Kindred was my first Butler as well- so good! I have since read Parable of the Sower and enjoyed that as well. To me, Butler seems to have such a deep understanding of human behavior. Great review!
I haven't read it but the Parable of the Sower is one of my favorite books and it's a super underrated dystopia. Absolutely read that + Parable of the Talents too!
Love Octavia Butler! I recommend her short story and essay collection Bloodchild and Other Stories, I think it gives a good sense of her range as a writer.
Funny coincidence. I'm actually currently reading a graphic novel version of this book. I'm not sure how far I am in it (my ereader unfortunately ran out of battery whilst I was reading).
I’m so excited for your journey into the mind of Octavia Butler! I have Parable of the Sower on my TBR ✨ Also- beautiful review! The way you formulate your thoughts is so heartwarming and thought-provoking ❤️
There's some cosmic fuckery in the air or something. I just subscribed today after watching your (wonderfully insightful) videos about Ishiguro books (my favourite author of many years), after which I found myself scrolling your videos trying to see if you hadn't perhaps also read Butler, whom I'm equally obsessed with. Then I come back later to find this! :D I devoured all of Butler's books and short stories last year, and I have not been able to stop thinking about, really, any of them. Each and every one was deeply affecting and thought provoking. I hope to hear your take on Parable soon (it's incredible, but brace yourself for even more brutality), and I'm crossing my fingers that you'll get around to the Lilith's Brood series at some point!
Better late than never, as some people say. Not that it's ever really too late to read a book. That phrase is weird. Anyway, thanks to your excellent review I'm gonna reread this sometime this year or the next, and maybe finally get around to the Patternmaster series.
noOOoOOO please I swear your videos has shaken my TBR since last year and I have just been thinking that I also haven't read Octavia Butler and well, here we go!! Please don't ever make a video about Why you should read The Alchemist, as you're the only one that could break my reticence to ever lay eyes on it 😂
I also waited too long to read Octavia Butler’s work. I absolutely loved Dawn (the start of a trilogy). In general, her works seems to be the epitome of thoughtful science fiction
So glad you have got round to Butler. I found her Xenogenesis trilogy incredibly mind-bending for the period (I believe it was published in the late 80s) in terms of the sophisticated and complex alien society it describes, its multiple genders and how they inter-depend, as well as the profound human/other issues she explores thoroughly and thoughtfully. Along the way, Butler gives a vivid description of what it must have been like to grow up black in America, without ever pointing directly to it. And the whole thing also manages to be a pretty gripping multi-generational tale.
Parable of the Sower is my favorite Butler book (so far, at least) and I'm excited to hear your thoughts. It's so thematically rich and feels terrifying close to not being fiction. Butler is brilliant but pretty consistently brutal in my experience, so I've been slowly working my way through her canon since I started with Kindred a few years ago. So far I've read Kindred, the Earthseed duology, and the Patternist series.
I was about to suggest Parable of the Sower next! I read it as my first Butler, and it is so very different from Kindred. Kindred is a better novel in my opinion, but Parable is insanely good in regards to themes, especially climate change, considering when it was written.
I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion on The Parable Of The Sower! It found it a bit disappointing concerning the writing, but the idea and the world that it's set in was interesting. Kindred sounds great though, I'll certainly give it a try soon!
Butler rocks my whole world! I encountered her first in grad school, and loves her, but didn’t get to reading another of her books until more than a decade later. Dawn (and it’s sequels) is one of my all time favourite sci-fi novels ever!
I read Kindred for school my freshman year of high school. It was especially interesting to me as I'm from Maryland and my mom was doing research on Black history in the area. I think I still have my copy, might give it a reread after this video!
What you read/don't read can never be a sin. You can pride yourself as a feminist and science fiction enjoyer without having read everything. Don't be so hard on yourself. Great video!
