Oh! This series!! Incredible. A friend gave me a book of short fiction inspired by Octavia Butler a few years ago. I figured I should probably read Octavia Butler. It is so original, and please, please, don't let anyone try to replicate it. ( )

This book was incredibly uncomfortable.
One of the main characters forces people to marry and have children with their siblings and other relatives. He coerces people with threats of murder and other violence. And in the end, he gets a happy ever after without any real consequences for his actions except the *possibility* of losing someone he cares about.
The long-suffering other main character gradually corrupts her own morals to try to get along with him. She never gets justice for the many abuses she suffers.

I might have been okay with the ending if there was more about Doro's "redemption", rather than the ~15 minute explanation at the end of 'he's different now'. If there'd been more examples of how he felt remorse, how his values changed, etc. it might have made the ending a satisfying one. But instead it felt very rushed, and after the intensity of the abuses he'd committed earlier in the book I just feel upset that no justice ever happened. It feels like the ending trivializes the abuses. ( )

I have such feelings about Octavia Butler. I mean, she was so incredibly talented, a master of her craft, a profound influence on her genre, her paint, her characterization, her social criticism and understanding of humanity and the incredibly intriguing scenarios she interrogates...

But her books are just so fucking painful to read.

I loved Anyanwu, and she kept me hanging on in this novel, but THE INTENSITY WITH WHICH I WANTED TO YEET DORU INTO THE SUN. This book has interesting things to say about different kinds power and how they might shape/warp morality/worldview, and I do want to read more adventures of Anyanwu and her legacy and their (hopeful) eventual victory over Doro, BUT THAT WOULD MEAN SPENDING MORE TIME WITH DORO and that's a tough ask.

The world building in this though, from village life in Africa to the slave trade to New England colonies to plantation life in the Deep South. BUTLER AND HER MIND. ( )

It was difficult not to give this five stars because as with so much of Butler's oeuvre, there are parts of it that are simply extraordinary. Butler's capacity to create worlds within worlds that seem simultaneously urgently relevant but also extraterrestrial is spellbinding. The protagonist, Anyanwu, is an immortal who can alter herself at the cellular level to heal herself, change identities, and in some cases, species. Much like Lauren Olamina in Parable of the Sower, Anyanwu is a multi-faceted, sometimes ambiguous, incredibly strong protagonist. Her antagonist, Doro, is a megalomaniacal spirit who has lived for thousands of years, who prolongs his life through cruel and terrible means. Fixated on forming his own society, his humanity is so deeply buried as to be thought lost.

Themes of community and kinship made this an important contribution of Afrofuturism when it was published, and it remains so today. It takes a multi-pronged approach to engaging with colonialism and in turn, postcolonialism. While much of this is transparent, Butler does not every lose sight of the storytelling and her characterization. This is where it is necessary to give Robin Miles, the reader of the audiobook, absolute accolades. Nuances in accents and intonation abound and each character, major or minor, shines through her portrayals.

Where I struggled with the book was near the ending. I found some of the plot directions difficult to reconcile, and while I generally like that Butler does not feel it necessary to explain all contexts for all events, there are several significant events that happen toward the end of the novel that were uncomfortably dissonant with the characterization. While Butler is making a case, perhaps, for transformation, the changes seemed rush and disproportionate to the major narratives that take up the book.

Aside from that, however, it is a book that, while it shares similarities with works here and there, manages to blend social commentary, speculative fiction, and fantasy in a seamless and organic way. ( )

Okay, I'm very late to the party, I know. Octavia Butler, my word! What an amazing story. SO creatively done, filled with wisdom and also very twisted. I especially loved Anyanwu and the descriptions of her taking animal form are glorious. I will most definitely be reading the next one in this series. ( )