Lilith's Brood

This is the second time I re-read Lilith's Brood. Loved it many years ago and thought I would love to re-read it again to see what I might have missed. I am so glad I did, it is just as great as the first time.

I have read this in book forms. They are wonderfully written books. I sometime wish there were more like it. And more into the stories. Would to find out what is going to happen with Jodahs, Aaor, and their families.

This was a very creative series, but I just did not care for the story. It was very difficult to feel much for any of the characters. Without giving anything away, I also felt the "relations" between characters to be a distraction. Finally, the ending just did not seem like an ending. There was too much left unanswered.

This trilogy held me captive for four days. Well written, incredibly imaginative, engrossing and suspenseful. A totally new take on the post-apocalyptic theme. It's excellent sci-fi and also a commentary on homo sapiens' shortcomings. Definitely a must-read.

Didn't really work for me on a few levels. I slogged through it but was not captivated by the plot or people particularly. The world building was OK but seemed flawed.

The alien species that has been around for millions to billions of years seems to have far far more problems than they should at dealing with humans and the situations that crop up.

The human characters seemed flawed and petty in an over the top way.

I found I didn't have anyone to root for or care about, the aliens and humans were both disappointing in their behavior.

The whole trilogy was fantastic. The books do move somewhat slowly, but it serves the story well. Definitely some of the better serious SF (if you're looking for alien killin' action, you've come to the wrong place) I've read- interesting themes, compelling plot, and excellent style.

A fascinating look into our future as human beings on Earth or rather our rebirth. Beautifully written by the talented Octavia E. Butler. Imagine a world where humans have to start over. Would you be willing?

Book One is the best of the three. And even then, I just could not get a lot out of Octavia. I know who she is and had her on my list to read, felt this was a great purchase and gave her a whirl. I found books two and three growing more and more flat, and didn't even finish three.

I've read it four times now. Butler is a master at creating plausible funky intricate science fiction that's more non fiction in detail and possibility. I cried when she died because I believe no one will ever come close.

3.5*

Through war the people of Earth have destroyed the planet. The humans who survived are rescued by an alien race with the promise they will help them one day return to Earth. But at what cost?

Lilith’s Brood is a trilogy that takes us through this journey and explores issues of gender, race, hierarchy, and xenophobia. I enjoy Butler’s writing style, her ability to draw the reader in, and the way she gently leads the reader through this crazy journey. If I were to rate this book on the writing alone it would be a 5 star read. It was the bizarre world Butler created that I gave my overall rating a 3.5.

It's the end of the world!

I've actually read an Octavia Butler novel(series, really) and I didn't like it.

Lilith's Brood, which deals with the apocalyptic ending of Earth and its subsequent regeneration by a gene-splicing alien race bent on breeding destruction out of humanity, is ponderously slow in the places where it isn't inaccessibly weird. The characters are mostly unlikable and the central conflict of the series is too alienating (no pun intended) to resonate with the reader.

The concepts are all there, but I nearly gave up on the series a half-dozen times because it just isn't as compelling as all of Butler's other works.

This is a compilation of a three book series.

The story begins with the aftermath of a world-wide nuclear war on planet Earth. Mankind and all large mammals are destined to become extinct as radiation spreads across the globe.

A huge spaceship shows up in time to rescue some of the last Earth survivors. The survivors are placed in deep freeze for 250 years until Earth has a chance to renew itself. When they are revived, the survivors find that the price they have to pay for their lives (and their return to Earth) will be a sharing of their gene pool with their very advanced (and very ugly) alien benefactors (in the form of half-breed babies). Some of the humans submit to the aliens and some resist. That's the gist of the story.

The author is very good at envisioning the alien race, laying out their history and describing all their complex characteristics.....and following through with them (flawlessly) throughout the entire story.

The first book introduces the aliens and their spaceship, the reviving of the humans and the initial interaction between the two races.

The second and third books cover the introduction of colonies back on Earth and the interactions between humans, the half humans and the aliens.

I enjoyed the first book, but, as the story moved-on from there, I got bored with the repetitious descriptions of the highly charged emotions and healing characteristics of the aliens and the half-breeds. It became the same thing over and over and over. I was skimming so much at the end, that I skimmed right to the actual end of the series, and never even backtracked to see how the story ended (didn't much care by that time).

I give the author 4 stars for her imagination but only 2-2 1/2 stars for the storyline itself.

Butler could not have chosen a more repulsive image than worms—my worst phobia—for her aliens' tentacles. <Shudder> While her writing is, as always, excellent, I find the premise of this story to be very distasteful. I know we humans are a self-destructive race, but I could not agree with the idea that another, parasitic, race should deprive us of our free will and that humans could submit so readily just because they gave us pleasurable feelings. Let us destroy ourselves and our planet if we want to, but leave us our freedom to choose. The only reason I kept reading to the end was my expectation that the humans would somehow gain the upper hand and find a way to get rid of the aliens.
As always, Butler demonstrates tremendous imagination and originality in this series, but it's not my cup of tea.

"Awake" left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to shelf this one. Fatalistic views of humanity become tiresome and seem juvenile. I understand that this is a cold war novel, but I think Butler completely missed the point about mankind's propensity to violence.

There are two levels you can take this story. One is the surface level, where the alien viewpoint is that mankind's hierarchical structure and intelligence makes him self-destructive. Mankind reacts violently to things that are different. This causes humans to resist the aliens in useless struggles.

The other level is the "read between the lines" theme. There are many ways you can take this story: The aliens are white colonists, the aliens are our vision of god, the aliens are what's bad in people. Considering that there are so many differing interpretations of this theme, we have to conclude that it's more of a Rorschach test than a real commentary.

If we take the surface level themes, then this book is very offensive. In the alien's mind it's okay to rape, plunder and alter another race to suit your needs. We even get a "no doesn't really mean no" line from an alien that rapes a character. They literally have no respect for humanity, other than to make things physically (but not emotionally) painless.

If we search for different meaning, I fear that we may be over thinking the story. You can search for symbolism in any work, but that doesn't mean it was intentional.

As a story, "Awake" leaves you hanging. The aliens always win, the humans always fail, and Lilith seems so ineffectual, you wonder why the aliens just don't drug the humans up to get what they want as a standard procedure. The reader is given no emotional air to change the tone, or even so much as a glimmer of hope that the aliens might change their ways, or the humans escaping their grasp.

There are no twists or intrigue. Everything is at face value. This makes for a very boring read. Combined with the fatalistic views, the book becomes almost like punishment. There are times where I feel Butler's self loathing is dripping onto the page.

If you hold the viewpoint that humanity is hopeless and requires either divine or alien intervention to "fix," whatever the costs, then by all means read this. Personally I found no incite here.

Before you buy this book be very careful. The description is horrible for this book. It is not a new Octavia Butler novel but instead a collection of three of her novels. So if you already own "Dawn," "Adulthood Rites," and "Imago" do not order this book. I highly recommend the three novels -- they are wonderful examples of her work -- so if you do not already own them, this is a "better buy" if you really like Butler.

Here is my review for Dawn, the first section of this book. But it is pretty reflective of the 3 stories as a whole

Dawn is the first book of the Xenogenesis series and the first part of Lilith's Brood. Humanity has been all but destroyed after nuclear winter sets in after war between the United States and Russia. Lilith goes to sleep in South America and wakes up to find herself in isolation with unknown captors.....

Dawn is an incredibly creative book. From a setting/plot standpoint it is easily 4 stars. I dropped it to 3 stars because I felt that the second half of the book was rushed and should of been fleshed out with details. I then dropped it to 2 stars because I was utterly outraged at the ending.

Positives:
+ Unique and interesting plot.
+ Lilith is an interesting character. She is strong and outspoken with a tendency to 'flop' when the going gets tough.
+ Unique and interesting abductors (spoiler: aliens). Well thought out.
+ The book does a very good job of distinguishing the differences between the groups. Even late in the novel.

Negatives:
- The plot. Yes, I really liked it, but I was really hoping that the end was pointing in a different direction. The ending wipes out any misconceptions you might have... and Lilith's final response? Pitiful.
- The 'mass awakening room' and all the events therein needs major expanding on. Liliths feelings towards Nikanj really needed to be expanded upon better, especially as the book progressed.

Spoiler alert!! About halfway through "Dawn", I realized that this set of books is about aliens having sex with humans and the consequences to humans. Plenty of commentary about humans being duplicitous, conflicted, destructive to their core, yet amazing beautiful and seductive. Human resisters are men who don't want to participate in trios with aliens, and women who resent their fertility being destroyed. Humans being so hard-headed that they don't know what is good for them. Probably won't read any other books by Ms. Butler, and would not recommend them to anyone. Save your money, or if you must read this trilogy, borrow from your local library.

I was excited to get this trilogy because it was priced well and was from an author who was quite unique for sci-fi. I enjoyed the first part of Dawn but then the story took a dark turn. I am not sure how to make my comment without spoiling the one aspect of the story; however, it isn't a huge spoil. The dark turn comes once the aliens start to make connections to the humans. They do so through forced sexual contact. The aliens are capable of giving humans sexual pleasure. In one part, a character very clearly did not want that kind of contact but the alien gave it anyway because it believed the human really wanted it, despite the human saying no. Humans saying "no" does not matter. I'm not being prudish, either. It's very clear in the book that the aliens force themselves on the humans. They'll drug them or just grab them in a way that makes it difficult to turn away. Likewise, the main female character, Lilith, let these events happen. I found her to be a non-hero, a bystander. I was disappointed. I haven't read the other two books as a result.

Remember all those books where the snooty know-it-all aliens come down to Earth thinking they know better than all of us dumb humans until we prove with our unpredictable creativity and perseverance that aliens shouldn't make the mistake of underestimating us?

This isn't one of those books.

It doesn't necessarily take a dim view of human nature but its not shy about pointing out our weak spots either, essentially going with the premise that the best hope that humanity has is to let the human race die on the vine and allow its best traits (like, um, cancer) to be salvaged by intermingling with another alien race that has learned the valuable lesson about how if you want to stick around as a civilization for a while then maybe focusing all your resources on building giant missiles to obliterate and irradiate the landscape may not be the brightest idea for the long term.

But since humanity hasn't met a good idea it can't help but ignore (or do the exact opposite of) it isn't long before the "oops" button is pressed and we proceed to wipe ourselves out by bathing the Earth in cleansing nuclear fire. And unlike "On the Beach" where everyone who survived gets time to think about their mistakes and indulging in previously forbidden pleasures before gradually and inevitably succumbing to radiation poisoning . . . apparently everyone just dies. Now, in case you're thinking "Um, spoilers?" this all happens before the book even starts and thus we learn it about the same time as the recently revived Lilith, who was hiking somewhere in the Andes when the sky started to rain fire on on high. Upon awakening she's confronted with a frightening being with weird tentacles and instead of doing the logical thing and assuming she's in a Lovecraft story (although, to be fair, being a minority protagonist in a Lovecraft story would be a feat in itself) she goes the unproductive route and freaks out. Eventually the aliens acclimate her to their presence and introduce themselves as the Oankali, who have managed to save the handful of survivors like herself from the desolate wasteland that Earth has become. Which sounds like good news except while the Oankali are benevolent and mean well they're also not totally doing this out of the pure goodness of their hearts. Their intent is to intermingle human genes (due to their ability to easily manipulate genetic material) with theirs with an eye toward interbreeding and in that way further the evolution of their race.

