What do you think?
Rate this book
Earthseed #1
Parable of the Sower
In 2024, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren鈥檚 father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren鈥檚 family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren鈥檚 father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren鈥檚 family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
345 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
24.4k people are currently reading
364k people want to read
About the author
Octavia E. Butler
99听books20.7k听followersOctavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.
After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.
After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 25,778 reviews
January 23, 2021
I am going to start this review off by asking a theoretical question. There is a huge wave coming, it will wash you and everyone you love out to sea. What do you do? Do you back up away from the water? Move to higher ground? Build a boat to ride it out? Or do you turn your back on it, play on the beach and pretend that it isn鈥檛 coming? Now imagine that it isn鈥檛 a wave of water, but a wave of violence, crime and people that will be unstoppable. No wall will hold them back. You may have nowhere ideal to go. But you have access to books, learning materials and you have time to prepare, pack. Octavia Butler speculates that most people would ignore the coming onslaught and attempt to go about their daily business, not prepare and not learn. It is scary to move forward and change behavior and scary to imagine the world as we know it is ending. But change is necessary to survival, according to Butler. This is what Parable is about 鈥� change, adaptation and working together in a community to accomplish the change in order to survive.
The main character in Parable, a teenage girl named Lauren, is an agent of change. Lauren is unwilling to turn her back on the huge wave she knows is coming; instead she teaches herself through books everything she can learn and she prepares for what she knows and fears is coming. Lauren is inspired from inside herself and is somewhat of a prophet of a new religion and philosophy. Her belief is 鈥淕od is Change,鈥� and she goes out to preach it. The creation of the religion is a vehicle for Lauren鈥檚 story to be told and for hope to be seeded among her followers.
Octavia Butler published her book in 1995, so many apocalyptic novels have come after hers have incorporated elements that are present in this book. It is interesting for me that Butler appears to have less acclaim but she is the predecessor of so many well-known novels.
There are books that tell the story of the world ending by an apocalyptic event and then there are books that show you what the world would be like during an apocalyptic even 鈥� without holding back. Parable of the Sower is the latter. The images of lives being destroyed and violence being wrought on people just for living and just for having something, anything that is wanted by those who do not have anything 鈥� these images are described in details. They are not described, I think, for the delight of reading gore, but to serve as a marker of how far society has fallen. And it is a scary world that Butler describes; scary and realistic. Despite that I have absolutely no point of reference for the scenes described in this book, while reading I felt as though it could have been happening right outside my door. There is nothing about this apocalyptic world that is romantic.
In Parable, much of society鈥檚 downfall appears to have been caused by environmental devastation, which has in turn caused economic and political devastation. Polluted water, toxic chemicals, failed pharmaceutical and science experiments resulting in dangerous addictive drugs. Butler鈥檚 book is a scary warning of pushing consumer and corporate demands to the extreme.
Reading this book created questions in my mind. Is this book really about an apocalyptic event? It does take place in the US (California) and the society that is disintegrating is American society, but is this an apocalyptic event or the failure of one society? So many apocalyptic books describe world changing events; but in Parable, it is shortages 鈥� gas, water, food, governmental collapse (or increasing ineffectualness) but some infrastructure remains. There are police, but they investigate and then charge user fees; there are property taxes and there are colleges; there is electricity and there are entertainment outlets (like televisions, etc.); there are insurance companies and resources --- but everything for an elevated price and most people do not have the ability to pay for these items and services. What happens is that these institutions are not efficient, they are not accessible to most individuals and there is a heavy cost to purchase their services. There are still jobs and corporations and apparently very successful corporations. People without education and without jobs, crowd in to smaller housing and share space. Corporations dominate certain sectors of society and provide protection and infrastructure to those who can afford it. Punitive debt policies and employment policies are in place that hurt individuals but benefit corporations. Isn鈥檛 this describing the current state of some countries in this world right now 鈥� maybe even in this hemisphere? Where there is no protection for the individual beyond what they can obtain from people in their community and families? Don鈥檛 people already go on migrations to new places (bordering countries, mega cities, factory rich regions) with nothing but a small savings and a hope for anything different? I see this book as an envisioning of what if these situations happened in the United States. The scenarios described in Parable, the extreme violence, the extreme fear and the absolute lack of choices are just so out of the realm of anything most people in the US experience while living in the US that it is hard to imagine, understand and relate to images like written in this book that we may read about in the news, blogs or in non-fiction books. Butler brings it home; she recreates it here and it is absolutely terrifying.
At one point in the novel, Lauren travels disguised as a man but she travels along side a woman who is described as highly desirable, Zahra. Zahra encounters problem after problem because men will just not leave her alone 鈥� and in a threatening way. There is no government, no structure 鈥� and no laws to protect the weak. Butler describes horrible crimes that happen to females of all ages and most of them sexual. What point is Butler making about the physicality of being a woman? Is she saying that in the absence of the protection of a societal framework a woman is more at risk, simply because she is a woman? Does this mean Butler believes this threat is inherent? I have a hard time accepting this concept, but I also know I approach this concept of equality and physical integrity from an extremely privileged position. The mass rapes that happen in war torn countries, the use of rape as a weapon of wars, and the kidnapping and use of children soldiers 鈥� these horrors that take place and demonstrate this fragile place in society that women and children can occupy.
But again, from my extremely privileged position, I have a hard time grasping that in the absence of government and infrastructure, human beings will turn violent and devoid of empathy. The mass chaos Butler describes is only kept out by walls, guns and guards. However, I have mentioned this and been told by some people, very intelligently, that it does not take a majority to create chaos. A minority of criminals and desparados are enough to create the chaos that endangers people, the forces them to withdraw from society and that puts women and children at risk. If the natural condition in a situation devoid of an effective government is chaos and danger, how could society have evolved? Why would we be here? I do think the answer is that people would join together, form a community, work as a group and attempt to protect the community members. And that, is what I think this book is about 鈥� community, bonds, joint action and moving forward as a group. The acceptance of change and the trusting of each other.
For more reviews like this one check out my blog:
The main character in Parable, a teenage girl named Lauren, is an agent of change. Lauren is unwilling to turn her back on the huge wave she knows is coming; instead she teaches herself through books everything she can learn and she prepares for what she knows and fears is coming. Lauren is inspired from inside herself and is somewhat of a prophet of a new religion and philosophy. Her belief is 鈥淕od is Change,鈥� and she goes out to preach it. The creation of the religion is a vehicle for Lauren鈥檚 story to be told and for hope to be seeded among her followers.
Octavia Butler published her book in 1995, so many apocalyptic novels have come after hers have incorporated elements that are present in this book. It is interesting for me that Butler appears to have less acclaim but she is the predecessor of so many well-known novels.
There are books that tell the story of the world ending by an apocalyptic event and then there are books that show you what the world would be like during an apocalyptic even 鈥� without holding back. Parable of the Sower is the latter. The images of lives being destroyed and violence being wrought on people just for living and just for having something, anything that is wanted by those who do not have anything 鈥� these images are described in details. They are not described, I think, for the delight of reading gore, but to serve as a marker of how far society has fallen. And it is a scary world that Butler describes; scary and realistic. Despite that I have absolutely no point of reference for the scenes described in this book, while reading I felt as though it could have been happening right outside my door. There is nothing about this apocalyptic world that is romantic.
In Parable, much of society鈥檚 downfall appears to have been caused by environmental devastation, which has in turn caused economic and political devastation. Polluted water, toxic chemicals, failed pharmaceutical and science experiments resulting in dangerous addictive drugs. Butler鈥檚 book is a scary warning of pushing consumer and corporate demands to the extreme.
Reading this book created questions in my mind. Is this book really about an apocalyptic event? It does take place in the US (California) and the society that is disintegrating is American society, but is this an apocalyptic event or the failure of one society? So many apocalyptic books describe world changing events; but in Parable, it is shortages 鈥� gas, water, food, governmental collapse (or increasing ineffectualness) but some infrastructure remains. There are police, but they investigate and then charge user fees; there are property taxes and there are colleges; there is electricity and there are entertainment outlets (like televisions, etc.); there are insurance companies and resources --- but everything for an elevated price and most people do not have the ability to pay for these items and services. What happens is that these institutions are not efficient, they are not accessible to most individuals and there is a heavy cost to purchase their services. There are still jobs and corporations and apparently very successful corporations. People without education and without jobs, crowd in to smaller housing and share space. Corporations dominate certain sectors of society and provide protection and infrastructure to those who can afford it. Punitive debt policies and employment policies are in place that hurt individuals but benefit corporations. Isn鈥檛 this describing the current state of some countries in this world right now 鈥� maybe even in this hemisphere? Where there is no protection for the individual beyond what they can obtain from people in their community and families? Don鈥檛 people already go on migrations to new places (bordering countries, mega cities, factory rich regions) with nothing but a small savings and a hope for anything different? I see this book as an envisioning of what if these situations happened in the United States. The scenarios described in Parable, the extreme violence, the extreme fear and the absolute lack of choices are just so out of the realm of anything most people in the US experience while living in the US that it is hard to imagine, understand and relate to images like written in this book that we may read about in the news, blogs or in non-fiction books. Butler brings it home; she recreates it here and it is absolutely terrifying.
At one point in the novel, Lauren travels disguised as a man but she travels along side a woman who is described as highly desirable, Zahra. Zahra encounters problem after problem because men will just not leave her alone 鈥� and in a threatening way. There is no government, no structure 鈥� and no laws to protect the weak. Butler describes horrible crimes that happen to females of all ages and most of them sexual. What point is Butler making about the physicality of being a woman? Is she saying that in the absence of the protection of a societal framework a woman is more at risk, simply because she is a woman? Does this mean Butler believes this threat is inherent? I have a hard time accepting this concept, but I also know I approach this concept of equality and physical integrity from an extremely privileged position. The mass rapes that happen in war torn countries, the use of rape as a weapon of wars, and the kidnapping and use of children soldiers 鈥� these horrors that take place and demonstrate this fragile place in society that women and children can occupy.
But again, from my extremely privileged position, I have a hard time grasping that in the absence of government and infrastructure, human beings will turn violent and devoid of empathy. The mass chaos Butler describes is only kept out by walls, guns and guards. However, I have mentioned this and been told by some people, very intelligently, that it does not take a majority to create chaos. A minority of criminals and desparados are enough to create the chaos that endangers people, the forces them to withdraw from society and that puts women and children at risk. If the natural condition in a situation devoid of an effective government is chaos and danger, how could society have evolved? Why would we be here? I do think the answer is that people would join together, form a community, work as a group and attempt to protect the community members. And that, is what I think this book is about 鈥� community, bonds, joint action and moving forward as a group. The acceptance of change and the trusting of each other.
For more reviews like this one check out my blog:
January 12, 2021
I am embarrassed to say I had never read Octavia Butler before. I鈥檓 happy I finally corrected this glaring oversight. This novel set in the near future is so frighteningly prescient it is difficult to read. The year is 2026. American society is rapidly breaking down thanks to global warning, economic stagnation and wealth disparity. 18-year-old Lauren Olamina lives with her family in a walled-off middle class neighborhood outside LA, but she knows that their little island of relative safety will not last. No one can leave the compound without risking their lives. People are desperate and bereft of any hope. Police and fire fighters only come to help if you have the money to pay them, and even then they are more likely to arrest you than assist you. Few jobs pay money. Most people are slipping into de facto slavery as servants to the wealthy or employees in company-run towns. The new president promises to 鈥淢ake America Great Again,鈥� 鈥� sound familiar? 鈥� but does so by eliminating the space program and loosening all labor protections, which only gives large corporations a freer hand in cutting up the carcass of the United States.
Lauren is born with a dangerous condition, hyper-empathy, which means she feels whatever pain she witnesses inflicted on others. When her neighborhood is finally breached and she is forced out into the harsh new world, this empathy is only one of her great challenges. Lauren has an idea for a new kind of society 鈥� a new religion that will teach self-sufficiency and a new understanding of what God is 鈥� but to realize her dream, she first has to stay alive and learn who she can trust.
This book was written in the 90s. The scary thing is 鈥� the 2026 Butler imagined twenty years ago could easily happen within ten years. Reading this book, I felt a growing sense of claustrophobia, as if I were already trapped in Butler鈥檚 disintegrating vision of America. It is a haunting, powerful read, but not for the faint of heart.
Lauren is born with a dangerous condition, hyper-empathy, which means she feels whatever pain she witnesses inflicted on others. When her neighborhood is finally breached and she is forced out into the harsh new world, this empathy is only one of her great challenges. Lauren has an idea for a new kind of society 鈥� a new religion that will teach self-sufficiency and a new understanding of what God is 鈥� but to realize her dream, she first has to stay alive and learn who she can trust.
This book was written in the 90s. The scary thing is 鈥� the 2026 Butler imagined twenty years ago could easily happen within ten years. Reading this book, I felt a growing sense of claustrophobia, as if I were already trapped in Butler鈥檚 disintegrating vision of America. It is a haunting, powerful read, but not for the faint of heart.
January 20, 2025
鈥�The world is full of painful stories.鈥�
When the world falls apart and people are beset by intense suffering and sadness, many turn to religion for the assuring promise of a better place beyond death. In Parable of the Sower, an intensely riveting and disquieting vision of America鈥檚 collapse by Octavia Butler, teenage Lauren Olamina instead asks why should we resign ourselves to hope in paradise after death when we could rise up with the power to fight the suffering we face while alive to embrace a brighter tomorrow for all. Lauren lives in a community protected by a wall from the violence outside and is afflicted with a condition of hyper-empathy. Her perspective on other鈥檚 pain shapes her towards a revolutionary new beginning for humanity, if she can survive that is. Drawing from the biblical parable from which the novel takes it鈥檚 name, this is a novel about the seeds of hope that we must believe can grow even in the darkest of nights and the harshest terrains. Butler plunges the reader into a bleakness of humanity where capitalism has reformed a fresh take on slavery and worker鈥檚 oppression as the economy gasps is dying breaths, while all around chaos reigns supreme. Harrowing yet hopeful, Butler鈥檚 novel rightfully belongs in conversation with and as a prescient portrayal of social collapse while offering a way forward through embracing change and empathy.
鈥�Freedom is dangerous but it's precious, too. You can't just throw it away or let it slip away.鈥�
Butler pulls no punches in her world building. Beginning in 2024, Lauren has been born into an America ravaged by climate change, violence and a collapsing economy that opened the door for outlandish inequality. A new President takes the helm on a platform to remove government programs and revitalize jobs, creating a fresh revitalization of Company Towns and debt-slavery. The set-up between a willful acceptance of a debt one can never pay off or succumbing to the violence that is spreading offers little chance of hope in lives already resigned to nothing more than a short lifespan having babies and suffering. Published in 1993, the parallels to our modern sociopolitical climate are striking, such as the pits of debt or fear of losing health care that keep people locked in less-than-desirable jobs (the 2018 comedy from Boots Riley does an excellent job comedically skewering this concept as well--highly recommended). Butler bares her teeth in her critiques of capitalism and the slow creep on human rights that perish for the sake of 鈥渆conomic progress鈥� that only seems to benefit the established elite.
