Call number
Genres
Publication
New York: Four Walls Eight Windows (1995)
Pages
145
Description
Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. Short Stories. HTML: A perfect introduction for new readers and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and "Speech Sounds," winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in print for the first time, "Amnesty" is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders. Also new to this collection is "The Book of Martha" which asks: What would you do if God granted you the ability--and responsibility--to save humanity from itself? Like all of Octavia Butler's best writing, these works of the imagination are parables of the contemporary world. She proves constant in her vigil, an unblinking pessimist hoping to be proven wrong, and one of contemporary literature's strongest voices..… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
Physical description
145 p.; 7.3 inches
ISBN
156858055X / 9781568580555
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LibraryThing member AnnieMod
The short collections contains an introduction, 5 stories and 2 essays. The author also added notes at the end of each story about why she wrote the story and what she was thinking when writing it. According to the cover, these are all the stories that Butler had published up to the year when the
In the introduction, Octavia E. Butler explains that she does not like writing short stories. Considering that she is pretty good at it, that comes as a bit of a surprise. But she also admits that some stories need to be short stories - they cannot work otherwise.
"Bloodchild" (1984) would have been classified straight into the horror genre if it was published today. It is technically a science fiction story - humans living on a different planet together with an alien race. Butler complains in her note that too many people read this story as a slavery story and I am not surprised - this is how it sounds to me as well. Yes - it is somewhat of a love story but the humans are forced to help their hosts to survive. It is extremely disturbing story but at the same time it is also a exploration of how humanity can live in a planet where it is not the race at the top of the evolutionary chain. It is an ugly picture - but it is a strangely good story. And it deserves all the awards it had won. And it is one of the most terrifying stories I had read - not because it is pushed too much into the horror realm but because it sounds as something that might be.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night"(1987) is a cautionary tale about the result of drugs that had not be fully tested. Of course, it takes a while for that story to emerge - it starts with something that resembles zombies. It will also end up as a zombie story - but from the type that does not sound stale and similar to every story someone had read. I loved this story - it was subtle enough (for the most part) even if it, as much as the first one, really belong to the horror genre. It is a story about blessings and curses and where the line between them is. And then in the notes, Butler explains the science she used and mixed together and added a list of recommended works if someone wants to explore some of the issues. This note was at least as entertaining as the story itself.
"Near of Kin" (1979) is a strange story. It is very well written but I do not understand what it is making in a book of science fiction story. I really disliked where it went and why - even if I can recognize a good story, I really did not like it. The note about it was also quite disturbing. I am not sure that I can ever think of incest in a good way.
"Speech Sounds" (1983) is another story that will probably stay with me for a very long time. In a future where a disease had damaged the human brains, people had lost the ability to talk, recognize speech or read. Some rare individuals still have some of those abilities but most of the humans had slipped back in time. And in the middle of this, Rye decides to visit her family - or at least the area where the family used to be. Things go wrong on the way there and in a few short hours she will find and loose a friend; and then find the future and hope. It is a marvelous little story - you know how awful that past is but it still manages to be such a hopeful story.
"Crossover" (1971) is hardly genre story. It gets credit as genre but for me it is more mainstream than a lot of what passes for mainstream lately. Hallucinations (even when it is not clear if they are hallucinations when you talk to them) are not genre. On the other hand, it does not really matter. The story is a pretty bleak counterpart to the previous one - where the other started bleak and ended up hopeful, this one starts bleak and goes bleaker. I am not sure how much I understood of this story - and if I did not miss anything but it was a short and bitter examination of a relationship that had ended abruptly and a life that had pushed a woman to her limits. And yet she somehow persists.
The two essays had also been published before:
"Positive Obsession" (1989 as "Birth of a Writer") - autobiography in 10 pages (small ones at that). The love of reading, the love of writing and how you become a science fiction writer when you are black and a woman. These days authors publish books about that. Butler used the short form - and did it a lot better than a lot of the long books I had read.
"Furor Scribendi" (1993) - and almost as a companion piece comes the advice piece - the advice to people that want to be writers. Short, sweet and powerful..
And then in the "about the author section", there is a quote from Butler: "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out that it was called science fiction." And that is probably one of the best definitions of the genre I grew up with.
