Parable of the Sower

Earthseed, #1

by Octavia E. Butler

Paperback, 345 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 2000 by Warner Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-446-67550-5
OCLC Number:: 42397656

View on OpenLibrary

(259 reviews)

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean …

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

15 editions

Kelson Reads reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Hard to put down. And hard to pick up again.

5 stars

It's certainly not a fun book, but it's extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.

What makes this apocalypse so horrifying, and the story so engaging, is how matter-of-fact Lauren is in describing everything in her diary. It's the world she grew up in, so it's normal to her, though she can see clearly even at 14 that it's unsustainable. There's a sharp generational divide between those who remember what things were like before, but all that is just history to her.

Lauren's present is hopeless and brutal, but her diary doesn't linger on the ever-present brutality like a horror novel would. She acknowledges it, of course, but she's focused on how to survive it so she can build something better.

The setting resonates so well today in part because the societal fears of the 1980s that Butler was extrapolating from are the same fears that …

It's certainly not a fun book, but it's extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.

The setting resonates so well today in part because the societal fears of the 1980s that Butler was extrapolating from are the same fears that have been re-stoked to create our modern political moment, and the problems she focused on remain unsolved. (I go into a bit more literary analysis on my website if you're interested in that sort of thing.)

loar reviewed Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the sower by Octavia E. Butler

None

No rating

Očekávání byla vysoká. Výsledek… možná by to spravil další díl, ale nechce se mi.

Stefan Goethals reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Too real for comfort.

No rating

I’m just 20% in and the events going on in this story describe the realities of today, even the months in 2025 are about right, too close for comfort. Scary…

bookpunk reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

An amazing read

5 stars

This is such a strong story and great storytelling. I frequently found myself inspired by it to reflect on how we as individuals and communities may cope with our world. Can wholeheartedly recommend! #FediBooks #Solarpunk

Hoops reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Essential Reading

5 stars

Everyone should read this book. The kind of book that wounds you - as Helene Cixous preaches. Painful, wretched, and beautiful.

Eleder reviewed La parábola del sembrador by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

La grandeza de lo sencillo

No rating

Hace tiempo que leí Xenogénesis, pero de lo poco que recordaba de ella era cómo la autora nos conducía, de la mano de un punto de vista, a la comprensión de fenómenos totalmente ajenos.

Aquí no es precisamente la ajenidad lo que nos atañe, sino un posible futuro nada impensable. Pero nuevamente, el punto de vista de la protagonista nos lleva de la mano y nos explica un futuro casi apocalíptico, con desgracias y miseria constantes, pero siempre, siempre, con esperanza.

Jens reviewed Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the sower by Octavia E. Butler

Review of "Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the sower" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An eery book to read: Written decades ago, it shows us a dystopian future starting in July 2024 where climate change and political turmoil have left the US, and much of the world, with civilization crumbling, similar yet different from what we know today.

Pushing politics-induced anxiety aside, I expected an exciting novel with social commentary. What I got was... a novel with social commentary.

The first half seemed like a near-endless introduction to me - of the protagonist, her family, and her community. This part was definitely too long for my taste - a lot of characters are introduced, but never brought up again. The bits of information about the outside world seem detached and irrelevant to a certain extent.

The protagonist has a supernatural ability that only comes up after a while, and is described inconsistently: Sometimes her heightened sense of empathy for others' emotions and pain overwhelms and nearly cripples her; sometimes it doesn't come up for dozens of pages although people around her are feeling, well, lots of things. This jerked me out of the immersion of the story, and left me more confused than anything.

Our protagonist also sets her mind on founding a new religion, and spends considerable time thinking/writing about it, and discussing it with others. I didn't find this aspect of the story interesting at all.

All these negative aspects aside, the plot, especially in the second half, is interesting enough: I kept reading to find out what would be next. At least some characters are likeable AND interesting. It is obvious that this novel is the first part of an unfinished trilogy -- lots of things are brought up, but not resolved (yet).

Octavia E. Butler's writing is just great - every chapter, every scene drew me right in, and I painfully felt as if I was there, in crumbling California, with the cast of characters.

Overall, the good and the bad of this book made me end up leaving a mediocre rating of three stars. I'm not sure I'll read the second book, [b:Parable of the Talents|60932|Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170553715l/60932.SY75.jpg|249012]: I'm afraid the religious themes will only grow, plus there is no third part to conclude the series because Butler never wrote it.

Geoff reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Review of 'Parable of the Sower' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

This post-apocalyptic story is strangely prescient, a novel written in the 80s that you would swear is imagining a near-future post-Trump America. But that also isn’t the central driver of the plot.

Rather, this story is driven by Earthseed, a quasi-religion that seems to be loosely influenced by Buddhism, but with an evangelical flavor. I really admired Butler’s frank and self-assured …

I’ve had a story idea rattling around in my head for years about a character with a supernatural degree of empathy. I was talking to a friend about this idea and he mentioned Octavia Butler’s Parable series. If you haven’t read them, they revolve around a young woman with a “hyper-empathy” condition – she feels acutely the pleasure and pain of those around her. This is not the central driver of the plot, but it is an interesting characterization, and an idea I’ve been fascinated by for years.