鈥�There is no end
To what a living world
Will demand of you.鈥�
When it becomes necessary for human life to be normalized as expendable, is the system even worth upholding? 鈥�Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people鈥攁s long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?鈥� Lauren wonders as those around her flee to the illusion of safety in the newly created company town. As she will say in the sequel, Parable of the Talents, 鈥�In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.鈥� . Like a phoenix, Lauren wishes for a new future to rise from the ashes of her dying society--which she quite literally witnesses being burnt by roaming gangs who then murder all her friends and family as they try to flee. The God of her forebearers has failed to provide meaning for her anymore and those who follow the old ways seem more of an obstacle to a chance of progress than a safety net. Butler demonstrates how many of our problems are blatant and in our face, but we have been socialized to accept them and those who speak out and warn others or offer an alternative, like Lauren, are dismissed as fearmongering and alarmism. This is a story about what happens when your warnings are correct, but the devastation gives no room for validation. Remember the parts of The Road that haunt you? Now imagine that sustained for a full novel. The second half of this book follows people walking a freeway under constant siege of theft and murder, long nights keeping watch and all the nightmares along the way.
鈥�That鈥檚 all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don鈥檛 know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won鈥檛 matter if we don鈥檛 survive these times.鈥�
Butler evokes the spirit of in Lauren, who, like Douglass, had the rare ability to read and write in her oppressed community. As her small group of refugees trudge north, she considers how they have become a sort of 鈥�modern underground railroad,鈥� taking in those fleeing prostitution or debt-slavery, those fleeing a wasteland where everything they love was stolen from them. Douglass surreptitiously taught slaves how to read and write using the Bible as the primary text. Lauren, who is teaching her friends, is also spreading religion. But unlike when the oppressed embraced the God of their oppressors--an act of defiance and spiritual salvation--here they are rejecting the God of old in place of a new one: Earthseed.
Like the farmer from the biblical parable from which the novel takes it鈥檚 name, Lauren is spreading the seeds of her new 鈥榖elief system鈥�. God is Change, Lauren says. Her God is less a deity than an idea that she believes can transform humanity. Writing her scripture in poetry, she is walking the land preaching her new beliefs and taking in converts. Like the seeds of the parable her words may fall on deaf or disbelieving ears, but some, like Travis or Bankole, become her 鈥�first converts鈥�.
Earthseed draws on many religions--Lauren鈥檚 father is a Baptist pastor, which shapes her foundational thinking--mixed with . The ultimate goal is to spread humanity in peace throughout the stars, which is a defiant statement in a country where the newly elected President is working to abolish the space program. For Lauren, God is a trickster figure, an embodiment of change, which to many of her hopeful converts doesn鈥檛 seem enough of a powerful cause to believe in. This makes one consider why religious texts are so imbued with magic and wonder if without something magical--like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead--would his message of being executed by the State for standing up to them with a message of universal and equitable love as an opposition to oppression and wealth-seeking for power have been passed down throughout time. Lauren believes in a 鈥�Book of the living鈥� that informs on how to create a paradise for those alive, but without a magical goal it may be a difficult persuasion. Yet, she must still plant the seeds and hope they take in unfamiliar soil.
Seeds planting is thematic throughout the novel beyond religious context. Lauren packs different seeds as food in her survival pack--a concept she tries to introduce to her community early on but is shouted down as being alarmist for wanting people to prepare for the worst, an easily empathetic scenario for teens her own age to identify with--and collects different seasonal seeds as the group travels North. When they find a place to possibly settle, it is her seeds that offer hope for a sustainable society to flourish upon. This draws a direct connection between the environmental messages and the religious ones in the novel.
鈥�The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn鈥檛 always safe, but it鈥檚 often necessary.鈥�
Beyond progressive critiques of capitalism and expositions on impending climate crisis, Butler鈥檚 narrative embraces intersectionality and unity as imperative to survival. 鈥�Embrace diversity,鈥� Lauren preaches in her poetry as her group begins to pick up a variety of people, 鈥�Unite鈥� Or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed / By those who see you as prey. / Embrace diversity / Or be destroyed.鈥� There is a strong message of identifying the usefulness or any individual they welcome into their group, both despite their differences but also by recognizing and embracing differences. Lauren passes herself off as a man to make her initial party appear like a heteronormative couple, which attracts less attention. The biases we find in today鈥檚 society are elevated in Butler鈥檚 apocalyptic vision to remind us that certain groups bear privileges others do not. By recognizing them they are able to subvert them and take note of which social constructs enable violence upon others. Identifying the points of oppression are necessary to correct them.
It鈥檚 curious how Butler is always relegated to the Sci-Fi genre and shelved accordingly in bookstores. Not that there's anything wrong with Sci-Fi, but, as Ursula K Le Guin has spoken and written extensively on, the genre is often used as a diminutive to distract from many socially conscious works. She says it is a 鈥�lingering problem鈥� in the book community where 鈥�the maintenance of an arbitrary division between 鈥渓iterature鈥� and 鈥済enre... become limitations rather than possibilities (read the full interview ). Why does Parable end up in the Sci-Fi section whereas Atwood鈥檚 , McCarthy鈥檚 or 1984 and Brave New World are considered Literary fiction? Of the latter two, Butler鈥檚 world feels the least dated and is in many ways more socially progressive than any of these aforementioned titles. Her other work, , happens to contain time travel, yet the Outlander series remains shelved in fiction. Admittedly, many of Butler鈥檚 novels are in fact Sci-Fi narratives, but there is a strong literary aspect to them and this is worth considering. For all the dystopian collapse and horror of gangs fueled by drugs that give them sexual satisfaction from fire (yep), the heart of this novel is one of social justice and dramatic social and economic revolution but most importantly the necessity to embrace change in order for these things to grow in a fertile soil of progress.
鈥�Belief Initiates and guides action鈥� Or it does nothing.
Octavia Butler is an absolute gem of a writer and, while it is sad that the current state of world affairs leads people to seek out a book like this, I鈥檓 glad Butler was there to have a nearly perfect one ready and waiting. Earthseed is an interesting concept to consider, particularly because it is fairly secular, so those without a religious bent will not be turned off by strong focus on developing an afro-futurist belief system. In fact, it鈥檚 all rather beautiful and encouraging. This is the book I would most recommend for those looking for something in the 1984/BNW/etc category of dystopian classics. Butler invites us all to help build a better world before it is too late.
4.5/5
鈥�It took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change.鈥�
When the world falls apart and people are beset by intense suffering and sadness, many turn to religion for the assuring promise of a better place beyond death. In Parable of the Sower, an intensely riveting and disquieting vision of America鈥檚 collapse by Octavia Butler, teenage Lauren Olamina instead asks why should we resign ourselves to hope in paradise after death when we could rise up with the power to fight the suffering we face while alive to embrace a brighter tomorrow for all. Lauren lives in a community protected by a wall from the violence outside and is afflicted with a condition of hyper-empathy. Her perspective on other鈥檚 pain shapes her towards a revolutionary new beginning for humanity, if she can survive that is. Drawing from the biblical parable from which the novel takes it鈥檚 name, this is a novel about the seeds of hope that we must believe can grow even in the darkest of nights and the harshest terrains. Butler plunges the reader into a bleakness of humanity where capitalism has reformed a fresh take on slavery and worker鈥檚 oppression as the economy gasps is dying breaths, while all around chaos reigns supreme. Harrowing yet hopeful, Butler鈥檚 novel rightfully belongs in conversation with and as a prescient portrayal of social collapse while offering a way forward through embracing change and empathy.
鈥�Freedom is dangerous but it's precious, too. You can't just throw it away or let it slip away.鈥�
Butler pulls no punches in her world building. Beginning in 2024, Lauren has been born into an America ravaged by climate change, violence and a collapsing economy that opened the door for outlandish inequality. A new President takes the helm on a platform to remove government programs and revitalize jobs, creating a fresh revitalization of Company Towns and debt-slavery. The set-up between a willful acceptance of a debt one can never pay off or succumbing to the violence that is spreading offers little chance of hope in lives already resigned to nothing more than a short lifespan having babies and suffering. Published in 1993, the parallels to our modern sociopolitical climate are striking, such as the pits of debt or fear of losing health care that keep people locked in less-than-desirable jobs (the 2018 comedy from Boots Riley does an excellent job comedically skewering this concept as well--highly recommended). Butler bares her teeth in her critiques of capitalism and the slow creep on human rights that perish for the sake of 鈥渆conomic progress鈥� that only seems to benefit the established elite.
鈥�There is no end
To what a living world
Will demand of you.鈥�
When it becomes necessary for human life to be normalized as expendable, is the system even worth upholding? 鈥�Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people鈥攁s long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?鈥� Lauren wonders as those around her flee to the illusion of safety in the newly created company town. As she will say in the sequel, Parable of the Talents, 鈥�In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.鈥� . Like a phoenix, Lauren wishes for a new future to rise from the ashes of her dying society--which she quite literally witnesses being burnt by roaming gangs who then murder all her friends and family as they try to flee. The God of her forebearers has failed to provide meaning for her anymore and those who follow the old ways seem more of an obstacle to a chance of progress than a safety net. Butler demonstrates how many of our problems are blatant and in our face, but we have been socialized to accept them and those who speak out and warn others or offer an alternative, like Lauren, are dismissed as fearmongering and alarmism. This is a story about what happens when your warnings are correct, but the devastation gives no room for validation. Remember the parts of The Road that haunt you? Now imagine that sustained for a full novel. The second half of this book follows people walking a freeway under constant siege of theft and murder, long nights keeping watch and all the nightmares along the way.
鈥�That鈥檚 all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don鈥檛 know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won鈥檛 matter if we don鈥檛 survive these times.鈥�
Butler evokes the spirit of in Lauren, who, like Douglass, had the rare ability to read and write in her oppressed community. As her small group of refugees trudge north, she considers how they have become a sort of 鈥�modern underground railroad,鈥� taking in those fleeing prostitution or debt-slavery, those fleeing a wasteland where everything they love was stolen from them. Douglass surreptitiously taught slaves how to read and write using the Bible as the primary text. Lauren, who is teaching her friends, is also spreading religion. But unlike when the oppressed embraced the God of their oppressors--an act of defiance and spiritual salvation--here they are rejecting the God of old in place of a new one: Earthseed.
Like the farmer from the biblical parable from which the novel takes it鈥檚 name, Lauren is spreading the seeds of her new 鈥榖elief system鈥�. God is Change, Lauren says. Her God is less a deity than an idea that she believes can transform humanity. Writing her scripture in poetry, she is walking the land preaching her new beliefs and taking in converts. Like the seeds of the parable her words may fall on deaf or disbelieving ears, but some, like Travis or Bankole, become her 鈥�first converts鈥�.
All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change,
Changes you.
The only lasting truth Is Change.
God.
Earthseed draws on many religions--Lauren鈥檚 father is a Baptist pastor, which shapes her foundational thinking--mixed with . The ultimate goal is to spread humanity in peace throughout the stars, which is a defiant statement in a country where the newly elected President is working to abolish the space program. For Lauren, God is a trickster figure, an embodiment of change, which to many of her hopeful converts doesn鈥檛 seem enough of a powerful cause to believe in. This makes one consider why religious texts are so imbued with magic and wonder if without something magical--like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead--would his message of being executed by the State for standing up to them with a message of universal and equitable love as an opposition to oppression and wealth-seeking for power have been passed down throughout time. Lauren believes in a 鈥�Book of the living鈥� that informs on how to create a paradise for those alive, but without a magical goal it may be a difficult persuasion. Yet, she must still plant the seeds and hope they take in unfamiliar soil.
Seeds planting is thematic throughout the novel beyond religious context. Lauren packs different seeds as food in her survival pack--a concept she tries to introduce to her community early on but is shouted down as being alarmist for wanting people to prepare for the worst, an easily empathetic scenario for teens her own age to identify with--and collects different seasonal seeds as the group travels North. When they find a place to possibly settle, it is her seeds that offer hope for a sustainable society to flourish upon. This draws a direct connection between the environmental messages and the religious ones in the novel.
鈥�The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn鈥檛 always safe, but it鈥檚 often necessary.鈥�
Beyond progressive critiques of capitalism and expositions on impending climate crisis, Butler鈥檚 narrative embraces intersectionality and unity as imperative to survival. 鈥�Embrace diversity,鈥� Lauren preaches in her poetry as her group begins to pick up a variety of people, 鈥�Unite鈥� Or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed / By those who see you as prey. / Embrace diversity / Or be destroyed.鈥� There is a strong message of identifying the usefulness or any individual they welcome into their group, both despite their differences but also by recognizing and embracing differences. Lauren passes herself off as a man to make her initial party appear like a heteronormative couple, which attracts less attention. The biases we find in today鈥檚 society are elevated in Butler鈥檚 apocalyptic vision to remind us that certain groups bear privileges others do not. By recognizing them they are able to subvert them and take note of which social constructs enable violence upon others. Identifying the points of oppression are necessary to correct them.
It鈥檚 curious how Butler is always relegated to the Sci-Fi genre and shelved accordingly in bookstores. Not that there's anything wrong with Sci-Fi, but, as Ursula K Le Guin has spoken and written extensively on, the genre is often used as a diminutive to distract from many socially conscious works. She says it is a 鈥�lingering problem鈥� in the book community where 鈥�the maintenance of an arbitrary division between 鈥渓iterature鈥� and 鈥済enre... become limitations rather than possibilities (read the full interview ). Why does Parable end up in the Sci-Fi section whereas Atwood鈥檚 , McCarthy鈥檚 or 1984 and Brave New World are considered Literary fiction? Of the latter two, Butler鈥檚 world feels the least dated and is in many ways more socially progressive than any of these aforementioned titles. Her other work, , happens to contain time travel, yet the Outlander series remains shelved in fiction. Admittedly, many of Butler鈥檚 novels are in fact Sci-Fi narratives, but there is a strong literary aspect to them and this is worth considering. For all the dystopian collapse and horror of gangs fueled by drugs that give them sexual satisfaction from fire (yep), the heart of this novel is one of social justice and dramatic social and economic revolution but most importantly the necessity to embrace change in order for these things to grow in a fertile soil of progress.
鈥�Belief Initiates and guides action鈥� Or it does nothing.