Highly recommended and I need to correct the absolutely unforgivable fact that I had never read any of her novels.
Show More
book had published (1995).In the introduction, Octavia E. Butler explains that she does not like writing short stories. Considering that she is pretty good at it, that comes as a bit of a surprise. But she also admits that some stories need to be short stories - they cannot work otherwise.
"Bloodchild" (1984) would have been classified straight into the horror genre if it was published today. It is technically a science fiction story - humans living on a different planet together with an alien race. Butler complains in her note that too many people read this story as a slavery story and I am not surprised - this is how it sounds to me as well. Yes - it is somewhat of a love story but the humans are forced to help their hosts to survive. It is extremely disturbing story but at the same time it is also a exploration of how humanity can live in a planet where it is not the race at the top of the evolutionary chain. It is an ugly picture - but it is a strangely good story. And it deserves all the awards it had won. And it is one of the most terrifying stories I had read - not because it is pushed too much into the horror realm but because it sounds as something that might be.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night"(1987) is a cautionary tale about the result of drugs that had not be fully tested. Of course, it takes a while for that story to emerge - it starts with something that resembles zombies. It will also end up as a zombie story - but from the type that does not sound stale and similar to every story someone had read. I loved this story - it was subtle enough (for the most part) even if it, as much as the first one, really belong to the horror genre. It is a story about blessings and curses and where the line between them is. And then in the notes, Butler explains the science she used and mixed together and added a list of recommended works if someone wants to explore some of the issues. This note was at least as entertaining as the story itself.
"Near of Kin" (1979) is a strange story. It is very well written but I do not understand what it is making in a book of science fiction story. I really disliked where it went and why - even if I can recognize a good story, I really did not like it. The note about it was also quite disturbing.
"Speech Sounds" (1983) is another story that will probably stay with me for a very long time. In a future where a disease had damaged the human brains, people had lost the ability to talk, recognize speech or read. Some rare individuals still have some of those abilities but most of the humans had slipped back in time. And in the middle of this, Rye decides to visit her family - or at least the area where the family used to be. Things go wrong on the way there and in a few short hours she will find and loose a friend; and then find the future and hope. It is a marvelous little story - you know how awful that past is but it still manages to be such a hopeful story.
"Crossover" (1971) is hardly genre story. It gets credit as genre but for me it is more mainstream than a lot of what passes for mainstream lately. Hallucinations (even when it is not clear if they are hallucinations when you talk to them) are not genre. On the other hand, it does not really matter. The story is a pretty bleak counterpart to the previous one - where the other started bleak and ended up hopeful, this one starts bleak and goes bleaker. I am not sure how much I understood of this story - and if I did not miss anything but it was a short and bitter examination of a relationship that had ended abruptly and a life that had pushed a woman to her limits. And yet she somehow persists.
The two essays had also been published before:
"Positive Obsession" (1989 as "Birth of a Writer") - autobiography in 10 pages (small ones at that). The love of reading, the love of writing and how you become a science fiction writer when you are black and a woman. These days authors publish books about that. Butler used the short form - and did it a lot better than a lot of the long books I had read.
"Furor Scribendi" (1993) - and almost as a companion piece comes the advice piece - the advice to people that want to be writers. Short, sweet and powerful..
And then in the "about the author section", there is a quote from Butler: "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out that it was called science fiction." And that is probably one of the best definitions of the genre I grew up with.
Highly recommended and I need to correct the absolutely unforgivable fact that I had never read any of her novels.
Show Less
LibraryThing member figre
You should read this book. If you are a fan of science fiction you should read this book. If you are not a fan of science fiction you should read this book. If you have never heard of Octavia Butler you should read this book. And if you, like me, had some minor experiences with Octavia Butler's
This small collection contains (according to the dust jacket) Butler's entire output of shorter work – five short stories and two essays. My first reaction is that I wish she had written more short fiction – these are all deserving of the accolades they received (two stories won Hugo awards and one of those the Nebula). And they are making me rethink my aversion to her novels. (I have no grounds for that aversion; as I noted, my original impression of her work was just not really favorable and I assumed that carried into her novels.)
