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Adulthood Rites

(Xenogenesis #2)

Octavia E. Butler

4.17 · Rating details · 14,073 ratings · 968 reviews

In this sequel to Dawn, Lilith Iyapo has given birth to what looks like a normal human boy named Akin. But Akin actually has five parents: a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a sexless Ooloi. The Oankali and Ooloi are part of an alien race that rescued humanity from a devastating nuclear war, but the price they exact is a high one the aliens are compell ...more

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Paperback, 277 pages

Published April 1st 1997 by Aspect (first published June 1988)

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Oct 25, 2013 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I find it oddly difficult to review an Octavia Butler book without filling it to the brim with cringe inducing sentimentality and hyperbole but I'll be damned if she doesn't make me all pensive and a touch maudlin every time I read her books. I get this feeling that her kindness and compassion always seep through her books and it makes me feel a little wistful that she is no longer with us.

Adulthood Rites is the second volume of the Lilith's Brood trilogy. In a nutshell it is the story of the la I find it oddly difficult to review an Octavia Butler book without filling it to the brim with cringe inducing sentimentality and hyperbole but I'll be damned if she doesn't make me all pensive and a touch maudlin every time I read her books. I get this feeling that her kindness and compassion always seep through her books and it makes me feel a little wistful that she is no longer with us.

Adulthood Rites is the second volume of the Lilith's Brood trilogy. In a nutshell it is the story of the last humans living under the domination of seemingly benign aliens (“Oankali”) who saved our species from extinction on an almost destroyed Earth. The saved people are taken away to live on board their spaceships while the aliens clean up the Earth to make it habitable again. The first book Dawn is about life on board the ship, Adulthood Rites is about mankind’s return to repopulate the Earth and the price we have to pay for the alien’s rescue.

This second volume shifts the focus of the story to the point of view of a new protagonist Akin who is the son of Lilith lyapo, the main character of Dawn, and two other alien parents. Interbreeding with the alien is the price we have to pay for being rescued from extinction. The mating system is pretty weird but don’t expect to read any scene of kinky threesome sexual congress. For the sci-fi enthusiasts there is plenty of mind blowing bio-technology with living ships, habitats food processing units and other bizarre devices. The Oankali aliens with their versatile tentacles, metamorphosis and third sexual gender are wondrously imagined. The post-apocalypse Earth being repopulated is also very vivid.

The main virtue of the book for me though is the ideas, themes or principles behind these wild inventions. Ms. Butler communicates her points through story telling without the narrative ever coming across like preaching. One of the major themes of this book is man’s “genetic contradiction” which is our tendency to combine intelligence with hierarchical behavior which eventually leads to blowing ourselves up. According to the aliens, left to our own devices Man will always self-destruct but we are too valuable as a species to allow becoming extinct so they have modified the humans to only procreate with at least one alien partner.

The story is full of dilemma and moral quandaries, everybody is right and wrong at same time. If I was reading this book as a teenager I would have been swept away by the sense of wonder and the world building. Reading it as an adult I find much more interesting issues to think about. Ms. Butler’s character development talent is second to none. They are so believable that sometimes the well-intentioned but obstinate characters actually make me angry. There are no mustache twirling villains or (God forbid) “Dark Lords” here but the ordinary people seem much more dangerous.

You will probably want to skip this paragraph because it will probably make you roll your eyes. I just want to say that I think Octavia Butler epitomizes the best of what a human being could aspire to be in term of decency, kindness and wisdom. I am not looking forward to reading all her books because then there won’t be any more. That said I am going to read the final book in this trilogy, Imago, immediately after this! ...more

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Mar 17, 2020 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it

“Human purpose isn't what you say it is or what I say it is. It's what your biology says it is--what your genes say it is.”

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Octavia Butler's Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis #2) continues where Dawn leaves off; however, the perspective is shifted from Lilith to her son Akin (who has been created with four other parents). When Akin is kidnapped, the focus of the story is on him growing up among humans who have resisted the Oankali's help. Can Akin convince them the time has come to accept help from ...more

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May 05, 2013 Stuart rated it it was amazing

Shelves: alien-contact, favorites, superhuman-powers, humanistic-sf

Adulthood Rites: A human-Oankali child is torn between two species
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Adulthood Rites (1988) is the second book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy. It continues the story of Lilith in Dawn (1987), a human woman revived by the alien Oankali centuries after humanity has mostly destroyed itself with nuclear weapons. The Oankali offered humanity a second chance, but at a price — to merge its genes with the Oankali, who are ‘gene traders’ driven to continuously Adulthood Rites: A human-Oankali child is torn between two species
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Adulthood Rites (1988) is the second book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy. It continues the story of Lilith in Dawn (1987), a human woman revived by the alien Oankali centuries after humanity has mostly destroyed itself with nuclear weapons. The Oankali offered humanity a second chance, but at a price — to merge its genes with the Oankali, who are ‘gene traders’ driven to continuously seek new species in the galaxy to combine their DNA with, transforming both sides in the process.

10 years after the events of Dawn, Lilith has given birth to a son named Akin, the first male ‘construct’ to be born to a human woman. There are number of distinct groups in this newly reborn Earth – Oankali who do not merge with humans and remain on their spaceship above the earth, Oankali sent down to the Earth to mate with humans in ‘trade villages,’ ‘construct’ children that share both human and Oankali genes, and human resisters who refuse to accept the Oankali offer and resent both Oankali and ‘traitor’ humans alike.

