I recently discovered the author Octavia E. Butler, and have become entranced by her works. I beleive it was OSC who pointed her out in Maps in a Mirror( i could be wrong on that one)
anyways, I found that her books are uniquely written, with a wonderful voice, thats clean, and captures you in, and makes you believe what shes writing. Its been a long time since an author has done this for me.
Ive read several of her works, PatternMaster, some others(dont have the books in front of me) and have just started on "Lillith's brood" which is an omnibus containing Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.
Very good Story so far. I hope that one day i can write half as well as her.
Has anyone else read her books, or what do you all think of this author?
Eagle
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I believe it was OSC that pointed her out in How To Write SF&F as an example of a writer who does exposition very well.
I've read Wild Seed, Mind of my Mind, Patternmaster, in the Patternist series, also Parable Of The Sower and Parable Of The Talents.
Posted by TL 601 (Member # 2730) on :
Oh, she's one of the greats, no doubt. I've only read three or four of her books (of which the most recent read was bloodchild, i think)....
But Octavia Butler is extremely impressive to me.
Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
I've read Wild Seed. The beginning sucked me in and kept me interested for most of the book, but for some reason about three quarters of the way through it I stopped caring about the characters. They stopped feeling real to me. I'm not quite sure what went wrong, but the first part was good enough that I'm willing to try some of her other books to see if I like them better.
--Mel
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I thought it was pretty good all the way through. Though I guess it is hard to relate to two centuries old characters and thier motivations.
One thing I've learned is to ignore the blurbs on the back of the book. Especially the Parable books. They make it seem anti-male and 'anti-caucasian', while Butler is really very fair and evenhanded, realizing that good and bad come in all genders and shades.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
I've not read her before... thanks for the lead. I'm always delighted to find a new (to me) author who has a litter of books already lining the shelves. Imagine my delight when I first discovered OSC.
Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
I read "Wild Seed" and "Clay's Ark", as well as the first book of the "Lilith's brood" series, and "Parable of the Sower". Powerful stuff, althought I wasn't as taken by "Clay's Ark" as much as by the other ones.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I havne't found Clay's Ark yet. I understand she wasn't happy with one of the books of her Patternist series.
Wild Seed is the first book in the series, while it was written last, after it's sequal Mind of my Mind, which was written after it's sequal, Patternmaster.
You can see her writing skills improving from the time Patternmaster was written until she wrote Wild Seed.
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited November 16, 2005).]
Posted by Kickle (Member # 1934) on :
I am a great fan of hers. My question is: do you concider her a fantasy or sifi writer or both? I'm asking because I got into a debate about this at a writer's convention and was out numbered.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I consider her in the SF&F genre. Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
Yeah, makes no sense to split. She does both with ease, like many good authors out there (OSC comes to mind). I see no reason to want to ghettoize spec fiction further, other than for marketing reasons (and we're not in book marketing).
Posted by Kickle (Member # 1934) on :
The particular discussion I got into was with people that I believed were more knowledgeable about literature than I was. When I suggested that she crossed boundaries, I was shot down and told she was in fact only a sifi writer. I kept my mouth shut and later reread a few of her short stories thinking I had missed something. I guess it comes down to self confidence and perceived experts.