Hi Willow, glad to see you finding Octavia Butler and giving an insightful critique. I love her work but have to read in small doses as it is deeply challenging. I am glad we do not live in the brutal world of 19th century USA. Kindness. I am surprised I have yet to find you exploring Ursula Le Guin, her work is just as ground breaking as Butlers. I feel Le Guin’s work is often over looked. Her Earthsea books are ground breaking in so many ways. The people in Earthsea are people of colour, something which is not properly illustrated on many of the book’s covers. The stories are underpinned with taoist thought. For me the master piece of the series is the fourth book, Tehanu which turns the first three books back on themselves as the four book and the books that follow shine light on Earthseas hidden stories, women’s stories. Her Left Hand of Darkness writes about a race of ambisexual people where sex ( a persons sex, being male or female) and gender, do not exist and how a person visiting the planet from Earth struggles to understand a culture where people are just people.
I'm currently reading the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower and while I find the world deeply intriguing, the art style just aint it for me. I find it so ugly, it keeps throwing me out of the story lmao Maybe I should just read the novel, and Kindred sounds amazing too! Thanks for this video
Honestly I'd read Dawn(the first book in the Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood series) next if I were you! It explores gender roles and sexuality(among human and alien races) in a way I've never read before. Mind blowing! Save her Parable of the Sower series for last!
I just finally read this about 3 weeks ago or so now. So good!nice watched the first episode of the tv series. Some changes that I don’t mind so far. It’s so intense I haven’t started ep2 yet!
I read Kindred last month! (Spoilers) it was a five-star for me. I was very annoyed with Kevin in the very beginning because he watched her disappear and come back wet and muddy & didn't believe her when she told him what happened. I wonder if Alice was a reference to Alice in Wonderland. Rufus was a monster fueled by the corrosive combination of insecurity and entitlement. My only small complaint is I wish the arm thing made a little more sense. Parable of the Sower is next for me too I made an even bigger mistake I read Wildseed about 5 years ago and didn't give Octavia E Butler another chance until last month.
i would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Lilith’s Brood, because it becomes incredibly TERFy in the second book. A bit of that is there in the first one, it becomes clear in the second. it was unfortunately my first exposure to butler and has kind of soured me on her. i find it difficult to engage with her after how hateful adulthood rites was. i'll read imago, the third in the trilogy, eventually. this month i'll be reading fledgling
Would you mind elaborating on the issues you found in the first 2 books? I haven't gone back to Lilith's Brood since I was a teenager and I'm wondering if what you're mentioning went over my head.
@@scal2025 quoting a bit of my writing on it from 2021: "The book wants to entertain the idea that the Oankali are incorrect in their exact methods, but it won’t budge on this idea that genetics essentially determine everything about a species and even individuals within it." This is in reference to the Human Contradiction, the idea that humans evolved to be intelligent and hierarchical, which inevitably leads to their destruction. Akin, who is the main character of Adulthood Rites and the only one capable of understanding both Humanity and the Oankali, is portrayed as the synthesis of Human and Oankali morality. He determines that the Oankali are wrong to sterilize Humanity, but notably not because he doesn't believe in the Human Contradiction; in fact, he "believes that 'Human purpose isn’t what you or I say it is. It’s what your biology says it is-what your genes say it is' (pg. 501)." This is *the end of the book* when he finally comes to a conclusion on what to do about human resisters. The book is funamentally bioessentialist, and "that includes the separate sexes. These means that there is no room for the existence of trans people in Butler’s world." This skips over another issue I have with it that is nearly as bad. edit: just to note, the quote citation is from an addition that includes the entire trilogy. it's about 15 pages from the end of adulthood rites.
![The 15 Best Sci-Fi Books I've Ever Read [Updated]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pP0XnfC1jVM/mqdefault.jpg)
Kindred was my first Butler as well- so good! I have since read Parable of the Sower and enjoyed that as well. To me, Butler seems to have such a deep understanding of human behavior. Great review!
Congratulations!! What a ride to look forward to now that you’ve joined the Butler-verse!!!!
Parable of the Sower is amazing!
I haven't read it but the Parable of the Sower is one of my favorite books and it's a super underrated dystopia. Absolutely read that + Parable of the Talents too!
Love Octavia Butler! I recommend her short story and essay collection Bloodchild and Other Stories, I think it gives a good sense of her range as a writer.