Akin is unique in that until now the Oankali have not allowed human males to be born to other humans, in order to avoid what they perceive as the aggressive nature of males. Of all the ‘constructs’ born to date, he is the most human. Nevertheless, his Oankali DNA imparts special traits like rapid mental development, healing ability, and sensory organs that allow him to communicate with both humans and Oankali at a more instinctual level. This is the normal mode of exchange for the Oankali, who have only adopted speech to be more accessible to humans. Akin is intended by the Oankali to be a bridge to understanding humans better and furthering the integration process.

However, when Akin is kidnapped by resisters, who have been made sterile by the Oankali and therefore yearn for the children they cannot have, he gets first-hand exposure to the human side that is opposed to the Oankalis’ plan. He learns all the faults of humanity, particularly what the Oankali call the ‘human contradiction,’ namely the inherent conflict between intelligence and hierarchical behavior, which inevitably (in the Oankalis’ minds) leads to conflict, aggression, suppression, and eventually self-destruction. This is why the Oankali do not believe that humans can be allowed to revive their society without any modification of this ‘flaw.’

Much of Adulthood Rites details just how ALIEN the Oankali really are, especially their genderless adolescence and metamorphosis into either male, female or Ooloi, the third gender that forms a triumvirate and serves as the gene manipulator to create children, a more hands-on approach than the random DNA recombination of humans. They communicate constantly by means of sensory tentacles, exchanging feelings, sensations, and thoughts between family units and larger groupings.

Although they supposedly shun ‘hierarchical’ behavior, there is a clear hierarchy among the Oankali. The events that surround Akin, his Oankali siblings, the Ooloi in his ‘family’, and the humans in his life are complicated. More importantly, the biology and sexual practices of the Oankali are bizarre, unsettling, and downright creepy. Once again, Butler never shies away from making the reader uncomfortable by testing our comfort zones. I’m quite pleased by this — why read science fiction if not to be exposed to the truly alien, while also using this as a mirror to better understanding ourselves?

Just as in Dawn, humanity seems primitive, distrusting, and brutish in comparison to the Oankali. Again and again, resisters prove that they will quickly resort to violence when faced with difficult situations, attacking both Oankali and human collaborators. In return, the Oankali will subdue them but try to avoid killing other than as a last resort. After reading Dawn, my initial impression was that Butler really had a dim view of humanity and that the far more advanced and evolved Oankali were a benevolent race intent on fixing the flaws of humanity out of both biological imperative and a desire to improve their lot.

However, based on a discussion on my review of Dawn and after reading excellent reviews of the series by Tor.com’s Erika Nelson, I reassessed what was going on in Butler’s story because I know full well that she never writes a story with a simple dichotomy of good/bad, benevolent/exploitive, etc. The themes she is most concerned with include colonialism, slavery, power, cultural imperialism, and all the moral conundrums they entail. If the Oankali are so benevolent, why do they only offer humanity the option of cooperating or being left to die off due to sterilization? They have already judged human civilization as unworthy of continued existence, and while they abhor outright violence, the Oankali essentially hold complete power over humans. Still, for a potential oppressor, they are far from being the worst. So there are no easy moral conclusions to be drawn, but plenty to think about.

Incidentally, I’m always cautious about reading into a text overly direct parallels with current social issues. There’s no question that Octavia Butler, a black female author in a field previously dominated by white men, has an interest in issues of race and cultural dominance. However, first and foremost she is a science fiction writer, and the XENOGENESIS series is a story about all of humanity, faced with its own self-destructive behavior, and given a choice to be saved but utterly transformed by an alien race. So I don’t think her story can be reduced to merely an allegory of colonialism, cultural imperialism, or racism in alien guise, even though these play an important role. If I had to choose one key theme for this series, it would be ‘transformation,’ with all the implications it has for both sides.

In both Dawn and Adulthood Rites, we gradually come to see through the experiences of Akin that both humans and Oankali are less than perfect, and their motivations are not completely altruistic. In the first book I felt that Butler strongly leaned towards the Oankali, and though we certainly learn a great deal more about their biology and social structure in Adulthood Rites, we also see that they treat humans with a certain contempt and lack of understanding. It is only through the eyes of Akin that the flaws and mistake of both sides become more apparent. I’ll have to read the final installment, Imago, to discover where this story will lead to, but any science fiction book that can explore such serious themes, without simplistic moralizing or becoming just a vehicle for political or social views, will get five stars from me whether the final outcome favors humanity, the Oankali, or a combination thereof. ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Beverly rated it really liked it

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May 31, 2019 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-shelf, sci-fi

Impressive. I definitely liked this second story in the trilogy better than the first. The other was very much a foundation, but while we really don't follow Lillith from the first, we do follow her hybrid son as he makes his way through an early difficult childhood and into his Adulthood Rite.

Akim is a victim as much as he is a bridge between the ignorant and dispirited humans brought down to Earth and the aliens who misunderstand our humanity. We're a paradox of hierarchical madness and intell ...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Res rated it liked it

Shelves: sff

Sequel to Dawn. The one where Akin, a human-looking child with a mix of human and oankali genes, is kidnapped and grows up among villages of human resisters.

This sequel focuses on the feelings of the humans who have chosen not to mix with or cooperate with the oankali, and so it's not surprising that its view of humanity is depressing as hell.

This re-read I noticed something that hadn't struck me the first time: The oankali don't have stories -- don't seem to understand why anyone would want th Sequel to Dawn. The one where Akin, a human-looking child with a mix of human and oankali genes, is kidnapped and grows up among villages of human resisters.

