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Sci Fi Focus > Encyclopedia > Octavia E. Butler
Octavia Estelle Butler (1947-2006) was an award-winning American science fiction writer, and one of very few African-American women in the field.
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By Octavia E. Butler
Beacon Press Paperback (287 pages; 1)
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Click Here | Product Description: The twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of the classic novel that has sold over 250,000 copies
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back again and again for Rufus, yet each time the stay grows longer and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has even begun.
"In Kindred Octavia Butler creates a road for the impossible, and a balm for the unbearable. It is everything the literature of science fiction can be." —Walter Mosley
"[Kindred] is a shattering work of art with much to say about love, hate, slavery and racial dilemmas, then and now." —Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"Truly terrifying. . . . A book you'll find hard to put down." ¯Essence
"Butler's books are exceptional. . . . She is a realist, writing the most detailed social criticism and creating some of the most fascinating female characters in the genre . . . real women caught in impossible situations." ¯The Village Voice
"Butler's literary craftsmanship is superb."—The Washington Post Book World |
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By Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Jonathan Lethem, Gene Wolfe & Tobias S. Buckell
Night Shade Books Paperback (352 pages)
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Click Here | Product Description: Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon - these are our guides through the Wastelands... From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. |
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By Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing Paperback (352 pages)
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Click Here | Amazon.com: Octavia E. Butler, the grande dame of science fiction, writes extraordinary, inspirational stories of ordinary people. Parable of the Sower is a hopeful tale set in a dystopian future United States of walled cities, disease, fires, and madness. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old woman with hyperempathy syndrome--if she sees another in pain, she feels their pain as acutely as if it were real. When her relatively safe neighborhood enclave is inevitably destroyed, along with her family and dreams for the future, Lauren grabs a backpack full of supplies and begins a journey north. Along the way, she recruits fellow refugees to her embryonic faith, Earthseed, the prime tenet of which is that "God is change." This is a great book--simple and elegant, with enough message to make you think, but not so much that you feel preached to. |
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By Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing Paperback (752 pages)
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Click Here | Product Description: Dawn: After nuclear war destroys the world, Earths survivors are rescued by the miraculously powerful Oankali aliens- who survive by merging genetically with primitive peoples without their permission. Adulthood Rites: Desperate to regain their world, childless humans seek to cleanse the alien taint by kidnapping hybrid children. But the raiders are blind to the truth of Earths new children. Imago: The futures of both humans and aliens rest in one young beings successful metamorphosis into adulthood. |
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By Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing Paperback (320 pages)
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By Octavia E. Butler
Aspect Mass Market Paperback (256 pages)
 | List Price: $6.99 Lowest Used Price: $7.48 (As of 16:53 Pacific 28 Aug 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Amazon.com: In a world devastated by nuclear war with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is "awakened," she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever. Bonded to the aliens in ways no human has ever known, Lilith tries to fight them even as her own species comes to fear and loathe her. A stunning story of invasion and alien contact by one of science fiction's finest writers. |
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By Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing Paperback (464 pages)
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Click Here | Amazon.com: Octavia Butler tackles the creation of a new religion, the making of a god, and the ultimate fate of humanity in her Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower, and now continues with Parable of the Talents. The saga began with the near-future dystopian tale of Sower, in which young Lauren Olamina began to realize her destiny as a leader of people dispossessed and destroyed by the crumbling of society. The basic principles of Lauren's faith, Earthseed, were contained in a collection of deceptively simple proverbs that Lauren used to recruit followers. She teaches that "God is change" and that humanity's ultimate destiny is among the stars. In Parable of the Talents, the seeds of change that Lauren planted begin to bear fruit, but in unpredictable and brutal ways. Her small community is destroyed, her child is kidnapped, and she is imprisoned by sadistic zealots. She must find a way to escape and begin again, without family or friends. Her single-mindedness in teaching Earthseed may be her only chance to survive, but paradoxically, may cause the ultimate estrangement of her beloved daughter. Parable of the Talents is told from both mother's and daughter's perspectives, but it is the narrative of Lauren's grown daughter, who has seen her mother made into a deity of sorts, that is the most compelling. Butler's writing is simple and elegant, and her storytelling skills are superb, as usual. Fans will be eagerly awaiting the next installment in what promises to be a moving and adventurous saga. --Therese Littleton |
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By Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing Paperback (784 pages)
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By Octavia E. Butler
Aspect Mass Market Paperback (288 pages)
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By Octavia E. Butler
Seven Stories Press Paperback (224 pages)
 | List Price: $14.00 Lowest New Price: $6.24 Lowest Used Price: $5.00 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 16:53 Pacific 28 Aug 2008 More Info)
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"An outstanding short story collection . . . [Butler] is an impressive writer whose work displays how science fiction readily transcends the perceived stylistic limitations of the genre."-St. Petersburg Times "Bloodchild is a compelling and horrifying novella . . . [by an] exceptionally talented writer."-Publishers Weekly "The title story is justly famous . . . splendid pieces, set forth in calm, lucid prose with never a word wasted."-Kirkus Reviews "Butler graces new mansions of thought with her eloquent, distinguished, and poignant prose. Although this book is little in size, its ideas and aims are splendidly large."-Booklist This New York Times Notable Book of the Year includes the Hugo and Nebula awards-winner Bloodchild and the Hugo Award-winner Speech Sounds. Octavia E. Butler is the author of 11 novels, including Kindred, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and numerous other literary awards, she has been acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations that range from the distant past to the far future. |
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