Five short stories exploring strange situations and providing very human reactions. With "Bloodchild" we are immediately thrown into a nearly unexplainable world. It takes a few paragraphs before we can really tell who are the aliens and who are the humans. Eventually we learn that, on a land far from earth, a very strange symbiosis has developed between the humans and the aliens. (Can we call them aliens? After all, it is their world.) Butler describes this as her "pregnant man" story, but that really does not do it justice. Yes, men's bodies are used as hosts, but that is only the premise for the story. Butler dives into the main characters and reveals the gut-wrenching decisions that need to be made. And it is a story based on love – even if it doesn't seem so at first. Give this one a Hugo and a Nebula.
In "The Evening and the Morning and the Night", a cancer drug has caused some patients to mutilate themselves in disgusting ways. Unfortunately, the side effect comes from a change in the genes – a gene that can be passed on to the children. The story is told from the perspective of one of those children – a college student –who is trying to figure out what this means for herself and for her fellow sufferers. There is redemption in the end, but it is not clear redemption – just a hope. Sometimes, just having hope is the most true form of optimism about which an author can write.
"Speech Sounds" is another story with a premise involving new diseases. In this case, the disease affects the brain in an almost stroke-like manner – rendering everyone unable to communicate (speech, writing, etc.) It is an anti-utopia where, in spite of the existence of some cooperation, one can see an "A Boy and His Dog" environment in the future. This, too, is a story that ends in hope. And it is an ending that, in less skilled hands, might have been a bit too saccharine. No such problem with Butler. Give this one a Hugo.
The two other stories are slightly weaker, but good nonetheless. "Near of Kin" (the only story that is not science fiction) shows us a young girl whose mother has just died – a mother who basically abandoned her. She finally learns the truth about the situation. Slightly disturbing, and yet Butler has the ability to make sympathetic characters out of individuals whom might not be seen that way in a different light. "Crossover" is a relatively depressing story of young woman working in a factory. She comes home to find her boyfriend/companion/lover (?) out of jail and waiting for her. Yes, this one has a fantasy element.
Finally, the two short essays – autobiographical essays – are very good. The first, "Positive Obsession", is Butler's quick recap of her life and how she became a writer. It is succinct, but revealing. And it goes a long way toward explaining the type of work Butler produces. The second, "Furor Scribendi", is a compact version of the talk she gives to new writers. Nothing profound here, but some excellent advice. (You want it in a nutshell? Persist!)
In addition to the material, Butler has provided Afterwords to each of the pieces. While some people dislike this approach (hey, you don't like it, just don't read it), I always like hearing what the author has to say about her work.
I don't normally worry about reviewing every entry of a collection – it all seems to take too much time and, sometimes, describing a short story seems to take more time than reading it. But these stories are special, and this collection is special. And it deserves your time
Show More
work but never really felt it was your cup of tea, then you should definitely read this book. In one small collection, my appreciation of her work shot sky high.This small collection contains (according to the dust jacket) Butler's entire output of shorter work – five short stories and two essays. My first reaction is that I wish she had written more short fiction – these are all deserving of the accolades they received (two stories won Hugo awards and one of those the Nebula). And they are making me rethink my aversion to her novels. (I have no grounds for that aversion; as I noted, my original impression of her work was just not really favorable and I assumed that carried into her novels.)
Five short stories exploring strange situations and providing very human reactions. With "Bloodchild" we are immediately thrown into a nearly unexplainable world. It takes a few paragraphs before we can really tell who are the aliens and who are the humans. Eventually we learn that, on a land far from earth, a very strange symbiosis has developed between the humans and the aliens. (Can we call them aliens? After all, it is their world.) Butler describes this as her "pregnant man" story, but that really does not do it justice. Yes, men's bodies are used as hosts, but that is only the premise for the story. Butler dives into the main characters and reveals the gut-wrenching decisions that need to be made. And it is a story based on love – even if it doesn't seem so at first. Give this one a Hugo and a Nebula.
In "The Evening and the Morning and the Night", a cancer drug has caused some patients to mutilate themselves in disgusting ways. Unfortunately, the side effect comes from a change in the genes – a gene that can be passed on to the children. The story is told from the perspective of one of those children – a college student –who is trying to figure out what this means for herself and for her fellow sufferers. There is redemption in the end, but it is not clear redemption – just a hope. Sometimes, just having hope is the most true form of optimism about which an author can write.
