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Apatt's Reviews > Dawn
Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)
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I have been squirreling away Octavia Butler books. I consider myself an avid fan of her works yet I have only read two of her novels so far (Wild Seed and Kindred), and the last one was sometime last year. My rationale is that there are only a finite number of Butler books available to read as the lady is no longer with us. If I binge on them now there will not be any more new Butler books to read and I will only have rereads to look forward to. As I love both Wild Seed and Kindred very much her books are safe bets for me, so I may well save them for a rainy day.
Dawn is volume 1 of Ms. Butler’s Lilith's Brood trilogy. I actually bought the omnibus edition (containing all three volumes) but as I have just finished Dawn I thought I’d review this first as a single book. It is the story of Lilith lyapo (the L in the surname is not capitalized for some reason) who wakes up from suspended animation in a spaceship to find herself a captive of an alien species called the Oankali who train her to be the leader of other captive humans in a project to repopulate previously devastated Earth. That seems very nice of them but of course they have their own agenda�
That is as much of a synopsis as you can expect from me, any more and I’d spoil the book. The best thing about this book for me is the world building. I do love to read about biotechnology where living organisms are used for everything instead of metallic and plastic. Living spaceships, living houses and furniture etc. So I was happy to immerse in this world (well, ship) that Butler created in such vivid details.
Beside the immense imagination that goes into her sf books Ms. Butler is also adept at creating believable characters that we can invest our emotion in. The underlying themes of captivity without imprisonment and subjugation by a relatively benign master seem to be common in her works (at least from what I have read so far). Another major theme in this book is “what does it mean to be human?� Lilith is genetically modified internally to enhance her strength, healing and other abilities, once the other humans find out they accuse her of no longer being human. Later another person is found to be modified and summarily murdered in spite of never having done anybody any harm. It makes me wonder about the term “inhumane�, does it have anything to do with humanity? Is the murderer more human but less humane?
The book ends on an intriguing note though not a cliff hanger. I am looking forward to read the rest of the saga. As always Octavia Butler's prose is elegant, smooth and very readable, another major attraction for me is that her compassion always shines through her work and while reading her books I sometime feel a little melancholic that she is not around any more to make the world a better place.
Note
Video clip:
Dawn is volume 1 of Ms. Butler’s Lilith's Brood trilogy. I actually bought the omnibus edition (containing all three volumes) but as I have just finished Dawn I thought I’d review this first as a single book. It is the story of Lilith lyapo (the L in the surname is not capitalized for some reason) who wakes up from suspended animation in a spaceship to find herself a captive of an alien species called the Oankali who train her to be the leader of other captive humans in a project to repopulate previously devastated Earth. That seems very nice of them but of course they have their own agenda�
That is as much of a synopsis as you can expect from me, any more and I’d spoil the book. The best thing about this book for me is the world building. I do love to read about biotechnology where living organisms are used for everything instead of metallic and plastic. Living spaceships, living houses and furniture etc. So I was happy to immerse in this world (well, ship) that Butler created in such vivid details.
Beside the immense imagination that goes into her sf books Ms. Butler is also adept at creating believable characters that we can invest our emotion in. The underlying themes of captivity without imprisonment and subjugation by a relatively benign master seem to be common in her works (at least from what I have read so far). Another major theme in this book is “what does it mean to be human?� Lilith is genetically modified internally to enhance her strength, healing and other abilities, once the other humans find out they accuse her of no longer being human. Later another person is found to be modified and summarily murdered in spite of never having done anybody any harm. It makes me wonder about the term “inhumane�, does it have anything to do with humanity? Is the murderer more human but less humane?
The book ends on an intriguing note though not a cliff hanger. I am looking forward to read the rest of the saga. As always Octavia Butler's prose is elegant, smooth and very readable, another major attraction for me is that her compassion always shines through her work and while reading her books I sometime feel a little melancholic that she is not around any more to make the world a better place.
Note
Video clip:
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Dirk wrote: ""I consider myself an avid fan of her works yet I have only read two of her novels so far"I know exactly how this feels. I am an "avid fan" of many authors, but, alas..."