This post-apocalyptic story is strangely prescient, a novel written in the 80s that you would swear is imagining a near-future post-Trump America. But that also isn’t the central driver of the plot.

Rather, this story is driven by Earthseed, a quasi-religion that seems to be loosely influenced by Buddhism, but with an evangelical flavor. I really admired Butler’s frank and self-assured portrayal of her protagonist and the movement she builds. It is refreshingly unpretentious and beautifully hopeful. This is all set against real tragedy, which makes the novel itself an embodiment of the faith its fictional world presupposes.

Butler writes elegantly about privilege and power, again in a way that feels very modern. If you’re a plot-first person you may find it a a little underwhelming. But what the book lacks in plotting it makes up for in wisdom and compassion.

gabe. reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Can't believe this was written in 1993

4 stars

Great vision of where we could easily find ourselves in the year 2024. Though things haven't (yet) turned out as bad as envisioned in the book, it definitely hits close to home. Was nice to read a pre-post apocalyptic (what to you call it when the apocalypse is ongoing?? Just apocalyptic?) novel that didn't have zombies everywhere. I enjoyed the elements of religion and thinking about how one would start a new religion that wasn't as laden with hundreds of years of doctrine and dogma as what we have now.

Wild Woila reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

Prophetic for its time

3 stars

Adapting & building community during social collapse. Prophetic for its time, remains unsettling. God as Change could be a genuinely useful belief system. Only half a book, with ending sudden & too convenient (there is a sequel).

Reading time 5 days, 62 pages/day

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Csepp reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

finally a post-apocalyptic story that says something meaningful

5 stars

The best "post-apocalyptic" story I've ever come across. So good, it puts most of the others to shame. Also just a great story on its about community, religion, and how to believe in and work for a better world. I wish it was recommended reading in school.

Nat reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

This felt like it was published last year

4 stars

Which feels like a cheesy thing to say in a review about dystopian fiction, but I genuinely didn't realize this book was published in the year 1993 until I read Butler's biography at the back and realized she passed away in 2006. It feels... pertinent

Others have said this is a pretty grim novel. I agree. It hurt to read, quite often. I feel like I've mostly moved out of my dystopian fiction era but this one hooked me a lot harder than most I've read. I haven't finished a book this quickly in quite a while.

I think Parable of the Sower has a lot to say about eco-fatalism, as well as the many "fatalisms" of neoliberalism in general, which it delivers on very well. I also felt like it would have a lot to say about the value of religion, divorced from the way people in my life and I suspect many others in the west tend to equate religion with Christianity. It delivered on the former part, but not so much the latter in my opinion. Still very compelling, and very well written nonetheless.

reading crustacean reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

am I not getting this?

No rating

maybe I was expecting too much because I'd heard about it in adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown's podcast and thought this was going to be extremely mind-blowing. I kept expecting the story to go somewhere, to develop in some direction but it just kept being a bleak, lost earth and people trying to just survive on it. seemed to me like the plot just fizzled out.

Dea@books.theunseen.city reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

•

No rating

Cuando estaba más joven la ficción y la ciencia ficción eran espacios que me hacían sentido para conectar con la imaginación y con la posibilidad de pensar y sentir la vida fuera de límites que percibía en mis presentes.

Como estos ámbitos de la literatura no resonaban tanto en algunas de mis redes cercanas, me alejé un poquito de éstos por algunos años y me metí a libros más teóricos y "serios". Pero desde que empecé a leer a Octavia Butler, por recomendación de una amiga, volví a interesarme en textos de (ciencia) ficción.

Octavia reflexionó sobre la ausencia/invisibilización de mujeres negras en un contexto donde predominaba una ciencia ficción de escritores hombres y blancos. También propuso escenarios que abordaran los pasados-presentes-futuros y que estimularan la imaginación y la creatividad como posibilidades ante las crisis que seguimos viviendo.

En Parable of the sower, Octavia tejió temas como: sensibilidad hacia otrxs …

En Parable of the sower, Octavia tejió temas como: sensibilidad hacia otrxs seres; críticas al capitalismo, a las desigualdades socio-económicas, a la explotación y hacia la crisis climática; formas de construir relaciones y comunidades basadas en el reconocimiento mutuo; cercanías y comprensiones diversas con la tierra y la sostenibilidad de la vida (entre muchas otras cosillas).

Algo que me parece muy curioso, es la manera en que Octavia toma aspectos del libro, que como lectora me estuvieron haciendo cierto ruido de forma muy sutil, y los hace evidentes en la secuela (Parable of the talents). Creo que no es sencillo plantear todo un imaginario y luego construir una narrativa que lo replantee o que muestre sus matices, al menos de forma convincente. Por eso, aunque Parable of the sower es un libro que aprecié haber leído, verlo de la mano con Parable of the talents fue aún más apreciable para mí.

Anuradha Reddy reviewed Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)

This book redefined my idea of sci-fi!

5 stars

Until I read this book, I always thought the sci-fi genre was not for me because I find stories about faraway space aliens difficult to chew. This book is so solidly grounded in the black female experience that it feels almost surreal, a wholesome experience. I thank Butler for introducing me to Afrofuturism.