Shawn > Recent Status Updates

I had forgotten how Friedman likes to take several stores and weave them together...

Clay's Ark was a disturbing novel of an alien invasion. Quite possibly the most insidious alien invasion sorry I have read and with many reminders of Heinlein's Puppetmasters.
Following the family in the story through their changes and interspersed with flashbacks of how the organism first found a foothold on Earth, Butler tells this story in a way that bothered me at first but which, ultimately, was exactly right.

Mind of My Mind was a story that moved the two main characters from Wild Seed on (with some changes) and introduced a new main character, Mary. The story and the powers of the individuals made sense and were interesting, but what really made this story memorable was that the ending was at once surprising and exactly how it should have happened.

The end of Wild Seed, the first in this book series, reminds me of all that is good about Octavia Butler's writing. She has meaningful, complex characters and shows how people change rather than just telling. In some ways, the main characters in her story are the compassionate version of Heinlein's long lived family in his future history series.

Good so far