Dawn

For some reason, I always find it hard to write reviews about books that I absolutely love. It’s like all my comprehension and analytical skills go out the window and my brain blanks on what to say. It’s annoying because there are so many things I love about this book.Lilith's relationship with the aliens, the Oankali, is very complex. The Oankali are a highly intricate and multifaceted species, yet their actions towards Lilith and the other survivors are deplorable. It was so disturbing and it left me feeling super uncomfortable.This book also delves into these present and underlying ideas of consent, xenophobia, racism, gender, misogyny, religion, and slavery. For instance, Lilith’s relationship with the Oankali, at times mirrored the relationship between an enslaved person and their owner. And also, the ways in which the Oankali treated the surviving humans. The straight-up oppression, lack of consent, and cultural erasure are reminiscent of slavery. The way Octavia Butler weaves these ideas into this story is just so masterful. Her skillful use of imagery and symbolism brings these complex themes to life and it was so engaging to read.There’s so much more that I want to say but I don’t think I have to bandwidth to put it into words. This book is thought-provoking, disturbing, powerful, provocative, and so much more. 5⭐️

Enthralling, dawning horror. That’s probably the best way to describe my evolving response while reading Octavia Butler’s Dawn—an emotional journey that shares much in common with the experience of Lilith, the book’s protagonist.The story begins when she’s awakened from stasis by Oankali, aliens who rescued her and a handful of other survivors after a nuclear holocaust ravaged the Earth. While these “lucky” few slept, the Oankali spent the intervening centuries restoring the planet and readying it for humanity’s return. Lilith is tapped to lead the first wave.But the Oankali aren’t acting solely out of the goodness of their hearts (or whatever organs function as the metaphorical equivalent in their bizarre, many-tentacled bodies). Salvation comes at a price. And the cost is genetic.Much of this is fascinating. For one thing, the worldbuilding is particularly well done. We only get the broad strokes of the conflict between the United States and Russia that precipitated intergalactic intervention. But that’s all we need—Butler devotes most of her exposition to slowly revealing the Oankali’s biology and culture. We learn about their lifecycle, from puberty to adulthood. We see how they form triads rather than couples, with gender-neutral ooloi forming the link between male and female. And we glimpse the differences between their broad peoples—Dinso, Toaht, and Akjai—in a way that hints at even greater distinctions.The Oankali are also technologically advanced but in organic fashion. They grew their ship. They replicate organisms and objects from “prints” of each entity’s molecular makeup. They store their subjects in Venus flytrap-like plants that sustain them in hibernation. And, as Lilith explains to some of the humans she’s charged with leading, the Oankali “manipulate DNA as naturally as we manipulate pencils and paintbrushes.”This is the entry point for one of Dawn’s many unsettling aspects. Lilith notes more than once that she feels like a lab rat caught up in a captive breeding program. “We used to treat animals that way,” she tells one of her Oankali handlers. “We did things to them—inoculations, surgery, isolation—all for their own good. We wanted them healthy and protected—sometimes so we could eat them later.” But the Oankali (the ooloi especially) aren’t interested in that form of consumption. They see “great potential” in humanity’s various mutations. It’s an uncomfortable turning of the tables. And while Butler never really gets into intra-species racial dynamics, it’s hard not to think about historical parallels like the abominable Tuskegee Study.This theme of coercive experimentation carries over to sex. The rapes attempted by other humans in the book are the familiar sort of terrible. (In Dawn, terrestrial tensions and barbarity don’t improve when the constraints of civilization are stripped away.) But the chemical and neurological manipulation the ooloi use to tempt and control their patients corrodes consent in a different, more insidious way.Ultimately, though, Dawn comes down to a classic sci-fi quandary: What does it mean to be human? It can’t simply be a question of genetics—fluidity has always been baked into our DNA, an evolutionary malleability Butler hints at when an ooloi reverts Lilith’s physical strength back to the level of our primate forebears’. The Oankali suggest that what truly defines us is our tendency to be both intelligent and hierarchical. Yet for all their strangeness, the aliens have these traits in common. (Paternalism might be too gendered a term for the form of “we know what’s best for you” condescension they levy at Lilith and her cohort, but the attitude is uncomfortably familiar.) Some of the Oankali are even likable. And while they display feelings like love and grief differently, there’s enough overlap with the human varieties of these emotions to make you wonder where the lines of delineation are—or if they even exist.So did I enjoy reading Dawn? Not entirely. I found it more thought-provoking than thrilling, partly because Lilith doesn’t have much agency. Her rebellious impulses never really mature into a plan; mostly, she fulfills the role the Oankali set for her, resigned to playing a “Judas goat” the majority of her fellow humans will always see as an agent of the enemy. But I won’t soon forget this book. And I intend to continue on in the series.I just might read some lighter fare first.

