# Book Review:  Lilith's Brood, by Octavia Butler



## Omphalos (Nov 29, 2007)

Have you ever read an author who was so good that you just knew you would love his or her entire body of work after finishing the first book? I have. And as pathetic a thing as that is to say for someone who holds himself out as an objective book reviewer, I have to say that about Octavia Butler, I am exactly right. Not that I have yet read everything she wrote. There is a book of short stories out there, and a highly critically praised mainstream novel with passable genre elements, and a few other SF books that I have not gotten to yet. But I will soon. I honestly cannot get enough of her work, and it saddens me to know that there will be no more, as she has passed on. Many would agree with me too that she was a bright light in the SF community. Maybe the brightest in some time. I have found legions of fellow fans online, though I am a little perturbed that there is not much more legitimate scholarly criticism about her out there. The literary minds of this genre seem to be pretty slow in general, but she was writing as the genre started to get serious props from the intellectual community. You think that they would have jumped all over her and included more of her stuff in their analysis. In her lifetime Butler was awarded not only the Hugo and the Nebula, among others, but she was also the recipient of a MacArthur Award, or the so-called "Genius Grant". In the world of SF authors she is unique not only for that, but for being a black woman as well. She also suffered, I think, two long bouts of writer's block, the second one ending some short time before her death, preceding the completion of the draft of her final novel, Fledgling, which I think is simultaneously similar and separate from the works I am about to review, the Lilith's Brood Trilogy.


  In one sense you always know what you are going to get in an Octavia Butler novel, because she definately did have some pet themes that she loved to work with. But even so, every work is easily capable of standing on its own two legs, even if there are thematic similarities. This trilogy is, of course, no different. At the heart of many of her stories are the themes of slavery, racism and love. Even though I have not read her entire body of work, I'm going to go out on a limb and say those notions turned up in every book of hers. I'll let you know later if I'm wrong. Lilith's Brood, otherwise known as the Xenogenesis trilogy, is a very unusual alien invasion novel. It is a post nuclear war novel too, but those concepts really mean little to the telling of this story. In book one, Dawn, a migratory race of beings called the Oankali come across a swiftly dying Earth about 30 or so years after the war. The Oankali are a natural race of healers who are able to mend some pretty serious wounds of the surviving humans. But as they collect us and heal us, they put us into suspended animation and keep us there for over 200 years, waking us up periodically to test us and study us. As the tests conclude we are again put into suspend animation until we are next needed. Lilith Iyapo, a Los Angelino is one of the first humans woken up permanently. She is told by the Oankali that humanity will be a partner race in interspecies breeding with the Oankali, who "Trade," or mate with other races when possible to strengthen their genome and their culture. Her job is to first be trained to survive on a changed Earth, then wake up a number of humans and train them to live on Earth too. The second book, Adulthood Rites, tells the story of Akin, a child of Lilith, her murdered lover, an Oankali male and female dyad, and Nikanj, an sexless Oankali called an ooloi whose job it is to accept genetic material from all four of the other contributing parents, add its own, and impregnate one of the two females of the family pentad. Akin is a male born of Lilith, and as a result of the child's tendency to be more similar to its birth parent, strives to understand and provide for a group of human resisters of the Oankali rule, who because of their decision to leave cannot reproduce on their own. The conclusion of the trilogy, Imago, is the story of another child born of Lilith, named Jodahs, who unexpectedly metamorphasizes into an ooloi instead of the male he was planned to become. Exiled into the jungle because of his radically strengthened abilities to manipulate the genetics of those around him, he finds a village of resisters and bridges the gaps between the two cultures, healing long existent wounds.


  Butler did tend to put a lot of effort into developing the socially negative themes in her works, but she always tempered them with two things: A clearly defined difference in perspective between protagonists, and love. Love in this story (I'll call it a story from here on out because the word "trilogy" just doesn't roll off the tongue so easily) is a very complex emotion for the humans who are generally physically repulsed by the visage of the Oankali. Oankali bonding and mating traditionally produced very stable families that easily resisted the tendency to philander. It wasn't even an issue for them. I suspect that this is because the ooloi were capable of virtually any genetic combination imaginable, so individual members of the family had no drive or need to spread their seed far and wide. In other words, genetic diversity was available at home. When humans came into the families they were chemically bonded quite quickly with the ooloi so that not only did thoughts of mating with others sicken them, but the death of an ooloi generally meant death for the entire family from a form of withdrawal. In the story it was the ooloi who were the great seducers. They had incredibly effective pheromones, and methods of providing pleasure that allowed them direct access to the other member's central nervous systems. In fact that method of pleasure was so effective, that physical love almost disappeared completely for humans. There was still penetration, but it was done by the ooloi, who penetrated everyone else with very thin tendrils so as to provide direct stimulation, and to extract genetic material as needed.


  Since reproduction was as important to the Oankali as it was to humans (to what believable race is it not?), this set of facts created an incredibly complex story line. The humans were essentially the bound concubines of the Oankali. They were not given any choice in the mating, though the Oankali were as gentle as possible, and gave individual humans free choice to either mate with them or escape and go into the jungle to make their own lives, though without the ability to procreate on their own. They viewed themselves as mere slaves with no choice in their destiny, and no chance to determine what their young would be like. But the Oankali, while realizing the controversy they were creating, saw things very differently. Because of an odd uncorrectable genetic combination in humans, ultra high intelligence and a hierarchical outlook, humanity was absolutely doomed to kill itself. A hierarchical society seeks to segregate itself and weaken or destroy others. An intelligent one can think of numerous ways to do so. We had done just that when the Oankali found us and nursed us back to health. But the Oankali saw The Trade as something that would not only serve their own biological need to mate, but would save human DNA from dying out all together. To the Oankali this was not a rape. It was a seduction, and it had a worthy goal. To us it was a consumption. We were going to be swallowed up. And in the frame of this conflict, did Butler shine the brightest. The conflict was defined near the end of the first book. Book two was about how a human born construct, or blend of human and Oankali genes reached out to human resisters. Akin was kidnapped by humans and learned ultimately to love them, as the Oankali loved everything. He convinced his elders to allow him to create a new nation for humans free from Oankali interference on Mars, and gave those humans who migrated to it a chance for freedom, self determination and the right to mate as they saw fit. His brother did the same in the third book, but instead of sending the humans away, drew them into the construct fold to make new families and strengthen the new race. It is when this goal is realized that the most important theme is realized, that of transformation, one of the most important themes in SF literature. More than transformation, the new ooloi race are a true synergy, or a total that is greater than the sum of the parts not only in the abilities of the new race, but in the fact that dreams are finally realized and one way or the other children will come for all. This is one of my five plus out of five stars books.



Amazon.com: Lilith's Brood: Books: Octavia E. Butler


----------



## Omphalos (Nov 29, 2007)

Hi all.  In case you have not figured it out yet, this is my work and is not copied from another source.  I do this as a  hobby, and I would be greatly interested in your comments on what I have posted.  Whether you think my style needs work, or even if you think I interpreted the book incorrectly.  Thanks!


----------