And THAT'S where we start. What Butler then does over the course of the three books in this series is trace the path of that merging, how humanity deals with the new status quo (the only way to breed is through the Oankali) and how the offspring deals with their human and alien sides. Along the way she does her best to look at all the arguments equally and while it seems clear throughout that the Oankali generally have the moral high ground (if nothing else, if not for their intervention all of humanity would be a pile of smoldering cinders gently blowing in the wind) she doesn't make them right all the time and some of the best moments of the three books are when the Oankali are forced to reconsider their stances or have to admit that the humans have a legitimate gripe about how they're being treated (I think this comes across best in the second book but we'll get there).

The first book "Dawn" probably feels the most typically SF, with the post-post apocalyptic themes and the First Contact concept both familiar areas for exploration. What sets this book apart from others that work along similar lines is her handling of the Oankali, who come across as extremely alien to the point where the reader is often as confused as Lilith as to what the heck is going on (they have three sexes and a fairly bizarre reproductive process). The plans the Oankali have for humanity are already set in place and they're not about to go back on what they intend, leaving Lilith to either go along with it for a chance to get back to Earth or spend the rest of her days not doing all that much of anything. What makes this book interesting is the exploration of who the Oankali actually are and the constant tension between what Lilith wants and what the aliens want her to do, and the gradual understanding they both have of each other. As such it feels the most conventional of the three books, especially when Lilith has to eventually marshal other humans into something resembling a colony so they get a chance to live on Earth again.

With all that said, the Oankali often come across as unbearably smug at points during "Dawn", making you wish that Lilith could prove them wrong just once and wipe that sometimes condescending tone off their tentacles (although despite them being right pretty much constantly she never uses them to lecture the reader on the faults of humanity, perhaps understanding that the best way to bring that point across is to simply pick up a newspaper). Some of that is corrected in "Adulthood Rites", where we find that the Oankali plan has progressed quite a bit, with a chunk of humanity living with the aliens and making sweet alien hybrid babies with them while another chunk has termed themselves Resisters and are living as off the grid as they can, sometimes stealing babies because they can't have any of their own, creating an uneasiness that suggests the Oankali may not have worked out all the kinks in their flawless plan for humanity. Lilith is still around but this book focuses on her son Akin, a hybrid who looks like a baby but talks like a precocious teenager and is starting to get tentacles all over his body. Being that all babies seem to be wearing shirts that say "Steal me please" he gets taken and a lot of the book is him learning about Resister culture and how it makes him reconsider whether the Oankali view is maybe a bit too tough love.

Intellectually this book worked the best for me because while the Oankali are often still "right", Akin questions whether they're being too black and white about things, especially when it comes to having the Resisters just live somewhere else and breed to their hearts' content. To their view they're suffering unnecessarily while the Oankali feel that they're going to simply wipe themselves out again so letting them perpetuate themselves is like letting a drug addict try heroin again and lying to yourself that its all going to turn out just fine, so it becomes a moral issue of standing by and letting it happen. So while there's not a lot of action in the book, Butler gives you quite a bit to chew on, forcing you to consider the argument from the alien perspective while also giving you a clue on why its so hard for them to see matters our way.

But the further you get from people the harder the books get and "Imago" is probably going to be the hardest to get into for most people. Our protagonist this time is Jodahs, a hybrid that winds up becoming the third Oankali sex, the Ooloi, and thus a lot of the book is from the perspective of someone who isn't male or female and is trying to actively figure out what that means (to Jodahs credit, so is everyone else). This one delves the most into the sexuality of the aliens and what it means for them (this may be the first book that deals with both sensual themes and tentacles that isn't undeniably creepy) and as such it feels like the plot is more secondary to detailing Jodahs experiences and how it ultimately needs humans to further its own development. But because the focus is so much more on the aliens and they are so strange the stakes don't often feel as high and there are times when it feels like a repeat of the second book with more sexual themes (which could be the point). To me where it succeeds best is how it explores people's reactions to something that not only is very alien but also seems to understand them extremely well, and seeing how that attitude evolves over time (or doesn't evolve, in the case of some people).

Taken as a whole the series is a remarkable achievement. While Butler's other books have dealt with future themes and the development of humanity, its the introduction of the Oankali that stands out, as she gives us an alien culture that does feel alien while bringing up quite a few issues related to gender and sexuality, probably one of the few books since Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness" to tackle those topics in depth and I'd say Butler goes even further thanks to the introduction of that third gender. It can be tough to wrap your head around the themes at times as the Oankali aren't the most dynamic of characters for long stretches (when you start out right where is there to go except being . . . righter?) but if you like your SF more concerned with ideas than spacemen finding new ways to shoot each other out of airlocks then it may be worth a look.

I love sci-fi and fantasy and this was too much for me. I think I could have even went along with the alien-human sex if the character development had been there to help. The characters are flat as paper and the story leaves waaay too much unexplained, untouched. This book reminded me of a 20% complete rough draft that might have had potential had the author put some effort in to flesh the details out and involve the reader. Waste of money.

I discovered Xenogenesis many years ago after combing my local library's science fiction section. I'd never heard of Octavia E. Butler, nor did I realize until much later that this was a trilogy and also went by the collective title "Lilith's Brood". What I didn't know back then really didn't (and doesn't) matter, all that mattered to me was that Xenogenesis piqued my interest, and then very quickly I fell in love with this book. I tend to think of this trilogy as just 1 book since that was my perception when I discovered them.

I own both print and Kindle copies.
3 or 4 years after finding Xenogenesis I purchased my own print copy on March 19, 2011. I looked for a Kindle copy as well, though at the time I couldn't find one. I did find and purchase a Kindle copy in September 9, 2015, under the collective title "Lilith's Brood".

Print books cause debilitating headaches and migraines where reading on my Kindle e-readers causes very minimal head pain. Xenogenesis is one of those books that is worth the pain, though it's great that I don't have to endure that pain thanks to my Kindle copy.

Unnecessarily long character names that are irrelevant to the story. No connection or feelings are made by the reader to the characters and the rambling throughout makes one want to bang their head on something hard to alleviate the torture that is, reading this book. If I see the words "sensory tentacles, metamorphosis, taste, strength arms, ooloi or Oankali" again I'll lose it. The book was awful and rambled on and on about the same s*** up until the disappointing end. 750+ pages of describing something that could have taken 10 pages. I was expecting more.

Long, boring, dragging novels by the late Octavia butler. maybe its just me but so far I have only read two novels by MS. butler and I was not impressed at all to say the least. but despite being disappointed twice by a writer who many consider to be one of the best of her time, I will give her other novels a chance.

Butler creates an engaging story, with speculative hypothesis and deductions, the hallmark of good sci-fi. She uses the novel as a vehicle to offer some analysis of our human society and offers the argument that we have an inherent flaw in our DNA that she calls "The Human Contradiction." Through an alien race's interaction with humans she explores the evolution of human societies and what it means to be a human even on an individual level. She doesn't pretend to have the penultimate answer and leaves a lot of the interpretation of her coined phrase to her audience and that engenders wonderful discussion among her fans, of which I am now one.

For example, you can take Butler's comments, and play them against Asimov's Foundation trilogy and distinguish or reconcile her themes with Asimov's themes in talking about failings in human societies, and his discussions of what it is to be human made with use of an android character in the role of Butler's aliens.

The nuts and bolts of writing are well mastered. She succinctly explains alien environments without numbing detail such that I can use my own mind to color in between the lines she has drawn with her prose. Her story teller pacing is spot on. She uses a first person narrative that moves between moment by moment accounts when needed to discuss pivotal plot moments, and by historical overview when events need to move along in the timeline.

The book has left a mark worldwide, and has fans worldwide. In 2014 a Dutch symphonic metal rock group "Delain" fronted by Charlotte Wessels, has named and built a record album themed around the phrase "The Human Contradiction" (Delain 2014 http://www.the store.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=delain+the+human+contradiction&sprefix=delain%2Caps%2C202 ).

I thought the trilogy is worth reading.

Lilith's Brood is in fact a trilogy (the individual books are "Dawn", "Adulthood Rites", and "Imago") and in it, Octavia E. Butler builds a world with a mastery usually reserved for residents of Olympus. I find some science fiction stories that aim to create a new universe lean too heavily on the details, and end up filling pages with descriptions of the bolts that hold the ship together that read as dry as instruction manuals. What I loved about this series is that Bulter found a balance that I really enjoyed: she shared enough specifics about the characters and setting that I could picture it easily and vividly, but not so much that I found myself flipping past a dozen pages in search of the next time someone does something.

Even though it was written almost two decades ago, and is set centuries in the future, these stories touch on a number of deeply timely themes such as genetic engineering, race, definitions of family and love, and personal identity. But Butler doesn't hit you over the head with those themes. They're ever-present without being preachy, meaning I could keep my focus squarely on the absorbing characters and story.

I gulped up all three of the books in this series in one go, and if there's a piece of advice I have from that experience it's -- don't do that! Take a little break between novels. A significant amount of time passes between each story, so I could have used some time myself to digest what I'd just read and get ready to speed forward into the next piece. The first book ("Dawn") is still my favourite, but if you enjoy that one I'd say the entire trilogy is definitely worth a read.

This is her famous trilogy. I have read these novels many times. Once or twice I gave my paperbacks away to strangers to read. Of course, I always purchase replacements since I must have them on my shelves. These are modern classics that all of our young adults should read. The characters are very well developed and highly memorable. You will easily see yourself among them as you try to figure out what you might do in the complicated situations that become every humans' daily life. Her worldbuilding is carefully drawn and so very entertaining. This is superb writing. The author is no longer living (I did get to chat with her once.) but I believe that she would have been very pleased to see how well appreciated her writings have become and how seriously we took her visions for us.

Now HERE's the kind of book (I bought it in this trilogy omnibus binding as well) you sit down to read a couple chapters, maybe because a friend has recommended Butler, maybe because of a book review or because her tragic death got her written up in your local paper-- it got recommended to me by a brilliant professor whose class I foolishly didn't get around to taking -- and find yourself feverishly turning pages at 5 a.m., desperately hoping the sun stays down long enough for you to get to the end of the second, or in my case third, book.

