A fascinating tale from the multi-award-winning author

a very interesting twist on the vampire genre, quite unique in many respects. not quite as well developed as some of her sci-fi tales. this was clearly intended to be the first of yet another trilogy by Butler, cut short by her death, so reading it is a bit like falling in love with a TV series that was suddenly cancelled at the end of the first season. as a result, very little is resolved and you are left wanting more, much more. still well worth reading.

Another excellent choice and purchase from the store. What a shame the author, Octavia Butler, died leaving us wanting for more. Fledgling is an exceptional "vampire" tale with a twist. Butler's use of Africa-American characters, interracial love and vampire tales is excting reading. This one rates right up there with Anne Rice for adults who like to dabble in the macabre

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a bookclub read and I wasn't excited about it because it deals with vampires and I have not hopped on that band wagon just yet. But this was an excellent read. I didn't see the characters as vampires but as actual people trying to save their own kind. This was the first book by Octavia E. Butler that I've read and I'm very excited to read more of her work.

Let me just say I am biased. Octavia Butler happens to be one of my favorite authors. She wrote a series of about 4 or 5 novels that were WAY OVER MY HEAD. But this book did not disappoint at all. I was sad to hear that she passed away a little while ago, so this being her last novel (I believe) really made this one special. If you're into science-fiction and the human tale, this is a good one.

I would like to suggest that if you have never ready anything by her check out Clay's Ark. It's how I became such a huge fan of hers.

The Fledgling is a great book that deals with so many issues. Octavia is a master at weaving everyday things into her world of aliens, genetic altering, vampires and the like.

You owe it to yourself to make at least one her novels part of your library.

I really really enjoyed reading this book...i had to read it for a class i have in college...that i nearly failed because i never recieved this book from a seller on here....vana11??? FAH Q ...i sent you an email asking where it was and you said it was sent out promptly yeah well i never recieved it and i never had a problem with the store before...but this is an amazing book that puts a whole new face to the vampire and brings it into a whole new view, makes it more believable than ever.

Came across Octavia Butler by accident. Read a number of reader reviews of her writings before deciding to go with this book. Needless to say, this book is GREAT. Held me prisoner from 1st page. Awesome writing.

Fledgling is one of those disappointing books that has an interesting premise, but is poorly executed. The writing is tedious and flat, and the characters, including Shori, have no emotional pull. My copy also had the typos others have mentioned. I'm left with a memory of pointless descriptions of humans making sandwiches, and no further interest in the Ina. I won't even get into the looks like a child/sex with adults debate - you can skip this one on boringness alone.

I chose this rating because even though I loved the storyline and the main character, it got kind of tedious at times, but I would be interested in a sequel of Shori as an adult Ina . So an okay read.

I never knew there were any female African-American science-fiction writers. This book was wonderfully written and kept you in suspense from beginning to end. I think this would give the Twilight Series a run for it's money!

An alright book, although I feel like the author did her best to make it controversial at every turn. Firstly, this story is filled with people having sex with children. Nope, you read that right. throughout the whole story the main character, who is basically a vampire who looks like a very young black girl, has sex with adults constantly. A lot of this seems unnecessary to get the point across and is just overkill. In general the writing seems kind of bland and boring. I really didn't like this book very much.

I ordered this book because I really enjoyed Kindred and I like Octavia Butler's writing. This book was riddled with errors and I was hoping that it was an issue with the Kindle format. At the end of the book I found myself wondering what was the point? For anyone who reads my reviews you know that I need to find a point .... Was the book a little about sexual mores and how even vampires have some standard in that regard that is different than the human standard. Was it about racism being an issue even for a species that are supposed to be more evolved. There was a thousand different themes running through this book but none of them compelling. In sum, I didn't like it and would not recommend to anyone else.

An alright book, although I feel like the author did her best to make it controversial at every turn. Firstly, this story is filled with people having sex with children. Nope, you read that right. throughout the whole story the main character, who is basically a vampire who looks like a very young black girl, has sex with adults constantly. A lot of this seems unnecessary to get the point across and is just overkill. In general the writing seems kind of bland and boring. I really didn't like this book very much.

