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What Members Thought
Jun 06, 2016
Mary
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
format-audio,
summer-bingo-2016
Summer 2016 Bingo - a slave narrative.
I first heard about this book on Bookriot's Get Booked podcast - time travel/sci-fi, slave narrative and an early book from Octavia E. Butler. I put it on my to-read list and was happy to find "A slave narrative" on my bingo card this year. The book did not disappoint. Butler crafted a great story; I love how she connected the two time periods (and I get why the connection had to be so violent, but I wish it hadn't had to be) and brought humanity into each ...more
I first heard about this book on Bookriot's Get Booked podcast - time travel/sci-fi, slave narrative and an early book from Octavia E. Butler. I put it on my to-read list and was happy to find "A slave narrative" on my bingo card this year. The book did not disappoint. Butler crafted a great story; I love how she connected the two time periods (and I get why the connection had to be so violent, but I wish it hadn't had to be) and brought humanity into each ...more
Apr 05, 2018
Adjrun
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites,
fantasy-and-sci-fi
Brilliant and brutal and heartbreaking and complex.
It’s not really science fiction - maybe there was nothing else to call it when it was published in 1979. It uses time travel to contrast a black woman from the 1970s with her ancestors in the South in 1815.
It’s astoundingly modern for being 40 years old. It asks questions about power and race and gender and privilege. And key to it’s themes are that everyone - both in the past and today - bear the scars and damage from America’s past slavery.
It’s not really science fiction - maybe there was nothing else to call it when it was published in 1979. It uses time travel to contrast a black woman from the 1970s with her ancestors in the South in 1815.
It’s astoundingly modern for being 40 years old. It asks questions about power and race and gender and privilege. And key to it’s themes are that everyone - both in the past and today - bear the scars and damage from America’s past slavery.
Incredible
How do you even process something this powerful? The story is amazing itself, but Butler's characters are so intensely complex that the novel it is agonizing in the best way. The novel tears and rebuilds hope within moments.
The narrator of the Audio, Kim Staunton, was wonderful. She perfectly voiced Butler's writing. This was also my first whisper sync experience, which was actually pretty cool. ...more
How do you even process something this powerful? The story is amazing itself, but Butler's characters are so intensely complex that the novel it is agonizing in the best way. The novel tears and rebuilds hope within moments.
The narrator of the Audio, Kim Staunton, was wonderful. She perfectly voiced Butler's writing. This was also my first whisper sync experience, which was actually pretty cool. ...more
Jan 04, 2018
Emily
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy-sci-fi,
classics
I'm not sure how I missed reading this one before, but I am so glad I picked it up now. It was brutal, but also so effective in illustrating the hold that the past can have on us through the lens of time travel fiction. A must read.
...more
May 05, 2017
Caitlin H
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites,
2017-favorites