And now that we're past that tortured sentence, some ground rules. No, if you've never read science fiction before, it's not like what you THINK science fiction is like: check out Ursula LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, Samuel R. Delany, Harlan Ellison, James Tiptree Jr., Marge Piercy, or the many other SF writers who use the genre as a literature for deep exploration into what it is to be human and what it is NOT to be human. If you're trapped in the genre ghetto and fear (as I once did, shamefully, long after I had a million reasons to know better) that there's something cheesy or wishy-washy about Butler, what with her other books about new religions and African myths and whatnot, all I have to say is GET OVER IT, because her speculative thinking cuts you like a knife and leaves you shivering, and because unlike most SF authors and most mainstream authors, she has an overwhelming sense of the realities of everyday people building relationships (and breaking them) in adversity. The conflicts between people are very real, no one is motivated just by a single issue, and a lot of things come down to slightly unpleasant compromise.

Now, to Butler's work, and to the novels at hand. Her books almost always have an intense fascination with the dynamics of power in ordinary relationships, but because this is SF, those "ordinary relationships" become something very strange indeed. Can love exist not just between unequals, but in an inequality that is never going away or even shifting into the background for an instant? What power do the dominated have over those who control or coerce them? What happens when someone needs you more than you need them? Can assimilation ever be fair? Are our choices in these areas even our own? Now, the kicker is this: whatever grotesque-seeming (yet strangely appealing) relationship exists in a Butler book, you suddenly realize that _every_ relationship, no matter how forcefully you try to make it equal, has at least a hint of these issues unacknowledged, bubbling beneath the surface. Butler simply uses every trick of SF to expand them to fill your whole field of view, so you CANNOT turn away. And for that she's a great thinker, and a visionary, and a great writer.

Finally, to the books themselves, which are still my favorite Butler and the epitome of all I've just talked about:

DAWN introduces the Oankali, a three-sexed race of beings that finds the burning husk of planet Earth (nuclear war) and decides to bring us back to life. We see this all through the eyes of Lilith Ayapo, a woman remade by them and who, of any humans, does the most to work with the Oankali. She learns that the Oankali have decided we are too destructive for our intelligence, with a kind of behavioral suicide built into our genes; the only solution is to tack on some Oankali genes and produce a race different enough to survive. (Over the series, we learn that the resultant species is far more Oankali than humans ever expected, and that actually the Oankali have an overpowering lust -- and I mean that literally, because this one of the only books ever to treat alien, and alien-human, sexuality in any way other than laughable -- to merge with every species they meet. But these are slow revelations.)

The novel follows Lilith as she serves as a kind of ambassador to the rest of the humans, and it follows her alternate interest and disgust as the level of control the Oankali intend have over us becomes ever more apparent, and how much control they already have used on Lilith to predispose her to get with the program.

Now most series like this would lead to a rebellion, and while there IS a rebellion, the work is never from their point of view. The pure humans are genetic dead-ends, left sterile by the Oankali but given long life to ease the transition. The other two novels follow children of the merging -- the first male born, and then the first ooloi, the third sex -- letting us see both their own struggles of self-definition in a divided world, and guiding us through an ever-more Oankali-shaped Earth, the only shape that can survive. Our human dilemmas give way to Oankali dilemmas, both practical ones and the moral problems of dealing with us humanely and honestly. Again, this is a common Butler theme: we as humans cannot survive long-term as we are, and what COULD survive might frighten us even more than just giving up. But those who do will have their own wants and needs, and they will have a whole universe in which to satisfy them. Unnerving, yes. But also entrancing, seductive, and a powerful look at the price of assimilation and the terms of survival.

LILITH'S BROOD is one of those books that's so amazing and epic that I can't even. As in, I can't even form a complete sentence, let alone maintain a coherent flow between paragraphs and ideas. And so this is where I break out the bullet points.

* Warning: major spoilers ahead! Also, trigger warning for discussions of rape and violence. *

* The books in LILITH'S BROOD - DAWN, ADULTHOOD RITES, and IMAGO - were originally published as the XENOGENESIS trilogy. Definitely pick up a copy of LILITH'S BROOD - it's easier and less expensive than buying the books individually, and you'll be hooked after the first installment anyway!

* The basic premise is this: some time in the unspecified future, earth is decimated by nuclear war. Though it primarily involves northern, industrialized nations, the fallout results in massive casualties and renders the planet uninhabitable. As humanity lingers on the brink of extinction, the few remaining survivors are "rescued" by an alien species. The Oankali transport the human refugees to their ancient ship, where they're kept in a state of suspended animation as the Oankali work to repair their wounds and rejuvenate earth. A century and a half later, the Oankali begin "awakening" humans so that they can prepare for their homecoming. Among them is Lilith Iyapo, an anthropology student from New Mexico. She was in vacationing in the Andes, grieving the loss of her husband and young son to a drunk driver, when the war started. (Many of the survivors are from the southern hemisphere - South America and Africa - resulting in great racial and ethnic diversity among the characters. Lilith, who has dark skin and curly, "cloud-like" black hair, is African American.) Lilith becomes a sort of "pioneer," choosing, awakening, and teaching survival skills to multiple groups of humans before she's allowed to return to earth herself.

* Though vaguely humanoid (at least in their current form), the humans still find the Oankali dreadfully - repulsively - alien. (So much so that they must be acclimated to their rescuers slowly over time, usually with multiple awakenings and the use of drugs to dull the sense of revulsion.) Bipedal with two arms, two legs, a torso and a head, the Oankali are hairless; their earth-toned skin (in colors of gray, brown, and mossy green) is covered in hundreds of slug-like appendages called "sensory tentacles." Through these, the Oankali are able to communicate with one another on a neurochemical level, sharing thoughts, pictures, feelings, memories, and even genetic information almost instantaneously, and with one or more people simultaneously. While they're also capable of verbal communication - they can speak, and are proficient in countless human languages - the Oankali prefer to "hook in" to one another's nervous systems. This is also how they control the ship, a living, organic creature created especially for intergalactic travel by the Oankali.

* As strange as they are in appearance, the humans find the Oankali's family structure even harder to accept. Each reproductive/parental unit is comprised of three individuals: a male, a female, and a third, "genderless" gender called an "ooloi." In addition to sensory tentacles, the ooloi develop a pair of sensory arms during their second metamorphosis. (The first metamorphosis is universal to all Oankali, and it's during this time that children learn which gender they'll become. More on that later!) Located under their "regular" arms, the sensory arms house the ooloi's sexual organs, through which they can access another person's nervous system at a much deeper level, sharing both pain and pleasure with and through their male and female partners.

The ooloi also have a special organ called a "yashi," their "organ of manipulation." Located in the space between their two hearts, ooloi use the yashi to store and mix genetic material. It's through the ooloi that reproduction takes place: it (meaning the ooloi; see below) takes a sample of its partners' DNA and then "creates" a child manually, by manipulating, mixing, and matching their genetic material. The only contribution the ooloi makes to its child's being is the yashi.

* Strangely, the ooloi prefer to be referred to as "it," a pronoun commonly (mistakenly, oppressively) reserved for nonhuman animals and (correctly) inanimate objects. In fact, it's a source of great offense when humans - usually men - insist on misgendering ooloi as males, as they often do.

* Sexual dimorphism is reversed in the Oankali, with the females being significantly larger and stronger than the males, in order to protect their offspring. Females carry and give birth to the children, but they're conceived by the ooloi. As such, the Oankali don't "have sex," or at least not in the way humans understand it. Males and females don't engage in direct physical contact; rather, all contact takes place through the ooloi. Using its sensory arms, the ooloi positions itself between its male and female partners and connects with each person's nervous system simultaneously, thus sharing sensations between the two. As skilled as it is in manipulating the bodies of Oankali and humans alike, the ooloi is capable of stimulating great pleasure - and is prohibited from consciously causing pain, as the ooloi inevitably shares in whatever its partners are feeling.

* Children are typically born in groups of three, with each individual's development occurring relative to that of its siblings. Initially genderless, Oankali children may have a sense of what gender they'll become - male, female, or ooloi - but don't know for sure until their metamorphosis. In most cases, each cluster results in a child belonging to each gender. The male and female - called "paired siblings" - usually go on to become mates, while the ooloi will leave its family in search of an unrelated pair of siblings with which to mate.

* Returning to the human survivors, the Oankali's motivations in rescuing them aren't altogether altruistic, as we learn over the course of the trilogy. A self-described "trading" species, the Oankali saved us in order to save our genetic material - both by sampling, storing, and using our DNA on a molecular level and, in the longer term, by mating with us to create a new, more evolved species. Ostensibly given a choice upon their return to earth - mate with the Oankali or join the villages of resisters - the humans' will is not quite free: in the course of their genetic tinkering, the ooloi sterilized the remaining humans, a process that will only be reversed when a human bonds with an ooloi and accepts its Oankali mates. Thus, life in a resister village is one of stasis, with no new generations to teach, parent, and love. Nor is it easy to resist the ooloi - not only do they give off strong pheromones, but their touch is dangerously seductive - chemically addictive, even. In such encounters the idea of "consent" is dubious at best. (Again, more on this later.)

* These new, blended family units consist of five individuals: an ooloi and its two sets of male/female human and Oankali mates. The children receive a mix of all five parents' DNA (minus the ooloi but plus its yashi), and can be either human- or Oankali-born.

* Interestingly, the subject of homosexuality - if it even exists among the Oankali - never arises, nor does what same-sex human pairs might mean to ooloi reproduction. Perhaps the ooloi have neutralized or altered the combination of genes responsibility homosexuality, believing it counterproductive? That said, human men who mate with the Oankali face blatant homophobia - not just because the ooloi are misgendered as male, but also because they're said to "treat all mankind as [their] woman."

* The titular Lilith is one of the first newly awakened humans to enter into such a relationship with the Oankali. Aboard the ship, she's introduced to Nikanj, an "adolescent" ooloi who's about to undergo its second metamorphosis, and its mates, Dichaan and Ahajas. While she helps it grow into an adult ooloi, it teaches her about the Oankali and prepares her to awaken and teach other humans. Eventually the family settles earth together and, over the roughly 60-year-plus span of the trilogy - for in addition to ridding humans of disease and defects, the Oankali have also lengthened their natural lifespan - Lilith has multiple children with her Oankali and human partners (at first the deceased Joseph and, later, former resister Tino).

* Because human males are considered especially dangerous, unpredictable, and domineering - the very essence of what the Oankali call the "human contradiction," intelligence coupled with hierarchical tendencies resulting in destruction and violence - and the ooloi, with their ability to manipulate life for better or worse, are also thought a risky investment, the first generations of human-born construct children are all female.