"Speech Sounds" is another story with a premise involving new diseases. In this case, the disease affects the brain in an almost stroke-like manner – rendering everyone unable to communicate (speech, writing, etc.) It is an anti-utopia where, in spite of the existence of some cooperation, one can see an "A Boy and His Dog" environment in the future. This, too, is a story that ends in hope. And it is an ending that, in less skilled hands, might have been a bit too saccharine. No such problem with Butler. Give this one a Hugo.
The two other stories are slightly weaker, but good nonetheless. "Near of Kin" (the only story that is not science fiction) shows us a young girl whose mother has just died – a mother who basically abandoned her. She finally learns the truth about the situation. Slightly disturbing, and yet Butler has the ability to make sympathetic characters out of individuals whom might not be seen that way in a different light. "Crossover" is a relatively depressing story of young woman working in a factory. She comes home to find her boyfriend/companion/lover (?) out of jail and waiting for her. Yes, this one has a fantasy element.
Finally, the two short essays – autobiographical essays – are very good. The first, "Positive Obsession", is Butler's quick recap of her life and how she became a writer. It is succinct, but revealing. And it goes a long way toward explaining the type of work Butler produces. The second, "Furor Scribendi", is a compact version of the talk she gives to new writers. Nothing profound here, but some excellent advice. (You want it in a nutshell? Persist!)
In addition to the material, Butler has provided Afterwords to each of the pieces. While some people dislike this approach (hey, you don't like it, just don't read it), I always like hearing what the author has to say about her work.
I don't normally worry about reviewing every entry of a collection – it all seems to take too much time and, sometimes, describing a short story seems to take more time than reading it. But these stories are special, and this collection is special. And it deserves your time
Show Less
LibraryThing member jlparent
This collection of short stories is intriguing - pretty good speculative fiction. Honestly I have yet to find a Butler work I didn't enjoy and while a few stories in here are not as good than the rest, all are worth reading. Dip in.
LibraryThing member juki2222
I admired and enjoyed Octavia Butler from WIldseed on. I read Bloodchild in a Woman's Studies class years and years ago and loved it. Butler tackles several controversial issues with thoughtfully and her writing is interesting and compelling as usual.
LibraryThing member sturlington
I enjoyed this collection of Butler's short pieces. Butler is a terrific writer, but her novels can be uneven. Her stories are more consistent, although I felt that the best pieces came at the beginning of the book, and the last two stories seemed tacked on. I also liked her two essays on writing
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that were included. There are not many stories in this collection, which I prefer. Too often when I read short stories, I become overwhelmed by the sheer number of stories, and one story blends into the next so that none really stand out in my mind. By contrast, with this volume, I savored each story, and thought about Butler's big ideas for some time after reading it. Butler also wrote a short afterword for each story, which I really liked because it provided some context for the story and the ideas Butler was trying to convey. This is a good read for any Butler fan, especially if you can snag it at a bargain price for the Kindle, which I managed to do. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
The short collections contains an introduction, 5 stories and 2 essays. The author also added notes at the end of each story about why she wrote the story and what she was thinking when writing it. According to the cover, these are all the stories that Butler had published up to the year when the
In the introduction, Octavia E. Butler explains that she does not like writing short stories. Considering that she is pretty good at it, that comes as a bit of a surprise. But she also admits that some stories need to be short stories - they cannot work otherwise.
"Bloodchild" (1984) would have been classified straight into the horror genre if it was published today. It is technically a science fiction story - humans living on a different planet together with an alien race. Butler complains in her note that too many people read this story as a slavery story and I am not surprised - this is how it sounds to me as well. Yes - it is somewhat of a love story but the humans are forced to help their hosts to survive. It is extremely disturbing story but at the same time it is also a exploration of how humanity can live in a planet where it is not the race at the top of the evolutionary chain. It is an ugly picture - but it is a strangely good story. And it deserves all the awards it had won. And it is one of the most terrifying stories I had read - not because it is pushed too much into the horror realm but because it sounds as something that might be.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night"(1987) is a cautionary tale about the result of drugs that had not be fully tested. Of course, it takes a while for that story to emerge - it starts with something that resembles zombies. It will also end up as a zombie story - but from the type that does not sound stale and similar to every story someone had read. I loved this story - it was subtle enough (for the most part) even if it, as much as the first one, really belong to the horror genre. It is a story about blessings and curses and where the line between them is. And then in the notes, Butler explains the science she used and mixed together and added a list of recommended works if someone wants to explore some of the issues. This note was at least as entertaining as the story itself.