This sequel focuses on the feelings of the humans who have chosen not to mix with or cooperate with the oankali, and so it's not surprising that its view of humanity is depressing as hell.

This re-read I noticed something that hadn't struck me the first time: The oankali don't have stories -- don't seem to understand why anyone would want them -- and they don't like music. When I read these books in high school, I remember thinking, "Why would anyone cling to human life when the oankali are so much better and more interesting?" -- but lack of stories and music gives me pause.

I don't see that as a flaw in the book, just as the aliens being alien. Things I do consider to be flaws in the book:

- The view of genetics seems unduly mechanistic -- the idea that behavior, character, personality are all in the genes, as if you could say about humans what you say about dogs: "This breed is good with children," "this breed is friendly," etc. (And anyone who's ever had more than one dog of the same breed knows how questionable that is even when talking about dogs.)

- The idea of gender is rather mechanistic as well.

- Again everyone is heterosexual. In fact, homophobia seems to be one of the prime reasons why humans (at least male humans) rebel against trading with the oankali -- the fact that the ooloi are not female and yet the human men want to have sex with them, and this freaks them out.

- Among the resisters, women are trade goods, and no one seems to see any way of changing this. (There are guns, so unequal physical strength shouldn't be an inevitable prediction of unequal power, but women don't fight back, band together, or begin preemptively shooting men on sight.) No one, in fact, seems to have proposed any rule of law whatsoever; it's worse than a Western.

- The characterization of most of the humans is kind of weak, and of the oankali it's even worse. The oankali can be differentiated from one another based on gender, to an extent, but they don't seem to have separate character traits. There are no oankali who are lazy, or unusually creative, or secretive, or playful; there are only males, females, and ooloi.

So I'm seeing weaknesses in these books that I didn't see when I first read them. But I still think that the idea of the "human contradiction" is a brilliant piece of social criticism, and the whole human-oankali dilemma continues to fascinate me.

One scene I remembered with great vividness from when I read this book decades ago: the scene where Akin "tastes" plastic for the first time and describes it as the most concentrated poison he's ever experienced. ...more

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Jun 12, 2017 Claudia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, disguised-as-sff, deep-thoughts

The story continues few years after the events in Dawn . Earth is habitable again, the Oankali allowed humans to live ‘free’ (they are called resisters) or with them in the Amazonian jungle. ‘Free’ is not just what is should be; all humans have been sterilized and they can only procreate with Oankali involvement, so homo sapiens is heading for extinction. First ‘construct’ - mixed race - children are born; some of the resisters love them, others are afraid of them, others feel revulsion. One ...more

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Apr 22, 2008 Lois rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: africanfuturism, poc-pov-char-or-peripheral-char, reread-in-2020, reread-in-2018, audio-book, african-diaspora-interest, black-books, hard-copy-books-i-own, feminist-fiction, books-i-own-digital-copy

This is every bit as good as I remember. This book picks up decades after Dawn and features the first human-born male Construct. I loved Akin and his adventures. He's right about a human Akjai. We probably will destroy it but we deserve the chance. Personally I wouldn't go but I'd be more peaceful knowing humanity was continuing unaltered somewhere far away from my descendants. ...more

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Oct 24, 2017 Zanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bechdel-pass, stem

Somewhere between the particular texture of the writing and the thought-sparking brilliance of the ideas, Octavia Butler's work never fails to hook me in so far I never want to leave. Like Dawn, this novel had me rambling on to friends and family about Lilith and her relationships, the Oankali and their culture.

One of my friends, when I described how the Oankali feel pain when they cause it, and feel pleasure when they cause it, picked up on the theme that recurs throughout all Octavia's work th Somewhere between the particular texture of the writing and the thought-sparking brilliance of the ideas, Octavia Butler's work never fails to hook me in so far I never want to leave. Like Dawn, this novel had me rambling on to friends and family about Lilith and her relationships, the Oankali and their culture.

One of my friends, when I described how the Oankali feel pain when they cause it, and feel pleasure when they cause it, picked up on the theme that recurs throughout all Octavia's work that I've read - of unconditional empathy. What kind of culture would people who cannot help but feel each other's emotions and sensations have?

The Oankali's deep appreciation of life (that of all beings) and their unconditional empathy explains their rescue of Earth, their unconcern with possessions that don't sustain and benefit life, their whole engagement with humans on all its fascinating levels. Much of that engagement, and of the culture they are creating with humans, is sympathetic and delightful, but it has disturbing elements that set up intense tensions. Because they know that humans are genetically inclined to self-destructive hierarchy, they refuse to allow humans to reproduce, except with the Oankali to produce hybrid offspring. Because they can feel others' emotions, sometimes they use manipulation:

"They forced you to have kids?" the man asked.
"One of them surprised me," she said. "It made me pregnant, then told me about it. Said it was giving me what I wanted but would never come out and ask for."
"Was it?"
"Yes." She shook her head from side to side. "Oh, yes. But if I had the strength not to ask, it should have had the strength to let me alone."

In this emerging world, some will have to find the strength Lilith mentions; to suffer will and desire to point in opposite directions...

