Octavia Butler was phenomenal – prophetic, really – in imagining the world of 2025 from 1993. Sure, some of the problems are more severe, a little more dystopic, but she was keyed into the right issues – climate, societal collapse, racism, etc.
This was a challenging novel to read because the setting is so dark. The struggle of the characters to survive is unrelenting. But the novel isn't simply about surviving, it's about the protagonist's attempt to sow something new in the midst of destruction. I don't know that I ever got fully on board Lauren Olamina's "Earthseed" religion and God as Change, but I still found encouragement and some lightness in how Lauren found companions and support through cooperation in the midst of a veritable Californian Mad Max world.
One of the few scifi elements in the book is Lauren's hyperempathy – as a result of her mother's drug abuse during pregnancy, Lauren is able to telepathically experience the sensations of other people – predominantly pain, but also pleasure, as little of it as there is in her life. I would have expected this to play more of a role in Earthseed, but it didn't seem to.
I'll probably read a few other books in the interim, but I definitely want to pick up Parable of the Talents before long.
by TheNerdChaplain