I ordered this book because I really enjoyed Kindred and I like Octavia Butler's writing. This book was riddled with errors and I was hoping that it was an issue with the Kindle format. At the end of the book I found myself wondering what was the point? For anyone who reads my reviews you know that I need to find a point .... Was the book a little about sexual mores and how even vampires have some standard in that regard that is different than the human standard. Was it about racism being an issue even for a species that are supposed to be more evolved. There was a thousand different themes running through this book but none of them compelling. In sum, I didn't like it and would not recommend to anyone else.

I have been a Butler fan since the early nineties. This book should never have been published. This is evidenced by the horrible editing, easily one mistake per page. I believe the telling line for me was "I long for a shower..." . The language is stilted, unbelievable and shallow. I thought the story might make up for the other shortcomings but that was not the case.

As a vampire novel it's bland and flat. As a Butler novel it's hard to believe it's even her writing this. Her previous novels have depth and were truly thought provoking. This has none of those things.

Don't waste your time.

**WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS**

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler is the story of a young vampire who loses her memory in a horrific murder attempt. The book follows Shori as she tries to piece her life together, stay alive, and bring her family's murderers to justice.

I wanted to like this book. It's been on my to-be-read shelf for years, but there was a lot about the book that turned me off.

First off, Shori is a young vampire who has the body of a child. In the vampire world, she's considered a child even though she's in her 50s. In the human world, she appears to be around 12. As Shori collects symbionts (humans who form her family), most of the ones she chooses are ones she's intimately attracted to. She has sexual relationships with these human symbionts. Ick. She looks 12 and hasn't hit puberty. This is not okay. I couldn't read this and not think, "Pedophiles, ew. Yuck." I don't think glamorizing pedophilia was the author's intent, but I couldn't move past it.

Second, the writing was just mediocre. It didn't suck me in. I didn't grow attached to any of the characters. It felt very basic.

The plot itself was interesting. The author did a great job of making you care about solving the murder mystery. Tragedy after tragedy struck Shori, so it was nice to see justice brought to the wrong-doers in the end.

I also appreciated the author's different spin on vampirism. Some of the same nuances existed--sleep during the day, needs blood--but they were sympathetic vampires. They co-habited with humans, forming symbiotic relationships and caring for the humans as though they were family members. I thought this was neat, and I liked this spin.

Overall, this book wasn't for me, but if you enjoy vampire novels, check it out. You might like it.

This review will be brief, and perhaps some of you might find my critique somewhat silly. While I am a huge fan of this author, I found Fledgling to be a big disappointment. For one thing, I was very uncomfortable with the main character having sex with grown men and women while her body was that of a 10 year old girl. The only saving grace was that the sex scenes weren't explicit, Thank God!
I was blown away by all the typos that littered the pages of this book. It made me wonder if the publishing company even had an editor on staff. I also agree that the writing itself wasn't the best by this otherwise very talented writer.
Last but not least, I really didn't like the theme of racism in the story. When I think of otherworldly beings and their worlds, I think of these creatures as not having the same stupidity as human beings, and that goes for vampires as well with their lifestyles of easy sexuality and the many world experiences that immortality gives them. I personally found it hard to believe, almost laughable, that vampires could be racist to the main character. I know that Ms. Butler was trying to give a different spin on the vampire genre, but it simply didn't work for me. I love the idea of a vampire who was a viking in their past hunting alongside, say, a vampire who was a New York City born Puerto Rican from the 1970s. Get the idea? I found these vampires uninteresting and repugnant, rather like too many members of the human race.
All in all, this book was a major fail. If you haven't read any of Ms. Butler's other books, you'd be in for many treats as her other works are among the best in speculative fiction. But as for Fledgling, I would emphatically recommend you skip this one.

Ah vampires...
Sexy sexy vampires...
Octavia Butler used the last of her considerable writing talents to leave us with the Ina, an interesting new culture and species of vampire.

The author decided to make the MC sexy vampire female.
Yes, good choice.
And black.
Great, love diversity in stories.
And ten years old.
You've lost me.

By the third sex scene where this little girl is joyfully plowed by an enormous hairy white twenty year old man I decided the author had lost her mind.

If this is where Octavia Butler's writing was headed then I'm glad it ended. We don't need more pedo fantasy writing.

