The Beach Reader reviewed Xenogenesis by Octavia E. Butler
Review of 'Xenogenesis' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I don't read trilogies lightly. In most cases, they seem to be franchises, stretching out into three works what could be said in one. Nevertheless, I have read a few good trilogies in the last ten years or so. Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson's Orange County Trilogy, and now this, although it's the least of the three.
Aliens have rescued a shred of humanity from a bomb-devastated Earth and placed them in suspended animation. After 250 years, they begin to return humanity to a restored planet, but they accidentally and irrevocably turn humanity against them with two actions. First, the Oankali's lack of familiarity with our psychology results in humans' inadvertent torture and imprisonment. Second, and more profound, is the price they exact for their help; humanity will no longer exist as a distinct species, and must continue as a new offshoot of the three-sexed Oankali species. …
I don't read trilogies lightly. In most cases, they seem to be franchises, stretching out into three works what could be said in one. Nevertheless, I have read a few good trilogies in the last ten years or so. Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson's Orange County Trilogy, and now this, although it's the least of the three.
Aliens have rescued a shred of humanity from a bomb-devastated Earth and placed them in suspended animation. After 250 years, they begin to return humanity to a restored planet, but they accidentally and irrevocably turn humanity against them with two actions. First, the Oankali's lack of familiarity with our psychology results in humans' inadvertent torture and imprisonment. Second, and more profound, is the price they exact for their help; humanity will no longer exist as a distinct species, and must continue as a new offshoot of the three-sexed Oankali species. Resisters are sterilized before being returned to the planet.
The message is heavy-handed, but to Butler's credit, the Oankali are portrayed as a species that is honestly trying to do the right thing. The philosophical debate reaches a peak in the second volume, as the humans gain a powerful advocate.