Naturally, Lilith is the mother to both firsts: thirty years after the conclusion of DAWN, ADULTHOOD RITES sees her child Akin (mistakenly) develop into the "prototype" human-born construct male. Kidnapped as a baby and held in a resister village for several years (the residents of which include Tate and Gabriel, former shipmates and friends of his mother), Akin has a special affinity for the resister humans. His time living among them, coupled with his human ancestry, has fostered within him an empathy with their desire to live and reproduce free of Oankali interference. On the cusp of adulthood, Akin returns to the ship where he learns to care for living systems. Eventually he becomes an advocate for the humans, convincing the Oankali to build a human settlement on Mars, to which the resister humans will be relocated, restored fertility and all.

Many generations (and at least thirty years) later comes Jodhas and IMAGO. Another one of Nikanj's "mistakes," Jodah's shocked to learn during its first metamorphosis that it's becoming ooloi rather than male, as everyone had assumed. Construct ooloi are especially dangerous; capable of altering life at the molecular level, their unique skills can quickly become dangerous if not properly controlled. Rather than face "house arrest" aboard the ship, Jodah and its family go into exile on earth.

During its solitary wandering, Jodah encounters Jesusa and Tomas, a pair of fertile resister humans. Part of a horridly inbred resister village - all fertile residents are descended from First Mother, a fifteen-year-old who was pregnant when the war broke out, and her own son - Jesusa and Tomas suffer from neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow all along the body's nerve tissues. The siblings were to be married off and bred against their will, only to give birth to another generation of painfully diseased humans.

Ooloi are especially drawn to cancers and other human diseases that are characterized by uncontrolled cellular growth, as ooloi are able to harness this power and put it to use, for example, by regenerating lost limbs. In short order, Jodah heals them and convinces Jesusa and Tomas to become his mates. But, when his paired sibling Aaor - now an ooloi like Jodahs - becomes sick over its lack of human mates, the four decide to revisit the village from which Jesusa and Tomas escaped in order to find humans willing to mate with Aaor.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the escapees/alien invaders are captured - but cunning as it is, Jodahs manages to convince the resisters to surrender. Though the ending of the trilogy is somewhat open-ended, Butler leaves us on a hopeful note: just as Akin was able to bend the Oankali's will and establish a human colony on Mars, perhaps another member of Lilith's brood will be able to convince them to spare earth as well.

* While the Oankali never lie - they're incapable, as their body chemistry gives them away to fellow Oankali - they do tell quite a many half truths. One of these concerns their plans for earth. Whereas human resisters are led to believe that the Oankali wish to settle there permanently, in reality the planet's resources will be used as fuel and nourishment for their living ships upon their departure. What they leave will be a barren rock, consisting only of that which the ships are incapable of digesting. In other words, they restored earth only in order to devour it - and "saved" humanity only in order to transform it. Hence the scare quotes around "rescued" in the first bullet point.

* If I had to describe LILITH'S BROOD in one word, "rapey" would be it. To begin, there are a number of obvious rape attempts. Lilith herself thwarts four rapes that we know of, three of which are assaults on her own body (including one gang rape). On earth, the sexual trafficking of women is commonplace: women are kidnapped, bought, sold, and traded, oftentimes against their will. One such victim is literally raped to death. As we see with Jesusa and Tomas, some communities also arrange marriages and encourage rape for reproductive purposes. Much like old earth, new earth is a terribly frightening and dangerous place for human women and children.

And yet despite their insistence on nonviolence, the Oankali often exhibit as little respect for consent as their human counterparts. Theirs is just a kinder, gentler form of rape. (That was sarcasm, people.) Ooloi emit undetectable (to human noses) but potent chemicals that serve to bond its mates to it. Initially, a human bonded to an ooloi will find herself repulsed by other ooloi - so attuned she has become to her own. The process is complete even before the human realizes what's happening - and the ooloi certainly doesn't give any warning. (A lie of omission being the only lie an ooloi can tell. Or not tell, as it were.) When Lilith first meets Jesusa and Tomas, they talk of staying with Jodahs only long enough to see it through its metamorphosis; little do they know that, if they hang around that long, they'll become addicted to its biochemistry. In such cases, anything but a short separation from the ooloi becomes physically and psychologically painful. Knowing this, Lilith finds herself torn between a mother's love for her child - and the loyalty she feels for resister humans, even if she no longer counts herself as one.

Likewise, two humans mated with an ooloi may only experience physical contact - sexual or otherwise - through the ooloi. Along with pheromones that draw partners to it, the ooloi also secretes chemicals that engender in its mates repulsion for physical contact with members of the opposite sex. The consequences are slightly less deleterious in the Oankali, since male/female mates are also siblings and may not desire sexual contact; but in human pairs, this often creates an unbearable tension. Oankali-mated humans have not lost the desire to touch their human partners sexually - to engage in sexual relations in the absence of the ooloi, even - but rather, that desire has been thwarted. Worst of all, it isn't inevitable or even necessary: the ooloi has the ability to turn this particular chemical on and off, but they almost universally choose to keep it turned on at all times. Presumably this is because the ooloi doesn't want to find itself excluded from any pleasurable activities, which makes it a terribly selfish lover at best. Male/female human partners are left touching one another's hair (dead cells don't feel pain) as the only means of providing physical comfort or closeness.

Thus, we have a creature that has no compunctions about binding two or more individuals to it via the use of addictive chemicals, and then robbing those individuals of the ability to touch anyone else in a sexual manner, their own partners included. Lovely.

To make matters worse, ooloi have a nasty habit of overriding verbal objections in favor of biochemical ones: the classic "your mouth says no, but your body says yes" victim-blaming spiel. In a series of disturbing incidents, we see Nikanj coerce Joseph into a sexual encounter in such a manner - blatantly ignoring his many verbal "nos" - and then impregnate Lilith with his sperm without her knowledge or consent. Nikanj "knew" that she was ready to bear a child - her body told it! - and that was all the consent it needed.

Due to humans' strange and unfamiliar genetic makeup, ooloi find us especially fascinating. In fact, this attraction can best be described as a sort of fetish. There are multiple examples of ooloi "blaming" humans for its uncontrollable lust; when this desire is coupled with rape-like behavior, as it always is, it amounts to little more than victim-blaming. "We just can't help ourselves." Since there aren't enough human mates to go around, the Oankali have taken to breeding more on the ship; even as children, these humans are described as "spoken for." Just as with the humans, the Oankali also practice forms of arranged/child marriage and sexual trafficking - the only difference is, a chemical addiction causes the ooloi's victims to take pleasure in their victimization.

* In accordance with their nonviolence, the Oankali are vegetarians. Though they populate the earth with nonhumans animals and allow the humans to consume them (against their vehement and sometimes dramatic objections), meat is not allowed on the ship - a topic that results in no small amount of anger amongst the newly-awakened humans. (One especially unpleasant woman demands meat and then breaks into a violent temper tantrum when she's denied it.)

However, readers should be careful not to conflate vegetarianism with an animal rights/liberation perspective: the Oankali way of life is emblematic of animal welfare as opposed to animal rights. That is to say, the Oankali believe that it's acceptable to exploit animals (the ship, for example) as long as it's done in a "humane" way. Ostensibly they don't even respect the rights of the humans they rescued (see the passage on rape above), let alone the nonhumans they (re-)created for human use. And later, Oankali use: recall that the departing ships are to ingest everything edible on earth, leaving it a barren rock stripped of life. This isn't even consistent with vegetarianism, let alone the ethical veganism demanded by an AR/L philosophy.

The concepts of "violence," "death," and "destruction" don't even necessarily carry the same meanings in Oankali culture as they do for humans. To the Oankali, the greatest evil is destruction - destruction of genetic material and information. The person to whom it belongs is almost irrelevant. Thus, it's acceptable to feed countless earth-dwelling animals to their ship, as long as the animals' genetic blueprints are preserved. It's less about the individual than the species - again, a welfarist position.

This is also reflected - horrifically so - when Lilith is nearly raped by the very first human she meets after her awakening. Though Nikanj and its mates intervene before she can be violated - but not beaten unconscious - the human's Oankali family allows it to happen. More than that: they expected that it would happen, and didn't care. Lilith was just a means to an end and, as long as her genetic material remained intact, no harm, no foul.

In many ways, humans aren't that different than livestock to the Oankali - we're kept, bred, experimented upon, and cloned at their will. At one point Lilith remarks: "It's a good thing your people don't eat meat." - lest they consume humans. In many ways, the Oankali do just that.

* In spite - or perhaps because of - some of these more uncomfortable details, LILITH'S BROOD is an intriguing, engaging read. Butler touches upon a number of difficult issues, including sexuality, gender, consent, rape, violence, and the human condition in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. This is the first of Butler's books I've read, and I can't wait to dig into another. Truly a feat.

I read Dawn, the first book in this omnibus that encompasses the entire Xenogenesis trilogy back in the early nineties. Oh how I wish I had kept the paperback with the portrayal of Lilith Iyapo as an the storeian white woman as they are now worth money and were always worthy of interest. When I first read Dawn I had no idea that Octavia Butler was black or that she was considered a pioneer in African American sci-fi. I did figure out that Lilith was a 'person of color' as the ponderous language of the time put it, glanced at the cover in bewilderment and kept on reading because I was primarily reading the book for good science fiction and I was not disappointed as Dawn and the trilogy it starts is some of my favorite science fiction ever.

Lilith Iyapo has awoken several times in a place with invisible interrogators, a place so strange that she isn't certain what to think but knows that whatever is going on is beyond her ability to contemplate. It turns out that the remnants of humanity have been gathered by an alien culture, a culture that survives by 'trading' DNA with the species it comes across, always creating an entirely new species. These aliens intend to create a new species with the mix of their DNA with humanity's and humanity has no choice but to adjust. The trilogy is about that adjustment.

On the surface the Xenogenesis trilogy is about acceptance of differences, but there are much deeper and darker contemplations here than whether humanity is doomed to love or hate based on visual differences. Humanity may very well be doomed by its propensity toward violence and hierarchies. As simplistic as that may seem on the surface, try to imagine a human culture without these traits. Even when violence is curbed the hierarchy still exists. Whether this is all or always bad is something to think about while reading these wonderful novels that don't cheat plot and character in service of the ideas put forth.

Another reviewer opined that to enjoy these novels he would need to be relieved of his testicles. He imagined a novel where the humans fought the evil aliens who would take their very genetics from them. This would have been a great adventure novel written that way. But Octavia Butler gives us something different and altogether richer, a book where the people really are completely powerless for much of the action. First they are rescued by beings with powers beyond the scope of imagination much less knowledge. Then they are in suspended animation for centuries, awoken for short periods to be studied and altered. Then they are awake but on a ship, a place from which there is no escape. And finally they are chemically, pheremonally and emotionally bonded to their captors. In spite of all of this, humans do try to escape and rebel but their choices and capabilites are severely limited. Now, imagine how people would cope in that situation, a situation where the swashbuckling, ass-kicking human hierarchy didn't have a snowball's chance. And that is what makes Butler such an interesting writer and the Xenogenesis trilogy a group of novels that I read for the story but savor for the ideas.