I feel like most people are over vampire novels but this is a truly unique one. That's one of the few things I liked about Fledgling. The novel has its own take on vampire lore and Butler creates an entire society of unique creatures who apparently live without most of humanity recognizing their existence. We're introduced to this community by an amnesiac who can't remember what much less who she is. Though it was an interesting approach, I can't say that I'll be tempted to pick up this book again or recommend it to anyone.

The entire novel is very eerie and not because of the otherworldly creatures within it. The main character appears to be around eleven years old and yet she begins a relationship with a man in his thirties, within the first few chapters. My edition didn't have the little fact that she's actually much older than she appears, around fifty-something. But that doesn't matter because she can't remember all of those years, and the human she's with should definitely have known there was something extremely wrong with that situation. While I'm fairly willing to assume that the relationship was more created for shock factor and to show another side of the vampire life, I definitely didn't want or need any part of that.

Another aspect of the lore that I found incredibly creepy was how the humans became addicted to the vampires and wouldn't be able to survive without them. I tried to imagine myself in that position and how stifling it would be. I wouldn't be able to survive like that . . and yet these humans were acting like it was no big deal to abandon their jobs, homes, and families so they could stay with these vampires. No, thanks.

Overall, I think that the novel made a few interesting critiques on society. By looking into the vampire culture, it's fairly easy to see what's wrong with the world today and how society has changed and still needs to change. Yet I don't feel like the plot was strong or interesting enough to pull me through the story. The ending was bland and left me wondering what might have happened next, if it had ended on a more interesting note.

This is the best story involving a complex character: a young Ina (vampire) woman who has had her family annihilated and who, as a characteristics her consequent amnesia, must learn the life of herself and her people again. As Shori recovers her life, the reader is exposed to the fascinating life and culture of the Ina—a race of vampires whose presence on Earth is rendered real in a very good way.

After reading Kindred, I was looking forward to another novel by Ms. Butler . I was intrigued by the idea of a new race of vampire, but was unable to finish this story. Shori, the main character, is a 53 year old vampire in a 10 year olds body . She was badly injured and as a result has amnesia (and we are constantly reminded of this every other page ), over and over. It would have been helpful if Shori had been a likable character, but as many reviewers mentioned, she seems a little cold. I could not relate to her or any of the other characters . The sexual relations Shori had with adults was very disturbing , Perhaps it would've been better if she had appeared older and not like a 10 year old, having sex with men (and women) . The premise of Fledging ( a race of vampires able to bear sunlight ) is good, original, but unfortunately, this fell flat in so many ways .

[Contains Spoiler] I wanted to like this book, which started strong for me and then became a struggle to finish. This ended up reading more like a Utopian novel than a Vampire novel. That would be fine, and a supremely interesting twist on the vampire trope, but I got bogged down in the extensive rules for the vampires and their symbionts. I also couldn’t buy into how happily and without conflict all of the humans and vampires coexisted in their communes; whenever the narrator eavesdropped on all of the humans going about their private, everyday lives, all was total harmony, never a shred of realistic grumbling; I found this almost harder to believe than the existence of vampires. I loved what this novel was striving to be, but it didn’t hold together for me, and [SPOILER] at the point where an ancient, intelligent vampire stupidly comes out with guns blazing like a bad Western, I had to shake my head at the absurdity. I admire what she was trying to do with this book, and Octavia Butler fans have encouraged me to try more of her books. (The bad copyediting in this one didn’t help me to suspend my disbelief.)

As usual, Octavia Butler tackles the issues of racism in unique and thought-provoking ways. In this book, racism crosses over species in that vampires are a completely different species than humans but still have the same human problem of discrimination against darker-hued people. But I think the issues of racism and species purity got conflated a bit. Shori, the main character, is a genetic experiment who through genetic modification has darker skin and therefore can be awake and alert during the day. This is bothersome to pure "Ina" (vampires). And I couldn't say I blamed them. If it's true that the fittest survive, Shori represented the ultimate "evolution" for the Ina and in time, I could see how Shori's offspring could eventually wipe out pure Ina. Now, the fact that the modification is that she is Black, I think, complicates things in an interesting way. This aspect of the story stays true to Ms. Butler's style and motivation. And honestly, it is quite nice when the protagonist is Black but doesn't really need to be for the story to potentially work.