Octavia Butler is an absolute gem of a writer and, while it is sad that the current state of world affairs leads people to seek out a book like this, I鈥檓 glad Butler was there to have a nearly perfect one ready and waiting. Earthseed is an interesting concept to consider, particularly because it is fairly secular, so those without a religious bent will not be turned off by strong focus on developing an afro-futurist belief system. In fact, it鈥檚 all rather beautiful and encouraging. This is the book I would most recommend for those looking for something in the 1984/BNW/etc category of dystopian classics. Butler invites us all to help build a better world before it is too late.
4.5/5
鈥�It took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change.鈥�
February 15, 2015
For a long time I had naively held on to the notion that Octavia E. Butler is the African American counterpart to Ursula K. Le Guin - an assumption begotten out of the commonality that both their creations despite being shoehorned into the genre of science/speculative fiction epitomize realities of institutionalized sociopolitical inequities. Not only has my first foray into Butler's literary landscapes altered that idea greatly but compounded my respect for Le Guin's masterful way of letting the didactic veins in a narrative segue neatly with the plot pulse so that when one turns over the last page, the fatal blow to the gut has already been delivered along with the crucial message. Of course it is too early to discount Butler's calibre as a storyteller of grit but rest assured she is no Le Guin.
By this time I have devoured enough post-apocalyptic fiction to remain inoculated against both the horrors of disintegrating social orders relapsing into caveman-era violence and the poignancy of surviving groups regaining lost humanity and optimism in the end. But this does not mean I can remain unmoved in the face of even the umpteenth combination of potent story-telling, layered characterization and extrapolations of current reality to very probable catastrophic consequences in the future.
Rampant murder, mayhem, arson and pillage drive the plot ahead here. People get killed, raped, mutilated and cannibalized after every few pages. And yet none of the savagery of aforementioned actions registers with the reader.
To cut a long story short, 'Parable of the Sower' shows all the finesse of a bull in a china shop while revealing its many thematic concerns.
Lauren Olamina, the young adult protagonist, is a hyperempath with the ability to experience the physical pain of others and yet, ironically, it is her journal entries which are glaringly toneless and devoid of any discernible emotion. Even when she expresses her anguish at some tragic turn of events, only a resilient stoicism is palpable in her narrative voice. The occasional philosophical rumination that she rustles up hints at all the solemnity of fortune cookie sentiments. As is obvious from the blurb, there are issues of gender, class, race, sexual orientation, climate change and human conflict simmering beneath the surface of dystopian barbarity but they are all paraded one by one for the reader's benefit without a modicum of discretion. Sprinkling a narrative with sentences like 'So-and-so was also raped.' is hardly the ideal way to drive home the fact of pervasive misogyny.
Negatives aside, the book still deserves brownie points for the insightful commentary on religion if not for designating the individual capacity for empathy as the glue which binds together conflicting elements in a civilization.
In course of circumventing a minefield of dystopian evils in search of a safe haven, Lauren inadvertently establishes a new religious order centered more or less around the idea of secular humanism, intending it to be a guiding force to shape the future endeavours of the survivors she helps unite as a community. As per the aphorisms of Lauren's 'Book of Earthseed' aka the new age Bible, God is change, and only by accepting change and embracing the notion of diversity can the welfare of the human race be a realizable prospect. This is old wine in new bottle no doubt but there's an oh-so-unsubtle implication that although all core religious ideas are grounded in survivalist logic at the onset, they eventually fragment into toxic ideologies misused by various groups to advance their respective sectarian agendas.
I am not really holding my breath but here's to hoping my next brush with Butler's writing fares better than this one.
By this time I have devoured enough post-apocalyptic fiction to remain inoculated against both the horrors of disintegrating social orders relapsing into caveman-era violence and the poignancy of surviving groups regaining lost humanity and optimism in the end. But this does not mean I can remain unmoved in the face of even the umpteenth combination of potent story-telling, layered characterization and extrapolations of current reality to very probable catastrophic consequences in the future.
Rampant murder, mayhem, arson and pillage drive the plot ahead here. People get killed, raped, mutilated and cannibalized after every few pages. And yet none of the savagery of aforementioned actions registers with the reader.
To cut a long story short, 'Parable of the Sower' shows all the finesse of a bull in a china shop while revealing its many thematic concerns.
Lauren Olamina, the young adult protagonist, is a hyperempath with the ability to experience the physical pain of others and yet, ironically, it is her journal entries which are glaringly toneless and devoid of any discernible emotion. Even when she expresses her anguish at some tragic turn of events, only a resilient stoicism is palpable in her narrative voice. The occasional philosophical rumination that she rustles up hints at all the solemnity of fortune cookie sentiments. As is obvious from the blurb, there are issues of gender, class, race, sexual orientation, climate change and human conflict simmering beneath the surface of dystopian barbarity but they are all paraded one by one for the reader's benefit without a modicum of discretion. Sprinkling a narrative with sentences like 'So-and-so was also raped.' is hardly the ideal way to drive home the fact of pervasive misogyny.
Negatives aside, the book still deserves brownie points for the insightful commentary on religion if not for designating the individual capacity for empathy as the glue which binds together conflicting elements in a civilization.
Worship is no good without action. With action, it's only useful if it steadies you, focuses on your efforts, eases your mind.
In course of circumventing a minefield of dystopian evils in search of a safe haven, Lauren inadvertently establishes a new religious order centered more or less around the idea of secular humanism, intending it to be a guiding force to shape the future endeavours of the survivors she helps unite as a community. As per the aphorisms of Lauren's 'Book of Earthseed' aka the new age Bible, God is change, and only by accepting change and embracing the notion of diversity can the welfare of the human race be a realizable prospect. This is old wine in new bottle no doubt but there's an oh-so-unsubtle implication that although all core religious ideas are grounded in survivalist logic at the onset, they eventually fragment into toxic ideologies misused by various groups to advance their respective sectarian agendas.
The universe is God's self-portrait.
I am not really holding my breath but here's to hoping my next brush with Butler's writing fares better than this one.
September 21, 2022
4.5/5 stars
Parable of the Sower is hard to put down, harrowing, and much darker than I expected.
It is most likely that any praises I give this book has been mentioned by someone else. But I haven't checked any reviews on this novel yet, and I want to convey my brief thoughts regarding my reading experience. I have one word to summarize my reactions and feelings in reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler: shocking. I am surprised by how good this was, shocked by how dark it was, and astounded by how prophetic and relevant it was. For these reasons, among many, The Earthseed duology has often been hailed as a classic dystopian/sci-fi novel by many readers and critics. And I can't disagree with this. But I also will voice this, it is sad Parable of the Sower is remembered and praised for its relevancy to the continuous state of our world. It shouldn't be this way. I will explain my reasoning later.
Parable of the Sower is the first book in Earthseed duology, and the story begins in the year 2024; yes, not long from now. The story revolves around Lauren Olamina and her family, who live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Lauren, her father, and plenty of other citizens are trying to salvage what remains of a culture. If it still can be called that. Their civilization is ravaged by drugs, wars, disease, chronic water shortages, and many more. Survival is getting harder each day, and to make things more difficult, Lauren is struggling with hyper empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. I went into Parable of the Sower as blind as possible. For whatever reason, I somehow managed to avoid knowing about the plot of this duology, even though this book was first published 29 years ago. And as mentioned at the beginning of this review, I was surprised by what I found here. Parable of the Sower is a ruthless story told from the first-person narration (or diary) of Lauren Olamina. It is a dark novel about civilization spiraling into chaos, hatred, and unlimited violence. But it is also a story about faith, family, hope, and community.
It is worth noting that Parable of the Sower is not an easy read, and I am not talking about the accessibility of the prose. Butler's prose was engaging, accessible, and vivid. Honestly, I struggled a bit in the first quarter of the novel. The early sections of Parable of the Sower have minimum dialogues and actions. It felt like I was reading a stream of consciousness. Fortunately, this situation eased quickly after the first quarter, and I couldn't put the book down to the end. The characterization of Lauren and the various characters she met were superbly-written. I felt like I'd gotten to know every one of them. And I know many hardships await the characters, but I eagerly look forward to reading the continuation of their stories. However, despite the easy flow of the prose, Parable of the Sower was uncomfortable to read for its merciless brutality and applicability to our world.
Parable of the Sower is not a big book. At 116,000 words, you can probably read this relatively small novel in probably two or three days. But please do not ever take its small size to mean the book was lacking in its massive impact. Far from it, the topics, events, and issues discussed in the novel are insanely dark, violent, and sadly relatable to our civilization. I went into this book as blindly as possible, and still, I wouldn't have expected the book to be this violent. It is one of the darkest books I've read. This isn't to say that I haven't read novels crueler and darker than this. I have, several times. But what made the chaos in Parable of the Sower terrifying is its believability. These devastating events have happened, whether in America or around the world. Speaking from my own experience, I have survived and witnessed something similar to the deadly riots portrayed in Parable of the Sower. Those who lived in Indonesia will know what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the May 1998 riots in Indonesia. I won't go into details on this event; you can look it up if you haven't heard about it. But suffice to say, Butler has captured the vivid insanity, fear, and nightmarish situation of this kind of massive unrest in her writing. It's truly incredible.
For its frightening relevancy, resonating themes, believable characters, and also engaging prose, I have to applaud Butler for the creation of this novel. In 1993, too! But at the same time, it is a tragedy to our world that the events in Parable of the Sower can even be considered something relevant to us. It shouldn't be. Parable of the Sower totally deserve its classic status. But I believe the moment Parable of the Sower is stopped being praised for its relatability, that is a sign of our world and civilization ascending toward a better place. Will that ever happen? I am not sure. Probably never. No one can predict it. But Parable of the Sower teaches us that nothing is constant in our life except change. God is change. No good thing stays, and no bad thing last forever. The only certain thing is changes. But no matter how hard it is, we have the power to adapt ourselves to every change we encounter. I am thoroughly impressed by this novel, and I look forward to reading the sequel to this novel, Parable of the Talent, next month.
You can order this book from:
You can find and the rest of my reviews at | I also have a
Special thanks to my Patrons on for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Alfred, Andrew, Andrew W, Amanda, Annabeth, Casey, Diana, Dylan, Edward, Elias, Ellen, Ellis, Gary, Hamad, Helen, Jesse, Jimmy Nutts, Joie, Kristina, Lana, Leigh, Luis, Lufi, Melinda, Meryl, Michael, Mike, Miracle, Nanette, Neeraja, Nicholas, Reno, Samuel, Sarah, Sarah, Scott, Shawn, Xero, Wendy, Wick, Zoe.
Parable of the Sower is hard to put down, harrowing, and much darker than I expected.
鈥淭here is no end
To what a living world
Will demand of you.鈥�
It is most likely that any praises I give this book has been mentioned by someone else. But I haven't checked any reviews on this novel yet, and I want to convey my brief thoughts regarding my reading experience. I have one word to summarize my reactions and feelings in reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler: shocking. I am surprised by how good this was, shocked by how dark it was, and astounded by how prophetic and relevant it was. For these reasons, among many, The Earthseed duology has often been hailed as a classic dystopian/sci-fi novel by many readers and critics. And I can't disagree with this. But I also will voice this, it is sad Parable of the Sower is remembered and praised for its relevancy to the continuous state of our world. It shouldn't be this way. I will explain my reasoning later.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don鈥檛 know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won鈥檛 matter if we don鈥檛 survive these times.鈥�
Parable of the Sower is the first book in Earthseed duology, and the story begins in the year 2024; yes, not long from now. The story revolves around Lauren Olamina and her family, who live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Lauren, her father, and plenty of other citizens are trying to salvage what remains of a culture. If it still can be called that. Their civilization is ravaged by drugs, wars, disease, chronic water shortages, and many more. Survival is getting harder each day, and to make things more difficult, Lauren is struggling with hyper empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. I went into Parable of the Sower as blind as possible. For whatever reason, I somehow managed to avoid knowing about the plot of this duology, even though this book was first published 29 years ago. And as mentioned at the beginning of this review, I was surprised by what I found here. Parable of the Sower is a ruthless story told from the first-person narration (or diary) of Lauren Olamina. It is a dark novel about civilization spiraling into chaos, hatred, and unlimited violence. But it is also a story about faith, family, hope, and community.
鈥淭he world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.鈥�
It is worth noting that Parable of the Sower is not an easy read, and I am not talking about the accessibility of the prose. Butler's prose was engaging, accessible, and vivid. Honestly, I struggled a bit in the first quarter of the novel. The early sections of Parable of the Sower have minimum dialogues and actions. It felt like I was reading a stream of consciousness. Fortunately, this situation eased quickly after the first quarter, and I couldn't put the book down to the end. The characterization of Lauren and the various characters she met were superbly-written. I felt like I'd gotten to know every one of them. And I know many hardships await the characters, but I eagerly look forward to reading the continuation of their stories. However, despite the easy flow of the prose, Parable of the Sower was uncomfortable to read for its merciless brutality and applicability to our world.
鈥淚t鈥檚 better to teach people than to scare them, Lauren. If you scare them and nothing happens, they lose their fear, and you lose some of your authority with them. It鈥檚 harder to scare them a second time, harder to teach them, harder to win back their trust. Best to begin by teaching.鈥�
Parable of the Sower is not a big book. At 116,000 words, you can probably read this relatively small novel in probably two or three days. But please do not ever take its small size to mean the book was lacking in its massive impact. Far from it, the topics, events, and issues discussed in the novel are insanely dark, violent, and sadly relatable to our civilization. I went into this book as blindly as possible, and still, I wouldn't have expected the book to be this violent. It is one of the darkest books I've read. This isn't to say that I haven't read novels crueler and darker than this. I have, several times. But what made the chaos in Parable of the Sower terrifying is its believability. These devastating events have happened, whether in America or around the world. Speaking from my own experience, I have survived and witnessed something similar to the deadly riots portrayed in Parable of the Sower. Those who lived in Indonesia will know what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the May 1998 riots in Indonesia. I won't go into details on this event; you can look it up if you haven't heard about it. But suffice to say, Butler has captured the vivid insanity, fear, and nightmarish situation of this kind of massive unrest in her writing. It's truly incredible.
鈥淭hey have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it.鈥�
For its frightening relevancy, resonating themes, believable characters, and also engaging prose, I have to applaud Butler for the creation of this novel. In 1993, too! But at the same time, it is a tragedy to our world that the events in Parable of the Sower can even be considered something relevant to us. It shouldn't be. Parable of the Sower totally deserve its classic status. But I believe the moment Parable of the Sower is stopped being praised for its relatability, that is a sign of our world and civilization ascending toward a better place. Will that ever happen? I am not sure. Probably never. No one can predict it. But Parable of the Sower teaches us that nothing is constant in our life except change. God is change. No good thing stays, and no bad thing last forever. The only certain thing is changes. But no matter how hard it is, we have the power to adapt ourselves to every change we encounter. I am thoroughly impressed by this novel, and I look forward to reading the sequel to this novel, Parable of the Talent, next month.
