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Product Description
From Amazon
Octavia E. Butler, the grande dame of science fiction, writes extraordinary, inspirational stories of ordinary people. Parable of the Sower is a hopeful tale set in a dystopian future United States of walled cities, disease, fires, and madness. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old woman with hyperempathy syndrome--if she sees another in pain, she feels their pain as acutely as if it were real. When her relatively safe neighborhood enclave is inevitably destroyed, along with her family and dreams for the future, Lauren grabs a backpack full of supplies and begins a journey north. Along the way, she recruits fellow refugees to her embryonic faith, Earthseed, the prime tenet of which is that "God is change." This is a great book--simple and elegant, with enough message to make you think, but not so much that you feel preached to.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Butler's first novel since 1989's Imago offers an uncommonly sensitive rendering of a very common SF scenario: by 2025, global warming, pollution, racial and ethnic tensions and other ills have precipitated a worldwide decline. In the Los Angeles area, small beleaguered communities of the still-employed hide behind makeshift walls from hordes of desperate homeless scavengers and violent pyromaniac addicts known as "paints" who, with water and work growing scarcer, have become increasingly aggressive. Lauren Olamina, a young black woman, flees when the paints overrun her community, heading north with thousands of other refugees seeking a better life. Lauren suffers from 'hyperempathy," a genetic condition that causes her to experience the pain of others as viscerally as her own--a heavy liability in this future world of cruelty and hunger. But she dreams of a better world, and with her philosophy/religion, Earthseed, she hopes to found an enclave which will weather the tough times and which may one day help carry humans to the stars. Butler tells her story with unusual warmth, sensitivity, honesty and grace; though science fiction readers will recognize this future Earth, Lauren Olamina and her vision make this novel stand out like a tree amid saplings.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
_1984_ for a new generation,
By Caradae Linore (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Parable of the Sower (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is simply amazing. Though it's listed as science fiction, a more appropriate genre would be horror. Butler's vision of a destitute U.S., home to cannibals, psychotic pyromaniacs, and dogs that are no longer domesticated but vicious and hungry for human flesh, seems all too real and possible. It's a creepy book. One of my favorites.
4.0 out of 5 stars
My 100-word book review,
By A. J. Cull (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Parable of the Sower (Mass Market Paperback)
Parable of the Sower is a vivid, often harrowing, story of survival, loss and companionship, set in a United States in the near future, where the environment and society have degraded to the point of breakdown. An account of a young woman's journey away from the dangerous neighbourhood of her childhood, and of the perils and the people encountered in the search for a safe haven, this novel is about the triumph and resilience of the human spirit. Although I felt it would have been just as good without its religious element, reading this story was ultimately an uplifting experience.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks connection with reader,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Parable of the Sower (Paperback)
Everyone's already mentioned that the book is depressing, morbid, cruel and has no redemptive qualities. Perhaps the message is to keep going despite the adversity, but if I'd lived in that world I'd shoot myself in the head and spare myself the misery.More importantly though, despite decent overall character development, Butler fails to truly engage the readers' emotions somehow. Like if the main character died upon arrival - I as a reader wouldn't really care. Perhaps by describing so many atrocities we become immune to further bad twists and are prepared for anything. But if you don't care about the characters - what's the point of their journey?
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