Parable of the Talents (Earthseed)

The book is set in the post-SHTF world, action taking place in the Pacific Northwest/Northern California. It describes United States in a such a way that Germany leading up to the Second World War comes to mind. Violence, poverty, unemployment, inflation and a general sense of despair pervades the world of this book. Simple existence and the sense of humanity is not taken for granted, as characters in this book are forced to fight for their place under the sun.

Protagonist of this novel is a remarkable woman striving to establish her own identity, and community in a world that seems very scary to us, yet hauntingly plausible. She is a visionary, able to influence those around her through her writings and through preaching of her own religious/moral views.

During times of despair, tough, fanatical leaders often emerge and people tend to follow them blindly, while creating even more havoc in the process. (Hitler and Stalin come to mind) This book is no exception. A militant Christian preacher is elected to be the President of the United States, with disastrous results to follow: more war, persecution and poverty.

Many times I have read posts and emails with their main line of reasoning going something to the extent of: "When SHTF, I will head for the hills and tough it out with my buddies and weapons..."
After reading this book, I realized that it is not going to be an easy task by any means. Even if you manage to establish a community of like-minded individuals. Even if you are well armed and self-sufficient, you are still not going to be safe from heavily armed fanatics bent on enforcing the "Will of God".

This is a painful book to read. Main character and those around her go through some hellish events in the course of this book. These are truly horrific and Butler manages to describe them with just enough of a gritty details for the suspension of disbelief to be complete. IMHO, she goes a bit overboard with this and the book becomes unbearable and depressing at times. Perhaps that was her intention

I would recommend reading this book if you are interested in feeling or imagining "what it would be like" to live in a post-SHTF world. This is a work of fiction, science fiction to be exact, but it is more of a "soft" type of science fiction: there are some futuristic technologies described, but they are plausible and not too far removed from reality.

Overall I would give this book a "B"
Plot: "A"
This is an interesting and engaging story very relevant to modern times and humanity in general.
Storytelling: "B-"
Some lengthy descriptions of various minor characters add little to the story, except they only increase the sense of despair. Perhaps it was Butler's intention, but it seemed unnecessary to me.
Writing skill: "B+"
Her writing is not bad at all, a bit poetic one might even say.

This is the second book in the series, first being [url=http://www.the store.com/Parable-Sower-Octavia-E-Butler/dp/0446675504/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200042766&sr=8-2]Parable of the Sower[/url], but can be read out of sequence.
Parable of Talents won a prestigious Nebula award for science fiction.

Parable of the Sower was filled with terrible events, but usually showed hope and progress. This book has a long period of sadness and cruelty. While still a good book, it can be hard to take, depending on your moods.

The sequel to Parable of the Sower, this novel provided much more depth to the initial story line Lauren, the protagonist, provided in the first novel. Parable of the Talents fast forwards years from where Parable of the Sower leaves off, opening with the community of Acorn at its peak. After a series of unfortunate twists and turns, Lauren finds life turned upsidedown and she searches for the one thing that matters most in her life. This novel further explores the realm of "cults" in an America not familiar to us today. Butler's work once again left me craving more as I realized and contemplated the thematic elements relevant to life today.

I would buy this book multiple times over if I could relive the magic of its storytelling and genius thought. However I'm quite content with the purchase of this sequel to read it multiple times over. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing this book, because its not enough to borrow--you have to be able to own it and cherish it because the story is just that great. I also highly recommend any other of my favorite authors (Olivia E. Butler's) work.

Stunning sequel to Parable of the Sower. Answers most, if not all, the questions raised in the first novel. Of course, the future of mankind is left pretty much wide open, but then, isn't it always?........CR

In a way this book loses a star because of how great Parable of the Sower is. I might well have rated it higher if it was the first novel in the series. Unfair, I know, but what can you do?

This book starts slow and builds to an explosive middle, then slows back down. It's good in much the same way the first book was good, but there's less of it. If you haven't read Parable of the Sower I'd recommend you do so immediately. If you like that book half as much as I do then this one will be worth reading. If you didn't like Parable of the Sower, or didn't think it was anything special, skip this one.