In short, Lilith's Brood is a wonderful trilogy that can be analyzed or just enjoyed as the wonderful science fiction epic by a gifted writer that it is. Fans of science fiction and speculative fiction shouldn't miss this or any of Butler's ouevre. Highly recommended.

I only recently discovered Octavia E. Butler's books and now I can't read enough of them! I loved Lilith's Brood--the characters (even the non-human ones) are so well drawn that they will stay in your thoughts. The universe she created is totally plausible and the actions and reactions of her characters are totally in line with who they are (whether human or non-human). The conflicts they face are all believable.

One mark of good science fiction is that it always reflects back on our society and Lilith's Brood will have you questioning what it means to be human.

Octavia Butler recently died in Seattle. Her passing is a great loss to literature in general and science fiction in particular. She once said that she didn't really write `Science Fiction' as such because she did know much about science. In fact her books do tackle some of the big themes of SciFi, but are not in the `hard science' genre. Her themes were race, sexuality, and the nature of `reality.'

Ms Butler was dyslexic, [...], above average in height, African American, and a genius. She lived as a hermit in the middle of a major city and created a body of work which stands with the very best. She won both Hugo and Nebula Awards several times and the MacArthur Foundation `Genius' Award in 1995. I think she is one of the few SciFi writers to have received this recognition.

I am posting this review on each of the Xenogenesis Trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) sites as well as the volume where they are collected; `Lilith's Brood.' All are excellent and recommended.

In this series Ms Butler took on sexuality and the nature of `humanity' in a startling new way. She gradually takes the reader from the perspective of a `human,' specifically an Earthling who encounters an alien race to the perspective of the `alien,' specifically the descendent of interbreeding between humans and aliens who is now the `human' and sees Earthlings as the aliens.

Ms Butler skills are so great that this change in perspective goes so slowly that the reader is largely unaware until it has been accomplished. While some will dither about which of Ms Butler's novels are her `greatest,' few will argue that this series is superb. I have read nearly all of Ms Butler's works and enjoyed them all. I think she was one of the finest writers of speculative fiction in recent history and will miss her work.

... you can't, even if you could imagine what you might be like if you looked a lot different. That is what, as far as I can tell, a lot of science fiction does with aliens. They add a lot of bells and whistles and strange customs and body parts, but in the end make aliens into a peculiar tribe that can be understood more or less like we understand human beings. What is brilliant about this trilogy is that Butler understands this, and doesn't really attempt to give a third person omniscient account of the alien race that comes to mingle with humans. Rather, she tells us, in the first book, how one human woman encountered them and what she was able to learn about them over time. We begin to see the aliens as they see themselves only much more gradually, first from the perspective of a boy (in the second book) who is partly human and yet beginning to understand both aspects of himself through his encounters with both the alien and the human species. In this story, what he comes to understand of his alien nature is equally fascinating with how he comes to understand humanity from the perspective of an outsider. Finally, in the third book, we get an even more alien perspective, that of a third sex alien (an Ooloi) -- but we have been prepared for its strangeness by what came before, and have a point of comparison in the boy from the second book.

Butler has a pared down, direct, descriptive style that is far superior to most of what gets published now and that merits the same kind of respect that is afforded our greatest writers (and I'm not talking about Stephen King or Grisham) in any genre of fiction. Her subject matter, too, is as compelling as you can find anywhere -- especially since here as elsewhere she is experimenting with the logic of hierarchy and of desire, and attempting to identify and recover through her fictional scenarios different responses to oppression and domination than becoming a victim.

Lilith Iyapo awakens repeatedly after the war that leaves most of humanity dead, and earth no longer able to sustain human life. She and the other survivors have been gathered up by an alien species, the Oankali, whose whole existence focuses on healing and on exploring the unfamiliar. They can help Humankind survive, but only by merging the two species. They can restore earth and make it once again a suitable home for the new, "constructed" species that will be part human and part Oankali. The question is, how can humans like Lilith adapt to this? For even as she finds herself drawn into an Oankali family, merging with the newcomers whether or not she wants to do so, Lilith fights to remain fully herself. And as she awakens others of her kind from their long, Oankali-induced healing sleep, she learns that no one is going to thank her for help that comes at such a price.

I've been reading science fiction since I was 11 years old, and I have never read a more imaginative and vivid tale than the one in this trilogy. It's frightening at times, and at others it is downright seductive. It is necessary to read the three novels in order, because I am sure that if I'd tried to read Book 3 first I would have put it down in horror. I needed the first two books to understand the characters and their situation well enough to already have the necessary sympathy for the third book's narrator and its situation. I use the neuter pronoun on purpose, by the way, in referring to that narrator...highly recommended!

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 EPPIE science fiction winner REGS

I just finished the whole trilogy, and I loved it. Very thought provoking. The characters are well-rounded, the plot is full of interesting twists and turns and the handling of alien-human hybrids manages to avoid a great many potential pitfalls!

The plot is basically this: humanity has finally had that all-out nuclear war, and yes, it did destroy the earth. Aliens, the Oankali, happen along just as the last few humans left struggling in the southern hemisphere are about to die. The Oankali save them - but at a price. "Trade" is what they call it. But the exchange of genetic and cultural information doesn't include preserving humanity's legacy as it was before the war.

"Dawn" follows one woman, Lilith, as she struggles to come to terms with her desire to live, to be a mother, and her desire to preserve humanity intact. She is awakened by the aliens to a world she has never known, on board an Oankali space ship, 50 years after being "saved" by the Oankali. She comes to understand the aliens, and even like some of them, but what they plan for the human race is something she despises. The story is about her internal conflict, and the response of the other humans as they awaken and discover what the aliens have in mind for them.

"Adulthood Rites" explores the challenges inherit in the human genome - a predisposition to aggression, and what the Oankali consider a fatal flaw: the conflict between intelligence and hierarchical behavior. The resulting plot is intensely thought-provoking and very exciting. This story follows Akin, a half-human, half-Oankali boy who is kidnapped by sterlized human resisters because of his extremely human appearance, and as a result is forced to find his unique identity and purpose at a very early age. In my mind, this is the best of the three novels, although it's very close.

"Imago" finishes the creation of the new hybrid race, with the final genetic type needed to sustain long term population growth - the Ooloi. It follows the story of Jodahs, a young half-Human, half-Oankali Ooloi. Its creation wasn't supposed to happen yet, so its very existence is in jeopardy, and the family decides to flee the Oankali to give it a chance at a normal life. As it grows, it is forced to deal with its own biological nature, and the overwhelming Oankali urge to find mates. An excellent, thought-provoking novel that brings into question the cause of most people's behavior - is it genetic, inherited and inborn? Are we merely a collection of chemicals and protiens that are easily controlled through pheremones and the like? Or do we truly have free will?

The only problem I have with these novels is Octavia Butler's overly grim view of the human nature. The Oankali believe that humans were doomed from the start, because of their aggression and hierarchical behavior. That no matter where humans are, they will eventually destroy themselves with their intelligence. I for one don't believe humans are that bad, or at least ALL that bad, and there are very few representations of just decent, "normal" people in her novels. But the eeirie thought of "what if she's right?" remains long after you finish these novels.... what if humanity's fate isn't some utopic, peaceful, star-trekian future, but rather a continuation of the wars that have plagued humanity since recorded history?

What I am amazed by is how Octavia Butler manages to avoid so many potential pitfalls. This story could be bad. It could be really bad. It could be an overrated love story, or a remake of "V", or something so cheesy and unbelievable that it could be unreadable. Somehow she manages to avoid all the possible problems when dealing with this type of story matter, and present a believable and engaging novel.

I highly recommend these novels to anyone that likes deep and thought-provoking literature, that also likes a bit of action and excitement. Octavia Butler is definately up to the challenge of writing believable, interesting, and well-written Science Fiction.

I love Octavia's stuff but once you've read one or two of her stories you've basically read them all. Each one will have a different setting but you'll essentially have a main character (black female) being oppressed by something and overcoming that something with her character strength through submitting and gently rebelling. This series is basically the same formula as from Seed to Harvest which was just fine by me. I liked that series very much and this one is proving to be similarly occupying. Octavia's got a brilliant imagination and this set is no exception.

My favorite author, the late Octavia Butler, wrote this trilogy decades ago, as you know. Yet, the books are still fascinating, creepy, and compelling. This great African American author of science fiction was far ahead of her time. If you're looking for high tech, science driven stuff, look elsewhere. Butler focused on the social impact of humans confronted with apocalypse, change, and the Other.

When the voracious Oankali invade Earth to "save" humanity from itself, they are nearly too late. Humans, with their inherent genetic flaws of conflicting intelligence and brute hierarchial drives, have already decimated Earth's population with a nuclear war. What I really like about Butler is her lack of very specific details--about the war, about the aliens' purpose--nicely reflects how baffled REAL people would be when great events take place in their lives. Humans are hurt and baffled by the war, yet those who remain are determined to survive. The alien invaders are gentle but determined to interbreed with humans and create a new race. Their drive to mingle genetics is as powerful as the human hierarchial drive. Yet, the Oankali see our drive as a flaw, and their drive as destiny.

Excellent ideas and powerful insights into characters both human and alien.

Lilith's Brood (a complilation of the three books in Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy) is a unique look at the nature of the human race.
The Onkalis, a race of beings whose purpose is to genetically unite with all life forms they encounter, save and revive humanity after a nuclear war. They meet with all manner of resistance from humans who want their independence; but also meet with human colaberation in ways they didn't expect.
One shining example of Bulter's genius is in the nature of the Onkali's technology. Every single manifestation of their technology comes from genetic engineering. They do not build houses, spacecraft, tools, etc.; they grow them. They design, using their own body chemistry, the DNA sequences that will cause organic matter to become what they need. Using things like metal or wood or plastic to build something is almost beyond their comprehension.
They also inform Lilith that humanity has within it a self-destruct mechanism in the form of a genetic conflict between intelligence and hierarchy. I advise the reader to meditate on this, and compare the idea with your own impressions of the history of humanity.
One final impression that I got was that there is no way that a man could have ever come up with this story. Only a woman could have imagined this. I say this because, in general, the main psychological difference between men and women (with intriguing exceptions) is that women work their will internally and process thoughts and emotions externally. Men are the exact opposite. Butler's story illustrated this in a subtle yet powerful way.

I first bought 'DAWN' a long time ago now, maybe 10 years, at a BN store, mainly because it was written by an African American Woman and was science fiction. I was BLOWN away, completely taken apart and reconstructed in terms of my understanding of SF and imagination. I went out and bought the rest of Butler's book, then went to research her as a person and try to understand how she came up with such a story, so unique, yet so well written, without being verbose or containing protracted and boring analyses that only the author will understand.
I was very sad when I found out that Butler was dead and her creative abilities gone from this world, that's how great and interesting and amazing, and rich in detail and imaginative is her writing.
As its been pointed out, this is not a new book, simply a compilation of the three titles into one read. I happen to own this in paperback, as well as the three stories individually, also in paperback (yes, its that good) and i'm saving up to buy it in wireless format so I can access it from anywhere in the world, without having to carry heavy tomes with me as I am a jet setter in my current lifestyle.
I highly recommend. Nothing detracts from the novel. Everything about it is unique and should capture you well before the first 5 to 10 pages have been finished.