Funny coincidence. I'm actually currently reading a graphic novel version of this book. I'm not sure how far I am in it (my ereader unfortunately ran out of battery whilst I was reading).
I have had Kindred on my shelf for so long! I really need to get to it. Thanks for the poke!
I’ll be checking her out
I read Kindred last Summer and still think about it at least three times a week every week
I’m so excited for your journey into the mind of Octavia Butler! I have Parable of the Sower on my TBR ✨
Also- beautiful review! The way you formulate your thoughts is so heartwarming and thought-provoking ❤️
There's some cosmic fuckery in the air or something. I just subscribed today after watching your (wonderfully insightful) videos about Ishiguro books (my favourite author of many years), after which I found myself scrolling your videos trying to see if you hadn't perhaps also read Butler, whom I'm equally obsessed with. Then I come back later to find this! :D
I devoured all of Butler's books and short stories last year, and I have not been able to stop thinking about, really, any of them. Each and every one was deeply affecting and thought provoking. I hope to hear your take on Parable soon (it's incredible, but brace yourself for even more brutality), and I'm crossing my fingers that you'll get around to the Lilith's Brood series at some point!
Better late than never, as some people say. Not that it's ever really too late to read a book. That phrase is weird. Anyway, thanks to your excellent review I'm gonna reread this sometime this year or the next, and maybe finally get around to the Patternmaster series.
octavia butler is the best!
noOOoOOO please I swear your videos has shaken my TBR since last year and I have just been thinking that I also haven't read Octavia Butler and well, here we go!!
Please don't ever make a video about Why you should read The Alchemist, as you're the only one that could break my reticence to ever lay eyes on it 😂
Hahahaha that will never ever ever happen :)
Octavia butler is one of my favorite authors and I’m glad you enjoyed kindred.
I also waited too long to read Octavia Butler’s work.
I absolutely loved Dawn (the start of a trilogy).
In general, her works seems to be the epitome of thoughtful science fiction
Oooh I just finished this book a couple weeks ago, this exact edition too! I'm still so in awe and still feel so heavy at the same time.
Heavy is a good word to use!
So glad you have got round to Butler. I found her Xenogenesis trilogy incredibly mind-bending for the period (I believe it was published in the late 80s) in terms of the sophisticated and complex alien society it describes, its multiple genders and how they inter-depend, as well as the profound human/other issues she explores thoroughly and thoughtfully. Along the way, Butler gives a vivid description of what it must have been like to grow up black in America, without ever pointing directly to it. And the whole thing also manages to be a pretty gripping multi-generational tale.
Parable of the Sower is my favorite Butler book (so far, at least) and I'm excited to hear your thoughts. It's so thematically rich and feels terrifying close to not being fiction.
Butler is brilliant but pretty consistently brutal in my experience, so I've been slowly working my way through her canon since I started with Kindred a few years ago. So far I've read Kindred, the Earthseed duology, and the Patternist series.
I didn't even know it was a book.I watched the Netflix version of it a freaking loved it.i now NEED the book.❤
I was about to suggest Parable of the Sower next! I read it as my first Butler, and it is so very different from Kindred. Kindred is a better novel in my opinion, but Parable is insanely good in regards to themes, especially climate change, considering when it was written.
Ooh yes you’re really selling it!
I came here to say the same thing. I’m excited to hear your thoughts about The Parable books.
I'm trying to make my way through her entire works list. So fsr I've read Parable series and Blood Child. I'm currently listening to kindred.
I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion on The Parable Of The Sower! It found it a bit disappointing concerning the writing, but the idea and the world that it's set in was interesting. Kindred sounds great though, I'll certainly give it a try soon!
Butler rocks my whole world! I encountered her first in grad school, and loves her, but didn’t get to reading another of her books until more than a decade later. Dawn (and it’s sequels) is one of my all time favourite sci-fi novels ever!
I read Kindred for school my freshman year of high school. It was especially interesting to me as I'm from Maryland and my mom was doing research on Black history in the area. I think I still have my copy, might give it a reread after this video!
What you read/don't read can never be a sin. You can pride yourself as a feminist and science fiction enjoyer without having read everything. Don't be so hard on yourself. Great video!