鈥淭here is no power in having strength and brains, and yet waiting for God to fix things for you or take revenge for you.鈥�
You can order this book from:
You can find and the rest of my reviews at | I also have a
Special thanks to my Patrons on for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Alfred, Andrew, Andrew W, Amanda, Annabeth, Casey, Diana, Dylan, Edward, Elias, Ellen, Ellis, Gary, Hamad, Helen, Jesse, Jimmy Nutts, Joie, Kristina, Lana, Leigh, Luis, Lufi, Melinda, Meryl, Michael, Mike, Miracle, Nanette, Neeraja, Nicholas, Reno, Samuel, Sarah, Sarah, Scott, Shawn, Xero, Wendy, Wick, Zoe.
March 29, 2016
I only gave this book 2.5 stars but rounded it up to 3 stars on 欧宝娱乐 due to 欧宝娱乐 not having half stars available.
So I always hate it when I notice friends who I follow and trust for book recs loved a book and I ended up disliking it. I feel badly about it and then I feel guilty because I write a review talking about things that they really enjoyed.
I read this book as part of Dead Writers Society Genre Challenge for the month of March. I can say I loved the other book I read and thought this one was...problematic.
Taking place in 2025, we follow the character of Lauren Olamina and her family that are living in what remains of areas around Los Angeles. Told in the first person, we get Lauren's "insights" into her family, friends, community, and what the world is turning into.
Let's get it out of the way. Lauren bugged the crap out of me.
Being stuck in her head from beginning to the end of this book sucked. She is emotionless which doesn't make any sense at all because of her hyper empathy ability. I get she had to train herself to not show anyone besides her family about her ability (which still makes no damn sense...at all) but wouldn't you be feeling more than everyone else, or at least not come across as robotic when we read her diary entries and we get actually dialogue between her and other characters? Don't get me started at how sometimes it seemed to be "on" and other times "not."
I can't even get into the problems I found with anyone sitting around and following a character her age while she decides to go forth and spread her religion she has made up that she calls Earthseed.
The whole Earthseed thing didn't even fit since at one point Lauren's character was focused on being self reliant because she fears the walled neighborhoods she has lived in with her family is eventually going to be overrun. I have no idea why all of a sudden this turned to a whole Earthseed is the way thing and other religions have failed because they are not practicing what they are preaching and she has found flaws in other religions.
The other characters in this book are not developed enough beyond Lauren's father. Everyone else is just a cliche or there to move the plot forward. For example, the character of Keith I thought would have a huge role to potentially play maybe in the latter part of the book. We focus on him for a minute and then events happen, yadda yadda yadda we don't need to follow Keith anymore. Same thing when I thought we would get some friction and maybe some honesty between Lauren and her stepmother Cory. That was a nope again.
There is another character introduced in this book named Bankhole and his relationship with Lauren. Nope. There scenes together gave me the shivers. Not in the good way. Once again he's not developed enough for me to care about and is only used to shove the plot forward in the case of Lauren's ultimate goal of spreading the word about Earthseed.
My other problem is that the main plot just shifted too many times for me to care. First, it seemed to be about surviving in this post apocalyptic world. Than it was about Lauren deciding to escape up north where things are better. Then it became about establishing Earthseed. I mean what the hell?
The writing wasn't great. I think my issue was that each chapter started off with some writing from Lauren regarding Earthseed.
Did I maybe have some wine yesterday after finishing up this book. Yes. Yes I did.
We also skip over time a lot for most of the book which I wish we had not. It didn't make any sense. Frankly the book could have been split pre-community breakdown and then after the community breakdown. I was honestly ever really interested in the community that lived there and wish that we had focused more on them, their lives, what they were dealing with, and how they were getting by. I thought the story became more unfocused when we had Lauren going outside the walls.
The flow was a mess too. At one point we had a diary entry that read as one really long day (which I know wasn't possible) so it didn't work for me at all.
The setting of Los Angeles in 2025 is a mess. I already went through this in my status updates. Both for those who skipped my rage updates as I started calling them to myself yesterday, there didn't seem to be much thought behind the world is in a bad state and that was it.
We have discussions and asides thrown out about how people are still paying there property taxes on homes. That people still possess life insurance. That the National Guard does still exist. Um excuse you? Why the hell are people than going around willy nilly and slaughtering neighborhoods? Where the hell are the police in this? It doesn't make sense you have to pay them to investigate crimes! You either have a totally destabilized federal, state, and local government or you don't. You can't sorta have things still exist and handwave it away that only the rich are able to protect themselves.
Also what the hell caused all of this? There is an allusion made about climate. But that doesn't even begin to explain how society broke down enough to just get walled neighborhoods up and people having to grow their own food, purchase it for extremely high prices, and buy water. Or why there are still drug pushers developing drugs that apparently make people want to start fires.
The ending was a total non-starter for me. I didn't care about Earthseed, and Lauren's supposed wisdom was bullshit. It's the kind of crap I used to spout when I was a teenager after thinking I was the shit after reading Anyn Rand. I was in a word, an asshole. I would never follow teen me any damn where so yeah as a 36 year old I would have scoffed at Lauren's ass and went my own way.
So I always hate it when I notice friends who I follow and trust for book recs loved a book and I ended up disliking it. I feel badly about it and then I feel guilty because I write a review talking about things that they really enjoyed.
I read this book as part of Dead Writers Society Genre Challenge for the month of March. I can say I loved the other book I read and thought this one was...problematic.
Taking place in 2025, we follow the character of Lauren Olamina and her family that are living in what remains of areas around Los Angeles. Told in the first person, we get Lauren's "insights" into her family, friends, community, and what the world is turning into.
Let's get it out of the way. Lauren bugged the crap out of me.
Being stuck in her head from beginning to the end of this book sucked. She is emotionless which doesn't make any sense at all because of her hyper empathy ability. I get she had to train herself to not show anyone besides her family about her ability (which still makes no damn sense...at all) but wouldn't you be feeling more than everyone else, or at least not come across as robotic when we read her diary entries and we get actually dialogue between her and other characters? Don't get me started at how sometimes it seemed to be "on" and other times "not."
I can't even get into the problems I found with anyone sitting around and following a character her age while she decides to go forth and spread her religion she has made up that she calls Earthseed.
The whole Earthseed thing didn't even fit since at one point Lauren's character was focused on being self reliant because she fears the walled neighborhoods she has lived in with her family is eventually going to be overrun. I have no idea why all of a sudden this turned to a whole Earthseed is the way thing and other religions have failed because they are not practicing what they are preaching and she has found flaws in other religions.
The other characters in this book are not developed enough beyond Lauren's father. Everyone else is just a cliche or there to move the plot forward. For example, the character of Keith I thought would have a huge role to potentially play maybe in the latter part of the book. We focus on him for a minute and then events happen, yadda yadda yadda we don't need to follow Keith anymore. Same thing when I thought we would get some friction and maybe some honesty between Lauren and her stepmother Cory. That was a nope again.
There is another character introduced in this book named Bankhole and his relationship with Lauren. Nope. There scenes together gave me the shivers. Not in the good way. Once again he's not developed enough for me to care about and is only used to shove the plot forward in the case of Lauren's ultimate goal of spreading the word about Earthseed.
My other problem is that the main plot just shifted too many times for me to care. First, it seemed to be about surviving in this post apocalyptic world. Than it was about Lauren deciding to escape up north where things are better. Then it became about establishing Earthseed. I mean what the hell?
The writing wasn't great. I think my issue was that each chapter started off with some writing from Lauren regarding Earthseed.
"The Self must create
Its own reasons for being.
To shape God,
Shape Self."
鈥淭he essentials," I answered, "are to learn to shape God with forethought, care, and work; to educate and benefit their community, their families, and themselves; and to contribute to the fulfillment of the Destiny.鈥�
鈥淕od is Change."
Did I maybe have some wine yesterday after finishing up this book. Yes. Yes I did.
We also skip over time a lot for most of the book which I wish we had not. It didn't make any sense. Frankly the book could have been split pre-community breakdown and then after the community breakdown. I was honestly ever really interested in the community that lived there and wish that we had focused more on them, their lives, what they were dealing with, and how they were getting by. I thought the story became more unfocused when we had Lauren going outside the walls.
The flow was a mess too. At one point we had a diary entry that read as one really long day (which I know wasn't possible) so it didn't work for me at all.
The setting of Los Angeles in 2025 is a mess. I already went through this in my status updates. Both for those who skipped my rage updates as I started calling them to myself yesterday, there didn't seem to be much thought behind the world is in a bad state and that was it.
We have discussions and asides thrown out about how people are still paying there property taxes on homes. That people still possess life insurance. That the National Guard does still exist. Um excuse you? Why the hell are people than going around willy nilly and slaughtering neighborhoods? Where the hell are the police in this? It doesn't make sense you have to pay them to investigate crimes! You either have a totally destabilized federal, state, and local government or you don't. You can't sorta have things still exist and handwave it away that only the rich are able to protect themselves.
Also what the hell caused all of this? There is an allusion made about climate. But that doesn't even begin to explain how society broke down enough to just get walled neighborhoods up and people having to grow their own food, purchase it for extremely high prices, and buy water. Or why there are still drug pushers developing drugs that apparently make people want to start fires.
The ending was a total non-starter for me. I didn't care about Earthseed, and Lauren's supposed wisdom was bullshit. It's the kind of crap I used to spout when I was a teenager after thinking I was the shit after reading Anyn Rand. I was in a word, an asshole. I would never follow teen me any damn where so yeah as a 36 year old I would have scoffed at Lauren's ass and went my own way.
December 19, 2011
I read this book in its entirety on the bus from New York back to Baltimore. It's a strange thing reading a dystopian novel on public transportation. After every chapter I paused and looked around: at the cars traveling in both directions, obeying commonly accepted rules of the road; and at the forty five strangers sitting around me, all adopting a social contract in which we sit quietly for three hours, keep our own personal space, and leave others to their seats, their money, their food, their coats, their belongings. I thought about the home-compounds I've seen in South Africa, surrounded by high walls and razor wire, guarded by dogs, and how those do not make the walled community at the start of this novel such a stretch, even if the world outside those walls is not as bleak as the one depicted here.
I tend to wade into dystopian novels carefully. My tendency to apply whatever I'm reading or listening to or watching to real life makes it a bad idea for me to read bleak books. The Road turned me into a hermit for weeks. Thankfully, Butler managed to weave a thread of hope into Parable of the Sower. It helped that the narrator, Lauren, is a teenager. She is pragmatic but not completely jaded. She has grown up in the world as it is, and doesn't harbor memories of the world as it was. There are many incidents in the book that were difficult to read, but I was too wound up in Lauren's story and had to keep going to find out what happened to her.
There are actually a number of similarities between The Road and Parable of the Sower; so many that I can't help but wonder if McCarthy's book is in some way a response to this one. McCarthy's novel got far more attention, but I think Butler actually paints the more accurate picture of humanity, for good and for bad.
I tend to wade into dystopian novels carefully. My tendency to apply whatever I'm reading or listening to or watching to real life makes it a bad idea for me to read bleak books. The Road turned me into a hermit for weeks. Thankfully, Butler managed to weave a thread of hope into Parable of the Sower. It helped that the narrator, Lauren, is a teenager. She is pragmatic but not completely jaded. She has grown up in the world as it is, and doesn't harbor memories of the world as it was. There are many incidents in the book that were difficult to read, but I was too wound up in Lauren's story and had to keep going to find out what happened to her.
There are actually a number of similarities between The Road and Parable of the Sower; so many that I can't help but wonder if McCarthy's book is in some way a response to this one. McCarthy's novel got far more attention, but I think Butler actually paints the more accurate picture of humanity, for good and for bad.
January 26, 2023
"A lot of things changed for the survivors...It took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change."
I reread Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower for a third or fourth? time for a second book club discussion. Everyone found it dark, but also thought it should be read. It also feels important. Another reason I recommend this book is because the sequel, Parable of the Talents is one of my favorite Butler novels as well as a fantastic read!
Earlier review:
2024 is bleak, very bleak! The following years are even darker. The United States looks like it is in its death throes. In Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler presents a society broken into enclaves, all fighting for their survival. But outside their walls, it's worse. Unfortunately, that's where our hyper-empathy syndrome heroine, Lauren Olamina, is headed. There's a lot to think about here, but whether anything positive can come of the horror is still an open question at the end of the novel. The writing is engaging and, even when describing the madness of a crumbling society, keeps a nearly matter of fact tone. And it is believable. I will keep thinking about Parable of the Sower, and possibly update this review after my book club meets and discusses it. 4.5 stars...so my update is that my book club liked it so much that we chose the sequel for our next selection!
I reread Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower for a third or fourth? time for a second book club discussion. Everyone found it dark, but also thought it should be read. It also feels important. Another reason I recommend this book is because the sequel, Parable of the Talents is one of my favorite Butler novels as well as a fantastic read!
Earlier review:
2024 is bleak, very bleak! The following years are even darker. The United States looks like it is in its death throes. In Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler presents a society broken into enclaves, all fighting for their survival. But outside their walls, it's worse. Unfortunately, that's where our hyper-empathy syndrome heroine, Lauren Olamina, is headed. There's a lot to think about here, but whether anything positive can come of the horror is still an open question at the end of the novel. The writing is engaging and, even when describing the madness of a crumbling society, keeps a nearly matter of fact tone. And it is believable. I will keep thinking about Parable of the Sower, and possibly update this review after my book club meets and discusses it. 4.5 stars...so my update is that my book club liked it so much that we chose the sequel for our next selection!
February 1, 2025
According to Octavia Butler,
today is the day: February 1, 2025
###
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us to grow the f*ck up, but not with so few words. When Octavia Butler is at her best, she doesn't waste words. She gets right to the point. When she's at her worst, she plods along and struggles to get to the point. Unfortunately, I found the Parable of the Sower to be one of Butler鈥檚 worst efforts. My initial reaction to the story was: Gawd save me from another Margaret story.
In the Parable of the Sower, there were two storylines. There's a wonderful apocalyptic story and a disagreeable story about Lauren Olamina's personal philosophy, which Lauren labeled Earthseed. Those two storylines struggled against each other throughout the book. Unfortunately, the Earthseed storyline wins out in the end.
It was the whole Earthseed business that drove me crazy. Perhaps one reason was the fact that it reminded me of myself when I was a religious teenager, and I scribbled my thoughts down in a little notebook. I was full of self-importance and ignorance. In many ways, I was similar to Lauren, just not as resourceful.
About halfway through the second half of the book, Lauren discussed her ideas about Earthseed with her travel mates, and her mates offered suggestions that would have made Earthseed a viable philosophy in an apocalyptic world. I then thought, "Isn't Butler brilliant." But regrettably, Lauren Olamina ignores the advice of her mates.