I purchased this trilogy, bound quite differently, from the SF/F Book Club many many years ago. The cover was so childish and stupid-looking I actually never read it.
I ran out of things to read lately and noticed it.
My goodness.
The story explains the almost-end of human civilization, and the subsequent "saving" of it by an alien race. But the only way the aliens will "save" humanity is by genetically altering it to be something completely different. The three books mainly deal with humans' reactions to this. Some would rather die than be changed. Some would rather live and be changed. Some would rather kill the ones who want to live, so the change won't happen to anyone.
What's fascinating about the series is the way the focus changes throughout. The first book is written in third person, and is focused entirely on Lilith, a human. The second book is also written in third person, but focuses entirely on Akin, a child born of the union (sort of) between Lilith and an alien. The third book also focuses entirely on a human/alien child (sort of) named Jodahs, but this time in first person. What this change of focus accomplishes is amazing; it draws the reader closer into the aliens' culture and motivations just as the characters are drawn in closer. I didn't actively notice this while I was reading, but after thinking about what I had read, I realized it. I like that very much.
Very detailed, and incredibly realistic. And left rather open-ended, which is a good thing as far as this series is concerned. It's grand enough to be left open and still not leave the reader aching for more.
One thing I don't like, though. "Lilith's Brood" as a title makes no sense. Lilith is a background character after the first book. The original name was "XenoGenesis", and I find it much more appropriate. But that's not the author's fault, I'm sure.

...hadn't I heard rave reviews about Butler's work before? I picked this book up on a whim, which I never do with authors I don't know without reading reader reviews online first. After finishing it, I couldn't understand why I had never heard of the author before since I've been frequenting the sci/fi fantasy sections in stores and online for years. But let me just say, this book is amazing. I would be hard pressed to find more imaginitive authors who take such a big idea and wrap it into something that it such a pleasure to read.

Imagine being "revived" after the near death of a people and getting a second chance at life. Now imagine that this blessing is only with the goodwill of an alien race, and everything you once knew has changed. Butler takes this radical dilemna and offers a poignant story of a woman forced to come to terms with her changing perspective and the reality that the only way to keep her humanity is to loose a great deal of it as well.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting or willing to look past the hackneyed genres that, while still producing high quality writing, lack original thought. Reading this book was definately a breath of fresh air.

a highly intelligent, inventive and thought provoking book, about Earth and the remnants of humanity after a nuclear holocaust rescued, more or less, by an alien race whom roam the universe looking for new worlds, species, flora and fauna to explore and exploit for genetic material before venturing across space again. neither group can possibly emerge unchanged. don't look for some sort of intergalatic war of the worlds, or humanity's triumph over adversity. the aliens have a highly developed moral system that appears amoral at best and antagonistic and exploitative to most of the remnants of humanity which would have ceased to exist without the aliens' intervention. the triology explores the interaction of both groups over decades and the inevitable evolution of both groups.

From the title and the genre, I expected this series to be very different than it was. This is an extremely well written series that tells the tale of post-apocalytic humans and the aliens who have interceded to keep the species from being eradicated. The characters are well-developed and the frustration of the humans and the fascination of the aliens with our species unfolds particularly well in the first and second books. By the time we reach the third book, we think we understand all there is to know about the aliens but there is still more to learn. The series is imaginative with aliens very unlike what has become fairly standard fare. They are neither friend nor foe. To say more would require a spoiler alert.

This is science fiction like none other I've read. It delves into the deepest, darkest fears of humanity and twists them. The story is surprising. It is truly a study of humanity and what being human is. Butler shows imagination that extends beyond ordinary.

As a longtime Sci-Fi fan, I thoroughly enjoyed Octavia Butler's trilogy. The alien Oankali's stringent solution to human self-destructiveness causes uproar, yet it's difficult not to agree with their arguments. As the "trade" progresses, Butler explores a variety of perspectives: human, alien, male, female, and, of course, ooloi. Her characters are inspiring yet familiar, and the social world they inhabit reflects a great deal upon our own -- particularly in an age of lingering international tensions and expanding rights for "nontraditional" families. If you are looking for great Sci-Fi that explores the human condition, takes you to new worlds, includes a truly diverse cast of characters, and still ultimately inspires hope for the future, you would be remiss not to read these books.

This is particularly true for Kindle users, as the works are part of the Kindle Unlimited program and can be read for free if you have not yet used your 30-day trial.

I don't know what to say!
I've never had so many conflicting feelings about a story and its characters!
I didn't think Adulthood Rites was a good as the other two. Just OK.
Dawn had the biggest impact on me. The relationship between Lilith (poor Lilith!!) and Nikanj is fascinating. Lots of disturbing events, but at the same time, lots of beauty. I found myself liking the alien characters a lot more than the humans, but also being freaked out by what they were doing, and how they were treating people. Humans willingly give up free will and reproductive rights if they spend too much time with the Ooloi. I think that freaked me out the most.
Imago was lighter, and mostly just a fun read. The character Jhodas was just amazing.

"We are the Oankali. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated... and you will like it."
Annalee Newitz once wrote an essay in which she said the half-believed the alien abduction myth: extraterrestrials coming to Earth, abducting people, screwing around with their bodies and spouting morally superior gibberish at them. After all, human history shows that is what people do when they encounter technologically more primitive societies.
After the near-extinction of humanity, the alien gene-trading Oankali arrive and resurrect groups of humanity for interbreeding. Humans are culturally, physically and sexually assimilated into the Oankali biology and civilization, in scenes that will make you squirm if you have personal boundary issues. Humans have the status of house pets or retarded people in Oankali society, and it's clear the aliens consider the preservation of human culture irrelevant.
"Lilith's Brood" is an allegory for colonialism and slavery, but it is also much more. It also touches important questions: Is humanity inherently flawed and self-destructive? How much are we driven by biology and instinct? Is it possible to fix human nature, and would we want to be fixed? What can you do when you don't own your own life? What would a sentient being without the human contradiction, intelligence vs. hierarchy, be like?
The Oankali are perhaps the most fascinating aliens I've ever read. Three-gendered and covered with sensory tentacles, they are apparently incapable of cruelty or deceit, yet utterly ruthless in remaking humanity into what they think it should be. Two of the three books are written from the perspective of non-human beings, and Butler's descriptions of the physicality, their vastly expanded mental, physical and sensory abilities, are beautifully realized. Although not a Campbell-style writer, Butler surpasses his challenge: "Give me something that is as smart as a man, but is not a man."
Butler's story is fascinating, but frustrating for what it skips over. It's implied that the Oankali have no art, music or written language, and are indifferent to the preservation of human culture. This makes sense for them, but wouldn't the human survivors, resister or otherwise, care about keeping their culture alive? Also, is homosexuality something that the Oankali edited out of humanity? Mating and family units are the glue of Oankali society, but how do people whose erotic drives are not directed the opposite sex fit in?
I expect Butler avoided these issues because she wasn't interested in them. The ideas and questions she does cover are beautifully done. This is a deep, thought-provoking story of humanity meeting aliens.
Butler has a pretty bleak view of human nature (though she implies that the Oankali are just as driven by their own biology), and her stories reflect this. The story concludes with the implied end of the human race as we know it, hopelessly out-maneuvered and out-classed by beings more powerful than us. Reading this book is a mind-expanding exercise in seeing that this might not be extinction, but transformation.

I first read this book about 15 years ago when it was published in one book under the name Xenogenosis. I has long been one of my favorite books, I actually read it more than once, and paid to have it replaced when someone did not return my copy. I point that our because I have only reread about 10 books of the thousands I've read. Figure there are always new ones out there, why waste my time on old ones. I never say much to potential readers about it other than a brief description, such as: Alien race saves different races, combines them, makes new races and reestablishes planets. Strange and you will either love or hate it. 90% love it.

I love sci-fi, but the vast majority of sci-fi disappoints me. These books are what sci-fi was meant for: a probing, and a profound questioning of existence itself. However, be warned this book contains a disturbing view of humanity. I'm a white male, but I conclude that this unflinching portrayal of humanity probably could only have been written by a black woman of Butler's generation. Butler takes no shortcuts or easy plotting devices to build great suspense and drama. The characters unfold in natural and compelling ways without the tedious, obvious, and ham-handed methods one often finds. The writing is so good, one loses the notion that there is a writer, a great delight. These are some of the reasons why I rank this work as wonderful literature. To top this off, Butler explores the frontier of what Life and Consciousness could potentially be. While the work is, in my view correctly pessimistic in terms of the human condition (examples for pessimism: Middle Eastern conflicts, the operation of Congress, environmental and human degradation in the service of greed, and anti-intellectualism; to name a few.); the work is profoundly optimistic for what Life itself can achieve. I believe that even if you disagree with Butler's viewpoint, you will find the work extremely engrossing.

This is a trilogy of 3 book carrying a interestingly twisted story of alien life's forced integration and selective breeding of earthlings on Terra Firma. The books made me mad at both the earthlings for screwing up the planet and the aliens for essential being finders of worlds destroyed by their own inhabitants and having their way with the leftover humans. I'm still mad & cursing in my mind at the descriptive writing of a fine sci-fi author. It takes the mental discussion beyond the alien encounter and into the ethics of life it self. It's a good read, I liked it!

Much different, and much better than I expected. I received this as a birthday gift last year, and it sat on the shelf since then. Once I read it was about "aliens" I was totally uninterested, even though it was recommended to me by a good friend.

I finally did tackle it - and tackle it is the right word. It's not a quick or a light read, and there were parts of it (the aliens' philosophy, breeding practices, etc.) that were just beyond my scope. All in all, though, it was very good. Very deep and well thought out, and the world Ms. Butler creates is believable.

I'm not normally "into" sci-fi, but I was more intensely drawn into this book the longer I read it. It is intriguing to me how similar this is to how Lilith was drawn into the Ookali way of life. The author did a wonderful job of gradually introducing the reader into new ways of thinking. You find yourself accepting a portion of the alien society you didn't think you would. Then, a few pages later, you accept another part. Toward the end of the book (which is actually 3 novels in one), I found myself liking the alien way of life a bit better than what we humans have produced in earth's general culture. But, this all makes it sound so cerebral. Actually, it is FUN to read, too.