I've committed the same crime. I've wanted to read her for ages, but I never did. "Kindred" has now been transferred to me "read soon" folder.
Hi Willow, glad to see you finding Octavia Butler and giving an insightful critique. I love her work but have to read in small doses as it is deeply challenging. I am glad we do not live in the brutal world of 19th century USA. Kindness.
I am surprised I have yet to find you exploring Ursula Le Guin, her work is just as ground breaking as Butlers. I feel Le Guin’s work is often over looked. Her Earthsea books are ground breaking in so many ways. The people in Earthsea are people of colour, something which is not properly illustrated on many of the book’s covers. The stories are underpinned with taoist thought. For me the master piece of the series is the fourth book, Tehanu which turns the first three books back on themselves as the four book and the books that follow shine light on Earthseas hidden stories, women’s stories. Her Left Hand of Darkness writes about a race of ambisexual people where sex ( a persons sex, being male or female) and gender, do not exist and how a person visiting the planet from Earth struggles to understand a culture where people are just people.
I'm currently reading the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower and while I find the world deeply intriguing, the art style just aint it for me. I find it so ugly, it keeps throwing me out of the story lmao
Maybe I should just read the novel, and Kindred sounds amazing too! Thanks for this video
Honestly I'd read Dawn(the first book in the Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood series) next if I were you! It explores gender roles and sexuality(among human and alien races) in a way I've never read before. Mind blowing! Save her Parable of the Sower series for last!
I just finally read this about 3 weeks ago or so now. So good!nice watched the first episode of the tv series. Some changes that I don’t mind so far. It’s so intense I haven’t started ep2 yet!
I read Kindred last month! (Spoilers)
it was a five-star for me.
I was very annoyed with Kevin in the very beginning because he watched her disappear and come back wet and muddy & didn't believe her when she told him what happened.
I wonder if Alice was a reference to Alice in Wonderland.
Rufus was a monster fueled by the corrosive combination of insecurity and entitlement.
My only small complaint is I wish the arm thing made a little more sense.
Parable of the Sower is next for me too
I made an even bigger mistake I read Wildseed about 5 years ago and didn't give Octavia E Butler another chance until last month.
❤Thanks. Sounds very uncomfortable. It will take courage to read this.❤
I have never read any of her works. I really need to remedy that.
L. A. Banks -minion. Black Female author writing about vampires. They are great adventures. At least 12 in the series
i would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Lilith’s Brood, because it becomes incredibly TERFy in the second book. A bit of that is there in the first one, it becomes clear in the second. it was unfortunately my first exposure to butler and has kind of soured me on her. i find it difficult to engage with her after how hateful adulthood rites was. i'll read imago, the third in the trilogy, eventually. this month i'll be reading fledgling
Oh that’s very interesting and disappointing! I’ll do some research, thanks
Would you mind elaborating on the issues you found in the first 2 books? I haven't gone back to Lilith's Brood since I was a teenager and I'm wondering if what you're mentioning went over my head.
@@scal2025 quoting a bit of my writing on it from 2021:
"The book wants to entertain the idea that the Oankali are incorrect in their exact methods, but it won’t budge on this idea that genetics essentially determine everything about a species and even individuals within it." This is in reference to the Human Contradiction, the idea that humans evolved to be intelligent and hierarchical, which inevitably leads to their destruction. Akin, who is the main character of Adulthood Rites and the only one capable of understanding both Humanity and the Oankali, is portrayed as the synthesis of Human and Oankali morality. He determines that the Oankali are wrong to sterilize Humanity, but notably not because he doesn't believe in the Human Contradiction; in fact, he "believes that 'Human purpose isn’t what you or I say it is. It’s what your biology says it is-what your genes say it is' (pg. 501)." This is *the end of the book* when he finally comes to a conclusion on what to do about human resisters. The book is funamentally bioessentialist, and "that includes the separate sexes. These means that there is no room for the existence of trans people in Butler’s world."
This skips over another issue I have with it that is nearly as bad.
edit: just to note, the quote citation is from an addition that includes the entire trilogy. it's about 15 pages from the end of adulthood rites.