This was a fairly interesting and involving book. Unfortunately, at my age and life experience, I've read so many SF and Post Apocalyptic novels, this one's story line was a little predictable. Even the main character's "New Religion" did not seem believable to me. After reading extremely well-developed dogmas as in DUNE, I was easily bored. Obviously, this was written for a younger audience.

Although I liked Parable of the Sowers better; this is a thought provoking novel which has profound parallels with our own troubled times. These are hard to like characters; especially Lauren's half brother Marc and even her daughter who judges her mother so harshly. But the overall hopeful tone of the book shines through at key points and rewards the reader who sticks with the entire nook.

Bittersweet reality is woven throughout this piece of fiction. Intelligently portrays a potential future time with controversy in politics, religion, and ethics. It felt as though Butler foresaw the future of US leadership and 2-edged promises. Left me with much to ponder in comparison to current situations and where we as a species are headed.

As a born again Christian who voted for Donald Trump I found this book to be frighteningly relavent..And highly possible to become reality, I will pray that it will not come to pass. .But should it I will also pray for there to be many Laurens

I would recommend Octavia's work to any open mind......this book in particular is haunting as it is set in our century, includes a Fascist president and uses the slogan:"Make America Great Again"-all while having been written in 1998. Thought provoking.

Engaging, thought provoking and thoroughly written. At times veers into US politics of identity with the glorification of various minorities. If you don't mind the "preaching" and moralizing angle then this is a very good read.

Octavia Butler is undoubtedly a very skilled storyteller. I have rarely read such vibrant and compelling prose. As such, I tentatively recommend this book. On the other hand, it is so dark and dystopian that I would add a very strong caution about the content. Perhaps even more problematic for me, however, is that entire broad plot elements are not particularly original, and others are not realistic. I write this last point from the perhaps dubious position of a white man reading a novel by a black woman, whose worldview and experiences will be very different from my own. On the other hand, I have not felt this uncomfortable about the setup of other darkly dystopic novels (e.g., Downbelow Station, also an award-winner written by a woman). As to the originality, dedicated readers of science fiction will recognize many Heinlein-esque plot points: founding a religion (Stranger in a Strange Land), homesteading (Time Enough for Love), racism and slavery (Farnham's Freehold), space exploration by private companies instead of the government (Rocket Ship Galileo), etc. Butler's writing is, as I mentioned, well above the sometimes simplistic and often cringe-worthy Heinlein prose and plots (especially Farham's Freehold!) but the overall culmination of the overlap makes Parable of the Talents feel derivative to me.

My problems with the setup took me out of the story. For example, Christians are presented as a monotype - that of brutal fundamentalism. Similarly, there is nothing about the concept of Earthseed that requires it to be a religion. I am perfectly happy accepting the fact that mankind should strive for the stars, if only to ensure our survival as a species.... but I would never have joined the Earthseed movement. There is also nothing in my denomination of Christianity that would exclude space exploration. By setting Christianity vs. Space Exploration as the central conflict, Butler undermines everything else she is doing, at least for this reader who is both pro-space exploration and Christian.

On the other hand, (as other reviewers have commented) there are some eerily prescient similarities between the current President of the United States and the fictional president of this novel. Both are populists elected by the disaffected working classes on a rather undefined platform that promises to "Make America Great Again". In the novel, the president turns out to be a disaster - launching (and losing) wars, further destroying the economy, etc. Of course we won't know the results of the current actual President's financial policies for some time, and he hasn't started a war (yet?), but should these things come to pass, Butler may be hailed as truly prescient.