The humans who resist the Oankali's plan to "trade" (to trade genes by reproducing) with humans aren't very sympathetic, but their cause, self-determination, is compelling enough to have narrative traction. The cruelty on both sides with which Lilith's child is burdened with a key role in bringing peace and balance also speaks to a flaw in both cultures: the tendency to use others for our convenience. Humans force other humans and other animals to be of use to us; the Oankali do the same, though their means are much more subtle (they make being useful pleasureable). Maybe empathy by itself, though it often leads us to behave more ethically, is not enough. ...more

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Sep 01, 2016 Obsidian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: halloween-bingo-2016

I liked the second book in the Xenogenesis series a lot. There were some problems with the fact that I thought the character Akin did a total change that didn't seem reasonable after seeing how the Resisters acted. His thought process that if only the Resisters were granted total freedom would lead them to be better than their overall nature I thought was naive based on what he witnessed and even based on what occurred in book #1.

In "Dawn" the main character was told from Lilith Iyapo. Lilith aw I liked the second book in the Xenogenesis series a lot. There were some problems with the fact that I thought the character Akin did a total change that didn't seem reasonable after seeing how the Resisters acted. His thought process that if only the Resisters were granted total freedom would lead them to be better than their overall nature I thought was naive based on what he witnessed and even based on what occurred in book #1.

In "Dawn" the main character was told from Lilith Iyapo. Lilith awakens hundreds of years after Earth was consumed by a nuclear war. Finding out that she was asleep and an alien race named the Oankali have come to breed with humans in order to create a new species worthy to trade feels her with fear and revulsion. In the end, Lilith agrees to the deal when she realizes that she can never be with her fellow humans who refused the deal by the Oankali who want to live apart from them. Those humans who refused to breed with the Oankali were made sterile before they left the alien spaceship and now live apart in so-called Resister villages.

Now 26 years later, Lilith and other humans who stayed with the Oankali are living with them and all of them have what they call constructs (children born with human and Okanli DNA). Lilith's son Akin is curious about his parents, the world around him and when he is kidnapped by a group of Resister men he gets to see human beings up close and personal.

I actually liked the character of Akin. I just didn't get how he came to the conclusion that he did about human beings. Especially because he saw the men who took him murder. And when he is left with another camp of people he once again saw humans murder each other. He found out that humans were making guns again. He also saw that most males had no respect for females autonomy and that women were being sold for goods or just stolen to be raped. If anything, I think that being a female on this new Earth was straight up crap in my opinion. The only thing that young girls and women seemed to be valued for was their ability to give birth.

We have other characters we are familiar with in this one. We get to see Lilith again, and we get to see her frustration with the choice she made.

We also get some new characters as well. For example, a new man comes to the village that Akin and Lilith live at (his name is Tino) who though he wants to be with Lilith is told not going to happen, you have to also agree to be with an Oankali as well which he doesn't want to be with due to him being repulsed by them. But once again, we have another person's consent to be ignored because everyone is telling him that he wants what is about to happen.

The story follows Akin as he grows up and when he metamorphoses into his final form and you have him worrying about whether he will be accepted by humans that he wants to lead since he may not look like them anymore.

I really enjoyed the writing and the dialogue. Especially when Akin is younger and he has realizations regarding the humans who have kidnapped him. Frankly at certain points in the book I was a little horrified by what the humans who decided to resist the Oankali were all about. They were actually just as bad in different ways from my point of view.

The flow though got a little slow and downright boring when Akin is back living with his family again. Things didn't pick up again towards the end.

The setting of Earth that now is very similar to what I would consider African villages I thought was an odd choice. Especially as one person who noted that most of the Resisters had went and built houses again and even had windows on their homes. The Oankali and human villages just lived in huts. Also mostly everyone on the planet eats vegetarian now (I recall in book #1 they told Lilith she didn't need meat so they didn't go and make any for the humans).

The world building is still pretty impressive though I also puzzled how in the world did humans who spoke different languages, have different backgrounds just come together and create their own towns/villages. And how in the heck did the people in the south (as they are called) figure out how to create guns. I got bows and arrows, and even machetes, but guns?

I also like that the bigger question is still out there about even if you do give human beings the right to settle away from the Oankali and to have children again, will they still manage to rise about what they Oankali consider their fatal flaw which is to be hierarchical in life?

I went and got book #3 since I am really curious how this series ends. ...more

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Jul 20, 2016 Gergana added it

Shelves: dystopia, science-fiction

Would this really have happened to us? If someone pressed the "reset" button on our planet, would humanity go back to pillaging, raping and kidnapping to ensure the survival of their own village or simply for the satisfaction of our basic needs? I find it hard to believe, maybe because I don't want to.

According to the alien species in this book, as humans we are deeply hierarchical, we follow or we want to be followed, which is the main reason for the majority of our wars and atrocities committe ...more

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Dec 18, 2014 Megan Baxter rated it it was amazing

This book starts years after the first one, as the humans and Oankali are established on Earth, and have been giving birth to Oankali/human construct children for quite a while now. I maybe missed the explanation of why they're called constructs, because aren't all children through the mediating influence of an Oankali ooloi (their third sex, masters of genemixing) constructed, whether part human or not? I mean, isn't that what makes the Oankali what they are?

Note: The rest of this review has be ...more

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Sep 24, 2014 Mimi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-kindle, science-fiction, 2014, favorites

Adulthood Rites takes place several years after Dawn and shows life on new Earth as both humans and oankali have resettled some of the land and formed villages.

The story follows one of Lilith's sons, Akin, a human-oankali construct, as he grows to maturity. Akin is the first construct to be born to a human mother, and because he looks more human on the outside, he's easily accepted by other humans who have chosen to reject the oankali and the gene trade (from Dawn). Looks are deceiving though s ...more

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Apr 20, 2016 David rated it it was amazing

Recommended to David by: Michael

Shelves: science-fiction

This is the second of three novels in the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler. It is a fine example of a well-thought-out and executed sci-fi concept. It held my attention from beginning to end.

