across. Lilith and her reactions seemed...more
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NOT FOR THE SCIENCE FICTION FAINT OF HEART. I got my first taste of science fiction through READ magazine in the sixth grade. I always volunteered to read a part in the plays out loud, and was especially fond of “The Cosby Show” scripts. Although those comedic plays, even with their witty dialogue and loveable characters—my favorites were Rudy and Vanessa-- might have gifted me with an elevated mood and even an elevated sense of self, they didn’t get to me viscerally the way “The Twilight Zone”...more
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Three and a half stars? And now I'm catching up on a book someone told me to read in 2007. Interesting, although possessed by many of the things that make me dislike science fiction in general: flat characters and flat prose, most particularly. The novel's account of male/female sexual relationships has that sort of straightforward 70s sci-fi interpersonal autism feel to it: "I am Cindy the woman, and I take Gerard the man as my mate." (In fact, the word "mate" is used far more frequently than I...more
How much of being human requires self determination and how much of it is worth sacrificing to survive? That's the basic question explored in this book. It is really well done, Aliens were quite alien; humans. . . meh. I wanted to like Lilith. The entire book is from her point of view but she never gelled for me. A lot of reviewers state that they were disturbed by aliens violating humans with their genetic and drug manipulation. I thought it was par for the course and went directly to the centr...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SciFi and Fantasy...: Dawn by Octavia Butler - April 2013 | 31 | 59 | 7 de May 22:30 | |
| Goodreads Choice ...: Dawn (Xenogenesis #1) by Octavia E. Butler | 8 | 28 | 30 de Abr 12:38 | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Should these be combined? | 9 | 39 | 11 de Abr 21:11 |
Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.
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