Even given all that I would have been delighted if the book had ended with the scene where Lauren and her mates were working together on their version of a "promised land" to create a new social structure. Believers and nonbelievers working side-by-side for the common good. It would have been a beautiful ending. But no, Butler didn't end there. She goes on to give us the King James version of the parable of the sower, as if she doubted we were familiar with the tale. I found that to be somewhat offensive.
If Butler had just stuck to her tale of an apocalyptic world, I would have loved it, but all the Earthseed business ruined it for me.
today is the day: February 1, 2025
###
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us to grow the f*ck up, but not with so few words. When Octavia Butler is at her best, she doesn't waste words. She gets right to the point. When she's at her worst, she plods along and struggles to get to the point. Unfortunately, I found the Parable of the Sower to be one of Butler鈥檚 worst efforts. My initial reaction to the story was: Gawd save me from another Margaret story.
In the Parable of the Sower, there were two storylines. There's a wonderful apocalyptic story and a disagreeable story about Lauren Olamina's personal philosophy, which Lauren labeled Earthseed. Those two storylines struggled against each other throughout the book. Unfortunately, the Earthseed storyline wins out in the end.
It was the whole Earthseed business that drove me crazy. Perhaps one reason was the fact that it reminded me of myself when I was a religious teenager, and I scribbled my thoughts down in a little notebook. I was full of self-importance and ignorance. In many ways, I was similar to Lauren, just not as resourceful.
About halfway through the second half of the book, Lauren discussed her ideas about Earthseed with her travel mates, and her mates offered suggestions that would have made Earthseed a viable philosophy in an apocalyptic world. I then thought, "Isn't Butler brilliant." But regrettably, Lauren Olamina ignores the advice of her mates.
Even given all that I would have been delighted if the book had ended with the scene where Lauren and her mates were working together on their version of a "promised land" to create a new social structure. Believers and nonbelievers working side-by-side for the common good. It would have been a beautiful ending. But no, Butler didn't end there. She goes on to give us the King James version of the parable of the sower, as if she doubted we were familiar with the tale. I found that to be somewhat offensive.
If Butler had just stuck to her tale of an apocalyptic world, I would have loved it, but all the Earthseed business ruined it for me.
April 24, 2018
What bothers me most about this book, is probably the acclaim. Contrary to countless raving reviews about this book being pivotal and poignant-- I can say with every fiber of my being, that this book was a waste of my time. Many reviews mention President Donner and similarities to Trump. That's cool and all, but it's really about one page, and half a page somewhere else. The implications of that presidency are not discussed. Chances are--whatever you like, WILL NOT be expounded upon, unless you happen to be very enamored with the protagonist's crappy attitude.
I picked this book because I love a dystopian read, but it certainly fell flat. The first half of the book is *decent.* Meaning, I was moderately connected and *okay* with the trajectory of the book. But overall, I found it awful at many moments.
From an unlikable, sanctimonious, protagonist, to childish prose, to under-developed plot lines, to a made-up religion that comprises 85% of the book/story as opposed to the much more interesting questions of how society came to be as warped as it was in the novel. The viewpoint completely shifts from the madness going on in the outside world, to the main character's "clan" and their OVERLY detailed shenanigans that literally comprise the last 50% of the book. It was a boring coming-of-age- story and random chaos, wrapped in a "theme" of dystopia. Be forewarned. I had to skip rather large paragraphs about Earthseed and new characters brought in just to move the plot.
Even the ENDING was horrid. On the second to last page, I was rooting that someone would just kill the main character already because I was that worn-out by her at the end. Very disappointing.
I picked this book because I love a dystopian read, but it certainly fell flat. The first half of the book is *decent.* Meaning, I was moderately connected and *okay* with the trajectory of the book. But overall, I found it awful at many moments.
From an unlikable, sanctimonious, protagonist, to childish prose, to under-developed plot lines, to a made-up religion that comprises 85% of the book/story as opposed to the much more interesting questions of how society came to be as warped as it was in the novel. The viewpoint completely shifts from the madness going on in the outside world, to the main character's "clan" and their OVERLY detailed shenanigans that literally comprise the last 50% of the book. It was a boring coming-of-age- story and random chaos, wrapped in a "theme" of dystopia. Be forewarned. I had to skip rather large paragraphs about Earthseed and new characters brought in just to move the plot.
Even the ENDING was horrid. On the second to last page, I was rooting that someone would just kill the main character already because I was that worn-out by her at the end. Very disappointing.
November 8, 2007
Parable of the Sower isn't the easiest book to read. The prose is clear and uncomplicated, but the content can be hard to take. This is a close-to-home dystopia, one which I found hard to dismiss as improbable. And the world that it depicts is cruel and ugly. Even the well-meaning must do ugly things to survive.
This is science fiction only in the most technical sense. Sure, it's set in a hypothetical future, and the main character, Lauren, has an uncanny/(super)natural ability to feel the pain of others. But there is no reliance upon imagined technologies, alien races or superhuman heroics to move the plot along. The framework of this fictional universe is our own, moved forward in time to a barren future.
Lauren is intent upon founding her own religion. Her ideas are represented by excerpts from her poetry at the beginning of each chapter. As the story progresses, Lauren explains her ideas to many (initially skeptical) people. I was a little bit unhappy with this (central) aspect of the book: the ideas, and Lauren's writing, felt to me a lot less deep and meaningful than Lauren intended.
But what was Octavia Butler's intention? Did she intend these ideas, and Lauren's writings, to be full of meaning, resonance and depth? Was it supposed to be a bit naive and simple, but with potential (which is how I felt)? The answer isn't to be found in this book.
When I finished the book, satisfied at its refusal to come to a pat conclusion or judgment about Lauren's ideology, I found out that there is a sequel. I look forward to it and to finding out whether Lauren's ideas mature once put to the test. Apparently, Butler had begun to work on a third book in this series, but sadly she never completed it.
Oh, one warning: don't read the back cover. At least for the edition I have, the description on the back gives away a crucial, major turning point in the plot that occurs midway through the book. I hate knowing too much in advance, and I would have been really irritated had I seen that beforehand.
This is science fiction only in the most technical sense. Sure, it's set in a hypothetical future, and the main character, Lauren, has an uncanny/(super)natural ability to feel the pain of others. But there is no reliance upon imagined technologies, alien races or superhuman heroics to move the plot along. The framework of this fictional universe is our own, moved forward in time to a barren future.
Lauren is intent upon founding her own religion. Her ideas are represented by excerpts from her poetry at the beginning of each chapter. As the story progresses, Lauren explains her ideas to many (initially skeptical) people. I was a little bit unhappy with this (central) aspect of the book: the ideas, and Lauren's writing, felt to me a lot less deep and meaningful than Lauren intended.
But what was Octavia Butler's intention? Did she intend these ideas, and Lauren's writings, to be full of meaning, resonance and depth? Was it supposed to be a bit naive and simple, but with potential (which is how I felt)? The answer isn't to be found in this book.
When I finished the book, satisfied at its refusal to come to a pat conclusion or judgment about Lauren's ideology, I found out that there is a sequel. I look forward to it and to finding out whether Lauren's ideas mature once put to the test. Apparently, Butler had begun to work on a third book in this series, but sadly she never completed it.
Oh, one warning: don't read the back cover. At least for the edition I have, the description on the back gives away a crucial, major turning point in the plot that occurs midway through the book. I hate knowing too much in advance, and I would have been really irritated had I seen that beforehand.
Want to read
April 25, 2024octavia butler supremacy
April 16, 2021
Distop铆a dura y a veces dif铆cil de leer pero que me ha gustado much铆simo.
Nos traslada al a帽o 2024, una 茅poca en la que el mundo se ha ido al garete por culpa del cambio clim谩tico, las diferentes crisis sociales y pol铆ticas que ha llevado a un aumento de la violencia y el consumo de drogas brutal, as铆 como el aumento de la pobreza, la escasez de agua y seguridad.
Lauren es una adolescente que vive en un barrio cercado por un muro que la protege a ella, su familia y sus vecinos de todo eso (violencia, pobreza, drogas..), pero a veces ni siquiera esos muros pueden impedir que la vida de ah铆 fuera termine alcanz谩ndolos.
Octavia E. Butler nos plantea en este libro muchas cosas que tenemos delante y seguimos ignorando, habla de otro tipo de esclavitud (diferente a la que describ铆a en 'Parentesco'... pero no tanto), habla de la religi贸n, de la empat铆a, del dolor y la supervivencia.
Y siendo una lectura dif铆cil a veces por lo que cuenta, logra al mismo tiempo atraparte brutalmente gracias a esa escritura 谩gil, a modo de diario de nuestra protagonista.
Una novela impactante y que consigue hacernos reflexionar. Me ha recordado a muchas sensaciones que me dej贸 'El cuento de la criada', aunque realmente no hablen de lo mismo ni de la misma manera.
***Tiene segunda parte que saldr谩 en castellano en octubre. 脡sta se puede leer de manera independiente pero NECESITO ya la segunda.
Nos traslada al a帽o 2024, una 茅poca en la que el mundo se ha ido al garete por culpa del cambio clim谩tico, las diferentes crisis sociales y pol铆ticas que ha llevado a un aumento de la violencia y el consumo de drogas brutal, as铆 como el aumento de la pobreza, la escasez de agua y seguridad.
Lauren es una adolescente que vive en un barrio cercado por un muro que la protege a ella, su familia y sus vecinos de todo eso (violencia, pobreza, drogas..), pero a veces ni siquiera esos muros pueden impedir que la vida de ah铆 fuera termine alcanz谩ndolos.
Octavia E. Butler nos plantea en este libro muchas cosas que tenemos delante y seguimos ignorando, habla de otro tipo de esclavitud (diferente a la que describ铆a en 'Parentesco'... pero no tanto), habla de la religi贸n, de la empat铆a, del dolor y la supervivencia.
Y siendo una lectura dif铆cil a veces por lo que cuenta, logra al mismo tiempo atraparte brutalmente gracias a esa escritura 谩gil, a modo de diario de nuestra protagonista.
Una novela impactante y que consigue hacernos reflexionar. Me ha recordado a muchas sensaciones que me dej贸 'El cuento de la criada', aunque realmente no hablen de lo mismo ni de la misma manera.
***Tiene segunda parte que saldr谩 en castellano en octubre. 脡sta se puede leer de manera independiente pero NECESITO ya la segunda.
October 11, 2014
This book was not for me. I wish I had read some of the reviews before I started. I have never hated a book more in my life. I wanted to quit halfway through it, but after realizing it's meant to be some kind of neo-slave narrative I tried to give it a chance to see if the story became just 1% less bleak once the action picked up. I hate this world that Butler has created and I hate that I read 299 pages of misery porn before realizing that it was exactly that and nothing more: misery porn.
I wanted to kill myself just reading about these character's lives. It's beyond depressing! "Thieves, rapists, cannibals" and more are literally on every page. EVERY. PAGE. It is non-stop horror and darkness. The absolute worst kind of society America could become with no end in sight and no hope for anyone. Even the rich people can't really live in peace and have to abandon ship sometimes. This book is ABYSMAL. If you have any kind of mental illness, don't worry - this book will absolutely trigger you with it's senseless violence, fear and terror! That on top of centering the book around an unlikeable, annoying heroine is what made this an almost impossible read. I don't know why I slogged through this at all now.
The sadness, despair and awfulness only takes a break for the occasional awkward sex scene and for our heroine to get on her pedestal and start preaching to everyone about how she knows what's best. I get what Butler was trying to do - create a modern world with horror that is equal in the horror of the slave days. Except even in the slave days there was the very tangible hope of FREEDOM. In this book THERE IS NO FREEDOM. IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION! It's like the ending of Battlestar Galactica. You get to the last season and discover (after you were made to believe there's a paradise for soooo longgggg) that there is no Earth and everything leading up to this point was futile. The only teeny tiny glimmer of hope in this entire book is that MAYBE the characters will succeed in going North. But that's it. They don't even have a plan when they get north. They don't know how they're going to live, where to get money, nothing. The only thing sustaining the audience is that MAYBE once they get to where they're going MAYBE things will get better. A huge open-ended "maybe" is all the characters have and all you have too, the reader.
Oh and there's sympathy. Except our heroine really isn't that sympathetic. She's more irritable and obnoxious than anything. She is not someone you want to root for, she's someone you want to STFU (like most know-it-all teenagers. I know, I used to be one). She doesn't even cry when heroes/heroines are supposed to cry. She doesn't even break down from all the destruction and hopelessness around her literally every single day of her life from every single direction possible. She's the quintessential Strong Black Woman trope and it's fucking overkill, honestly. You'd think this mystical power she got would make her more like a human being than a robot survivalist.
I reached a point with about 25 more pages to go where I had no more sympathy to extend. I was tapped out. I no longer cared about any of the characters because literally all of their lives are filled with death and pain. Why care when all they've known is despair and all they will ever know is despair? I started to abhor the parts where new characters came in cause I knew eventually we were going to get their sob story and it was going to be more grim and horrible than the last. Butler crams every imaginable horror/crime/painful death in this book and just piles it on thicker with every new character. I reached a point where I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was skimming whole paragraphs trying to figure out when does it end.
Well, it doesn't. After taking 100 pages to set up the plot she spends another 100 pages bringing in all these secondary characters. And for what? To beat us over the head with slavery metaphors and corny "new age underground railroad" lines and anti-capitalism and speculative fiction about how all of humanity will eventually go to shit, so you better get ready.
Man, don't read this book. I admit that my own feelings about religion and anti-heroes made me bias against this book in one way. But you're only going to feel like shit once you get to the end. I had to watch cartoons as a palette cleanser to get this shock value misery and death parade out of my head. It's too much. Everything about this book is too much. I can't recommend it. Love some of Butler's other work, but I'm never touching any of these Earthseed books ever again.
I wanted to kill myself just reading about these character's lives. It's beyond depressing! "Thieves, rapists, cannibals" and more are literally on every page. EVERY. PAGE. It is non-stop horror and darkness. The absolute worst kind of society America could become with no end in sight and no hope for anyone. Even the rich people can't really live in peace and have to abandon ship sometimes. This book is ABYSMAL. If you have any kind of mental illness, don't worry - this book will absolutely trigger you with it's senseless violence, fear and terror! That on top of centering the book around an unlikeable, annoying heroine is what made this an almost impossible read. I don't know why I slogged through this at all now.