The main character from the first book, Lillith, may be the only human on Earth who is fertile. She has a child, Akin. However, Akin is not an ordinary human, as he is the child of five individuals; a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a third sex Oankali known as an "ooloi". In partic ...more

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Feb 14, 2019 Meagan ✊🏼 Blacklivesmatter ✊🏼Blacktranslivesmatter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: black-sff-authors, diverse-main-characters, female-sff-adult, favorites, all-time-favorites, sci-fi, aliens, gender-exploration

Loved every second of it!

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Oct 11, 2019 Evelina | AvalinahsBooks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-of-2019, human-relationships, society, favorites, fiction, dark, owned-ebooks-read, family, sci-fi

God, these books are so incredibly good!!! I haven't enjoyed a story this much for a long time. Although I have to admit, the humans in this particular one are a solid pile of turds. Like you almost don't want them to survive as a species! Anyway, I can't wait to see how this story ends. ...more

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Apr 09, 2016 Michael rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Michael by: Apatt

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, aliens, bioengineering

This is a brilliant and mind-blowing apocalyptic tale published in 1988. Instead of a cataclysm like an epidemic or a meteor strike, the event that threatens human existence is a very unusual form of invasion by beneficent aliens after we have nearly done ourselves in.

Human warfare and devastation of the Earth nearly wiped out the species, and a superior starfaring race of aliens, the Oankali, have stepped in and preserved the human race. They keep enough in suspension on their ship so that when This is a brilliant and mind-blowing apocalyptic tale published in 1988. Instead of a cataclysm like an epidemic or a meteor strike, the event that threatens human existence is a very unusual form of invasion by beneficent aliens after we have nearly done ourselves in.

Human warfare and devastation of the Earth nearly wiped out the species, and a superior starfaring race of aliens, the Oankali, have stepped in and preserved the human race. They keep enough in suspension on their ship so that when Earth recovers enough with their help they can recolonize it. They don’t want to fight us, they want to join us. Join as in making a new and better bioengineered species, a hybrid construct. That’s their way, the key to their adaptive success as they move around the galaxy.

Most of the humans go bonkers when they wake up to see who is in charge. Just too horrific with their giant slug-like appearance and mind-melding mode of communication using many penetrating tentacles. In the first book in the trilogy, “Dawn”, we got to know Lilith as one of the few humans who had that special resilience to handle this sad situation. She befriends some of the beasties and come to understand their society, which is based on three genders—male, female, and a neuter form. The latter, the ooloi are especially wise and can manipulate brain chemistry to generate all kinds of emotions, including ecstasy. They use these abilities to function as a critical liaison in the mating process. Despite much disgust and periods of rebellion, Lilith learns to swing the threesome way. She helps other awakened humans to face this fate. Many consider her a traitor and try when they can to kill her.

In this story, mixed communities of aliens, humans, and hybrid children are living in small towns. The latter are all female humanoids with moderate degrees of alien features. Lilith has given birth to a hybrid male named Akin who looks normal except for a tongue which can sends out the sensory filaments to explore the world at a deep level. Large numbers of rebelling humans have run off to form their own communities, which the Oankali allow because they are kind. The have made them sterile for their own good. It would be cruel in their view to let them rebuild civilization destined to self-destruction again. What they call “Human Contradiction” is built into their genes, intelligence combined with a tendency toward an aggressive hierarchical society.

The reader can’t help but feel some shame for that truth as evident in the emergence of depraved, violent humans who lead a marauding life dependent on kidnapping of normal appearing hybrids and selling them to the settlers for trade goods. This is what happens to Akin. Even as a toddler in body, he is freakishly intelligent and perceptive. He comes to love some of the resisters and admire the nobility of their cause. Even though they are the path to warfare again, having invented and initiated the use of firearms, Akin can’t help feeling they deserve a chance to change and survive. He can see that the gift of survival in the form of symbiosis with alien genes and characters is still a kind of extinction. How can he persuade the all-knowing Oankali that the human species deserves another chance. How can he get the humans even to trust him to work toward a solution when he is destined to undergo a metamorphosis that will leave him physically much more a monster to them in appearance.

This read will disturb your vision of human nature and wrench your emotions between horror and sympathy in the shoes it puts you in. Given that Butler was black with feminist sensibilities, the echoes of the themes of racism, sexism, colonialism, and slavery will likely stir in your mind. But this is no simple allegory, and there is room for debate on her intentions and ambiguity over how she judges the human species. That is as it should be for a multifaceted work that will stand the test of time as a classic.
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Apr 02, 2020 Tracy rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, coming-of-age, environmental, my-copy, evolutionary-biology, science-fiction

3 1/2 stars. Very good again. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the first but I think that is because it is much bleaker than the first and since these are bleak times I struggled with it.

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Apr 02, 2015 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

The second book in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, "Adulthood Rites," takes place years after the events of the first novel "Dawn", and it expounds more on the many social issues raised in the first book; namely issues of gender, sexuality, genetics, and humanocentrism.