I guess this is the question that begs to be asked: Is Shori really Ina? She's been genetically altered, her genes mixed with human genes? What percentage of you has to a certain thing for you to qualify? Half? 1/3rd? 1/8th? This question has been posed time and time again in U.S. history as African-Americans have struggled to find their place in this society. And as this society struggles to place (or displace) those of African descent, i.e. Black people. How do you perceive and categorize someone who is a mixture of races? Especially if your treatment of people depends entirely on how you have perceived and categorized them?

I liked the story for other reasons: Ms. Butler works hard to break up the mythology of vampires and re-makes them as the victims of bigotry, hatred and misunderstanding. It's interesting then, that any Ina would then engage in the same kind of thing toward a darker Ina and I wonder if Shori had been pale like most Ina yet still had the same ability to be alert during the day, would the Ina still have objected so violently? I think so. It's also interesting to note the varying attitudes the Ina have toward their symbionts, that is, humans who they have bitten and need in order to stay alive. When humans become symbionts, they live much longer than ordinary humans and also do not get sick or hurt as easily. Symbionts, in my opinion, do not get a real choice because once bitten, most get hooked psychologically by the Ina venom and then eventually they get hooked physically. If their Ina dies, they will most likely die too. It seemed to me a form of slavery where the enslaved didn't seem to mind too much because of the pleasure and perks they derived from being symbionts. However, some Ina are condescending to or think nothing of symbionts and this brought up many issues and questions in my mind. This is what I love about Ms. Butler.

There were two little things that bothered me in this novel though I must say. Shori supposedly looks like a pre-pubescent girl. Yet grown men are sleeping with her. Now, I know she's Ina and actually 53 years old but still . . . a little disconcerting to me. The other thing that really annoyed me with this novel is that is poorly, poorly edited. There are missing words galore. Well, maybe not galore but to me, it was enough to get an eye roll.

All in all, this was an excellent (and quick) read like all of Ms. Butler's work. I am yet to be disappointed although I don't think I ever will be.

Fledgling is an amazingly innovative vampire tale. In this story, humans and vampires have a symbiotic relationship: vampires need human blood to survive, but they do not kill when they bite. Vampires secrete a venom which gives humans intense pleasure; more than one or two bites, and the human becomes addicted, chemically bound to vampires for life -- and chemically forced to obey. Vampires and their bitten humans thus live together in secretive, cooperative communities, with the humans free to pursue their own occupations and interests -- but never free to leave due to their addiction. It's like being dragged to a happy commune and kept there with an electric fence.

Shori is a vampire. When she awakens, severely injured, with no memory of who or what she is, she must slowly piece her life back together. It isn't long until she discovers that someone, for some reason, has tried to destroy her and her entire family.. and that they are not done trying.

Fledgling touches upon ideas related to family, community, and love. Butler portrays racism within the vampire world, different from human racism yet equally destructive. This book is a parade of provocative ideas.

Unfortunately, despite all that Fledgling has going for it, it left me cold. I don't know if Shori was supposed to be likable, but I did not much like her. She came across as cold and detached, and I think this is more a product of Butler's narrative style than of her actual intent. The narrative takes us through Shori's attempt to protect herself and her companions, and lands us smack in the middle of a courtroom drama, albeit a courtroom run under the rules of this vampire world. To me, it felt like a clinical, static way to work through the plot.

Finally, I was uneasy with, even irritated by, this world that Butler imagined. Symbiotic or not, vampires essentially addict humans and force them to abandon their families and lives. How convenient that the humans in the book seem to grow content after a short period of confusion and distress. I guess if I was being injected with addictive venom, I'd be compliant, too.

Clearly, I have some unease with the world Butler presented here, but my three star rating is not due to that. It's due to the fact that I never really came to care about these people and their conflicts, all presented through a narrative voice that I can only describe as cold.

I have never read anything by Octavia Butler, and as she is a prominent writer in the Sci-Fi genre, I though it would be interesting to read one of her books. This is also the last book she wrote before she died. Overall it was an interesting take on vampire communities; and discussed issue of racism, sexual freedom, and immortality. I listened to this on audio and the audio production was of excellent quality; my only complaint would be that the narrator's voice is very dispassionate which lends a coldness to Shori's character.