Wild Seed must be the continuation of Lilith's Brood (Now that was an excellent book). No matter, this is an intense, realistic, great story. As one reader stated in her review, the story made you dream about it while you are sleeping. Everthing was so vivid.
The last story Imago was the most interested one in the series, however, the other two in the series were just as wonderful. I so much enjoyed reading this book it was in my hand every chance my Boyfriend would let me have.
Sorry Anne no more vampires for me I want to grow up to be an Ooloi.
My advice, don't stop reading just because the stories are over read the author's note in the back of the book.
Enjoy, I did!
Peace

The way she writes is as if I'm watching events unfold on CNN, its real feeling and spooky. The set up is great and the plot unfortunately all to believeable. Humans mess up in foriegn affairs and get into a thermo nuclear war while aliens watch from orbit. They haul us out of the flames but now there's a price to pay and its a biggie. I got into this book and I think anyone who likes books about aliens and human interaction will really enjoy this. Its complicated and at times depressing. But all in all a good book, it will stay with you long after you're done reading.

Butler examines concepts of race, bigotry, gender and sexuality from thoroughly unexpected angles. Yet from all of these angles in their most obscure and alien forms, her brilliant insights on the human condition reflect brightly.

One of the best speculative fiction books I've read. Octavia Butler has this amazing ability to completely create a new race and culture and make things so completely foreign seem completely natural. The story follow humanity's plight in this strange new world and the actions they take seem completely realistic as to how people would react (which is kind of sad).

If you like good sci-fi, this book is for you. I'll be going on to more Octavia Butler books soon.

I like the concept of science fiction but it's so hard to find the gems through all the bland rocks out there. Thank goodness I found Lilith's Brood. For a trio encompassing over 700 pages, this was an incredibly fast, entertaining read. The characters are fascinating. Even (or perhaps more so) the human characters are not over-shadowed by the aliens but are just as interesting. All the ideas and plot lines are plausible as far as science fiction goes. Butler delves into the more fascinating aspects of humanity and what it really means to be human. Just think, humanity destroys itself. Aliens come to save humanity but only through reproduction with them. The offspring, while having some human genes, will not be human, thus humanity is still destroyed. So what's more important, the physical aspect of being human or the traits you might pass on? It's all an interesting concept and Butler's writing is superb, easy to read, and highly entertaining.

I feel so illiterate knowing I have been reading for forty-five years and had never heard of Octavia Butler. The first book in the series should be read by everyone. I think books two and three night only appeal to true science fiction fans. I am looking forward to reading some of this author's earlier works now.

I read the whole series while on the go. No matter how long the intervals between reading as soon as I picked it up I was immediately drawn back in. Upon reading this book, I could see where some of my most favorite authors were influenced by her books. The premise was so interesting. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because for good or bad, I prefer neatly tied up stories. I don't really care much from ambiguity. I would like to know what happened to the other children in greater detail, especially Akin. They mentioned him briefly in the final book, but I would like to know what happened to him in greater detail.

I usually find scifi difficult to follow, but on an 8 hour flight to Portland I began listening to the audiobook. I was immediately hooked to Lillith and Nikanj. As the list of characters grew so did my interest. Octavia Butler has opened up a new world of reading to me, and I cannot wait to read more of her work!

The books in this compilation were the first books I read by this author but certainly not the last. Ms. Butler does a wonderful job of making the reader feel what her characters feel and beautifully describes the complex feelings that the two races, human and oankali, have for each other. Ideas that start out as unplatable to the reader as to the characters become with time, acceptable and even desirable, as surely the author intended. I just finished the last book in the trilogy, "Imago" and I'm sitting here wishing there was more.

I read this series back in 2001 and I was impressed by how thoughtful it was. Octavia Butler feels that the only hope for humanity is profound and deep change. She makes her point through characterizations that are depressingly accurate, people are motivated by fear and power. Octavia Butler has a cure... forced interdependence. This isn't an action book and its not going to make you feel better but it will make you think and you won't forget the characters.

Anyone who likes Philip K Dick will like this series. A deep and unpredictable novel about sex, memory, pride, freedom, independence and what it means to be a human being. An extraordinary book in a world I was very sad to leave.

I felt that there was no REAL character development where the charcters just seemed dry and rigid. Half the time Lilith, the main character, annoyed me more than anything else. Other than that, it is pretty typical as far as scifi novels go. It didn't *wow* me at all, and after I finished reading it I didn't really take anything meaningful away from it.

To each their own, you may or may not like it. But I do not feel that it is anywhere close to a "great read".

Lilth's Brood is a great read on two different planes, either of which would have been sufficient to make it a good book. The first is the story, it is creative, unique and plausable--not just a wild flight of science fiction fantasy! The briefest of summaries--the earth distroys itself in war, an alien race rescues the few remaining people, but as payment for the rescue "trades" with them, the trade being genentic material, and thus a new being is created as a combination of the two. The second plane of the book is the deep, complex look that Butler takes into the soul of the human race, human sexuality, human society and human morals--all using the facade of the alien race's needs and desires as the looking-glass. This is the most facinating aspect of the book. Butler's ability to express emotional need and yearning is amazing, and very real. She must be a wonderful person herself to even understand this aspect of the human soul.
This book illustrates the need for cleaner defintions of the genre "science fiction". It is a book that would appeal more to readers of serious psychological work than science fiction.

I simply want to add to the excellent review by C Baker. In addition to only hinting at the human contradiction of mutual existence of "intelligence and hierarchical" behavior that Butler bangs away at in this trilogy, we also get no real insight into the appearance and culture of the Oankali. (Indeed, as C Baker notes the emphasis upon this "contradiction" may well simply be a swipe by Butler at men.) Yes, the reader does learn of the Oankali's extreme intercultural adaptability, which manifests itself in their ability to genetically engineer a new species from two distinct beings, one of which must apparently be one of their own. But Oakali's human progeny seem mostly to take on cultural traits of humans. The most we learn is that they have some sort of internal homing instinct when they are about to undergo something of a metamorphasis and that at least prior to meeting up with humans they had a very strong innate set of family-oriented ties. But in a tree of beings that specializes in genetic engineering perhaps such fundamental concepts as species, culture, and instinct are somewhat meaningless. Moreover. we do find out a bit of what the Oankali can do from a scientific perspective: we also learn the survival-based reasons for why they do what they do. In any case, the shallow development of alien beings that seems to be one of the foundations of this trilogy is unusual among significant contributions to this genre of fiction. Yet despite this missing cultural dimension, as C Baker states, "[t]he Oankali are a truly fascinating and ingenious creation."

I am not a fan of Science Fiction - but "Lilith's Brood" (the collection of 3 novels known as the Xegenosis series consisting of "Dawn", "Adulthood Rites" and "Imago") is among the best I have read in ANY genre. Butler brings a species that is totally beyond anything imagined before and makes them real to the reader. She sttracts you to them, repels you from them - and in the end, makes you love them even though you may not want to. I actually felt like I missed the alien species, known as the Oankali when I finished reading the books. Basic premise for those considering the book: An alien species, the Oankali, finds an Earth shaken by major war. Most everything is wiped out and the Earth is practically unsalvagable. They save almost all the humans they find and make a plan to restore parts of the Earth and make them hospitable for human life again - for a price. The novels are wonderfully believable and complex, using challenging vocabulary and fully engrossing the reader in rich imagery and postulations of "What if... ?". No words other than those Bulter uses can do this collection justice - I would recommend it to anyone with a love for literature or anyone that just loves an EXCELLENT story that makes you feel like, and even possibly wish you were there.

This was my first experience with Octavia Butler's work. And I must admit that I was blown away by her writing style. I have seen very few writers who, like Butler, have the ability to employ such concise word usage while effectively conveying complex meanings and vivid imagery. Definitely a recommended read!

This is an excellent series. It really does suck you in and make you NEED to know what happens next. It is so easy to identify with and care about the people involved. I wish Ms. Butler was still alive so there could be hope of more books in this setting. I would dearly love to know where the ships go next and what kind of peoples they meet.

This novel addresses so many of the fears of the 80s Cold War era. I wish the novel had had more action and less philosophy. I wasn't as intrigued by the long periods of meditation on growing up, especially in book 2, I believe it was.

Lilith's Brood, a trilogy set in Earth's distant future, concerns the few remaining humans and their extraterrestial conquerors. Faced with the unpleasant alternatives of extinction or interspecies breeding, the human characters struggle to preserve their cultural and biological heritage against the seemingly insurmountable obstacles set by their keepers. The parallels between their fight to maintain cultural identity and the growing pains facing America's multicultural population in the 21st century are striking. This is the "melting pot" gone one better. Perhaps this is Butler's most biting social satire; surely it is her most thoughtful work since Kindred. As in most of her fiction, Butler is fascinated by the ways society evolves and survives despite our self-destructive impulses. Although this "new" offering from Butler is a collection of three previously published novels, the omnibus format will draw new readers and remind old friends of her substantial powers.

Review by C. Douglas Baker

This is a collection of three novels that make up the Xenogensis Trilogy. Readers interested in the trilogy should read the series in order: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.

DAWN introduces the reader to a fascinating alien race that intends to save a post-nuclear holocaust earth by repopulating it with half-human, half-alien beings. The concept of crossbreeding through genetic engineering with an alien race to create a new species is a truly innovative storyline. The Oankali intend to take a number of humans they saved from a nucleated earth, cross-breed with them, and reintroduce them and their alien offspring to the earth. The highly negative reaction of the humans to this idea is very realistic and their interactions with the aliens are conceivable. The main character, Lilith Iyapo, is a strong willed African-American woman who learns to accept the aliens for what they are but never fully comes to accept their plans for the human race.

The Oankali are an imaginative race with three genders, the third being a necessary intermediary between the male and female Oankali during intercourse and for procreation. Therefore it is not surprising that the "third" gender (it is not really neuter) is the dominant gender of the race. They travel in an interstellar ship that is entirely made of living tissue and the Oankali physically interact with the ship to produce food, dispose of waste, and reproduce other needs. The Oankali travel about the universe and cross breed with other sapient beings out of necessity. Humans are just another of their "victims" or "beneficiaries", depending on one's point of view. The new species is ostensibly better than its parent species.

Part two of the Xenogenesis Trilogy, Adulthood Rites is much more engaging and well thought out than its precursor, Dawn. The first half-human, half-Oankali male becomes the focal point for the Oankali attempt to cross-breed with humans. According to the Oankali, the human male is very dangerous and prone to violence. Indeed, the human male is the embodiment of the so called human contradiction that leads to self destruction. If this human/Oankali "construct" is flawed and prone to destructive tendencies, the whole genetic "trade" or cross-breeding would be jeopardized. Indeed, the Oankali themselves would be jeopardized.

Akin, the half-human, half-Oankali male child is kidnapped by human "resisters" who have refused to mate with the aliens at the price of their own fertility. The Oankali, while lengthening the life and health of these human survivors of nuclear holocaust, plan to allow them eventually to become extinct. The best human genetic traits would then be carried by the new species of Oankali whose genes were mixed. The aliens decide to allow the kidnapped child to remain with the resisters for some time so he can learn about his human side. The novel centers around Akin's rectifying his conflicting loyalties to his human and alien selves.

