Parable of the Sower is such a good book.
First, it’s interesting that it starts right about now. The book starts in mid-2024, and even mentions that its an election year. That was a fascinating experience to read a scifi book in the moment in time in which it is set. It still feels like it takes place about 20 years in the future. It was written 31 years ago, so politically things have seemed to move as many steps forward as backward. It seems like a lot of things have not gotten better and worse than when Butler wrote it, so in some sense I feel like I’m looking at it as a near future in the same way as when it was written a generation ago. I guess I’m glad things didn’t go as badly as in the story, but it’s rough that the looming threat from 30 years ago feels the same distance away now as then.
Second, it’s painful to read. Although the events described in the book haven’t happened in the book’s setting – California – the social collapse and migrations described have happened in Honduras, Gaza, Yemen, and certainly others I’m not aware of. It was really hard to read that and know that it was already real somewhere.
Third, as a solarpunk novel – and really as general fiction – it feels like it should be part of a high school curriculum. It’s really well written and an engrossing read. Since publishing Fully Automated, I often relate solarpunk stories to that game. What might I have added to the game if I’d read this before? How well does it naturally fit? One thing that struck me is that her emerging in-world faith – Earthseed – reminds me quite a bit of elements of Seekerism, a new faith tradition in Fully Automated. I wish I’d known and included direct references to Earthseed, but it’s nice when the game has alignment with great works that I wasn’t directly familiar with.
Has anyone else read this? What do you folks think?
Also: Sean Bodley, the artist who did the cover and a lot of the interior art for the game has a handful of works from or inspired by Parable of the Sower. It’s cool that while reading, these works formed a kind of natural visual foundation for me to imagine the story through art I’d seen but had no context for. Here is an example:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/beggar-at-cul-du-60565446
I also recently read this and agree it’s a great book. You should definitely read the sequel, Parable of the Talents, next.
I am definitely going to. I’m really curious to see where it goes!
I read Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series years ago. I feel foolish for having discovered her and not read more of her books after finishing that! I’m going to try to avoid making that mistake again.
Octavia butler is an amazing writer. Her work was so underappriciated for so long. I’m glad more people are reading her writings. My personal fav is the liliths brood series.
She definetly had some slrpnk energy in alot of her writing, and even though she deals with heavy topics, the books manage to stay optimistic.
I wish so much that she was still around! She was so ahead of her time. I think if she were still alive, she’d have built up a massive fandom at this point, and be such an incredible voice in our culture. And imagine what she might be writing! If her work feels current decades later, how wild would her work be in the present?? I’m confident that it world be enormously controversial in all the best ways!
So true! And her last book was published in 2006, so somewhat recent (or maybe I’m just showing my age lol).
I also think alot about how different her body of work would be if she had been able to support herself with her writing and didn’t need to spend her time at other jobs.
Still so grateful we have the stories she was able to give us before passing.