"Near of Kin" (1979) is a strange story. It is very well written but I do not understand what it is making in a book of science fiction story. I really disliked where it went and why - even if I can recognize a good story, I really did not like it. The note about it was also quite disturbing. I am not sure that I can ever think of incest in a good way.
"Speech Sounds" (1983) is another story that will probably stay with me for a very long time. In a future where a disease had damaged the human brains, people had lost the ability to talk, recognize speech or read. Some rare individuals still have some of those abilities but most of the humans had slipped back in time. And in the middle of this, Rye decides to visit her family - or at least the area where the family used to be. Things go wrong on the way there and in a few short hours she will find and loose a friend; and then find the future and hope. It is a marvelous little story - you know how awful that past is but it still manages to be such a hopeful story.
"Crossover" (1971) is hardly genre story. It gets credit as genre but for me it is more mainstream than a lot of what passes for mainstream lately. Hallucinations (even when it is not clear if they are hallucinations when you talk to them) are not genre. On the other hand, it does not really matter. The story is a pretty bleak counterpart to the previous one - where the other started bleak and ended up hopeful, this one starts bleak and goes bleaker. I am not sure how much I understood of this story - and if I did not miss anything but it was a short and bitter examination of a relationship that had ended abruptly and a life that had pushed a woman to her limits. And yet she somehow persists.
The two essays had also been published before:
"Positive Obsession" (1989 as "Birth of a Writer") - autobiography in 10 pages (small ones at that). The love of reading, the love of writing and how you become a science fiction writer when you are black and a woman. These days authors publish books about that. Butler used the short form - and did it a lot better than a lot of the long books I had read.
"Furor Scribendi" (1993) - and almost as a companion piece comes the advice piece - the advice to people that want to be writers. Short, sweet and powerful..
And then in the "about the author section", there is a quote from Butler: "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out that it was called science fiction." And that is probably one of the best definitions of the genre I grew up with.
Highly recommended and I need to correct the absolutely unforgivable fact that I had never read any of her novels.
Show More
book had published (1995).In the introduction, Octavia E. Butler explains that she does not like writing short stories. Considering that she is pretty good at it, that comes as a bit of a surprise. But she also admits that some stories need to be short stories - they cannot work otherwise.
"Bloodchild" (1984) would have been classified straight into the horror genre if it was published today. It is technically a science fiction story - humans living on a different planet together with an alien race. Butler complains in her note that too many people read this story as a slavery story and I am not surprised - this is how it sounds to me as well. Yes - it is somewhat of a love story but the humans are forced to help their hosts to survive. It is extremely disturbing story but at the same time it is also a exploration of how humanity can live in a planet where it is not the race at the top of the evolutionary chain. It is an ugly picture - but it is a strangely good story. And it deserves all the awards it had won. And it is one of the most terrifying stories I had read - not because it is pushed too much into the horror realm but because it sounds as something that might be.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night"(1987) is a cautionary tale about the result of drugs that had not be fully tested. Of course, it takes a while for that story to emerge - it starts with something that resembles zombies. It will also end up as a zombie story - but from the type that does not sound stale and similar to every story someone had read. I loved this story - it was subtle enough (for the most part) even if it, as much as the first one, really belong to the horror genre. It is a story about blessings and curses and where the line between them is. And then in the notes, Butler explains the science she used and mixed together and added a list of recommended works if someone wants to explore some of the issues. This note was at least as entertaining as the story itself.
"Near of Kin" (1979) is a strange story. It is very well written but I do not understand what it is making in a book of science fiction story. I really disliked where it went and why - even if I can recognize a good story, I really did not like it. The note about it was also quite disturbing.
