Rating: 
Summary: The second in a series, which should be preceded by Dawn
Review: This science fiction work follows up on Ms. Butler's earlier work, Dawn. The book stands alone fairly well, but the story will seem tremendously better placed into context if the reader has read the earlier book, Dawn. Ms. Butler creates yet another of her dystopian earths, but its final crisis is ameliorated by the intervention of an alien species, the oankali. The book tells a crackling good story, but also addresses a key theme--what does it mean to be human? I recommend this book, as it has the old-fashioned virtues of a golden age work, but is told in the fine, well-written style that characterizes Octavia Butler's work. Reading a Butler, one gets the impression that one is watching a grandmaster writing in her prime--and yet, the nice thing about reading her is the sense that the best is yet to come. If you have not read Butler, but you are afraid that sci fi has lost its zing, then read Dawn and this one.
Rating:
Summary: It challenges you to think
Review: Well, what would I have done last spring if I didn't have an Octavia Butler book to get me through the one hour trips on the E train to Manhattan? Probably gone crazy just staring into the abyss of peopele.The one thing a Butler book does is challenge the reader to think. It challenges your beleif of what is morally right as related to creationism (i.e., unless you're an evolutionist). How dare another species have the right to tinker with human DNA coding and alter things because they think they know what's good for us, right!? Oh, by the way, did we tell those scientists in laboratories to halt their cloning studies that supposedly exist for the betterment of mankind? Akin represents that which we all chase, but are afraid to face when it becomes a reality. We dream of the "so-called" perfect human, who is free of illness and deformities. We drag our bodies through diet after diet, and strenuous workouts to do our best to become a better specimen. But when we receive those results at the hands (or tenticles in this case) of another species, we feel violated and discusted. The book was a tad dry in one or two spots, but otherwise, Butler does it again; she challenges one to think about what makes the world go round. Buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: The TRUTH of SUBLIMINALS......
Review: Wouldnt this book series be best seen as being a metaphor for the white-washing of the world and how individuals who are not of the albino mutation shall cope with the changes in this physical reality of NOW on Earth?!?!?!!!!
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