In the first book, a peaceful alien race, the Oankali, has essentially saved humankind from extinction. Several hundred years after a global nuclear war has wiped out a majority of the world population and destroyed the pla ...more

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Mar 09, 2014 Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali rated it really liked it

Shelves: brave, awesome-world-building, smart, awesome-character-growth, science-fiction, black-female-titular-character, sff, am-listening, diverse

I wavered between three and four stars for this one. I eventually decided on four because despite my annoyance with the constant talk of mating and the sexual function of the Oankali, I deeply admire the very fluid and ingenious way that Butler introduces her central issues and messages.
Much like Dawn, the first book in this series, we have been presented with moral and ethical dilemmas that do not have easy answers.
The Oankali have saved Earth and the few remaining inhabitants from a man made d I wavered between three and four stars for this one. I eventually decided on four because despite my annoyance with the constant talk of mating and the sexual function of the Oankali, I deeply admire the very fluid and ingenious way that Butler introduces her central issues and messages.
Much like Dawn, the first book in this series, we have been presented with moral and ethical dilemmas that do not have easy answers.
The Oankali have saved Earth and the few remaining inhabitants from a man made disaster. We apparently went to war and destroyed not only ourselves but our planet. According to the Oankali we have two incompatible traits that are the cause of our near distinction: intelligence and our hierarchical nature. They have proposed a trade in which we can be saved and they can sample our unique genetics. They propose a blending of our races, but in doing so, humankind will cease to exist as we know it.
The Oankali have a complex mating/communication system that rankles against our very fixed understanding of gender and sexuality. The Oankali have male and female but also a third nongender and all three are needed for procreation as well as sexual pleasure. Human men have the most difficult time with this concept.
I won't drop any heavy spoilers but consider these points that dominate the plot:
1. Do the Oankali have the right to help us even if we don't want the help?
2. Should we accept said help even if it means the end of our race as we know it, by creating a biracial tri-gendered species that is no longer quite human?
3. What is humanity or what does it mean to be human?
4. Humankind in this fascinating tale has been given the opportunity to reestablish communities on Earth after the Oankali healed her. Humankind has proven to be violent, stubborn, hierarchical, possessive, unruly, and in many ways cruel. We are very inhumane. With that in mind, considering our self destructive natures, do we even deserve to be saved in this human form with the flaws identified as responsible for our undoing in tact?
5. The Oankali, being a tri-gendered race have a method of procreation that while it is definitely pleasure based relies as much on the mental as the physical and it blurs the lines of gender as well as considerations of incest. As you can imagine humans have a difficult time sorting this out.
While I'm not bothered by the blurring of sexuality in these books, I am a bit disturbed by the amount of time dedicated to the intricacies. The Oankali love new sensations, love receiving and giving pleasure, so even the most mundane exchanges of information of communications come off as sexual. Admittedly, I'm still having confusion about how all of this works, despite Butler's clear resonant prose. That said, there is so much discussion of finding a mate, the act of mating, the act of linking, arousal, sex and lovemaking , non-consensual encounters between human and Oankali, actual violent rape among the humans, puberty and metamorphosis that I felt absolutely drenched in sex throughout this entire book. To be clear, this isn't some raunchy blow by blow, but the imagery is certainly plain and often enough to rankle, and it felt like overload to me.
What I admire most is Butler's ability to write human being as they are. Her view of humanity is candid and rings true in every way. She doesn't spare our feelings with some pie in the sky picture of humanity. In this series, we have been laid bare on the page in all of our glory and flaws. Boy are we flawed. With that truth in mind the mood of this tale is fairly dark and while I actually prefer my stories that way, the sheer reality and honesty make this a particularly heavy read. I may take a break before finishing this trilogy. We'll see. ...more

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Sep 18, 2014 Carolyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf

Adulthood Rites is the second volume of the Lilith's Brood trilogy. In the previous novel an alien species the Oankali rescued the last remaining humans after they had destroyed the Earth with war and pollution. The Oankali are a race who 'trade' genes with other species through matings involving a male and female of each species and a sexless being called an Ooloi who can select which genes to mix together to form a being with desired traits of both species. The Oankali have generated parts of Adulthood Rites is the second volume of the Lilith's Brood trilogy. In the previous novel an alien species the Oankali rescued the last remaining humans after they had destroyed the Earth with war and pollution. The Oankali are a race who 'trade' genes with other species through matings involving a male and female of each species and a sexless being called an Ooloi who can select which genes to mix together to form a being with desired traits of both species. The Oankali have generated parts of earth and returned colonies of humans willing to trade genes with them. Lilith Iyapo is now living back on Earth with her blended family and several hybrid children including Akin, a human looking male baby, who is already very intelligent and advanced for his age. Akin is kidnapped by a group of men who refuse to be involved in the the breeding program. The Oankali have allowed such people called 'resisters' to live on Earth but have prolonged their lives, freed them of disease and sterilised them so they cannot breed. Human looking children are therefore highly prized in the mistaken belief that they may be able to breed and perpetuate the human commumities. Akin is sold to a resistar village and spend a year with them before being rescued by the Oankali.

Akin develops some sympathy for the resisters and wants the Oankali to give them a future with human children of their own. The Oankali are very resistant to this idea and believe that because of their hierarchical nature, the humans will simply destroy any future societies they are allowed to build.