Yeah! Sometime you can't tell how much you will like an author after only 2 books but in her case I knew!
I'm still struggling with Cryptonmicon at the moment. Much harder to read. Funny though.
I have only read one Butler so far, but I absolutely loved it. Like you, I'm trying to make them last!
Megan wrote: "I have only read one Butler so far, but I absolutely loved it. Like you, I'm trying to make them last!"I tried to be clever and find the one Butler book from your huge shelf. Failed of course! My guess is that it's not one of the three I read! :)
It was The Parable of the Sower. It doesn't have a review, though - I read it just a few months before I found goodreads!
Sorry to miss this review last month. We are in a similar position of having read two of hers and in a phase of collecting books of hers. (I read a different two, Clay's Ark and Mind of My Mind).I appreciate well your grabbing onto this aspect of her writing: Beside the immense imagination that goes into her sf books Ms. Butler is also adept at creating believable characters that we can invest our emotion in. And that her compassion always shines through her work.
It's ironic you've updated your review today - this will be my first book of hers and it's waiting for me at the library for tomorrow! I will have to come back to this review once I've finished it and see if our impressions match...
Michael wrote: "It's ironic you've updated your review today - this will be my first book of hers and it's waiting for me at the library for tomorrow!..."I'm glad it's a library copy, otherwise I'd feel obliged to send you a refund if you bought it on my recommendation and don't like it!
I'm done with the Halloween reads, now I'm on the 2nd volume of this series. Going swimmingly as expected.
Michael wrote: " Clay's Ark and Mind of My Mind)...."
Wild Seed is from that series I think. Awesome book, bring a box of Kleenex.
Finished this last week: you're right it is technically not a cliffhanger, but I can see why you would immediately start on the sequel!I totally missed the lowercase lyapo. I always assumed it was an 'I'. I will have to inspect the font in my book.
One thing I noticed about this book was the suppressed emotional content. Days later I am still discovering strange feelings I have - feeling used, feeling angry. These were emotions that were not given a lot of face time in the book: they were glossed over by the Oankali and in fact Lilith was often complicit in sweeping them under the carpet. But it's as if Ms. Butler was communicating to us through the relentless, cumulative effects of neglected emotions. I see a lot of analogies to racial/sexual oppression. As this is my first Butler book I don't know if this is common in her writing.
Michael wrote: "As this is my first Butler book I don't know if this is common in her writing..."I think it's a recurring theme yes, I read 5 Butlers so far. Like I said I kinda dread finishing them all because there are not that many. Any way, I'm glad you like your first Butler. She's up there with Le Guin and other greats.
So I went back to my book, and on the first page of Part I in the book, her name is clearly Lilith Iyapo (note the upper case i in her last name). However, on the back cover, they use a different font where the upper case i looks like a lower case l. (If I use a magnifying glass, I swear I can see serifs but they are so tiny as to be imaginary).So my contention is that her last name Iyapo uses an upper case i, it is just often written with an I that looks like an l. Wikipedia . (warning!: spoilers for the series on that page because there is only one page with info on the whole trilogy) But the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ' character page appears to incorrectly use an l (warning, possible spoiler for the series there, too): /characters/..., so I am proposing to correct the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ' character page. (Note: for the websites, you don't have to eyeball it to try to see if it is an i or an l, you can just use CTRL-F to search for 'iyapo' or 'lyapo' and see which search is successful.)
So I love that you brought that to attention in your review. Do you agree with my proposition? Shall I attempt a repair on the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ' character page??
You are a genius Michael. Now I want to amend my review too! It never occurred to me that it's a capital i.
Ha! Genius maybe not. Obsessive-compulsive almost definitely!
Michael wrote: "Ha! Genius maybe not. Obsessive-compulsive almost definitely!"How do you repair Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ' character page? Have you joined the GR Librarians?
Yes, I joined it a while ago to combine editions and add cover pages to some of the books where they were missing. But the group also has a lot of people monitoring the threads who are very helpful if you need something done.
Michael wrote: "Yes, I joined it a while ago to combine editions and add cover pages to some of the books where they were missing..."Do they have a good health plan?
I know exactly how this feels. I am an "avid fan" of many authors, but, alas...