While the science-fiction extrapolations don't work for me, they may very well work for others. There is, unfortunately, a bigger narrative issue that also took me out of the story, and that's the dawning realization of how unreliable the narrator is (the main character's daughter, reflecting on her mother's legacy after she died). Without getting into details, the disdain and perhaps even hatred with which the daughter holds the mother slowly comes out, making the reader start to question everything that happens earlier in the book (perhaps like the plot of another troublesome Heinlein: I Will Fear No Evil!). Maybe it's meant to be this way and we're supposed to question the whole premise; unfortunately, it reads more like it was made up as it went along, and it is the daughter's characterization by Butler that is inconsistent.

The fact remains that Butler can really write, so who am I to argue such trivialities? In closing, I will note that at no time did I feel I was missing something because this is the only book I've read in this series. The story is entirely self-contained for a reader without needing to read Parable of the Sower.

The first book was a good read, and very relevant. The second seems to be motivated by a need to denigrate Christianity and the conservative movement in general. At least the author doesn’t end up trying to blame the end of the world on capitalism.

Parable of the Talents is not as exciting as its predecessor. With that said, there is still plenty of reason to read this book if you enjoyed Parable of the Sower and are interested in what happened after the ending of it.

Well, look, a novel about an America beset by internal woes where a frustrated and economically disenfranchised group of people elect a man who promises to "make America great again" despite little concrete evidence that he can indeed do that. It sure is amazing how quickly Octavia Butler was able to churn out a protest novel for these weird tim-

Oh wait, the novel was published in 1998. And the author passed away in 2006. And while it isn't a direct parallel to the times we live in now (for one, the fictional President in Butler's novel is a hardcore Christian fanatic) you can't help but read it now and experience an eerie sensation when the "make America great again" phrase pops up around page twenty-one. It feels eerily prescient, though the degree to which that unsettles you will probably depend greatly on your personal politics. And not for nothing, I can't imagine Butler, were she still alive, would be pleased to see any portion of her book coming true. While the arc of our current history is as uncertain as always I think we can pretty much guarantee that most of the characters in this novel would trade places with us in a heartbeat. Without giving away too many spoilers, let's just say that there's a reason the novel isn't called "Parable of the Endless Bacchanal".

I will confess that thanks to a slip that is normally not like me, I wound up being about halfway through this volume before realizing its a sequel to "Parable of the Sower", which I had stacked somewhere else. With that said, however, reading the first novel isn't that essential to this plot beyond perhaps introducing the general scenario and some of the major characters. I had no trouble following things and while this book does further the themes of the previous novel its very much its own thing, with its own challenges and conclusions.

As for the general scenario, Butler puts us in a near future America (circa 2030s) where portions of the country seem to have entirely collapsed into poverty and near lawlessness, including rumors of slavery while the man running for President is a Christian fundamentalist that seems to have convinced a good chunk of the populace that not only does Jesus need to take the wheel, but he should be the tires, the engines and the padding in the plush leather seating as well. This would be alarming enough but when you factor in the fanatics of the organization Christian America rampaging over these territories kidnapping families, enslaving them and separating parents from children so the kids can be reeducated along good Christian doctrine you've got the potential answer to the gameshow question "What is a dystopia?"

Fortunately, its not all bad. Our heroine Lauren Olamina has managed with her husband to start a community called Acorn where like minded people of goodwill and can band together and sustain themselves while the country goes to holy heck around them. It also gives Lauren the opportunity to spread the word of her new religion based on the concept of Earthseed, with the underlying idea that God is Change and that our destiny lies amongst the stars. Needless to say, its a tough sell for a lot of people but most of the people at the community believe in it to some extent and despite everything outside the community gradually going downhill with the momentum of a large rock gathering speed things inside Acorn more or less are going rather swimmingly. Lauren and her husband even have a daughter to look forward to.

And then things really get bad.

