Monday, November 07, 2005
book forty-nine
Dawn
by Octavia Butler
This is the first book in the "Xenogenesis" trilogy. It's extremely creative in concept - Earth has been invaded by an alien race, the Oankali. The aliens have removed humans from the planet and put them into suspended animation on their vast, world-like ship. The first woman who is awoken by the aliens is Lilith. The Oankali hope she will become a leader, a sort of ambassador between the humans and the aliens. To that end, Lilith is integrated into a group of aliens and lives alongside them for a period of time. She eventually agrees to the ambassador role the aliens have suggested, and chooses a group of humans to awaken from suspended animation. It doesn't go especially well, and Lilith is in an unfortunate position between the aliens and the rest of the humans. What the humans don't seem to understand is that the aliens have made them sterile, and without the participation of the Oankali, humanity cannot reproduce any longer.
Honestly, the book is pretty creepy. The Oankali are not the typical scifi aliens who look like pretty much like humans - they are covered with sensory tentacles, lack eyes, ears, and noses, and some of them have four arms. They're described as being unsettling for humans to look at, which makes Lilith's sexual contact with one of them kind of ooky to read about. I have to give credit to Butler for being so original, though - she managed to get under my skin with this imaginary species, and that shows a gift. I'll post about the other two books in the trilogy as well.
by Octavia Butler
This is the first book in the "Xenogenesis" trilogy. It's extremely creative in concept - Earth has been invaded by an alien race, the Oankali. The aliens have removed humans from the planet and put them into suspended animation on their vast, world-like ship. The first woman who is awoken by the aliens is Lilith. The Oankali hope she will become a leader, a sort of ambassador between the humans and the aliens. To that end, Lilith is integrated into a group of aliens and lives alongside them for a period of time. She eventually agrees to the ambassador role the aliens have suggested, and chooses a group of humans to awaken from suspended animation. It doesn't go especially well, and Lilith is in an unfortunate position between the aliens and the rest of the humans. What the humans don't seem to understand is that the aliens have made them sterile, and without the participation of the Oankali, humanity cannot reproduce any longer.
Honestly, the book is pretty creepy. The Oankali are not the typical scifi aliens who look like pretty much like humans - they are covered with sensory tentacles, lack eyes, ears, and noses, and some of them have four arms. They're described as being unsettling for humans to look at, which makes Lilith's sexual contact with one of them kind of ooky to read about. I have to give credit to Butler for being so original, though - she managed to get under my skin with this imaginary species, and that shows a gift. I'll post about the other two books in the trilogy as well.
Labels: book reports, Octavia Butler, science fiction