The sadness, despair and awfulness only takes a break for the occasional awkward sex scene and for our heroine to get on her pedestal and start preaching to everyone about how she knows what's best. I get what Butler was trying to do - create a modern world with horror that is equal in the horror of the slave days. Except even in the slave days there was the very tangible hope of FREEDOM. In this book THERE IS NO FREEDOM. IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION! It's like the ending of Battlestar Galactica. You get to the last season and discover (after you were made to believe there's a paradise for soooo longgggg) that there is no Earth and everything leading up to this point was futile. The only teeny tiny glimmer of hope in this entire book is that MAYBE the characters will succeed in going North. But that's it. They don't even have a plan when they get north. They don't know how they're going to live, where to get money, nothing. The only thing sustaining the audience is that MAYBE once they get to where they're going MAYBE things will get better. A huge open-ended "maybe" is all the characters have and all you have too, the reader.
Oh and there's sympathy. Except our heroine really isn't that sympathetic. She's more irritable and obnoxious than anything. She is not someone you want to root for, she's someone you want to STFU (like most know-it-all teenagers. I know, I used to be one). She doesn't even cry when heroes/heroines are supposed to cry. She doesn't even break down from all the destruction and hopelessness around her literally every single day of her life from every single direction possible. She's the quintessential Strong Black Woman trope and it's fucking overkill, honestly. You'd think this mystical power she got would make her more like a human being than a robot survivalist.
I reached a point with about 25 more pages to go where I had no more sympathy to extend. I was tapped out. I no longer cared about any of the characters because literally all of their lives are filled with death and pain. Why care when all they've known is despair and all they will ever know is despair? I started to abhor the parts where new characters came in cause I knew eventually we were going to get their sob story and it was going to be more grim and horrible than the last. Butler crams every imaginable horror/crime/painful death in this book and just piles it on thicker with every new character. I reached a point where I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was skimming whole paragraphs trying to figure out when does it end.
Well, it doesn't. After taking 100 pages to set up the plot she spends another 100 pages bringing in all these secondary characters. And for what? To beat us over the head with slavery metaphors and corny "new age underground railroad" lines and anti-capitalism and speculative fiction about how all of humanity will eventually go to shit, so you better get ready.
Man, don't read this book. I admit that my own feelings about religion and anti-heroes made me bias against this book in one way. But you're only going to feel like shit once you get to the end. I had to watch cartoons as a palette cleanser to get this shock value misery and death parade out of my head. It's too much. Everything about this book is too much. I can't recommend it. Love some of Butler's other work, but I'm never touching any of these Earthseed books ever again.
July 12, 2020
Wish this had been required reading in middle school.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
March 7, 2016Abandoning this book at about 30%. I just can't finish it. Feels too much like a young adult novel, which isn't necessarily a problem in and of itself - but dialogue is boring me. I am not a huge sci-fi/dystopia fan, so it really needs to grab me if I am going to read it. This one just isn't working for me personally. Not going to rate this one as a result. Too many other books waiting to be read!
July 28, 2016
I often wonder about religion. Its roots, its power, its consequences. When looking at the religion that had the biggest influence on my life, I sometimes wonder if that belief system isn't just a biography that got out of hand. We've got the life of Jesus described to us, the good deeds he did and the things he had to say, and people picked it up, learnt it, liked it, loved it, embraced it, fought for it, killed for it, died for it. Whoa, that escalated quickly. Such a tiny harmless thing as a moral compass doing so much harm.
I've caught myself thinking about how nifty it would be if my life story would turn into a religion, and what impact writings about it would have on later generations. Telling people about that time when I gave a sandwich to a poor guy, or the one where I forgave a friend after he had put chewing gum in my hair. Or when I waited with washing my dishes for an entire week and had to scrub a bit harder to get the crusts away. What impact would those writings have a couple of generations from now? "And on the seventh day he decideth to wash the dishes, and saw that it was difficult."
In this day and age, at least where I live, the moral compass no longer seems to be the Bible. But does that mean our morals and behavior are no longer guided by religion?
When Christiano Ronaldo visits a sick kid it's as if a beautiful miracle happened, when Messi tells us not to be racist we accept his wise words, when Coca-Cola tells us to enjoy life and Nike tells us to just do it, we do it. What's the difference with Jesus, except for the time they were living in? A viral video of a beggar giving what little he has and being immediately rewarded for it, a meme of a bully being kicked in the nuts, a social experiment on domestic violence on men filmed in a public square guided by a solemn song and big, white words scrolling over pointing us to what's right. What's the difference between my Facebook feed and a page in the Bible? Could a simple idea as "Enjoy life" be the seed of a religion?
These are some of the questions that were inspired by this book, "Parable of the Sower". In it Octavia Butler tells the story of Lauren Olamina, a young girl who holds the seed of a new religion: Earthseed. Aside from the religious aspect, this book also presents us with a dystopian future, a future that is as alarming as it is a possibility that only seems to have increased in likelihood since the time this book was written in the late nineties.
Lauren lives in a small community surrounded by walls. The community is not rich, but fairly well-off compared to what's out there. She lives on an island of the privileged amidst an ever-rising ocean of those who fell and got left behind. It's not a particularly warm community, with lots of suspicion, gossip and resentment, even within families, but at least they have chicken to breed and vegetable patches to work on. Outside the walls poverty is king and violence is queen. A new drug turns people into raging pyromaniacs. It is clear for both the protagonist and the reader that the walled community will not be able to stand up to these increasing dangers for a long time, that it will be swallowed up whole.
The way Butler describes this situation, the sense of impending danger and how Lauren reacts to it, was done brilliantly. And it's sad to say, but I could relate. Bombs blowing up ever closer to home, streams of refugees looking for shelter, shelters blown up, refugees joining other refugees looking for safe havens that build walls around them to keep the problems out, well, you get the picture, we all watch the news.
In the midst of all this, Lauren has discovered a new "religion". That's what the author and her protagonist decided to call it and it starts off very promising with inspiring verses around the idea that the one, undefeatable constant is change. The religion centers around the idea that God is Change. Lauren insist she "found" this wisdom and did not construct it, making her belief very firm and her resolution to spread it even greater.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get much richer than that. The idea isn't really expanded upon, there's no clear moral consequences aside from the fact that one can shape change through one's own actions and accept change when one can't steer it. The title refers to seeds and sowers, but it seems that the idea of God being change is the full-grown plant and that's all you get. The part of Lauren's life described in the book also isn't inspirational in the way Jesus' or Zlatan Ibrahimovic' is. It's a story of people on the run. The dangers they encounter and the people they meet all seem to melt together in one big ball of misery that gets harder to relate to as the book progresses. This book does not hold one sparkle of joy or humor, and actually has little emotion to offer in general. It's unceasingly and unremittingly bleak and depressing. "Parable of the Sower" is presented as excerpts of Lauren's journal, but is written in such a factual way it's difficult to relate to her or anyone surrounding her. By the end of the book I still had a hard time discerning between some of the characters.
I'm also pretty sure this is actually a Young Adult novel, only I didn't realize it very quickly, which is a compliment for any YA novel in my book. But some aspects, like the hyperempathy syndrome due to which Lauren feels physical pain whenever someone around her is hurting, just feels a bit too "Disney", for lack of finding a better word. You know, the one where a trait with morally desirable consequences is considered a dangerous thing to be ashamed of. You don't need to have hyperempathy to feel where this is going.
All of this to say that this book starts off with a brilliant setting and idea in the first half (5 stars), but seems to waste its potential in the second (3 stars). I have to add that the ending of this book is clearly not the end of the story, which continues in "Parable of the Talents", a book I'll start reading tonight. I have hopes that after all the running from fires, dogs, and cannibals in book one, more of the philosophical potential is unlocked in this sequel. Maybe the God-is-change plant will bear some fruits after all.
I've caught myself thinking about how nifty it would be if my life story would turn into a religion, and what impact writings about it would have on later generations. Telling people about that time when I gave a sandwich to a poor guy, or the one where I forgave a friend after he had put chewing gum in my hair. Or when I waited with washing my dishes for an entire week and had to scrub a bit harder to get the crusts away. What impact would those writings have a couple of generations from now? "And on the seventh day he decideth to wash the dishes, and saw that it was difficult."
In this day and age, at least where I live, the moral compass no longer seems to be the Bible. But does that mean our morals and behavior are no longer guided by religion?
When Christiano Ronaldo visits a sick kid it's as if a beautiful miracle happened, when Messi tells us not to be racist we accept his wise words, when Coca-Cola tells us to enjoy life and Nike tells us to just do it, we do it. What's the difference with Jesus, except for the time they were living in? A viral video of a beggar giving what little he has and being immediately rewarded for it, a meme of a bully being kicked in the nuts, a social experiment on domestic violence on men filmed in a public square guided by a solemn song and big, white words scrolling over pointing us to what's right. What's the difference between my Facebook feed and a page in the Bible? Could a simple idea as "Enjoy life" be the seed of a religion?
These are some of the questions that were inspired by this book, "Parable of the Sower". In it Octavia Butler tells the story of Lauren Olamina, a young girl who holds the seed of a new religion: Earthseed. Aside from the religious aspect, this book also presents us with a dystopian future, a future that is as alarming as it is a possibility that only seems to have increased in likelihood since the time this book was written in the late nineties.
Lauren lives in a small community surrounded by walls. The community is not rich, but fairly well-off compared to what's out there. She lives on an island of the privileged amidst an ever-rising ocean of those who fell and got left behind. It's not a particularly warm community, with lots of suspicion, gossip and resentment, even within families, but at least they have chicken to breed and vegetable patches to work on. Outside the walls poverty is king and violence is queen. A new drug turns people into raging pyromaniacs. It is clear for both the protagonist and the reader that the walled community will not be able to stand up to these increasing dangers for a long time, that it will be swallowed up whole.
The way Butler describes this situation, the sense of impending danger and how Lauren reacts to it, was done brilliantly. And it's sad to say, but I could relate. Bombs blowing up ever closer to home, streams of refugees looking for shelter, shelters blown up, refugees joining other refugees looking for safe havens that build walls around them to keep the problems out, well, you get the picture, we all watch the news.
In the midst of all this, Lauren has discovered a new "religion". That's what the author and her protagonist decided to call it and it starts off very promising with inspiring verses around the idea that the one, undefeatable constant is change. The religion centers around the idea that God is Change. Lauren insist she "found" this wisdom and did not construct it, making her belief very firm and her resolution to spread it even greater.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get much richer than that. The idea isn't really expanded upon, there's no clear moral consequences aside from the fact that one can shape change through one's own actions and accept change when one can't steer it. The title refers to seeds and sowers, but it seems that the idea of God being change is the full-grown plant and that's all you get. The part of Lauren's life described in the book also isn't inspirational in the way Jesus' or Zlatan Ibrahimovic' is. It's a story of people on the run. The dangers they encounter and the people they meet all seem to melt together in one big ball of misery that gets harder to relate to as the book progresses. This book does not hold one sparkle of joy or humor, and actually has little emotion to offer in general. It's unceasingly and unremittingly bleak and depressing. "Parable of the Sower" is presented as excerpts of Lauren's journal, but is written in such a factual way it's difficult to relate to her or anyone surrounding her. By the end of the book I still had a hard time discerning between some of the characters.
I'm also pretty sure this is actually a Young Adult novel, only I didn't realize it very quickly, which is a compliment for any YA novel in my book. But some aspects, like the hyperempathy syndrome due to which Lauren feels physical pain whenever someone around her is hurting, just feels a bit too "Disney", for lack of finding a better word. You know, the one where a trait with morally desirable consequences is considered a dangerous thing to be ashamed of. You don't need to have hyperempathy to feel where this is going.
All of this to say that this book starts off with a brilliant setting and idea in the first half (5 stars), but seems to waste its potential in the second (3 stars). I have to add that the ending of this book is clearly not the end of the story, which continues in "Parable of the Talents", a book I'll start reading tonight. I have hopes that after all the running from fires, dogs, and cannibals in book one, more of the philosophical potential is unlocked in this sequel. Maybe the God-is-change plant will bear some fruits after all.
February 19, 2025
A sweeping book which vividly describes a world falling apart through gang violence, government retreat and climate change. The ending is less satisfying than I had hoped but I enjoyed Butler her writing enormously
When it comes to strangers with guns, I told her, I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust.
A thoughtful book on a girl growing up in an incredible grim world with kids of 12 and 13 roasting and eating a human leg, rape, killings and other atrocities. Main character Lauren develops a philosophy of god being change, and is forced on a journey almost more grim than by McCarthy.
From a gated community to the collapse of society, Lauren, born in 2009, is a remarkably resilient and capable main character, who manages to bind a ragtag group to her and her philosophy. She is a hyperempath, able to feel the pain of others around her, limiting her effectiveness in a world falling apart.
describes in a very vivid manner the 2024/2025 dystopia, with police violence and government retreat, measles and cholera epidemics and preppers being right. Exoplanets and dead female astronauts play a part as well, yet the overall state of the world is incredibly grim. Climate change eroding coastline cities, dogs trying to eat babies, 8 year olds being raped and people ripped apart by automatic weapon fire. A new slavery emerges in these circumstances, corpocratic serfdom, with kids of people in debt being and some required to work off the debt of their parents. A modern underground railway starts up as well.
While reading this book I was reminded of her writing, except that is more grim, gritty and devastatingly clear-eyed on what climate change and a breakdown of society would mean.
This is a deserved classic, not just in the genre but in literature in general.
Quotes:
Is it a sin against god to be poor?
Intelligence is ongoing, continuous adaptability
People have been killing little kids since there have been people
I intend to survive
Not scared enough to use her brain apparently
Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to groups.
A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all
There is nothing safe about slavery
Commenting on sci-fi tropes
She wants a future she can understand and depend on, a future that looks a lot like her parents present.
We don鈥檛 look for what we don鈥檛 want to see
I鈥檓 not good at denial and self deception
They have no power to improve their own lives but they do have the power to make other people their lives more miserable
God is change. I hate god.
Shop in peace
We need our paranoia to keep us alive
We have to be very careful about how we let our needs shape us
The 1990s were crazy, but at least they were rich
Yes but only living people need food
I wonder what a badge is, except a license to steal
When it comes to strangers with guns, I told her, I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust.
A thoughtful book on a girl growing up in an incredible grim world with kids of 12 and 13 roasting and eating a human leg, rape, killings and other atrocities. Main character Lauren develops a philosophy of god being change, and is forced on a journey almost more grim than by McCarthy.
From a gated community to the collapse of society, Lauren, born in 2009, is a remarkably resilient and capable main character, who manages to bind a ragtag group to her and her philosophy. She is a hyperempath, able to feel the pain of others around her, limiting her effectiveness in a world falling apart.
describes in a very vivid manner the 2024/2025 dystopia, with police violence and government retreat, measles and cholera epidemics and preppers being right. Exoplanets and dead female astronauts play a part as well, yet the overall state of the world is incredibly grim. Climate change eroding coastline cities, dogs trying to eat babies, 8 year olds being raped and people ripped apart by automatic weapon fire. A new slavery emerges in these circumstances, corpocratic serfdom, with kids of people in debt being and some required to work off the debt of their parents. A modern underground railway starts up as well.