Adulthood Rites expands on the alien Oankali and leads the reader to an understanding of why they must cross-breed with other races. Their raison d'etre is to collect and expand upon all life forms and become a better race through adapting the better traits of races they come into contact with. They view life in a more holistic fashion, as consisting of the cells and even sub-atomic particles of living matter. Every being is genetically engineered to function for a purpose. The purpose of the Oankali is to collect and expand upon life forms, including their own. We can surmise that at their origin, the Oankali looked nothing like they are currently described as they have continued to metamorphosis genetically over the ages.

Bulter does an excellent job of portraying human reaction to the aliens who want to cross-breed with them but allow the human race as they know it to become extinct. We can both empathize with Lilith who has, more or less, accepted the fate of the human race and has born human/Oankali children and become a member of an alien community. While she does not fully accept the fate of her species she is resigned to it and does what she thinks best to preserve what is left of humanity. Conversely, we also empathize with Tate, who would rather die than be disloyal to the human race by giving in to the alien predators. The Oankali are a truly fascinating and ingenious creation.

The most dismaying aspect of the book is the big "contradiction" in human genes the Oankali keep proclaiming is the reason humans should be allowed to become extinct. This contradiction is "intelligence and hierarchical" behavior. It seems that males are particularly prone to this trait . There is no explication as to why this is such a contradiction or why hierarchical behavior necessarily leads to self-destruction in the human race. This was a very unsophisticated attempt to explain human tendency toward violence and destruction. It greatly detracted from an otherwise excellent novel.

Part three of the Xenogenesis Trilogy, Imago completes the creation of a new species via Oankali and human cross-breeding. Imago deals with the creation of the first "construct" (half-human, half-Oankali) ooloi, the third Oankali gender. Ooloi are necessary for reproduction and the creation of construct ooloi represent the ability of the new species to procreate and become independent of its parent species. The ooloi are explained in fuller detail in Imago than in the previous novels. Here the reader more fully understands the healing and manipulative abilities of the ooloi. The ooloi bind their mates to them through a chemical and psychological process and are equally bonded to their mates. The major difference in the new ooloi species is their ability to metamorphosis or shape-change, which they derive from their human genes' ability to regenerate new types of cells. The construct ooloi tend to take on the shape of their mates, thus the title Imago. Imago is the story of Jodahs, the first construct ooloi, and the struggle to gain acceptance into both the human and Oankali community.

The first two stories were unique and fast paced. The characters felt so real. However, the details in the third book are repeats from the second book and it starts to get tiresome. There are still flashes of surprise that manage to keep me reading to the end.

Excellent science fiction. This is a compilation of three books about an alien society with truly alien physiology and customs. Octavia Butler outdid herself - this is one of my favorite works.
Her writing is excellent and her imagination will amaze you.

The Sci-fi Bible, December 24, 2005

Reviewer: Suzeej Omnipo "Suzeej" (NYC) - See all my reviews

My friends and I call Lilith's Brood "The Sci-fi Bible". The trilogy of Dawn, Adulthood Rites, & Imago are probably the most important pieces of Sci-fi literature to come out of the 20th Century. If you like the genre and particularly books with a high fantasy (less "scientific") component then you should definitely read Lilith's Brood. Butler is an amazing author. It is refreshing to see sci-fi written so masterfully. Reading this book was a philosophically life altering experience for me. Everyone I know will receive a copy this year.

I won't repeat a summary of the story because it has already been done well. However, I will tell you my experience in reading this "book". One night I decided to read a couple of pages while I was in the bath tube. When I looked up, it was 3!! hours later and the water was ice cold and I hadn't noticed. Also, her characters took on such life for me that they kept showing up in my dreams, even after I was done reading the book. If you want to read a book that will transport you into the story, this is a book you don't want to miss.

Lilith's Brood contains Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, the three books making up the Xenogenesis trilogy. The book starts with Lilith waking up in a non-descript room. She doesn't know how long she's been there or were it is. Slowly, the story unfolds. An apocolyptic war (cliched, it seems too many sci-fi books begin this way) occured between the US and the USSR, devestating earth. An alien race saved the remains of humanity, but at a price.

The Oankali evolve through other species, going from planet to planet, interbreeding their species with others through DNA manipulation. Dawn starts off the series about 250 years after the war. Humans have been kept in suspended animation, occasionally being woken up for observation. These observations test to see who will be woken up first to begin 'the trade' as the Oankali call mixing of genes. The trade is voluntary, but a heavy toll is extracted for refusing- sterility, but a strong healthy body to live for hundreds of years, knowing that if you don't accept the trade, humanity will become extinct, but, also, knowing that making the trade humanity will become extinct in a different way. The Oankali chose Lilith to choose who to wake up out of about a hundred people, in any order she chose. She had to explain the situation to everyone and, of course, not all liked what they heard.

Adulthood Rites begins a few years after humans and Oankali return to Earth. Many humans chose to leave the Oankali, to live a sterile life without the trade. This begins to degrade the value of life, knowing that everyone is sterile makes people a little desparate and uncaring. Lilith decided to trade and her first 'construct' male, the first ever, decides that forcing humans to trade or go extinct is wrong. He fights to have a settlement on Mars where humans can again resume theirs lives as best they can. Many Oankali are against this because they believe that humans have a genetic flaw making self-destruction inevitable.

Imago takes place about 40 years after Adulthood Rites ends, with the maturing of the first construct 'ooloi' one the three sexes of the Onkali (male, female, and Onankali). This presents a problem because ooloi are very powerful, and almost all Oankali view this new ooloi as a threat. They want him to live in exile in space away from humans.

All in all, the story is entertaining, though grating because the whole story insists that mankind will commit suicide as a species. That it's just inevitable. I generally don't like books with that attitude, but so many sci-fi books have that. The books are a quick read, though, and not too heavy, although, I get the feeling Butler meant this to be a heavy, philosophic commentary on humanity. It is not.

octavia butler is one of the best sci/fi authors ever and Lilith's Brood is a repackaging of three of her books. dawn, adulthood rites and imago tell the story of an alien race called the oankali who save the earthlings who survive an apocalypse. if you are new to octavia butler's work this is a good volume to start with.

I couldn't put this series down! I'm amazed at how Octavia Butler presents issues of racism, sexism, and the overall Human Condition in a science-fiction story-line that keeps you thoroughly engaged and entertained!

It is possible that I am WAY TO SHALLOW to appreciate this book.
There may have been a WARNING stating "If you have testicles don't read this book"
If there was I missed it.
This book is about understanding, accepting, and appreciating differences between people.
That's what I got out it at least.
Unfortunately that's not what I wanted to get out of it.
I was looking for Test tube cross-alien universe dominating laser toting exobadass mutant human.
What I got was a hug.
I'm now off to get in touch with my inner child or whatever the hell that's supposed to be.

In my opinion, these 3 novels (Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago) are some of Octavia's best work. These novels explore many of her popular themes, race, sex, gender and humanity at large. Great starter for anyone looking to build their collection.

I wish this was taught in schools alongside other classics, as it is from such a different point of view than most of the science fiction I read when I was younger. I did not agree with everything the author wrote, her assumptions about our essential natures, and much of the books made me very sad while reading. But they made me think, and question, and want to talk to others about the ideas in the stories, and that is the greatest compliment I can give any fiction.

Octavia E. Butler writes some of the most thought provoking and descriptive books I've ever read. I vow to read them all and I recommend them to all you science fiction enthusiasts. Great change of pace.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm not usually very into sci-fi books, but I thought that this one was great, and it's gotten me more into reading books in this catagory. I think that Olivia E. Butler is an awesome author, and I plan on reading more titles by her.

Long before transgender right groups began the long, still unfinished struggle to be treated as human beings, and early in the United States' slow moving acceptance of and respect for racial diversity, Octavia Butler found a way to bring these and other issues of difference to the fore. In this trilogy, the inescapable scent and skills of the ooloi work on the humans, just as Butler's prose and plot work on the reader. After tasting the fascination, many a thoughtful reader will pause to reconsider biases that before had seemed reasonable.

I heartily attempted to read all of Butler's books some years ago but I could not get to the finish line. I'm so tired of the cliche, and in my opinion, insidious and infantile fatalistic viewpoints. Moreover, it's not just the fatalism(humans are naturally prone to violence, ad nauseum)that bothered me but the overemphasis of our biological aspect of existence that ruined the experience. Butler treats humans too much one dimensionally swimming almost solely in a sea of genetic, bio-deterministic flotsam and jetsam. The outmoded thinking that humans are more prone to violence than non-violence lacks the factor of critical thinking. As an example, we spend more time throughout the day being friendly, courteous, kind, helpful, ad infinitum, than killing, maiming, et al.

We humans are born into a system, a system of governing ideas and actions. Perhaps, it's not we humans in general who are more prone to violence but a few who run a system based on greed and shortsightedness, over-work and under-pay, and war as business, business as war, that has us hurting each other. Butler's book just feels like another in a long line of biological-deterministic justifications to perpetuate outmoded forms of thinking.

I've read enough of her books to know that, for me personally, it's just not the sort of sci-fi I enjoy, but she spins a good enough tale, and numerous people enjoy her works, to deserve 3 stars.

Another omnibus of the three books in this series.

This odd series I didn't find too interesting. Maybe I would if I was an invading alien sex therapist. This is almost a horror story, with how creepy it is in parts. Condescending aliens treating people at times how people treat animals, which perhaps it part of the point, but the responses don't ring true here.

Hybrid helper?

Part of the problem with these books I think is the what would seem to be extremely unlikely acceptance so quickly of what the aliens are up to. Overwhelming technological advantage, sure, but given general human atittudes the suspension of disbelief required for this book was basically shattered pretty early.

After that, it is really dull. There is some resistance to the complete changing of the race, and the main character has a kid that may actually help reconcile the rebels.

More inbreeding issues.

A third novel in this series that is basically the same quality as the one preceding it, and adds little more to what is going on, or more of the same. Aliens remove breeding, then want to hybridise and cross-breed, and it turns out they may need some human breeding after all. DOH.

After buying and reading book one and before I forked over money for the rest of the trilogy I decided to read the book "off the shelf" at my library. What a bore!!! I really expectedthe author to dive into a fantastic plot. We know Earth has been re-done by the aliens(centuries have passed). We know the southern continents are viable but not the north. We know the aliens want humans to start with little more than clubs, knives, and fire. I was expecting a fusion of ceramics and plantlife and solar power. What the reader gets is mankind killing each other off in every chapter. We see the worst of the worst of our DNA. Huh?? I thought all our "bad genes" had been turned off in book one. I'm so glad I didn't buy anymore of this trilogy.