What struck me most about this book wasn't Lauren and her religion, which seems to boil down to some simplistic poetry that boils down to "use some common sense and don't do stupid things" and her unrelenting conviction that we need to get into space, a conviction that colors pretty much every conversation she has with someone who isn't trying to kill her and would probably carry more weight, or at least differentiate itself from other religions if she could communicate this beyond basically insisting that its true and leaving it at that. On the other hand, her religion doesn't involve finding excuses to marginalize or treat certain groups of people like crap which puts her ahead of ninety percent of the world's religions. Its not even her vision of the future America, which feels more like the articulation of someone's nightmare as opposed to something that could actually happen, especially since every Christian America person we meet is a slaver and a rapist and every religious person that doesn't subscribe to Earthseed is either fanatic to the point of psychosis or blind to the psychosis of everyone else. Its the kind of novel where when someone who is Christian tries to preach to the assembled Earthseed followers, it turns out they're all far more literate in the nuances of the Bible than he is, which gives the proceedings a somewhat self-satisfied air at times despite the gritty surroundings. If you're going to argue in your book that your religion is better, you need to have members of other religions be able to put forward a coherent counter-argument so even if your protagonists do win, it feels like they earned it at least.

No, what works here is how heavily Butler brings across this nightmare vision so that even when it doesn't feel strictly realistic, it feels like its really happening to these people and you hurt along with them. The idea of the a right wind fundamentalist religious group taking over and enslaving people is something a lot of people associate with Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" but what this story has over that one is how purely savage it feels. What Lauren goes through is debilitating and humiliating and demeaning and she relays it all as clearly as she can, pulling no punches are she plots to get out of this hell she finds herself in and tries to figure out how to get her daughter back in a world that doesn't believe she has a right to exist and will go to any lengths to make sure that stays true.

But as fierce as Lauren is and no matter how boldly she tells her story, I don't think the story would gain the power it does if not for the journal entries of her daughter, telling her story years down the line. While her mother's attempts to stay alive can be harrowing and her devotion to the idea of Earthseed somewhat one-note, having her daughter tell her version of events adds some needed shade and perspective to the story that we're already reading, giving us the tale of a person who maybe didn't quite suffer as terribly in a physical fashion but was forced into a world that wanted to bang her into a shape that she didn't quite fit in to. While Lauren's tale encompasses a relatively short period of time, her daughter's gives us the necessary scope to see the full shape and even if the arc veers off out of our sight we can at least do some extrapolation as to where it might be heading.

The contrast between the styles of the journal entries is what keeps the book from becoming too preachy or one-sided (and keeping it out of Sherri Tepper territory, in my opinion) with the fierce honesty of Lauren's sections balanced out by her daughter's attempts to come to grips with her history. It could easily fall prey to cliche but as long as it focuses on these two people's attempts to triumph over a world that seems to have given up on progress of any kind it carries a strength that overcomes the elements I didn't find as compelling. As terrible as the world is in this novel, the real world seems to be doing its best to top the worst her characters can endure every single day. That may be the saddest truth about the novel, in that as awful as the scenarios are anyone who pays attention won't be that surprised at how low the depths are that we can sink to in how we treat each other. And while the idea of a new religion may not hold much water for people who aren't that religious to begin with and the dream that getting off the planet will help solve our problems may strike us as quaint (especially as it seems like if we go into space again it won't be for the thrill of discovery so much as the potential to make lots and lots of money) what rings as true here is the feel of people struggling for what they believe in and refusing to give up, knowing that they may not win and make their own lives better but that the aggregate of their struggle and the struggles of so many others who imagine a better world will reap benefits that they will probably never see. And to persist in something high in risk and not so immediate in reward is maybe a sign of real bravery and courage and perhaps something we could use more of these days, especially to ensure there are more days ahead beyond our field of view.

Trigger warning: Sexual assault

Parable of the Talents somehow manages to be even darker than the first book, Parable of the Sower. Of course, I knew it’d be dark. Octavia Butler’s work is always intense. But even prepared for it, Parable of the Talents was difficult to read in places.

Like it’s predecessor, Parable of the Talents follows Lauren, a young woman driven by her religious revelations of something she calls Earthseed. At the end of Parable of the Sower, Lauren had formed Acorn, a small community based around Earthseed. Six years later, the world is a less chaotic place than it was during Parable of the Sower. Things are still bad, but they’re bad in a different way. Mobs of arsonists and looters are no longer the main threat to Acorn. The danger is instead in growing religious intolerance and the rise of a far right Christian group, Christian America, that wants to make “America great again.” And by “great,” they mean their type of Christianity.