While reading this book I was reminded of her writing, except that is more grim, gritty and devastatingly clear-eyed on what climate change and a breakdown of society would mean.
This is a deserved classic, not just in the genre but in literature in general.
Quotes:
Is it a sin against god to be poor?
Intelligence is ongoing, continuous adaptability
People have been killing little kids since there have been people
I intend to survive
Not scared enough to use her brain apparently
Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to groups.
A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all
There is nothing safe about slavery
Commenting on sci-fi tropes
She wants a future she can understand and depend on, a future that looks a lot like her parents present.
We don鈥檛 look for what we don鈥檛 want to see
I鈥檓 not good at denial and self deception
They have no power to improve their own lives but they do have the power to make other people their lives more miserable
God is change. I hate god.
Shop in peace
We need our paranoia to keep us alive
We have to be very careful about how we let our needs shape us
The 1990s were crazy, but at least they were rich
Yes but only living people need food
I wonder what a badge is, except a license to steal
August 6, 2020
Unsettling and powerful, like The Road with a Black female protagonist and more BIPOC characters overall. In some ways I dislike using The Road as a comparison given that white people鈥檚 art is not the standard, and Octavia Butler creates a whole world of her own in Parable of the Sower. First published in 1993, this dystopian novel flashes forward to 2025, when the United States has descended into chaos and what remains includes a country pervaded by disease, war, and chronic water shortages. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the rare safe neighborhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where her father, a preacher, and other citizens try to protect one another and form some version of community amidst the darkness of the world. However, when their neighborhood is attacked and Lauren鈥檚 family is killed, she ventures out on her own with a few other refugees to try and survive. On their path Lauren imagines a revolutionary idea that may bring forth a new hope for all of humankind.
I liked this novel though it contains a lot of gore, so trigger warning for sexual assault, murder and violence, and brief descriptions of cannibalism. Butler鈥檚 prose is sparse and efficient and makes for a straightforward reading experience. I鈥檓 most impressed by how much Butler predicted with this novel and the subtle yet meaningful social commentary she weaved in. For example, she incorporates themes related to how the police do not actually help much and oftentimes perpetuate harm, the role of race and racism in people鈥檚 chances of survival, the perils of capitalism and worker exploitation, and the power of mutual aid and community trust. While reading Parable of the Sower I felt that Butler came across as well ahead of her time.
I give this novel four stars instead of five because I wanted to feel a bit more immersed in Lauren鈥檚 world and her emotions. Perhaps she had to develop some emotional calluses or some internal distance from her trauma to survive, yet I wanted to feel more of that connection with her or even more of that connection between the characters. One of my favorite parts of the novel includes how Lauren鈥檚 newfound and growing community come to trust one another amidst this awful world they exist in. At the same time, I wanted to travel a bit more in-depth with certain connections or character so I could really get all in my feelings with them.
Overall recommended to fans of the Gone series by Michael Grant, N.K. Jemisin, or science fiction and books centering BIPOC characters in general. Wish we could have read this one in school though I don鈥檛 think my school at least was ready for the content of this novel 鈥� its commentary on whiteness and capitalism probably may have challenged people a bit too much.
EDIT 8.5.2020
Okay so I was talking to my bff about Octavia Butler's work on Twitter tonight and realized that the main character of this novel (who starts out as 15 and is 18 by the end of the novel) engages in a sexual and romantic relationship with a 57-year-old man during the course of the book. It's 11:02pm so I don't have the energy to fully analyze or engage in the problematic nature of this, though my bff pointed out Butler has a similar age-gap relationship in her work Fledgling. The main character and this 57-year-old man talk about their age gap and discuss consent and at the same time I wanted to name this relationship given that I don't think I came across any 欧宝娱乐 reviews that have.
I liked this novel though it contains a lot of gore, so trigger warning for sexual assault, murder and violence, and brief descriptions of cannibalism. Butler鈥檚 prose is sparse and efficient and makes for a straightforward reading experience. I鈥檓 most impressed by how much Butler predicted with this novel and the subtle yet meaningful social commentary she weaved in. For example, she incorporates themes related to how the police do not actually help much and oftentimes perpetuate harm, the role of race and racism in people鈥檚 chances of survival, the perils of capitalism and worker exploitation, and the power of mutual aid and community trust. While reading Parable of the Sower I felt that Butler came across as well ahead of her time.
I give this novel four stars instead of five because I wanted to feel a bit more immersed in Lauren鈥檚 world and her emotions. Perhaps she had to develop some emotional calluses or some internal distance from her trauma to survive, yet I wanted to feel more of that connection with her or even more of that connection between the characters. One of my favorite parts of the novel includes how Lauren鈥檚 newfound and growing community come to trust one another amidst this awful world they exist in. At the same time, I wanted to travel a bit more in-depth with certain connections or character so I could really get all in my feelings with them.
Overall recommended to fans of the Gone series by Michael Grant, N.K. Jemisin, or science fiction and books centering BIPOC characters in general. Wish we could have read this one in school though I don鈥檛 think my school at least was ready for the content of this novel 鈥� its commentary on whiteness and capitalism probably may have challenged people a bit too much.
EDIT 8.5.2020
Okay so I was talking to my bff about Octavia Butler's work on Twitter tonight and realized that the main character of this novel (who starts out as 15 and is 18 by the end of the novel) engages in a sexual and romantic relationship with a 57-year-old man during the course of the book. It's 11:02pm so I don't have the energy to fully analyze or engage in the problematic nature of this, though my bff pointed out Butler has a similar age-gap relationship in her work Fledgling. The main character and this 57-year-old man talk about their age gap and discuss consent and at the same time I wanted to name this relationship given that I don't think I came across any 欧宝娱乐 reviews that have.
January 14, 2025
this book was kind of hard for me to get into in the beginning like i was struggling but once it hits that 50% mark!!! omg absolutely crazy how accurate this book is even 30 years later.
April 5, 2013
Parable of the Sower?
More like "Parable of the RAPEYRAPERAPERAPE!" What Gospel is this again? Where exactly is the good news? "A rapist scattered rape on a rapescape, and some rapes caused unending trauma, and other rapes caused unending despair, but still other rapes created Strong Female Protagonists, and they would never let any man take Advantage of Them Again."
Mindnumbingly stupid and insulting to actual real assault victims everywhere.
I stopped reading 40 pages in.
Hooray, another "gritty urban fantasy," in which sexual assault serves as the gritty grit backdrop in the generic apocalyptic wasteland LA. Teh realism! Teh schock valyue! O look, a murdered corpse! O look, a naked rape victim! O look, now there's another rape victim! O look, a 7 year-old naked rape victim! O, remember my old lady neighbor, who was raped? RAPE! RAPE RAPE RAPE! No actual rapists are in sight, just their traumatized victims. Are you filled with horror yet? Are you properly despairing? Maybe I should describe some more, just in case you aren't! This is in no way exploitative or insensitive, by the way. Trust me, I should know, because I am a vulnerable teenage narrator. You will probably go through this whole book fearing for me, which is I guess the point of all this atmosphere of sexual threat. Of course we can't stop to help, EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE ARMED GUARDS WITH GUNS, because we might get attacked too, but we will still bicycle through this hellscape so I can explain it all to you in between my halfbaked religious views.
Ugh.
Just writing this review is turning my stomach.
This book obviously did too, in case you hadn't noticed.
There are not enough synonyms of "dreck" to adequately capture my response.
More like "Parable of the RAPEYRAPERAPERAPE!" What Gospel is this again? Where exactly is the good news? "A rapist scattered rape on a rapescape, and some rapes caused unending trauma, and other rapes caused unending despair, but still other rapes created Strong Female Protagonists, and they would never let any man take Advantage of Them Again."
Mindnumbingly stupid and insulting to actual real assault victims everywhere.
I stopped reading 40 pages in.
Hooray, another "gritty urban fantasy," in which sexual assault serves as the gritty grit backdrop in the generic apocalyptic wasteland LA. Teh realism! Teh schock valyue! O look, a murdered corpse! O look, a naked rape victim! O look, now there's another rape victim! O look, a 7 year-old naked rape victim! O, remember my old lady neighbor, who was raped? RAPE! RAPE RAPE RAPE! No actual rapists are in sight, just their traumatized victims. Are you filled with horror yet? Are you properly despairing? Maybe I should describe some more, just in case you aren't! This is in no way exploitative or insensitive, by the way. Trust me, I should know, because I am a vulnerable teenage narrator. You will probably go through this whole book fearing for me, which is I guess the point of all this atmosphere of sexual threat. Of course we can't stop to help, EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE ARMED GUARDS WITH GUNS, because we might get attacked too, but we will still bicycle through this hellscape so I can explain it all to you in between my halfbaked religious views.
Ugh.
Just writing this review is turning my stomach.
This book obviously did too, in case you hadn't noticed.
There are not enough synonyms of "dreck" to adequately capture my response.
March 1, 2025
(Feb 2016, adjusted rating down after reading . Butler did do much better.)
This might have been the must-read dystopia of the 90s. Perhaps it's because Butler tries too hard. Or readers can't see past the obvious shortcomings.
Dystopias have been with us since 1984 and Brave New World, and Utopia's since More's and even Plato's Timaeus. But Parable of the Sower could have been this generation's dystopia. A really engaging, challenging story of believable, empathetic characters. Great social commentary.
What's wrong? One, her protagonist's "hyperempathy syndrome" is stupid and unnecessary. Hokey.
Two, in a society crumbling under natural and man-made disaster, public water, phones, electric shouldn't operate. And insurance? Yeah, it didn't pay, but they shouldn't have expected it to. Scarce coffee but plentiful tea. Many such disconnects which throw the reader out of the story. Butler seemed to not understand that a solar water pump is actually an electric water pump. If the solar array is broken, an alternate (probably low-voltage DC) electricity source may work.
Three, if Butler could have gotten past her own social-racial memories, she would serve herself better. Readers are subjected to no less than four lectures about "debt slavery." Her sense of history and justice was just too two-dimensional.
Four, Butler takes 130 pages to set up the story. Lots of preaching and repetition. Thirty should have sufficed.
Five, speaking of preaching, her Earthseed religion, while a realistic construction for the adolescent Lauren, slowed rather than propelled the story. It is a logical construct for a teen in a changed and changing world and helps define her character, but Butler seemed selling it a la L. Ron Hubbard. Readers could skip the "scripture" quotes as they really don't bear on anything (other than Lauren's state of mind).
I understand and appreciate books by/about people undergoing a crisis of faith; I do not appreciate books by/about people creating a religion鈥攅specially when they try to convert me before they've even explained what it is or why I should care. This shortcoming is partly offset by Butler including credible characters who think Lauren's new faith is claptrap.
Like Ender's Game: unnaturally bright, mature individual overcomes both enemies and friends to save the world (maybe). Echoes of Ayn Rand . . . which comparison probably sets Butler spinning in her grave.
Do read this book. Parable of the Sower could have been a great event in fiction, but isn't. (I don't think is either, but it came closer.)
[Revised 8/18/2014 due to helpful reader feedback.]
[Revised 1/11/2017 to correct many typos and tense clashes]
This might have been the must-read dystopia of the 90s. Perhaps it's because Butler tries too hard. Or readers can't see past the obvious shortcomings.
Dystopias have been with us since 1984 and Brave New World, and Utopia's since More's and even Plato's Timaeus. But Parable of the Sower could have been this generation's dystopia. A really engaging, challenging story of believable, empathetic characters. Great social commentary.
What's wrong? One, her protagonist's "hyperempathy syndrome" is stupid and unnecessary. Hokey.
Two, in a society crumbling under natural and man-made disaster, public water, phones, electric shouldn't operate. And insurance? Yeah, it didn't pay, but they shouldn't have expected it to. Scarce coffee but plentiful tea. Many such disconnects which throw the reader out of the story. Butler seemed to not understand that a solar water pump is actually an electric water pump. If the solar array is broken, an alternate (probably low-voltage DC) electricity source may work.
Three, if Butler could have gotten past her own social-racial memories, she would serve herself better. Readers are subjected to no less than four lectures about "debt slavery." Her sense of history and justice was just too two-dimensional.
Four, Butler takes 130 pages to set up the story. Lots of preaching and repetition. Thirty should have sufficed.
Five, speaking of preaching, her Earthseed religion, while a realistic construction for the adolescent Lauren, slowed rather than propelled the story. It is a logical construct for a teen in a changed and changing world and helps define her character, but Butler seemed selling it a la L. Ron Hubbard. Readers could skip the "scripture" quotes as they really don't bear on anything (other than Lauren's state of mind).
I understand and appreciate books by/about people undergoing a crisis of faith; I do not appreciate books by/about people creating a religion鈥攅specially when they try to convert me before they've even explained what it is or why I should care. This shortcoming is partly offset by Butler including credible characters who think Lauren's new faith is claptrap.
Like Ender's Game: unnaturally bright, mature individual overcomes both enemies and friends to save the world (maybe). Echoes of Ayn Rand . . . which comparison probably sets Butler spinning in her grave.
Do read this book. Parable of the Sower could have been a great event in fiction, but isn't. (I don't think is either, but it came closer.)
[Revised 8/18/2014 due to helpful reader feedback.]
[Revised 1/11/2017 to correct many typos and tense clashes]
March 7, 2025
One of the easiest five stars I鈥檝e ever given. Incredible. Octavia E. Butler was a genius.
Her foresight, her prose, her character work, and her world-building are all at their absolute peak in this novel.
Reading this felt like looking into a future that is terrifyingly plausible. Butler wrote this in the early 鈥�90s, yet so much of it resonates with the present in unsettling ways. Constructing an entire world that feels raw and uncomfortably human in a socially aware way.
Lauren is a compelling protagonist. Her voice is sharp, thoughtful, and unflinchingly honest. Watching her navigate a brutal landscape while simultaneously forming and defining her own belief system was mesmerizing. Butler doesn鈥檛 just explore survival鈥攕he examines resilience, faith, and the power of ideas in the face of utter destruction.
I finished this book minutes ago, and I already know it has changed me. I鈥檓 obsessed. I鈥檓 in awe. I鈥檓 completely overwhelmed in the best way. This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I鈥檝e ever read.
Her foresight, her prose, her character work, and her world-building are all at their absolute peak in this novel.
Reading this felt like looking into a future that is terrifyingly plausible. Butler wrote this in the early 鈥�90s, yet so much of it resonates with the present in unsettling ways. Constructing an entire world that feels raw and uncomfortably human in a socially aware way.
Lauren is a compelling protagonist. Her voice is sharp, thoughtful, and unflinchingly honest. Watching her navigate a brutal landscape while simultaneously forming and defining her own belief system was mesmerizing. Butler doesn鈥檛 just explore survival鈥攕he examines resilience, faith, and the power of ideas in the face of utter destruction.
