This book is incredibly strange.
I can’t fathom how Butler conceived any of this. Butler is definitely joining my list of authors who must possess entire worlds inside their minds because this was a wildly imaginative ride.
Centuries after Earth’s destruction Lilith, a young human survivor, awakens on a spaceship manned by highly intelligent humanoid-cephalopod tentacle aliens known as the Oankali. The Oankali have selected Lilith to lead a group of other human survivors on an expedition back to Earth.
The Oankali have an intricate culture and society. They rely on genderless counterparts known as ooloi to aid in scientific endeavors, discoveries, and reproduction. As Lilith embarks on her mission, she forms a bond with the strange aliens. Lilith soon finds herself torn between her duty to humanity and her connection to the Oankali.
There is some strange alien mating stuff in this book and not in the titillating manner of Ice Planet Barbarians. I mean…it was weird. I was so confused. I’m curious what people in the 80’s thought. I’ll have to look up review archives.
I’m sure this book is thought-provoking and poignant, but I was too busy trying to wrap my head around the bizarre twists and decisions the characters made.
Butler was a stunning storyteller. Because even though I had SO MANY QUESTIONS–I was always along for the ride. The books in this series are relatively short so I may have to finish just to see where Butler is going with this.
P.S. Apparently there is a very WHITE-Washed version of this book cover. This looks like it is depicting a scene that happens between two white side characters. It makes no sense for this to have been the cover SMH
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.