"Speech Sounds" (1983) is another story that will probably stay with me for a very long time. In a future where a disease had damaged the human brains, people had lost the ability to talk, recognize speech or read. Some rare individuals still have some of those abilities but most of the humans had slipped back in time. And in the middle of this, Rye decides to visit her family - or at least the area where the family used to be. Things go wrong on the way there and in a few short hours she will find and loose a friend; and then find the future and hope. It is a marvelous little story - you know how awful that past is but it still manages to be such a hopeful story.
"Crossover" (1971) is hardly genre story. It gets credit as genre but for me it is more mainstream than a lot of what passes for mainstream lately. Hallucinations (even when it is not clear if they are hallucinations when you talk to them) are not genre. On the other hand, it does not really matter. The story is a pretty bleak counterpart to the previous one - where the other started bleak and ended up hopeful, this one starts bleak and goes bleaker. I am not sure how much I understood of this story - and if I did not miss anything but it was a short and bitter examination of a relationship that had ended abruptly and a life that had pushed a woman to her limits. And yet she somehow persists.
The two essays had also been published before:
"Positive Obsession" (1989 as "Birth of a Writer") - autobiography in 10 pages (small ones at that). The love of reading, the love of writing and how you become a science fiction writer when you are black and a woman. These days authors publish books about that. Butler used the short form - and did it a lot better than a lot of the long books I had read.
"Furor Scribendi" (1993) - and almost as a companion piece comes the advice piece - the advice to people that want to be writers. Short, sweet and powerful..
And then in the "about the author section", there is a quote from Butler: "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out that it was called science fiction." And that is probably one of the best definitions of the genre I grew up with.
Highly recommended and I need to correct the absolutely unforgivable fact that I had never read any of her novels.
Show Less
LibraryThing member andreablythe
As Octavia Butler is the Honored Ghost for FOGcon this year, it seemed like an excellent idea to return to Bloodchild and Other Stories. Its a slim volume of stories, one that could easily be read in an afternoon. But these are stories with incredible strength.
It's no wonder, for example, that
All of these stories provide their own explorations of humanity, from apocalyptic world in which people have lost the ability to understand either written or spoken language to unusual solutions to managing genetic diseases to the sympathetic explorations of family conditions. There's a lot of strangeness and a lot of beauty to be had here and I highly recommend this book as an introduction to Butler's work.
It's no wonder, for example, that
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"Bloodchild" won three awards for best novelette (Hugo, Nebula, and the Locus). This story of how humans have come to live symbiotically with an alien species on another planet. It's also a coming of age story and a beautiful and complex exploration of birthing, family, and love. "Bloodchild" lingered with me long after I first read it, and returning to it I find myself pondering it all over again. It's a powerful story and makes me desperate to write, to continue attempting to build my skills in the hopes of coming even a little close. All of these stories provide their own explorations of humanity, from apocalyptic world in which people have lost the ability to understand either written or spoken language to unusual solutions to managing genetic diseases to the sympathetic explorations of family conditions. There's a lot of strangeness and a lot of beauty to be had here and I highly recommend this book as an introduction to Butler's work.
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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
This edition (ISBN: 156858055X) does not have The Book of Martha."
The afterwards are interesting. Butler clearly does not fully understand the impact her work has on readers. That is to say, the adage about not asking an artist what their work means does apply to her. She's confident she has
The stories have a lot to say to the receptive reader. She takes an ordinary thing likebotflies and doesn't just turn it into an SF adventure, but creates a whole world with its own poignancies and reverberations, giving us a story that will bounce around in our memory for a long time.
I admire Butler tremendously. I don't always enjoy her work as much as I want to, as it's so disturbing; I can only take so much of it at a time. I have not been able to convince myself to continue to read her oeuvre. I will keep trying...."
The afterwards are interesting. Butler clearly does not fully understand the impact her work has on readers. That is to say, the adage about not asking an artist what their work means does apply to her. She's confident she has
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something worth saying, and can say it well, but doesn't realize the subtleties that different readers will interpret from their points of empathy.The stories have a lot to say to the receptive reader. She takes an ordinary thing like
I admire Butler tremendously. I don't always enjoy her work as much as I want to, as it's so disturbing; I can only take so much of it at a time. I have not been able to convince myself to continue to read her oeuvre. I will keep trying...."
