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52nd out of 240 books
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330 voters
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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.
Mass Market Paperbound, 248 pages
Published
April 1st 1997
by Warner Books
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51st out of 520 books
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202 voters
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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
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 ...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 ...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 th...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 th...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 na...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 t...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
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
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 ...more
Boy, is this book crawling with consent issues. Aliens: Not all that interested in your personal boundaries! One of ...more
I wanted to like this book. I really did. I'm a huge fan of feminist sci-fi; Ursula K. LeGuin is my favorite author. This book proved to be a substandard knock-off of The Left Hand of Darkness. Sure, there's a lot that's interesting about the book. The descriptions of biotechnology were fascinating. I'm sure that there's an interesting feminist story somewhere in this book, but I was so busy being completely grossed out and horrified by the beyond disturbing descriptions of tentacle rape that I ...more
What a cool, creepy, and sad little tale.
This isn't normally the type of book I read, but I enjoyed Fledgling and really, really enjoyed Kindred. Since then, I have been on a slow hunt to try and read more of Butler's books.
On the surface, this is a book about aliens.. but, really it is about our own nature. Captivity, bondage, hierarchy within our culture, race, and assumed heterosexuality. Lilith, the main character, awakens to find that earth has basically destroyed itself...more
This isn't normally the type of book I read, but I enjoyed Fledgling and really, really enjoyed Kindred. Since then, I have been on a slow hunt to try and read more of Butler's books.
On the surface, this is a book about aliens.. but, really it is about our own nature. Captivity, bondage, hierarchy within our culture, race, and assumed heterosexuality. Lilith, the main character, awakens to find that earth has basically destroyed itself...more
A really, really interesting (and, as others have said, creepy) take on xenophobia and post-apocalyptic rebuilding and how humanity and individual identity struggle for definition in the face of genetic manipulation and watershed change. The writing seems dated at points (not helping: the edition I found at the library had a SUPER-eighties and sadly whitewashed cover), but the characterization of the Oankali is masterful -- they never seem evil exactly, just like this impenetrable wall of pure a...more
This horrendously disturbing little book shows what happens after WWIII devastates human society, and an alien race arrives to enslave and rape the survivors (all in the name of eugenics and creating a higher species, or some Nazi shit). The entire book is basically the heroine, Lilith, developing a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome for her captors, as she is forced to mediate between the aliens and her fellow humans, being used by one group and despised as a traitor by the other. Seriously h...more
I first read this slim but powerful novel shortly after having finished the last Tom Clancy book I ever read, or will read: The Sum of all Fears, which might more accurately have been named Jack Ryan Saves The World While Everybody Else Runs Around Like Chickens With Their Heads Cut Off. Sure, you could argue that the latter title would be excessively long, but I claim that that's precisely what would make it perfectly appropriate to Clancy's bloated, self-indulgent little — or rather, not-so-li...more
So I just read this book again for the I don't know how manyeth time.
I really like this book. But I think I like the aliens better than the humans, it's not the first time I've identified more with aliens than my own species.
Lilith is a cool, brave woman (who is also black, not that it matters, but the old school cover I first encountered did show her as a white woman which is confusing, but maybe they figured that folks wouldn't read it if it was about someone black, kind of l...more
I really like this book. But I think I like the aliens better than the humans, it's not the first time I've identified more with aliens than my own species.
Lilith is a cool, brave woman (who is also black, not that it matters, but the old school cover I first encountered did show her as a white woman which is confusing, but maybe they figured that folks wouldn't read it if it was about someone black, kind of l...more
Good read! Lilith Iyapo, the main character "Awakens" on an alien ship, 250 years after being rescued by these same aliens, the Oankali, from a nuclear war ravaged Earth. The Oankali are incredibly alien and scary to Awakened humans. They are "genetic traders," who mate in threes with a female, male and an "it," an ooloi who is the guiding force in the sexual-reproductive experience. The Oankali are seeming contradictions - beings who will not eat anything that ...more
Dawn is a brilliant, moving book. I realized that I had never read anything by Octavia Butler - one of the few highly successful African-American women writers of Science Fiction - so I set out to remedy that. I'm very glad that I did.
Lilith is a strong, complex character, and the reader sees the plot unfold entirely from her perspective. Her struggles - within herself, with the Oankali, with other humans - prove her to be smart, adaptable, human and fallible. How her personal convic...more
Lilith is a strong, complex character, and the reader sees the plot unfold entirely from her perspective. Her struggles - within herself, with the Oankali, with other humans - prove her to be smart, adaptable, human and fallible. How her personal convic...more
Well.
This started out as a four-star book for me. The section of the book that deals with Lilith's initial captivity and time alone among the Oankali was intriguing and strange, some excellent worldbuilding. Once more humans were introduced I felt as though the characterisation fell down a little, with very few of the humans being developed beyond the cardboard cut-out stage. (I did appreciate the matter-of-fact racial diversity, though, even if the humans were overwhelmingly heteronor...more
This started out as a four-star book for me. The section of the book that deals with Lilith's initial captivity and time alone among the Oankali was intriguing and strange, some excellent worldbuilding. Once more humans were introduced I felt as though the characterisation fell down a little, with very few of the humans being developed beyond the cardboard cut-out stage. (I did appreciate the matter-of-fact racial diversity, though, even if the humans were overwhelmingly heteronor...more
Jeff
rated it
Recommends it for:
Everyone and anyone who really wants to know what science fiction is all about.
