bryanjazz

It is just such a joy for me to read the work of Octavia E. Butler. Having read all 12 of her previous books, I think it's clear that she is my favorite author. In fact, hers are the only books that I re-read every so often; particularly her Parable series (which I believe is her masterpiece: a stellar work of modern science fiction, or fiction, period). The first in that duo, Parable of the Sower, I find to be -- beyond its graphic, violent and bleak-looking view of the future -- a book of great inspiration and spiritual depth. The second title, Parable of the Talents, continues that amazing epic toward a celestial future (and won the 1999 Nebula Award). Survival tends to be the dominant theme of her work, especially how one can survive in a complex social context, against the backdrop of world destruction, alien invasion, across centuries, or even the loss of one's past. Ultimately, it is the survival of what makes us human that gets examined and illuminated in her work.

Octavia's writing grabs me with its ability to quickly place the reader in the intellectual and emotional world of a character, wherein their dilemma becomes my own. And one of the things that I love about her work is that I often find her characters doing unspeakable or outrageous things that seem entirely logical and plausible given the circumstances she so richly describes. More often than not, at the end of a chapter, I have to take a deep breath and stop for a moment before continuing, sometimes to savor the events that have just occurred in the story, sometimes with expectation of things yet to come, sometimes both.

So it is always with great anticipation that I await her next work. It has been 7 years since the publication of Parable of the Talents, and although I've enjoyed re-reading her previous works, and seeing other perspectives on her in magazine articles and museum exhibits, I was happy to not only hear her speak late last year (in a rare and wonderful opportunity to see her share a stage with another highly esteemed African American sci-fi writer, Samuel R. Delany) but to also learn from her about a forthcoming new novel. ( spoilers beyond this point )

Fledgling : A Novel

For this outing, Octavia delves into the world of vampires. Or at least that's how we've come to know the traditional character. Yet the beings in her novel do not simply feast on human blood, but rather seek to create symbiotic relationships with a group of humans with which they endeavor to form a family. These people are called Ina, and they have coexisted with humans for thousands of years. (Some readers may be reminded of another excellent vampire novel with a twist on the standard formula (including race and sexual orientation) The Gilda Stories (Jewelle Gomez, 1991) in which the main character also has a more beneficial relationship to her "victims". ) "Fledgling" refers to the main character, Shori Matthews, a strong, young black female (in the tradition of the protagonist not only of the Parable series, but also much of Octavia's work) who finds herself (barely) the lone survivor an attack on her family, and who has lost her memory (at 57 years old, she is still an Ina child...they live into their 400s!). The novel takes the reader on a dramatic journey as the protagonist is on the run, only gradually realizing why her assailants pursue her, and coming to understand what it means to be Ina. Octavia's attention to detail and descriptive prose strongly convey a sense of what life is like as Ina, male and female, as well as the complex relationship between the Ina and their human family...their "symbionts". And in Octavia's wonderful way, along the journey she reveals to us a rich thousand-year history of the Ina people and their traditions; explores issues of gender, sex and sexuality; and gives an illuminating insight into the far-reaching, deep, insidious nature of racism. All while keeping us emotionally connected to the personal story of Shori. And in the end, as is usually the case with her novels, I leave the intricate universe Octavia creates in the book with insights about the universe in which we readers currently live.

Fledgling did satisfy my particular hunger.

[NOTE: While surfing the web and writing this review, I happily found two Octavia E. Butler original short stories on Scifi.com. I'll savor these two morsels (here and here) as I enter into another period of anticipation of her next novel.]