248 pages
English language
Published Dec. 26, 1997
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not …
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.
I couldn't stop myself from reading it. Once start, mate, this book wasn't leaving my hands. How long has it been since my last Butler book? Omg, she's such a good writer. The way she hooks you up is magic. If only her and Le Guin were a bit more queer and less binary in their writings, but, well...
The Oankali have strange and disturbing ideas about consent, which makes this an uncomfortable book to read. (This is, like, intentional, though.)
There's a disregard for singular 'they' as a genderless pronoun, instead 'it' is used to refer to the Ooloi; this doesn't feel as bad as it might because it's apparently the pronoun that the Ooloi chose to use for themselves in English
The biggest problem I have with it technically is that not all that much happens for much of the book? At least the first half is spent with Lilith just learning things about the Oankali. Which is interesting, but pretty slow
This book is as alien as any book about aliens can be. Usually, when I've read books about aliens they were different, had different motivations, technologies, etc. But there was something grounded in the aliens that ultimately reflected something human-like about them. From the first real description of Oankali, too their motivations (which may have/have not been truly addressed), these aliens felt too me to be something too weird that I couldn't resolve what they were.
By the end, I felt some of the joy and revulsion that the main character felt. I was disgusted by them and awed by them. That has never happened to me. I wanted the book to end but I'm drawn to the next one. Octavia Butler was a genius at making me feel exactly what the main character felt. It wasn't the description of them, but of how the main character felt about them …
This book is as alien as any book about aliens can be. Usually, when I've read books about aliens they were different, had different motivations, technologies, etc. But there was something grounded in the aliens that ultimately reflected something human-like about them. From the first real description of Oankali, too their motivations (which may have/have not been truly addressed), these aliens felt too me to be something too weird that I couldn't resolve what they were.
By the end, I felt some of the joy and revulsion that the main character felt. I was disgusted by them and awed by them. That has never happened to me. I wanted the book to end but I'm drawn to the next one. Octavia Butler was a genius at making me feel exactly what the main character felt. It wasn't the description of them, but of how the main character felt about them that came through. These are aliens that I have never seen. And it's hard to write what I mean all I can do is state: In Guardians of the Galaxy, there is a character that is in essence a walking, talking tree (though it only says one short sentence), but there was a humanness to the character that made me relate. You can't relate to the aliens in this book and that becomes the best part. There is just no relating to the alien species in this. You can relate to the humans but that is about it.
This is a must read book. And if you having difficulty with the aliens then that was, what I believe, the intent. Can't wait to start the next one in the series.