Shori wakes up in immense pain, not knowing where she is or who she is. As time passes she heals; later she is picked up on the side of the road by Wright. Shori herself seems to be an 11 year old girl; but Wright is strangely drawn to her in very inappropriate ways. Shori realizes she needs his blood and after she takes blood from him the two of them cannot be separated. As time progresses Shori finds that she needs more than just Wright to satisfy her; she needs the blood of many. Eventually Shori finds that she is actual a 53 year old Ina; a very long lived (possibly alien) race that have a symbiotic relationship with humans. They need human blood andcompanionship to survive. For some reason someone wants Shori dead; it may be because of her dark skin and the fact that Shori is a genetic experiment to make Ina able to withstand the sun.

I didn't find any of the characters in this book to be particularly engaging, and the plot plodded along at times making it difficult to pay attention. This book is very outstanding though in the complexity of the Ina community and the mythos behind that community. This book and the race of the Ina are intricately detailed and very well thought out. This book also touches on issues concerning societal beliefs. Shori, as the only dark-skinned Ina, deals with a sort of racism. Shori appears to be 10 years old (but is really 53) and her sexual relationship with Wright may be disturbing to some readers. Shori and her Symbiants (humans that feed her) also have a very complex relationship; and Shori loves them emotionally and physically without any thought as to their gender or age.

All in all I enjoyed this book. It is an interesting take, actually a unique take, on vampire-type society. It make you think a lot about societal issues and introduces you to a whole new complex world and race. It is definitely more of a thinking book and the slow deliberate pace may put off some readers; I think that the creativity andthoughtfulness of the plot more than offset this pace though.

I am not sure if I will read more of Butler's works or not. Her writing was good but it was a bit too political for me at parts; she also seems to write book to inspire thought and as such they aren't great entertainment as much as food for thought. I would have to be in a particularly thoughtful mood to enjoy her works.

In Fledgling, renowned science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, who sadly passed away last year, reinvents the idea of the vampire and their existence in history, putting her own original slant on it. While the book is complete in its rounded story, one is left wanting more of this very original creation on an archetype.

The book opens with what can only be termed an uncomfortable situation, at the very least. From the viewpoint of the main character, Shori, who has been horribly disfigured by some terrible accident, the reader learns she is a vampire as the character comes to realize this herself, feeding off another, and healing incredibly fast. She has also forgotten everything about herself and her history, and with the reader, slowly learns about this. She then finds herself what is termed a symbiont, which is one who provides a regular blood source to the vampires known as Ina. The man, brought under the power of Shori and the hypnotic venom in her bite, essentially falls in love with her and their relationship begins at full steam, even though Shori appears no older than a ten year old black girl, and he an adult. The reader is left feeling very uncomfortable about this Lolitaesque relationship.

Eventually, when Shori confronts the place of her accident and meets other Ina, the full story is revealed. It is thought that she and her whole family of vampires and symbionts were all killed in this terrible attack. The reason was that she was the result of a genetic experiment to make it possible for vampires to brave the sun. The result was successful, with Shori being able to travel during the day - although she must remain fully covered and will suffer burns. Nevertheless, there is someone who feels that Shori is an abomination and must be destroyed.

It is when this second group of Ina are killed with two symbionts surviving, that Shori and her group flees to another Ina family in California where she finds further answers. And when this group is then attacked, but due to Shori's preparation, thwarts the attack and captures three of them, all the answers are revealed. Behind the attacks are a large family in Los Angeles who have always hated the idea of meddling with the pure race of the Ina. The book pushes forth its message here with the idea that these ancient Ina are angry not so much at Shori for being black, but at her genetically engineered nature of mixing human genes and Ina genes; they no longer consider her Ina, no longer pure.

Then in a three-day ceremony that harkens back to every form of town government and religious ritual, a judicial gathering is convened with members of many families of Ina represented, while the complete family of those who are supposedly behind the killings are put on trial. The question is whether the jury will side with a small black girl who remembers nothing of her past and heritage, or with the proud and ancient Ina family who have helped so many.