This is an interesting book that fleshes out the vision the Oankali have for the remnants of the human species - those who can accept having unusual sexual bonding of alines and humans and the hybrid 'construct' children produced by such unions and those who will have no part of it but are doomed to die without being able to create a new generation. It also raises the question of what it is to be human and whether man will ever be able to quell his hierarchical and competetive instincts to live in a world without violence. ...more

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Apr 22, 2015 Lilia Ford rated it really liked it

3.5

With this volume, I thought Xenogenesis moved sharply in a more "speculative" direction. It had its interest, certainly, but the structure and narration consistently pulled the novel away from the more dramatic energies in the storytelling, towards the more conceptual. None of this was helped by having the main character and narrative POV, Akin, be an infant for roughly the first half--also those parts of the story that were most traditionally action-packed and "human" oriented. As we move to ...more

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Jun 04, 2019 Jeanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-women, read-2019, sci-fi-fantasy

“That won’t do him much good with some Humans. They’ll resent him for not being completely Human and for looking more Human than their kids. They’ll hate him for looking much younger than he sounds. They’ll hate him because they haven’t been allowed to have sons. Your people have made Human-looking male babies a very valuable commodity.” (p. 258)

Adulthood Rites is the second book in Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood Xenogenesis Trilogy. In short, Humans go to war, killing Earth and its inhabitants “That won’t do him much good with some Humans. They’ll resent him for not being completely Human and for looking more Human than their kids. They’ll hate him for looking much younger than he sounds. They’ll hate him because they haven’t been allowed to have sons. Your people have made Human-looking male babies a very valuable commodity.” (p. 258)

Adulthood Rites is the second book in Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood Xenogenesis Trilogy. In short, Humans go to war, killing Earth and its inhabitants. A new, more advanced alien species went to Earth and rescued its survivors. All were sterilized in order to prevent Humans from killing each other – now or in the future. The rest of the story follows from this premise, but not in a simple manner, as Butler masterfully weaves together responses to philosophical questions that Lilith's family experiences over the course of their VERY long lives.

Humans and Oankali have very different worldviews. Humans, as described by Butler, are bright but conservative and afraid of differences and new things. Oankali are curious traders (new knowledge and genes), have more porous emotional boundaries, and like change – except when they don't. They are pleasure-giving and pain-avoidant creatures, while Humans preferred pain under some conditions: “Yet [Humans] resist. They would rather die than come here and live easy, pain-free lives with you” (p. 423).

Under what conditions would you "betray" your species? Would you join the Oankali if that would be the only way you could have children? What consequences would you incur if you decided against "betraying" your species? (Or if you did so?)

“How could [leaving his Human family] not hurt?” Tino asked softly. “And how could you not know? I’m a traitor to my people. Everything I do here is an act of betrayal. Someday, my people won’t exist at all, and I will have helped their destroyers. I’ve betrayed my parents … everyone.” (p. 424)

To the Oankali, it just made sense for Humans to join with them. Without meaning to condescend, they did, assuming that their way was right and that the Human Contradiction, as they called it, would inevitably lead to Humans' demise: "The Contradiction, it was more often called among Oankali. Intelligence and hierarchical behavior. It was fascinating, seductive, and lethal. It had brought Humans to their final war" (p. 442).

To understand the resisters more fully, the Oankali allowed Akin, a Human/Oankali Construct, with mixed parental and cross-species background, to be kidnapped by Human resisters. Human-looking babies were valuable in a world without children. Akin lived with a resister family for three years, during which period he did not become Human and never really fit in (with Human or Oankali), but he did come to understand Humans and was eventually drawn to them.

Out of this time among the Humans came a potential solution, one acceptable to many but not all Humans. Out of listening and understanding came something different.

I typically do not read books in a series back to back, as it becomes difficult to evaluate them separately. This was not an action-packed book (I don't typically prefer them), nor did it play unfairly on the reader's emotions (as the Oankali sometimes did), but this was an engrossing series with Big Questions, some of which I describe here. This was a book that I didn't want to put down.
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Nov 07, 2020 Rachel (Kalanadi) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: by-black-authors, science-fiction

3.5 stars

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Feb 07, 2021 Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~ rated it liked it

Shelves: year-2021, 3-star

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

This is such a weird series, and I feel as though a 3 stars doesn’t actually do it justice? But I can’t really give it a 4 stars?

I think it’s because I am comparing it to other books by Octavia E. Butler that I have read. It’s very good! But it doesn’t quite stand up to books like Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents.

A lot of the same ideas are present across all of Butler’s work & that’s one of my favorite things about her as an author. She encodes a lot of socia ...more

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Nov 06, 2013 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-reading-list, science-fiction, _author-sex-female, diversity-challenge, 5-star-sci-fi, women-gender-challenge, _sff-cleanup

The sequel to Dawn starts up 20 years later, and continues prodding and poking at the ethical questions in new and interesting ways. I would compare the two books by saying Dawn was more of a theoretical experiment, whereas Adulthood Rites is the real thing. Trigger warnings for those who love children: (view spoiler). And for those who love adults: (view spoiler) The sequel to Dawn starts up 20 years later, and continues prodding and poking at the ethical questions in new and interesting ways. I would compare the two books by saying Dawn was more of a theoretical experiment, whereas Adulthood Rites is the real thing. Trigger warnings for those who love children: (view spoiler). And for those who love adults: (view spoiler)

This book is a lot different than its predecessor, not just because we are no longer trapped in a spaceship, but because the focus is on a totally different character and worldview. It is told from the point of view of Lilith's first post-war son, Akin, who is half Oankali/half Human, and the things he discovers about the world and about himself as he explores his environment. I thought the title, Adulthood Rites, was clever because in our Human world, growing to adulthood has some fairly straightforward precedents and milestones. But what does adulthood mean to a child whose DNA comes from two radically different species? And how can such a child find their place and identity in the world when their parent species seem to have such different goals and ways of being?

The exploration of these ideas makes for some fascinating events and conversations. Ms. Butler did a great job of revealing developments that seem quite natural, but at the same time surprising and even shocking. I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to live in this world, but I gleaned a lot of food for thought, and did a lot of "rubber-necking" from a distance, as a temporary tourist. In particular, the thematic analogies to slavery were enhanced in visceral ways (view spoiler).