“Jarret condemns the burnings, but does so in such mild language that his people are free to hear what they want to hear. As for the beatings, the tarring an feathering, and the destruction of ‘heathen houses of devil-worship,’ he has a simple answer: ‘Join us! Our doors are open to every nationality, every race! Leave your sinful past behind, and become one of us. Help us to make America great again.”

In the growing climate of intolerance, Acorn is a target. Lauren and her community may face more danger than ever before.

After the election, I started hearing that Octavia Butler had written a book that felt eerily similar to America’s current events. At first I thought that it was Parable of the Sower they were referring to. Turns out it’s Parable of the Talents. Fanning the flame of intolerance is Jarret, a presidential candidate who’s supporters attack non-Christian groups. The populism, anger, violence and bigotry that Octavia Butler presents in her version of American during the 2030’s does have some similarities to the current day. This only makes her message more powerful. A good dystopia should act as a warning of what our society can become and encourages readers to change the course before its to late.

“Jarret’s supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret’s talk of making America great again. He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries.”

I already mentioned that Parable of the Talents is a very difficult book to read. Among other things, it involves slavery, rape, violence, sexism, and homophobia. Probably the worst moment for me involved a f/f couple being tortured by the aforementioned Christian America. Parable of Talents is a book that will make you heart sick. While the scenarios Butler presents are gruesome, they are also disturbingly plausible.

Parable of the Talents is framed similarly to Parable of the Sower, with the majority of the book being told through Lauren’s diary entries. However, in this book, the entries are bridged by writing by Lauren’s daughter, who is skeptical of Earthseed and her mother’s obsession with it. I thought including the daughter point of view was a good choice, since it provides a larger perspective and keeps the novel from feeling too didactic when it comes to Earthseed. I kept skipping the Earthseed poems. They don’t do anything for me.

This duology is a couple of books that I’m going to remember for a long time to come. They are science fiction classics and rightly so. Octavia Butler is a true master of her craft.

I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.

I liked Parable of the Sower much more than this story. Parable of the Talents felt too distant. I felt too far removed emotionally from the heroine. In the beginning of this story she was a very mature 24 year old, awful things happened to her and to her friends and she and they largely persevered, but with a high cost. She was a general in all but name, she was an amazing character but she was not written in a way I could connect with her. I strongly disliked the daughter as written but I understood, liked and approved of why Ms. Butler wrote her the way she did and why the heroine's brother behaved the way he did. To me, Ms. Butler wanted to show in her story how a new religion was born through fire but I didn't care about the birth of and/or establishment of the religion, I cared about the characters but to me Ms. Butler put emphasis on the birth of a religion; I didn't care. The heroine was in her mid 20s and then she was middle age and then it was reported by her daughter's character that she'd died. I couldn't care about the daughter because of the way she was written, there was very little humor. I'm glad Ms. Butler wrote this book but I can see why she struggled to continue with this series - very difficult story, especially if told believably, i.e., sort of like anticipating your species going over a cliff toward self-destruction without being able to stop us or even slow us down. Really hard to make that entertaining.

Written in 1998, this second dystopian novel of the Parable series is eerily prescient of today's times and politics. The issues in author Octavia Butler's world were stated to have their roots in 2015, and are set then into the future. The techniques of the new US president of this novel and his catch-phrase "Make America Great Again" make one want to check the original copyright date or confirm the author's 2006 death. The evils done in the name of "Christian America" will make you cringe. If I had I read this novel in 1998, I would have given it a 3.5, and I would have not found it believable. Reading it now is frightening, thoughtful, and, unfortunately believable; for that it deserves a 4.5+.

I have not read dystopian science fiction in some time. I chose to read Parable of the Sower because the reviews had been interesting, and because I thoroughly enjoyed reading Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood and considered her style and creativity a refreshing approach to science fiction.