Butler skillfully and subtly asks questions of race and genetic alteration: what it is to be human, or in this case Ina, and how we as people see that, and what value we place on it. In a time when a cloned and/or genetically engineered human is not so much a future nightmare, but a worry we all wait to read about in the newspapers every day, Fledgling certainly does its job in helping those who are unsure on these matters make decision.

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FLEDGLING has one of the best opening chapters I've read in years. I was hooked on the spot as the mysterious narrator tried to figure out what had been done to her. And why. From her descriptions of her injuries (a smushy head with the skull shattered), I knew immediately someone had tried to kill her. I also wondered how she'd survived such a thing, but I chalked that up to the willing suspension of disbelief required of a reader.

But then things got seriously weird.

Given the mystery of who had tried to kill her, I was suddenly confronted with the even deeper, richer mystery of who this mysterious narrator was. And WHAT she was. Because she definitely wasn't human. I knew that at once from the injuries. When she ran down and killed a deer with her bare hands and ate it raw, I was even more convinced.

Besides having a killer opening, FLEDGLING also serves to open a whole new world of vampirism that readers will truly never get to see the rest of. As it turns out, the novel was award-winning science fiction writer Octavia Butler's last book before her death.

Butler was the author of several science fiction books that focused on the relationships humans might have with alien cultures. Her world-building skills were sharp and keenly directed at the social problems that might crop up, as well as the individual's struggle to remain alive against desperate odds.

FLEDGLING maintained Butler's story interests as she explored the world of vampires she created. Obviously from all the backstory she included in the novel, there were plenty of other stories to tell.

Shori Matthews, the first-person narrator of the book, is a stand-out character. Her voice rings true from the first page to last. One of Butler's gifts as an author was the ability to focus entirely on the character and bring the world to life through that character's eyes. She did that again with Shori.

However, Butler obviously chose to be extremely provocative in her choice of characters. Shori is physically a twelve-year old child. Meaning that she is the same build and size as a human pre-teen. In actual years, she's 53, they even then she's counted as being young among the vampire culture.

I struggled with some of the graphic sex scenes that were written in the book. Although Butler dismissed the age and size difference between Shori and her human lover, I found I could not for a time. It just jarred too much, and felt wrong. Gradually, I distanced myself from that feeling and concentrated on the mystery and the threat that surrounded Shori and the vampire culture that was at risk.

Butler's tendency was to acknowledge that the events she was writing about were world-shaking, but she always seem to choose to reveal that story on a small stage rather than a large one. FLEDGLING could have been epic in scope, sweeping from Shori to several other characters that were involved in different actions. A choice of multiple narrators to tell all the story instead of just Shori's piece of it would have been welcome. I would have liked to have seen more of the worldview. However, Shori's story is immediately compelling and draws the reader in almost effortlessly.

The book was a fast read despite the number of pages involved. Shori is one of those characters readers can identify with almost immediately. There are some rough edges - regarding the age issue and a few other things - but Shori feels human and real.

Butler's fans will have to take this one to complete their collection, and vampire junkies will definitely want another, fresher look at their favorite species.

`Fledgling' was a brilliant book melding the vampire mythology with racism and mystery.

The story involves a vampire named Shori who looks like a black girl of about 10 or 11(but is really in her fifties) who wakes up in a cave with amnesia and is found by a 23 year old white male named Wright.

Wright helps Shori to find out about her origins, and why her home was destroyed; and, as the pieces slowly fall into place, what is discovered is that vampires also harbor some negative qualities that also harbor in some humans.

I've known of author Octavia Butler for the longest time, but I haven't really read her books, and I think what drew me to the book was the bold subject matter:

Octavia Butler has Shori and Wright share not only a symbiotic relationship, but a sexual relationship, which one of the older vampires comment on. Shori also shares a similar relationship with another female character in the story.

The vampires, called Ina, gain control over an individual by a bite (which is highly pleasurable instead of painful); the humans are able to live a few more years than normal humans, as well as disease-less...and the Ina get fed.

Interestingly, I mention that the humans are `controlled' by the Ina when bitten, but the Ina also make it possible for some humans to have a choice on whether or not they want to be in a symbiotic relationship or not.

