Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing to an avid fan of Butler's shorter works
Review: "BloodChild" is the best sf novella I ever read. Butler's other short(ish) stories also hooked me and made me eager to read her full-length novels.Unfortunately "Parable of the Sower" isn't BloodChild. It has many of Butler's virtues -- good characterization, empathy for her characters, elegantly and deceptively simple prose. And her weaknesses: a concentration on disease and decay, a grim pessimism (I'm sure she smiles but I've never seen her do it in print). But the basic problem is that this novel isn't believable. I just don't believe that climate change could bring about the extremely demented society described. I don't believe that if it happened, the central government would stay intact. I didn't manage to believe in hyperempathy, for all my desperate willingness to suspend disbelief (luckily it isn't too central to the plot). I don't believe that the cost of water, however high, would result in the sick society portrayed, with everyone going around in fear and loathing of everyone else and nobody prepared to help anyone (except the heroine whose milk of human kindness shines forth by comparison). About the only thing I found convincing was that an 18 year old could dream up a new religion (though the poetry she expressed it in seemed to me far too mature for her age). Other reviews have shown me that the trouble is mine, not Butler's. If I'd grown up amid urban decay, in a place with a lot of homeless street people, if I'd seen the 1992 LA riots, I'd be a believer. So perhaps this is a special-interest book, aimed at a relatively narrow section of the U.S. market. A pity. Butler's other works (that I've read) have been much more general in scope, and the better for it. I also found the plot a bit thin. I don't need disaster after disaster, death after death, torture after torture, to set the stage for me. I got the point long before our heroine's home finally went up in flames and something started happening (she left). And -- to be picky -- I found the revision, or production, of the mass market paperback version, at least, to be sloppy. When you're immersed in a story (or trying to be), recurrent spelling mistakes don't help to keep you immersed; nor does a reference to help expected from a character who's been written out of the story a few pages before. Nonetheless, I kept reading, and at the end I found my mind going back to this book. I might even read the sequel the ending seems to beg for (is there one?) My faith in Butler is that strong.
Rating: 
Summary: An inspiring, emotional wake-up call for all to read.
Review: One of the best books I have ever read also turned out to be one that hit closest to home. Growing up without a religion, this book helped me realize that you need not be part of a "cult" to have someone to turn to. Change will always be there to guide you through hardships, just as it was for Lauren. Octavia Butler wrote from the heart and made me a better person for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Parable of the Sower is a five-alarm wake-up call.
Review: For those of us who witnessed the LA Riots of 1992 and its aftermath, Parable of the Sower (and even Levar Burton's "Aftermath") reads less as fiction than a call to action for individual survival. I can only imagine that like me, Ms. Butler watched the fires in South Central Los Angeles from her front door, her only link to the outside the car's radio or other transitor radios, for in 1992 Los Angeles, we lived without power for a week. Many people were unable to be returned to power for a month following the incident. The police did not respond to the rioting for the first 2 days. In sum, Parable of the Sower is a roman a clef. It is also an angry book. But Ms. Butler has turned her anger into something useful. A primer on survival. Her book only slightly exagerrates the mindless and random violence of this large city. The prevalence of gated communities clearly give a false sense of security to the denizens inside. And we know that in this country we gladly give up freedom for promised security. Lauren Olamina's progenitors are the 60's Black Radicals who said be ready when the revolution comes. So, instead of embracing pacifist ideals, she embraces the concept of survival in a turbulent world where the real masters plan re-enslavement of wage earners. She learns to shoot and maintain weapons. She learns to use native plants for subsistence. For survival's sake she learns to kill. For survival's sake she learns to look dispassionately at the real world without the blinders of her stepmother or neighbors. Will it get as bad as Octavia Butler warns? The budding prison-industrial complex which houses so much of the Black male population of this country comes to mind in supporting Butler's themes. Employees pay companies to come in to save their factory jobs. Schools do seem to be deliberately miseducating our children. Computers are making people much less likely to interact in person, and many people would rather telecommunicate than commute to work. Shared jobs are becoming an accepted routine, and college educated persons are waiting tables. Butchery of minorities, gays -- lynching, if you will, is ocurring with greater frequency. Butler is saying, ok we survive to go to the stars, but first we must survive -- and she sounds a lot like the neo-fascistic Robert Heinlein in saying it. Yet the disconnect is that Lauren Olamina is part of the weakest and least appreciated portion of society -- a black woman. Surplus population. A reactivating book, I've re-read Parable of the Sower and shared its premise with others of my community, for I believe that the knock at the door in the middle of the night can happen here. To think otherwise is to ignore history and ignore current trends.