This book is enthralling and kept me wondering what next all the way through. I’m so looking forward to my next read by her! I was so tired of ultimate good at war against ultimate evil, which is so common in nearly all sci fi books today. This is an older book, by a writer I’ve only recently discovered.I don’t know how I missed reading her books before this!

This review is for the entire Xenogenesis Trilogy aka Lilith's Brood. I was Introduced to Octavia E. Butler by another sci-fi loving friend of mine. When I read the Trilogy several years ago the novels were published together in one book titled Lilith's Brood. I had no idea it was originally titled something else and I also knew nothing about Butler. I'm so glad that I originally read them in this state of ignorance because it has made it possible for me to review and appreciate the novel(s) for the amazingly imaginative story and the evocative prose used to tell it. I won't summarize the books as others have already done so. I will say that in my opinion Butler has reframed the Genre of extra-terrestrial, space travel and dystopian stories. Xenogenesis is a thought provoking trilogy that will make the reader question her beliefs regarding humanity's origins and its future. I was completely fascinated by the Oankali's ancestral knowledge. Oh to be able to truly understand who we are and where we came from!That brings me to my other reading of Xenogenesis. When I discovered that Butler was an African American woman I began to rethink my understanding of Lilith and her descendants stories. I now see it more as an allegory of the African American experience. Like Africans kidnapped and sold into slavery Lilith is forced into a world that she despises. Her story illustrates two of the oposing methods for slaves to live with being enslaved. Like some slaves Lilith believes there was no hope for escape for her. She finally decides to survive by enduring. I kept picturing Bell Waller - Kunte Kinte's wife in Roots. She also endures. Just as "resistors" of the Oankali invasion despise Lilith for surviving WITH the Oankali Kunte Kinte feels disgust for the American born slaves including Bell. he sees them as weak and degraded just as the rebels see Lilith. Like the resistance some slaves formed rebellions or attempt escape. Some survived by enduring like Lilith. additionally i could not stop thinking of the rape of black women by white masters as I read of Lilith's reluctant joining with her Oankali mates. Like many of those African American slave women she must have been torn apart by her love of her children born off rape and her hatred of their human/Oankai mix. I recall Kunte Kinte fearing that his child would be light skinned and not pure African. Also like the American slave experience The human's culture is obliterated. They are also forced into a mass exodus from their homes to a barely liveable planet. There are too many more examples to list and not enough time. It's an even more thought provoking piece of literature when read with the knowledge of Butler's own heritage. I found that my respect for Lilith grew when I thought of her in this way. She ensured that at least a small piece of humanity would survive just as American enslaved women ensured that one day their culture would survive. It's these women's' ability to endure that makes them honorable and heroic in my eyes.It's a new and unique way to think of the dirty history American slavery and the extraordinary people who survived that awful institution. This should be required reading for all Americans - especially in today's NOT-post-racism-culture

Adoro a obra da autora, mas esse é um dos livros mais fracos dela.. uma estória confusa, um pouco entediante

The first book in the Lilith Brood Trilogy is a great fast read. My second Octavia Butler novel, and it's an excellent work of fiction. It questions a lot of that we humans take for granted by putting humans in the place animals and plants. A much more advanced alien species, with broadly good intentions, is helping reseed human civilization on Earth, but in a controlled agricultural way.Read it!

The aliens in this story are extremely interesting, especially the societal/moral questions.

étrange relation entre les humains et des extra terrestres qui aiment les humains au niveau de leurs gènes et qui cherchent à créer une nouvelle espèce dans des unités familiales élargies

A thought-provoking and compelling read, and a good story with likable and well-developed characters. It asks, what does it mean to be human? Are we compelled to kill each other and destroy our earth? Why do differences in looks or cultural norms disgust or scare us? Why do we hate those who are different? To what extent are people prepared to go to remain "pure"? To what extent does biological drive determine how we behave, and is it innate in intelligent beings to struggle between doing what comes naturally and doing what is right in terms of consideration and respect for another intelligent being? My advice is to read all three.