Recommended to Jeff by:
James Gunn's CSSF 2010 Summer Intensive
Shelves:
science-fiction
I haven't read an entire book in two short days with such enjoyment in many, many years. Such a quick, engrossing read! Such a unique, fascinating story! Now I see why Butler is the honored and timeless author that she is.
Larry Niven may be more known for bringing to the table the idea of sex between alien and humans in his famous Ringworld Series, but Butler's description of intimacy between the ooloi, Nikanj, and Lila is so much more involving; both powerful and gentle, titillating...more
Larry Niven may be more known for bringing to the table the idea of sex between alien and humans in his famous Ringworld Series, but Butler's description of intimacy between the ooloi, Nikanj, and Lila is so much more involving; both powerful and gentle, titillating...more
martha
rated it
Recommends it for:
people who like the opposite of hard scifi, but also want good worldbuilding
Nicely engrossing scifi. Lilith (not-so-subtle naming) wakes up on an alien ship after having been rescued from an apocalyptic earth, and has to help repatriate humanity. The first third or so was my favorite, thanks to the worldbuilding (alienbuilding?). I wish it hadn't then veered so thematically into the same territory as Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower series -- tall black woman who's lost everything has to become the leader of a hodgepodge group of survivors to ensure the survival ...more
More strange alien sex! With tentacles! I remember finding the cover of my copy odd in that it featured a white character when the main character is clearly (as in, described on page 6) black. Also includes a good example of human betrayal. Oh ho ho! Read for a Science Fiction class.
I thoroughly enjoyed this first of the three books in this series. This is the first Octavia Butler novel that I have read, even though I have always wanted to. I thought that this was a deep, dark, and somber look at a post world warIII earth that has had it's survivors rescued by an alien race. Xenophobia does not even begin to describe the tensions in this novel between the humans and the aliens. The protagonist Lilith is a great character, she is strong, sensitive, smart, and most importan...more
So many consent issues... (After finishing this, I actually got a dream in which I was hurriedly writing out a note, and getting witnesses to sign it, to say that I absolutely did not want to marry, partner with, or have sex with [random character in the dream] and if he somehow got me to do any of these things it would nevertheless be absolutely against my will and without my consent and therefore any such marriage would be invalid.)
Very good: it's got the claustrophobia, the every-e...more
Very good: it's got the claustrophobia, the every-e...more
I liked this book. I thought it was intellectually stimulating and really made me think. It raises some serious philosophical questions about us as a species and our flaws. Even though it wasn't meant to be depressing (I think), it is disheartening, because we believe exactly the way I actually would expect us to behave. I like the main character tremendously. She is fiercely believable and it's great to see a black woman as the powerful, conflicted lead of the book. I also thought the ali...more
Usually Sci-fi just doesn't hold my attention for long enough for me to get very far in the story and I then just give up and find myself something else to read. Butler may have just changed that.
I found that although been slightly creeped out by the Oankali (especially the tentacle-based hallucinatory alien sex that has an undercurrent of rape) I was quite intrigued by them and constantly found myself trying to imagine how I would react in Liliths predicament. She’s smart, head strong...more
I found that although been slightly creeped out by the Oankali (especially the tentacle-based hallucinatory alien sex that has an undercurrent of rape) I was quite intrigued by them and constantly found myself trying to imagine how I would react in Liliths predicament. She’s smart, head strong...more
I want to love Octavia Butler, and I keep failing at it. Interesting science fiction concepts, women of color as lead characters, what's not to like? Well, I tend to find the human interactions in her books seriously lacking -- I just don't find many of her characters, beyond the heroines, particularly believable. Dawn works better for me than many, largely because many of the interactions are with the Oankali, a well-drawn alien species. Later in the book, when more humans come in, things w...more
I probably would have liked this book more if Lilith and the other humans weren't constantly butting heads w/ each other and out little tentacled friends over the SAME DAMN THINGS. It got to be a major distraction, and I think it took away a lot from the character development. Was there even any to being with?
The beginning of the book was really good, and I was totally into it. But it got repetitive and dull after awhile.
The third person narration bothered me as well. How is ...more
The beginning of the book was really good, and I was totally into it. But it got repetitive and dull after awhile.
The third person narration bothered me as well. How is ...more
My favorite author ever. She died just a couple years ago. I'm heartbroken because i wanted to meet her, shake her hand, tell her how much I identify with her work, how much she infuses me with a desire to write. i want to recollect all of her work and read it sequencially, I keep loaning it out. i didn't realize when I read it, that i was reading about polyamory. i didn't know the word yet. she writes about xenophobia and alternative morals amoung other things, the bleak future, warnign us to c...more
Octavia Butler explores where other authors dare not tread. It means that her books are deeply unsettling and hard to read due to how uncomfortable they make the reader. Ultimately, I think she does one of the best jobs I've ever seen of presenting aliens in a way that we both understand them and at the same time can never understand them because the culture gap is just too wide. On a side note, the cover shown here actually represents the books, as opposed to the much older cover on the vers...more
This book was brilliant. One of the truest reflections on what Butler's characters call the "Human Contradiction"--aka our collective need for hierarchy and over-specialization, leading to violent conflicts over the perceived "otherness" of fellow humans... juxtaposed alongside our intense ability to love and attach to fellow humans. This is a philosophically-rich piece of science fiction that ends up being both otherworldly and absolutely resonant with our current moment. Br...more
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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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