I finished this book minutes ago, and I already know it has changed me. I鈥檓 obsessed. I鈥檓 in awe. I鈥檓 completely overwhelmed in the best way. This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I鈥檝e ever read.
December 25, 2015
When I started reading this book I immediately felt inclined to rate it five stars even before finishing the first sentence. Hardly fair or reasonable I know, but that's love. I have loved Octavia Butler since reading a couple of years ago, I went on to read and the trilogy which only solidified my love for this dear departed lady and all she stood for.
Having said that, I initially felt a little disappointed with the first chapter of Parable of the Sower because the setting is rather mundane, not fantastical like the other Butler novels that I have read. Butler had such an immense imagination that her sci-fi books are always full of a sense of wonder, but Parable of the Sower鈥檚 setting seems like a typical dystopian scenario, nothing very outlandish walk the Earth. However, once I settle into the book and became familiar with the characters I was swept away by the storytelling and it no longer matters what the setting is, what genre is, or even what the basic plotline is. I was there with the characters, the only thing that matters is what is happening to them on the current page.
Parable of the Sower is a dystopian novel set in what seems like a post-apocalypse America but there was never a single apocalyptic event, no nuclear war and blasted irradiated landscape. It seems that the world just went down the toilet of its own accord. If I can just steal this line from Octaviabutler.org: 鈥淲hen unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe.鈥� The central character is Lauren Olamina, an eighteen-year-old girl, at the beginning of the novel she lives a stable and relatively safe life with her family but one day her family and the entire community is destroyed by drug crazed pyromaniac raiders. Lauren 鈥� the smartest character in the book 鈥� anticipated such a disaster from the current state of affairs so she was able to grab a prepared emergency pack and hit the road (her family is all killed though). Lauren has a long-term ambition to found a community and a religion of sorts which will ensure the survival, recovery and even progress of mankind. A project she calls 鈥淓arthseed鈥�. So after the destruction of her family the story is of her trek with across America 鈥� with a few friends she meets along the way 鈥� to find a place where they can settle in and start building a meaningful life.
Parable of the Sower is a very bleak yet optimistic novel. The story is driven by Lauren鈥檚 indomitable will and her grace under pressure.
鈥淭he weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn鈥檛 always safe, but it鈥檚 often necessary.鈥�
Lauren鈥檚 only weakness is her "hyperempathy", a condition that causes her to feel the pain of any person she perceives to be feeling pain (not by any kind of telepathy, it is more of a psychological condition from a birth defect). This makes fighting and self-defense very difficult, but she always does whatever she has to do to survive. The US depicted in this book is mostly in a state of anarchy, there is some kind of ineffective government in place and the police are mostly as bad 鈥� or worse 鈥� than the savages, robbers, rapists and cannibals roaming the land.
As I expected, the book is powerfully and beautifully written (in epistolary format). The characters are complex, vivid and entirely believable. If you are particularly squeamish some violent parts can be hard to read, though it is nothing compared to modern day 鈥済rimdark鈥� fantasy like . Though the book鈥檚 title is taken from the New Testament Parable of the Sower is not a religious novel, much less a Christian one though Lauren鈥檚 Earthseed concept uses aspects of religion to inspire potential followers. More importantly it is a moving and thought provoking story about what makes living worthwhile. There is a sequel called which I will read fairly soon, I intend to read all her novels anyway, unfortunately, there are only a few left that I have not read.
________________________
Update Dec 2015: I have read the sequeal Parable of the Talents, it does not disappoint!
Having said that, I initially felt a little disappointed with the first chapter of Parable of the Sower because the setting is rather mundane, not fantastical like the other Butler novels that I have read. Butler had such an immense imagination that her sci-fi books are always full of a sense of wonder, but Parable of the Sower鈥檚 setting seems like a typical dystopian scenario, nothing very outlandish walk the Earth. However, once I settle into the book and became familiar with the characters I was swept away by the storytelling and it no longer matters what the setting is, what genre is, or even what the basic plotline is. I was there with the characters, the only thing that matters is what is happening to them on the current page.
Parable of the Sower is a dystopian novel set in what seems like a post-apocalypse America but there was never a single apocalyptic event, no nuclear war and blasted irradiated landscape. It seems that the world just went down the toilet of its own accord. If I can just steal this line from Octaviabutler.org: 鈥淲hen unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe.鈥� The central character is Lauren Olamina, an eighteen-year-old girl, at the beginning of the novel she lives a stable and relatively safe life with her family but one day her family and the entire community is destroyed by drug crazed pyromaniac raiders. Lauren 鈥� the smartest character in the book 鈥� anticipated such a disaster from the current state of affairs so she was able to grab a prepared emergency pack and hit the road (her family is all killed though). Lauren has a long-term ambition to found a community and a religion of sorts which will ensure the survival, recovery and even progress of mankind. A project she calls 鈥淓arthseed鈥�. So after the destruction of her family the story is of her trek with across America 鈥� with a few friends she meets along the way 鈥� to find a place where they can settle in and start building a meaningful life.
Parable of the Sower is a very bleak yet optimistic novel. The story is driven by Lauren鈥檚 indomitable will and her grace under pressure.
鈥淭he weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn鈥檛 always safe, but it鈥檚 often necessary.鈥�
Lauren鈥檚 only weakness is her "hyperempathy", a condition that causes her to feel the pain of any person she perceives to be feeling pain (not by any kind of telepathy, it is more of a psychological condition from a birth defect). This makes fighting and self-defense very difficult, but she always does whatever she has to do to survive. The US depicted in this book is mostly in a state of anarchy, there is some kind of ineffective government in place and the police are mostly as bad 鈥� or worse 鈥� than the savages, robbers, rapists and cannibals roaming the land.
As I expected, the book is powerfully and beautifully written (in epistolary format). The characters are complex, vivid and entirely believable. If you are particularly squeamish some violent parts can be hard to read, though it is nothing compared to modern day 鈥済rimdark鈥� fantasy like . Though the book鈥檚 title is taken from the New Testament Parable of the Sower is not a religious novel, much less a Christian one though Lauren鈥檚 Earthseed concept uses aspects of religion to inspire potential followers. More importantly it is a moving and thought provoking story about what makes living worthwhile. There is a sequel called which I will read fairly soon, I intend to read all her novels anyway, unfortunately, there are only a few left that I have not read.
________________________
Update Dec 2015: I have read the sequeal Parable of the Talents, it does not disappoint!
January 27, 2022
Novela dist贸pica, escrita por su protagonista en forma de diario, por lo que resulta din谩mica al centrarse en su punto de vista.
Una lectura 谩gil por la habilidad de su autora para envolverte en una trama dura y cre铆ble, con unos personajes carism谩ticos.
Qu茅 bien escrita. Absolutamente recomendable. 4,5猸�
Una lectura 谩gil por la habilidad de su autora para envolverte en una trama dura y cre铆ble, con unos personajes carism谩ticos.
Qu茅 bien escrita. Absolutamente recomendable. 4,5猸�
October 10, 2018
On second reading, I think Butler's riff on post-apocalyptic travails hit me harder than the first time. After seeing the devastation in New Orleans on television and talking to friends and others whose relatives made it out of the city, the concepts of civilisation falling apart and humanity's worst nature coming to the forefront seem a lot closer and more likely... events in general since I first read the book have certainly not reached anywhere close to what Butler predicts in this novel - (which is the United States falling into total economic collapse, with violent drug addicts and criminals preying on anyone weaker than themselves, citizens forming walled communities which are only temporary havens from the inevitable tide of violence, debt slavery growing, as rich corporations and exploiters from richer countries come in to use Americans as a disposable third-world workforce....) - but it seems more and more every day that this is a nation in decline.
Most post-apocalyptic tales feature some gigantic catastrophe - a nuclear attack or an asteroid hitting the earth, etc... but in Parable..., although global warming has rendered the south of the US a desert, and water is a precious commodity, there has been no single, sudden catastrophe - and other parts of the world, and even the USA's rich - are still doing fine... companies are coming out with new advances in entertainment technology, the government is even completing missions to Mars... it's been a gradual decline, with the masses left to fend for themselves if they can... and this makes it that much more terrifying a vision....
However, against the horrific backdrop of a cautionary tale, Butler's parable, which refers to the Biblical parable, but can also work as a parable for today, is a tale that is ultimately hopeful, as her heroine, Lauren Olamina, struggles to find a life for herself, along the way gathering to herself a group of decent people and persisting in trying to start her own religion/spiritual path called 'Earthseed,' still believing that humanity may have a great destiny among the stars.
Most post-apocalyptic tales feature some gigantic catastrophe - a nuclear attack or an asteroid hitting the earth, etc... but in Parable..., although global warming has rendered the south of the US a desert, and water is a precious commodity, there has been no single, sudden catastrophe - and other parts of the world, and even the USA's rich - are still doing fine... companies are coming out with new advances in entertainment technology, the government is even completing missions to Mars... it's been a gradual decline, with the masses left to fend for themselves if they can... and this makes it that much more terrifying a vision....
However, against the horrific backdrop of a cautionary tale, Butler's parable, which refers to the Biblical parable, but can also work as a parable for today, is a tale that is ultimately hopeful, as her heroine, Lauren Olamina, struggles to find a life for herself, along the way gathering to herself a group of decent people and persisting in trying to start her own religion/spiritual path called 'Earthseed,' still believing that humanity may have a great destiny among the stars.
February 18, 2024
i really couldn't stop reading this, and the book has really impacted with me. it feels wrong to say i loved this, but i did. this is a very dark and bleak story, but it is also filled with connection and hope. once in a lifetime story, without question, and i can't wait to read the next book in this series. but please use caution and look up tw/cw (or just know... every tw/cw you can imagine is in this book)
| | | | |
| | | | |
March 8, 2016
"I stared down the hill from our camp where just a glint of water was visible in the distance through the trees and bushes. The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren鈥檛 any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees."
There is only one word to describe the world that Butler built in Parable of the Sower and that word is
BRUTAL.
I recently read a review of one of her other books, Kindred, in which the reviewer used the same word, and I was wondering if that really could be an appropriate description because, after all, a book is just words on a page right? What could possible be so bad about that?
And then I started reading The Parable of the Sower, Butler's story set in California in 2024, where communities rely on walls to keep them safe from wild animals, robbery, rape, and murder. But of course, walls are made to crumble. Communities disperse or are erased, and all that is left is a dog eat dog world.
"Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation."
What made this book special for me was its immediacy. The book was published in 1993, but is set in a 2024 that is not all that futuristic. There are no clocks striking thirteen. The only thing that has advanced are drugs. I was going to add 'human atrocities' but they have remained the same throughout time, they just disappear from focus, are kept outside the walls of social order. In this sense, The Parable of the Sower, tears down the illusion that social order is ever stable and that social constructs that are based on ideologies or intangible ideas are of any use to man when faced with a battle for survival.
I guess from the setting, the description of looting and arson, and the depiction of the police as corrupt and untrustworthy, that Butler may have drawn some inspiration from the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Remembering the images of the time and having seen similar events unfold in more recent years, Butler really captures the volatility of society in this novel.
Fortunately, however, in her motley crew of main characters, Butler also captures some of that human spirit that fights against this brutality and that has compassion for its fellow beings and draws strength from the support of and belief in mankind. There may be few of them, but given a chance they are set to thrive, much like the seeds that hit a fertile ground.
I am sorry if I have waffled my way through this review but The Parable of the Sower was one of those books that just provides so much food for thought. For all its brutality and distressing scenes and descriptions, it was a gripping read and I am looking forward to reading more by the author.
There is only one word to describe the world that Butler built in Parable of the Sower and that word is
BRUTAL.
I recently read a review of one of her other books, Kindred, in which the reviewer used the same word, and I was wondering if that really could be an appropriate description because, after all, a book is just words on a page right? What could possible be so bad about that?
And then I started reading The Parable of the Sower, Butler's story set in California in 2024, where communities rely on walls to keep them safe from wild animals, robbery, rape, and murder. But of course, walls are made to crumble. Communities disperse or are erased, and all that is left is a dog eat dog world.
"Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation."
What made this book special for me was its immediacy. The book was published in 1993, but is set in a 2024 that is not all that futuristic. There are no clocks striking thirteen. The only thing that has advanced are drugs. I was going to add 'human atrocities' but they have remained the same throughout time, they just disappear from focus, are kept outside the walls of social order. In this sense, The Parable of the Sower, tears down the illusion that social order is ever stable and that social constructs that are based on ideologies or intangible ideas are of any use to man when faced with a battle for survival.
I guess from the setting, the description of looting and arson, and the depiction of the police as corrupt and untrustworthy, that Butler may have drawn some inspiration from the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Remembering the images of the time and having seen similar events unfold in more recent years, Butler really captures the volatility of society in this novel.
Fortunately, however, in her motley crew of main characters, Butler also captures some of that human spirit that fights against this brutality and that has compassion for its fellow beings and draws strength from the support of and belief in mankind. There may be few of them, but given a chance they are set to thrive, much like the seeds that hit a fertile ground.
I am sorry if I have waffled my way through this review but The Parable of the Sower was one of those books that just provides so much food for thought. For all its brutality and distressing scenes and descriptions, it was a gripping read and I am looking forward to reading more by the author.
October 6, 2024
4.5 Stars
Series Video Review
This was such a powerful and prophetic read. I realize that this novel isn't incredibly old but I still found it uncanny how many specific details she included that feel oh so possible in 2024.
Some readers hate when author's have strong opinions in their novels. Personally, I tend to love it. This book explores a multifaceted near post apocalyptic future where there has been a breakdown of the economy and the deterioration of the environment. I'm glad I didn't read this novel in a depressed place because this was an incredibly tough read.
Fantastical or psychic elements can be challenging to write into science fiction in a way that allows me to suspend my disbelief. It was a unique choice but I found it worked in the story.
Finally, I really loved the characters who were complex and flawed. I found myself caring for them deeply and feeling sympathetic to their situations. A lot of this novel was slower paced and I was completely satisfied to just spend time with them.
Series Video Review
This was such a powerful and prophetic read. I realize that this novel isn't incredibly old but I still found it uncanny how many specific details she included that feel oh so possible in 2024.
Some readers hate when author's have strong opinions in their novels. Personally, I tend to love it. This book explores a multifaceted near post apocalyptic future where there has been a breakdown of the economy and the deterioration of the environment. I'm glad I didn't read this novel in a depressed place because this was an incredibly tough read.
Fantastical or psychic elements can be challenging to write into science fiction in a way that allows me to suspend my disbelief. It was a unique choice but I found it worked in the story.
Finally, I really loved the characters who were complex and flawed. I found myself caring for them deeply and feeling sympathetic to their situations. A lot of this novel was slower paced and I was completely satisfied to just spend time with them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 25,778 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.