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LibraryThing member Calavari
This is the first of Butler's work that I've read, or listened to in this case. The narrator is Janina Edwards. I listened to it on the Prime Channel "Worlds Away: Sci-Fi Classics" and am so glad I saw it there. I decided to make this my Task 22 for Read Harder 2017, Read a collection of stories by
Sci-fi is my preferred genre in fiction but reading challenges and the desire to read more diverse authors has pulled me away from it in recent years. I've found some great books that I am so glad to have read and a love for historical fiction I never thought I'd have. But this book is full of some of my favorite things about my favorite genre and written by prolific author that I'm glad I can go back to for more worlds.
Each story had its own world to build, though most took place right here on Earth. I enjoy stories on far off planets are alternate worlds but rarely have I read any that sit so well in this in between space. These world could be called dystopian, which there are plenty of, but most of these stories take place in that early transition from the world we know to something radically different like the Hunger Games. It sits in the same in between as the Walking Dead in most cases.
Of the stories, of which there were seven, none let me down at all. Sometimes short story collections have one or two stories that aren't up to par with the others but all the worlds were different and engaging. This, of course, doesn't meant that I am without my favorites. I found "Book of Martha" and "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" were favorites.
Butler's stories that revolved around alien contact and the way we might live with that were interesting in a way that was completely new for me. I love that she was toying with the idea that we would have invaders that didn't want to exterminate us and that we couldn't exterminate. I loved the 'silent war' that took place in one story. Mostly, what I enjoyed about these cohabitation stories was the concessions that both sides may have to make, what might develop from it.
My favorite thing about this collection is that each story made you think about the world, our responses to change or unavoidable situations. These are the things that I love about science fiction the most. I already had Kindred on my list to read for Litsy A to Z but I'm sure I'll be coming black to Octavia Butler over the years for my sci-fi fix.
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a woman. I was going to use another book, and though that one fits, the stories are actually part of a series that I haven't read yet, which made it hard for me to keep up with.Sci-fi is my preferred genre in fiction but reading challenges and the desire to read more diverse authors has pulled me away from it in recent years. I've found some great books that I am so glad to have read and a love for historical fiction I never thought I'd have. But this book is full of some of my favorite things about my favorite genre and written by prolific author that I'm glad I can go back to for more worlds.
Each story had its own world to build, though most took place right here on Earth. I enjoy stories on far off planets are alternate worlds but rarely have I read any that sit so well in this in between space. These world could be called dystopian, which there are plenty of, but most of these stories take place in that early transition from the world we know to something radically different like the Hunger Games. It sits in the same in between as the Walking Dead in most cases.
Of the stories, of which there were seven, none let me down at all. Sometimes short story collections have one or two stories that aren't up to par with the others but all the worlds were different and engaging. This, of course, doesn't meant that I am without my favorites. I found "Book of Martha" and "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" were favorites.
Butler's stories that revolved around alien contact and the way we might live with that were interesting in a way that was completely new for me. I love that she was toying with the idea that we would have invaders that didn't want to exterminate us and that we couldn't exterminate. I loved the 'silent war' that took place in one story. Mostly, what I enjoyed about these cohabitation stories was the concessions that both sides may have to make, what might develop from it.
My favorite thing about this collection is that each story made you think about the world, our responses to change or unavoidable situations. These are the things that I love about science fiction the most. I already had Kindred on my list to read for Litsy A to Z but I'm sure I'll be coming black to Octavia Butler over the years for my sci-fi fix.
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LibraryThing member Smokler
My first Octavia Butler. I didn't love everything in her but make it morning breaking clear how brilliant she is. Eager to read more.
LibraryThing member KittyCunningham
Good stories
I wish some had been longer. Better still, novelized.
I wish she was still here so I could tell her how much I enjoy her work.
I wish some had been longer. Better still, novelized.
I wish she was still here so I could tell her how much I enjoy her work.
LibraryThing member villemezbrown
#1004 in our old book database. #29 for Adele (10/5/1995). Not rated.
Contents: Bloodchild -- The Evening and the Morning and the Night -- Near of Kin -- Speech Sounds -- Crossover -- Positive Obsessi
Contents: Bloodchild -- The Evening and the Morning and the Night -- Near of Kin -- Speech Sounds -- Crossover -- Positive Obsessi