I thought Adulthood Rites was outstanding, and I gave it 5 stars, but it did have a few things that I thought could have been improved. First, I would have liked to have learned more about the Oankali history and background; this book still focuses on human thinking, and the Oankali still seem to be something of a mystery in many ways. Second, the focus on Akin and his struggle with identity was fascinating, but it actually ended up narrowing the ethical focus. As a result, the philosophical questions in this story were not as anxiety-provoking for me as they were in Dawn. Finally, Ms. Butler veers a little bit into biological determinism here (view spoiler), which I thought was a bit simplistic, but on the other hand, there is always something controversial in her books, and it made me ponder a lot of things I might not have otherwise pondered.

Ms. Butler has created another thoughtful, disturbing, and clever work of art with this second in the series. As with the first book, it ends at a natural place, but leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. I am eager to find out where things could possibly end up in the third and final book. Highly recommended. ...more

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Aug 04, 2020 Judy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, sci-fi

This is the second book in Butler's Lilith's Brood series, aka The Xenogenesis series. It follows Dawn. The story opens with the birth of Akin, born of Lilith. He is a "construct" male, meaning he is part human, part Oankali, who are the aliens who captured humans in the first book.

Lilith and her family are back on Earth, living in an uneasy peace with humans who refused to be subject to the Oankali and call themselves resistors. The neutral gender Oankali, called Ooloi, rendered all humans inf ...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

This is the second of the Xenogenesis trilogy. Although each book could in theory be read alone, I cannot see anyone really understanding all of the issues and complexities without reading them all in sequence. As with the first book, this one leaves significant issues unresolved.

The problematic nature of the "deal" offered by the Oankali to the Humans becomes increasingly clear in this book, the story of Akin, the first male Human-Oankali construct born on Earth. This book further develops idea This is the second of the Xenogenesis trilogy. Although each book could in theory be read alone, I cannot see anyone really understanding all of the issues and complexities without reading them all in sequence. As with the first book, this one leaves significant issues unresolved.

The problematic nature of the "deal" offered by the Oankali to the Humans becomes increasingly clear in this book, the story of Akin, the first male Human-Oankali construct born on Earth. This book further develops ideas that were laid out in the first volume of the trilogy. The most pressing one is the question of what it means for humans to survive. Clearly the humans the Oankali have returned to Earth have survived as individuals (given good health and extended lifespans by the Oankali), but only those willing to mate with Oankali (in their 5-person mating groups of Oankali pair-human pair-ooloi) have the ability to reproduce. Akin ends up being raised by some of the sterile "resisters" who have formed their own communities outside of Oankali reach. These communities are desperate for children, and willing to raise even a human-Oankali "construct" (provided that it looks mainly human) rather than have no children in their communities. On the other hand, they are repelled enough by the Oankali that they will not participate in the creation of such constructs themselves.

Akin's experiences reveal the profound dissonance of Oankali and human culture. He notices, for example, the human tendency to want to tell fairy tales and other fictional stories to him, something that he finds absurd (and only when an actor performs a scene from King Lear does he even begin to comprehend the value of fiction), but this idea is not followed up on. The demand of the resisters for copies of the Bible (the main work that they produce on their re-invented printing presses) is mentioned briefly, but religion does not get any further discussion in this volume (and only a little more in the final volume). The threat to the knowledge of human history and artistic traditions is mentioned in passing, but not as an over-riding theme (or even as a possible compensation for lack of human offspring).

This volume reveals an important bit of information that the Oankali have withheld from humans in offering them a choice. It seems that they have planted the seeds of future plant-based space ships on Earth. Once these have absorbed every possible nutrient (organic and mineral) on the planet, the ships will depart, leaving an uninhabitable Earth behind. Thus, the "choice" of some humans to resist is self-limiting at best (even without the restriction on their fertility). Akin ends up being drawn into the question of whether humans have the right to control their own reproduction (have another chance at making a go of it as a species--something the Oankali regard as delusional at best) in an environment that gives them a long-term chance of survival. ...more

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Jul 15, 2014 Valerie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

Fun Fact: LeVar Burton says Octavia Butler is his favorite author.

That man has been telling me what book I should read next for 20 years. He has never been wrong.

Adulthood Rites didn't grab me as immediately as Dawn, probably because it was a lot harder for me to relate to Akin than to Lilith. However, the story is thicker and even more layered than its predecessor. It has themes of puberty, kinship, and the (in this case literal) story of the Phoenix, but it never oversteps itself. I read an in ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Renee rated it really liked it

What a sad, bleak and depressing continuation. And, yet, I cannot stop reading.

Seriously, could humanity get any worse? I love how Butler can take humans and expose their weaknesses so well. How utterly stupid, pointless, and unself-aware (is that a word?) do we (humans) look in this book? Really, it is saddening to think about. At first, as any person, I would deny that humans would act the way the resisters act in this book, and yet, the truthful part of me knows! I know, humans would act exac ...more

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About Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler

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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.

After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the li ...more

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Xenogenesis (3 books)

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“Nothing. It just finds you a lot more attractive than it does most Humans. What can you do with a beautiful woman that you can’t do with an ugly one? Nothing. It’s just a matter of preference.” — 16 likes

“The differences you perceive between Humans—between groups of Humans—are the result of isolation and inbreeding, mutation, and adaptation to different Earth environments” — 9 likes

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