I understand the symbiosis is a motif in Butler's work such as her short story `Bloodchild'--although, in that story the symbiotic relationship was not necessarily on a choice basis; and it was painful for the human characters, and chilling for the reader.

fledgling is a brilliant re-imagination of the vampire myth by one of the most creative writers in the genre of "speculative fiction."

The story begins with a young woman who wakes up, bruised and burned in a cave. The woman leaves a cave and discovers a razed village nearby and meets a young man who she bites, feeds on and then has sex with. One of the many unusual aspects of this tale are the details that the young woman appears physically as a pre-pubescent, dark-skinned female while the man is white and in his 20s.

Eventually we learn that the name of the young vampire is Shori Mathews and although she looks like a 10 or 11 year old she is actually 50-60 years old, which is young (but equivalent to an adolescent or teenager) for her kind, the long-lived symbiotic, vampiric species known as The Ina.

Butler weaves a suspenseful plot around these basic story ideas, as we learn more about the unusual nature of Ina culture and society while the book progresses to a pleasing conclusion.

Some of the idea this "genre fiction" novel grapples with are miscegenation, gender-stratified societies, the nature of addiction and racism. As always, in creative and enthralling ways Butler excites and intrigues the reader with her vision and insight of her final book. It's one of the sadnesses in life that we will not have the opportunity to experience any new works by this gifted author, one of the few African American females writing speculative fiction.

GRADE: A.

Butler's writing was always elegant and humane, even when describing inhuman subjects. In this case, it's a culture of modern-day vampires, living quietly with the little flocks of humans that they feed on. But, as always happens when people (in the broad sense) are involved, emotions both drive and hinder the people involved. And, as happens also, even people who are very close aren't always driven in the same direction or at the same time.

This, like many of Butler's stories, is about close groups, the kind that look equally like large families or small villages. They're assembled from disparate parts. The parts don't always fit well, at least not at first. As a result, the groupings often change the people involved, not always in ways that they want to be changed. There are other analogies to her earlier work, too, but this novel stands wonderfully well on its own.

In fact, it gave me a reading experience I haven't had in years. Once I really got into it, I just couldn't put it down, no matter what else demanded my attention. The central characters are complex and largely believable, even with a few unbelievable premises to get the story going. And, despite some very tragic events, there's a core of strength and optimism deep inside - another thing I see far too rarely.

//wiredweird

A young girl wakes up with no memory, serious burns, very serious skull injuries, an aversion to daylight, and some very strange needs and abilities. Gradually, she recovers some memory of how the world works and what she needs, but her memory of herself and her family is completely gone.

Shori is a 53-year-old vampire (still a young girl, by vampire standards), genetically modified to be able to wake and walk during daylight (but not enough to love it; she burns very easily), and the sole survivor of a vicious attack on her community, which consisted of her female relatives and their symbionts. With some help from a human man who stopped to pick up the lost little girl by the side of the road, she finds her father's family, and, after they're attacked, too, other vampires. Gradually she discovers both the reason for the attacks, and her own history and the history and culture of her people. As you'd expect of Butler, it's very well-written, and both logically worked out and emotionally compelling.

Recommended.

Octavia E. Butler has created a world of vampires that differs from my former experience with this fictitious species. She has softened the previous viciousness of a vampire (Ina) by making their victims willing vessels of nutrition--symbionts as she names them. Rather than being fearful and unwilling targets of vampires, Butler's "symbionts" are grateful and more than willing to be members of the Ina's family.

Butler uses amnesia as a method of informing her reader of the world of the Ina--which, by the way, draws the reader in as if a spell has been cast. As her protagonist, Shori Matthews, relearns about the life of the Ina, so too does her reader share in this education.

I found the book fascinating and a quick read...one that I was hesitant to put down until completing it.

As another reviewer mentions, however, the editing of this novel leaves a lot to be desired. There are numerous errors which do indeed "interrupt the flow" of the reading. I am an editor by profession and if I had let this book go on to be published with this many errors, I'm sure my supervisor would have had a serious talk with me. Shame on the editor for not catching all these errors! Octavia Butler and "The Fledgling" deserved better. However, I hope you won't let these editorial errors keep you from reading this book. It is worth the irritation of the poor editing to add this novel to your reading experience.