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Octavia E. Butler

Start date: January 15, 2023

Finish date: February 15, 2023

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Justin Pickett

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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What Members Thought

Jan 07, 2014 Paige rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

So far I've read three of Octavia Butler's books and they have all been SUPER EXCELLENT. Out of the 70+ books I read last year, the two of hers I read were in my top five. I recently bought a bundle of them when Amazon was having a daily deal on her stuff so...I'm sure you can tell I am excited :3

Here is what I loved about this book: Everything! This is such a powerful book and it's pretty close to perfect as far as my preferences go. It works on so many levels. This book was extremely engrossin So far I've read three of Octavia Butler's books and they have all been SUPER EXCELLENT. Out of the 70+ books I read last year, the two of hers I read were in my top five. I recently bought a bundle of them when Amazon was having a daily deal on her stuff so...I'm sure you can tell I am excited :3

Here is what I loved about this book: Everything! This is such a powerful book and it's pretty close to perfect as far as my preferences go. It works on so many levels. This book was extremely engrossing, held my attention expertly, tells a great story, explores all sorts of complicated relationships and moral dilemmas with no easy answers but tons of room for wondering about and pondering on. Her characters are fantastic and the world she creates is so real (except for the time travel...I guess) and terrifying and human (and inhuman, too, of course). And although the writing may not be lyrical or stunningly gorgeous, it had no problem bringing a certain immediacy to me. It also has that feeling that I love so much, I'm not sure there's a word for this, but it has to do with the narrative scope and the richness of the story. It's like how in Downton Abbey, you know there's so much more going on than the viewer sees, so many lives being lived that the big, generalized, historical-level sweeps are the main impression, while meanwhile the attention to detail is palpable as well. Similarly, Butler doesn't walk you through every little thing that some books do; it is easy to imagine all sorts of lives being lived around the edges of the specific, descriptive narration. My mom remarked that the book had such small print, but I was flying through it--the writing kind of melts into the background; it's not something you notice as much as experience.

Something that bothers me every time I think about Ms Butler's work is that it always gets pigeonholed as "science fiction" and only received "science fiction" awards. Margaret Atwood writes science fiction, but her books get nominated for the Booker, the Orange Prize, blah blah blah. Like...seriously? The work I've read by Atwood is way more science fiction-y than the stuff I've read by Butler, and I prefer Butler's work so much more. It just doesn't make any sense. At least I can be glad today that I have found a new book to put on my "favorites" bookcase. ...more

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Jul 14, 2014 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, read-this-book-again

A powerful time travel account of a couple's encounter with slavery in Maryland pre-Civil War. I read this book several years ago at my son, Josh and his wife Lisa's suggestion. Very powerful. The time travel part of the story is roughly sketched in. Dana time travels when an ancestor living in the 1830's is in danger. Eventually, her husband, a white man named Kevin, time travels with her. The details of life for slaves, pre-Civil war, are brutal. I think it would be a wonderful book to help h ...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Clackamas rated it liked it

Shelves: pre-teen-and-teen, general-fiction

Not bad. Interesting. For a younger audience, I think. I appreciated that it didn't try to explain how the time travel was possible. I didn't really care for the conclusion. The author crammed her message down our throats, but then didn't have a conclusion that went with the message at all. Whatever. It was a nice light read. ...more

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