Parable of the Talents (Parable, 2)

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD*WHOA. This is a great book (and series), but DANG, it's an emotionally destructive read on so many levels. I had to stop for breaks at several points just because it all became too much for me. Ms Butler wrote The Parable of the Talents in 1998, but she totally could have been describing what happened in the 2016 US elections!! 🤯I feel like Larkin was too harsh in her reflections on her mother Lauren, given everything that Lauren went through and the fact that Larkin was literally stolen from her. Larkin only met her mother 'occasionally' after she found Lauren - when they were in their 30s and 50s, respectively. She had no clue what her mother had done to find her, despite reading her journals, which are only glimpses into the past - and had definitely been brainwashed by Marc (who I pretty much detest). If anything, Larkin had already made up her mind about her mother before they even met, and condemned her without any evidence.It's sad to see the deterioration of the US in the books, which seems to be coming to pass in real life, although without the level of violence and destruction in the book... yet. It's also sad to see that the 'good Christians' are up to their same old, violent BS - trying to convert the heathens by killing the heathen in them to save the person, to paraphrase. Even in a fake future, it never changes. Religious fascists always think their religion is the one and only true faith, and others WILL convert - by any means necessary - or they will die.I think that's what Earthseed's tenets speak to me so much. They're not trying to force anyone to believe in some imaginary being. They are deep truths that we can all see happening around us. Like the saying goes, "the only constant in life is change".There are some bright spots in the series, such as Lauren finding people who loved her, managing to reconnect with her daughter - no matter how strained their relationship was, at least she knew Larkin was alive and doing well, and living to see Earthseed grow and getting to watch the first 'seeds' shoot off into space to fulfill her Destiny.I really wish Ms Butler had lived long enough to finish writing the series because I think books about Earthseed's struggles to create better lives on new planets would have been super cool, with a lot of possibilities to encounter other life forms. Guess we'll have to leave that kind of story to other writers...

I didn't exactly expect a cheery celebration of the power of the human spirit and thinking differently and so on after reading the _Parable of the Sower_, but even so, I found the book a little too grim to take. If you read _Sower_, you know things were going comparatively well at the end of the book. As you might have guessed by now, Octavia Butler is not the kind of writer who is interested in a novel-length exploration of the growing pains of a new society. Very early, the stability that Acorn offered is lost, and a long, painful journey is under way.The book continues to explore Earthseed, the philosophy (or religion?) introduced in _Sower_. I think it's pretty much essential to read _Sower_ first or else you will not have the grounding in Earthseed to understand what happens throughout this novel. For me, Earthseed is a very striking philosophy with real-world utility. It makes me wish keenly that there were more Earthseed philosophy to read. And the philosophy and wanting to see how it played out in the lives of the characters is really what kept me going through this novel, even through parts that I found really difficult to handle emotionally.Other reviewers have remarked on how prescient the setting and events of the novel are - the order of events is all that so far separates it from the reality we have witnessed over the last half-decade, and as of this writing, despite the seeming defeat of the "Make America Great Again" folks, it seems all too likely that we will get closer to the vision of "Christian America" the book offers before we get past it. For that alone, it's worth a read. Butler was tapping into a zeitgeist hardly conceivable in 1998, and correctly identified many of the problems that would confront the world in the 2020s and 2030s at a time when, sadly, myopic policymakers and media figures couldn't stretch their minds to do the same.[CW: sexual violence]But for me, the book was very difficult to get through, due to the frequency of the instances of rape and brutal violence, particularly against women. It should not have been unexpected - I started reading Butler with _Kindred_, then _Sower_, and I know it is a theme of many of her other works as well. And I know that as a Black woman in America, Butler experienced continual threats to her body in ways that I as a white man have not. I would expect that writing a story of survival through such horrible situations was cathartic, and that for many women reading it is cathartic too in the way that many horror movies are. Nevertheless, it took a lot of effort for me to keep going through the middle section of the book.The book ends in an all-too-realistically bittersweet note - one theme that powerfully hits home for me is how genetic families have the power to hurt in ways that even one's chosen family cannot quite make up for. Some might find the ending a letdown, but I thought it was pretty much perfect.I will be thinking of this book and of Earthseed for a long time to come.

Reading this series this close to the time and climate it is set in - a little uncomfortable. Excellent in my opinion. The characters are complex, the plot interesting. All in all an enjoyable read.

Da es den zweiten Teil der Serie noch nicht in deutscher Sprache gibt, musste ich mir diese englische Aussage zulegen. Ich wollte einfach wissen, wie es weiter geht.Es ist die Geschichte von zwei Überlebenden einer Familie, die ihren neuen Platz in einer Welt suchen, die von religiösen Fanatikern voll ist. Ich will hier auch nicht zu viel verraten, aber es ist mehr als nur Unterhaltung.Die Hauptperson, die man aus dem ersten Teil kennt, gründet endlich ihre erste Erdensaat-Gemeinschaft, eine Religion, die sei selbst erfunden hat, um zu überleben, sie findet einen Mann und bekommt ein Kind. Sie findet auch ihren tot geglaubten Bruder wieder. Doch der hält es dort nicht aus. Dann wird die Gemeinschaft überfallen, was häufiger vorkommt. Nur diesmal ist es schlimmer. Wird sie auch diesmal überleben?

A story spanning generations and reflecting on the good and bad parts of history and society. There is nothing supernatural/futuristic in this series, and yet I enjoyed this series as if it were science fiction.

I recently discovered this author and she certainly has written some good books. She pegged human reactions and it is a bit disconcerting to think what we would do in extreme crisis.

Amazing storytelling such a good book highly recommend