nogoodnik reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Lilith's Brood, #2)
Adulthood Rites
5 stars
Not as visceral as the book before it, B"H, but just as powerful.
hardcover, 288 pages
Published Sept. 30, 1988 by Orion Publishing Co.
4 stars
(42 reviews)
The second book in the Lilith's Brood trilogy, this story takes place years after the arrival of Oankali aliens in the first book. Now, the Oankali have established some colonies on Earth, where they live and breed with humans. Other villages are populated by human resisters, who refuse to interact or breed with the Oankali but are frustrated because they can no longer reproduce on their own and feel they have no future. Akin, a boy "construct" born with mixed human and Oankali DNA, confronts these tensions between the two species and grapples with his own identity.
Eric Lawton reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
Review of 'Adulthood rites' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
As much social driven as character or plot. About structure of
As much social driven as character or plot. About structure of
Trey Hunner reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
Review of 'Adulthood rites' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book follows Lilith's son, who is half human and half Oankali. He has a foot in both worlds and his journey is very different from Lilith's. I appreciate that this book can be both entertaining and thoughtful. It doesn't force you to think but it does inspire reflection.
capypokoymal reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Lilith's Brood, #2)
Ready to dive into the last one!
5 stars
Reading these books is like drinking water when you're overheating and tired. Can't stop and it will only be good for you.
Jonathan Zacsh reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
note on my rating of the second book
5 stars
Really enjoying Akin's perspective in this story. Looking forward to Imago.
ManyRoads reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
Review of 'Adulthood rites' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Another excellent post-apocalyptic novel. The tale provides a magnificent and analysis of human frailties and self-destructive tendencies. This bridge novel (middle text) in the series is not quite as dynamic as the first. I suppose that is largely because this novel sets the stage for the trilogy's denouement.
If you like this genre, as I do; this series is among the 'must reads'.
Heather reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
Review of 'Adulthood rites' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
To sum up:
Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war. Right before humanity was going to totally wiped out, an alien race called the Oaklani picked up the survivors and put them in suspended animation on their ship. Hundreds of years later they had rehabilitated the Earth and are ready to wake up the humans. All they ask in return is for some humans to cross breed with them to make a new species that combines the best of both.
Am I The Only One Who Isn't Bothered By This?
Some humans have lost their fool minds over this. They have run away and are trying to live on the land without alien help. The aliens have made sure that no humans can breed without the help of alien DNA. This is because the aliens have rightly deduced that humans are too blindly self destructive to be allowed to continue …
To sum up:
Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war. Right before humanity was going to totally wiped out, an alien race called the Oaklani picked up the survivors and put them in suspended animation on their ship. Hundreds of years later they had rehabilitated the Earth and are ready to wake up the humans. All they ask in return is for some humans to cross breed with them to make a new species that combines the best of both.
Am I The Only One Who Isn't Bothered By This?
Some humans have lost their fool minds over this. They have run away and are trying to live on the land without alien help. The aliens have made sure that no humans can breed without the help of alien DNA. This is because the aliens have rightly deduced that humans are too blindly self destructive to be allowed to continue unchanged.The human resisters have taken to kidnapping the human/alien construct offspring. They want to have children so they steal the ones that they refuse to consent to make themselves. It doesn't make any sense.Akin is a male construct who looks very human as a child. He is kidnapped and held for a year. He has a perfect memory and the ability to collect and hold data. The aliens are delaying rescuing him so they can gain more information on the resisters.Here's all they need to know. They are right. Humans are jerks. They've regressed to a violently patriarchal society where woman are stolen and sold as commodities. I think we are meant to feel sorry for them since they can't breed. I was glad they couldn't! No one needs more of these people.Then they started carrying on because their lives had no meaning since they had no children. Get off it. If you require children to give meaning to your life, you are an idiot. Get out and do something meaningful.I wanted to say that I was done with this series because obviously I'm not the target audience for it. But then I looked at the description of the last book in the series. The first book is from a female perspective. The second is from a male perspective. The third book is from the perspective of an oolani. That is a third gender in the alien race. They have lots of powers that haven't fully been explained. Now I want to read that one to see what that viewpoint looks like. I just know I'm going to get mad at humans all over again!After I wrote this review, I saw something that Juniot Diaz wrote about how this series reminded him to be thankful for all the black women did to keep their families together during slavery. I've run that around in my mind for a few days and still don't get it.Black women were taken from their lives in Africa and taken against their will to America.Humans in this book were saved from certain death and taken to a world that was specially designed to benefit them in exchange for not breeding more idiots.This isn't slavery. This is Cake or Death.
If you aren't familiar with this skit by Eddie Izzard, basically it involves British soldiers offering people they are conquering the choice of being killed or having some cake. They are surprised that they are running out of cake. They thought people would resist more.It is the same here. You can have a perfect world and an incredibly rich and sensual relationship with a group of aliens or you can let your species die.
I still don't see how this is a hard choice.
I have to go now. Book three has come in at the library for me....This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
settingshadow reviewed Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
Review of 'Adulthood Rites' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
In conclusion, Octavia Butler is amazing.
I'm not even sure where to begin. The Xenogenesis trilogy is completely unlike anything I've ever read before. The closest I can come in comparison is to [b:The Left Hand of Darkness|18423|The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle, #4)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388229638s/18423.jpg|817527]: this is a book with rich, thorough world/species building, compelling characters, a solid plot and more theme than you can shake a stick at. Butler understands that meaningful speculative fiction asks "what if" questions to cause readers to reflect on the world as it is. And here, she does that artfully, weaving in questions about whether human nature is intrinsically violent, how different we are able to tolerate our children being from us and still perceive them as "ours," whether it is better to die sticking with the familiar, or be irrevocably mutated and survive.
In there are implications about environmentalism, gender …
In conclusion, Octavia Butler is amazing.
I'm not even sure where to begin. The Xenogenesis trilogy is completely unlike anything I've ever read before. The closest I can come in comparison is to [b:The Left Hand of Darkness|18423|The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle, #4)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388229638s/18423.jpg|817527]: this is a book with rich, thorough world/species building, compelling characters, a solid plot and more theme than you can shake a stick at. Butler understands that meaningful speculative fiction asks "what if" questions to cause readers to reflect on the world as it is. And here, she does that artfully, weaving in questions about whether human nature is intrinsically violent, how different we are able to tolerate our children being from us and still perceive them as "ours," whether it is better to die sticking with the familiar, or be irrevocably mutated and survive.
In there are implications about environmentalism, gender relations, racial relations, consent, and warfare.
But all of this lies under an intricate plot, and beautifully devised characters: the bitter, resigned, maternal Lillith; the optimistic, daring Akin; sweet Tino and others. The Oankali as an alien species feel so real: Butler has developed for them a physicality, a culture, a morality, subdivisions, etc. such that it is as easy to predict how an Oankali will feel as a human character, and yet they feel so alien that it's easy to feel that undercurrent of revulsion towards them that is felt by the characters.
