Lilith's Brood

So I have finished "Lilith's Brood" by Octavia E. Butler and I have mixed feelings about the book. It seems like every book I read by her is more disturbing than the next, but still, I can't stop reading them (I already bought Fledgling and I think I am going to start it tonight).

So, "Lilith's Brood" is a trilogy that was previously called Xenogenesis and includes three books, "Dawn", "Adulthood Rites", and "Imago". Dawn was about a human woman, Lilith and her experiences with the Oankali... their changing her, forcing her to be a Moses to her people, and them forcing human sterility upon her and only making them fertile with Oankali. Adulthood Rites was about Akin, Lilith's son, who is both Oankali and human.... he eventually get separated and placed with an all human resister group and is not found until he is an adolescent. This book talks about his issues with being both Oankali and Human. Imago was about another one of Lilith's sons, Jodahs, who becomes an Ooloi (Sexless Oankali/Human construct).

Overall, a GREAT book. It showed so many inherent human flaws that most people don't think about every day. First, according to the Oankali, humans are inherently contradictory. We have very complex bodies and complex minds, however, we don't use 75 percent of what we are capable of. Out bodies just don't know how to work that way. Also, humans are hierarchical. Most of the time, we are all working toward the same goal, but the need to always rule and be on top prevents possible progress.

One more note, I think it is ironic that Octavia Butler wrote all of these books about immortal people and people who had extended lives, yet she died so "young". I mean she was 50 something, it wasn't like she was 70. But she will continue to be known through these books though...just straight genius. Who thinks to write things like this? Not because they are so off the wall, but because they are so novel. And it isn't what she wrote, but it is the way she wrote things. The development of characters are so deep... you actually feel like you KNOW the characters.