Rating: 
Summary: This book was utter nonsense.
Review: I can't believe all the people who are praising this book. I thought it was utter drival. God is Change. What is that all about? We have a destiny in the stars? I guess when the next meteor comes by, a spaceship will land and all the EARTHSEED people will board. The future Butler is predicting is only 25 years away. That means many of the people alive today will be alive then. Will most of the people really no longer know how to read? Would I not teach my children how to read even if there were bald people with painted heads around? I don't think so. Who is printing all the money they need? Who is making the anti-biotics the doctor has? Obviously something somewhere is working. The only interesting character is the doctor.
Rating:
Summary: Make this the next book you read -- hands down!
Review: Butler places the ordinary conditions of a teenager questioning her parents, her religion and her society in extraordinary circumstances. This is the thrilling story of an exceptional young woman standing against all odds for what she believes is right. You will not leave this book unchanged.
Rating:
Summary: Religion, science fiction and a dreadful possible future.
Review: When I first read this amazingly gripping tale about Lauren Oya Olamina I was still a teenager, struggling with questions about religion and how dreadful the future was going to be (hey, that's what kids do these days). The effect this book had on me then, and again now that I've just reread it for the 4th time, is indiscribable..... It gave me a sense of hope, of beauty....but most importantly Lauren Olamina's words rang true to me. Aside from this brilliant fusion between religion, science fiction and this dreadful not-too-impossible future, Butler has yet again amazed me by her brilliant writing style, her wonderful descriptions and beautifully rounded characters. A must read, I've recommended it (and gave it as birthday presents) to most of my friends. Not only a terrific read, but it may affect you in a way you hadn't thought possible.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping tale of a not-so-unreal future
Review: Not since John Grisham's "The Firm" have I read a book from start to finish in one evening. This book spoke to the social activist in me. Living near LA, where this story takes place, it doesn't take much to imagine the growing number of "gated" communities becoming fortresses against gangs and drug-crazed pyromaniacs. Butler weaves into this tale of social calamity a philosophy based on the one premise that still seems to make sense - God is change. In these pre-Y2K days, this book helps shine a spotlight on what is truly important - be prepared, trust your instincts, be persistent, be flexible. An entertaining, stimulating read. Also recommended for not-too-distant future tales- Into the Forest (forgot author's name) and The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk)
Rating:
Summary: The realism of the novel is truly intense!
Review: When I first started Parable of the Sower it was January 1st 1999 and with all the joy of the new year and the hype swiftly approaching about the 21st century, this book is certainly a wake-up call to say the least! This is a book that left me with so many positive and negative emotions that it was hard to put down on some days and even harder to pick up on others. The realism of the change that could happen in this new century leaves me hopeful for some positive change, but Lauren in Parable of the Sower has put some of the negatve in awesome perspective. Ms. Butler, wonderful job!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Affirming
Review: I have read this book several times and I enjoy it more with each journey. To let yourself feel the courage and optimism of the heroin as she claims a future different from what exist outside her community walls is self and life affirming.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent and scary! So realistic it haunts you.
Review: I have followed and loved Octavia Butler from short stories to novels for years. But this is one of her best! The characters are so real. I got scared. It could happen. It haunted me for weeks, and I reread it many times. Being a family physician,I enjoyed that one of the good guys was a family doctor. I have envisioned what I would do in such a dystopic society and I am glad I would still have a place. I am so suprised and pleased she is continuing but am fearful of opening the sequel. No one can make aliens and alien society (which LA is to me) more believable than Ms. Butler. May she have a long writing life. I would like to thank her for all the pleasure she has given me. I paid a great deal for a copy of Survivor when I found it was no longer in print and I am glad she is being reissued. Read everything she writes - including the Bloodchild stories
| 