I should first mention that the author, Octavia Butler, is the only Black female Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science-fiction writer that I know of. That perhaps accounts for her unconventional approach to an already unconventional genre where so many themes are frequently recycled. In her works, Octavia often uses women of color as her lead characters, and plays with gender identity in refreshing ways. In Lilith’s Brood, she created an alien race where there were three genders, with just as elaborate mating processes and hormonal changes taking place among them. I remember thinking, as I was reading, that sci-fi should be this mind-bending.

Parable of the Sower explores race and gender also, but is quite different from LB. It presents us with a future America that has descended into a libertarian dystopia. It has all the features that anarcho-capitalists idealize, including private armies and privatized water, all presented in their worst possible expression against a background of Somalia-like lack of rule of law. In the absence of normal tax collection by states, basic services, like policing, are for profit and provided by gangs of thugs just as evil and corrupt as street gangs.

The anarchy, chaos, pillaging, and violence are made worse by zombie-like gangs of arsonists who are addicted to a drug that makes fire exciting, and who decide to burn up all signs of civilized life. Octavia also conjures up images of cannibalism, of human maggots descending upon the recently dead to steal their goods, and explores issues of wage slavery by presenting a labor dystopia where companies are unregulated and reinstitute slavery, initially under the pretext of debt re-payment.

In the midst of all this, the author feels that her heroes need hope, that they need to believe in something. Anything. So she invents a religion for her heroes–Earthseed–complete with prophecy according to which their destiny is to take root among the stars. “God is change”, her prophet-heroine says, and she redefines God into oblivion and irrelevance as most New-Age prophets do. Perhaps change can be taken for what it is: merely change, without deification? These and other philosophical issues are explored in the novel through dialogue.

Although she describes, via the narrative, the end results of anarcho-capitalism, the novel is not preachy or political, nor does it intend to be. It is meant to be entertainment, and at that it succeeds .The novel’s plot is engaging, with the balance tipping more towards the pessimistic than the optimistic extreme.

Having said that, sometimes I feel that science fiction authors have a unique power to speak to future generations, to give them a warning, and to engage them with moral and philosophical questions that the current generation has not yet had to seriously ask itself. Parable of the Sower is set in the middle of the 21st Century. The curious thing about Butler’s prophetic work is that today, Nestle’s CEO has already declared war on public ownership of all water and said that access to water is not a human right, so that the possibility of water becoming a source of international conflict on par with oil is becoming more of a reality that we will all have to face very soon in this century.

Octavia Butler is no longer with us. She passed away, but has many devoted fans of her fiction and the webpage Octavia’s Brood is dedicated to her literary legacy and to the promotion of the fantasy and science fiction genres among authors of color.

This is a 3 1/2 star review for both of the Parables. Octavia Butler was a wonderful author and these books are a powerful though difficult read because of the grim situations constantly tearing at the character's lives. Following are a couple of admittedly minor points that I did not care for:

1. The "sharer" syndrome added nothing for me...seemed far fetched and unnecessary to advance anything in the plot.
2. The whole Earthseed religion seemed kind of lame for people to so readily accept.
3. So many characters were introduced at Acorn that I could have used a spreadsheet to keep them straight.

Having made my points I strongly recommend these books.

This book is very much Octavia Butler's response to conservative fanaticism and where she thought it would/could lead the United States. She follows through the social changes proposed by Christian conservatives through to its conclusion and creates the dystopian world that their ideology would naturally lead to. Many people have commented on the horrific violence in this story - and it is at times oppressive and overwhelming. Violence is a real fact of life for many people throughout the world, and were Butler's dystopian future to come to pass, the violence in her tale wouldn't begin to tell the tale. It is not senseless violence added for a vicarious thrill or as one reviewer here termed it "torture porn," rather it is always employed in service of the story. Given the nature of the violence and the story, the description could easily be more graphic and personal - Violence is always reported through Olamina's journals, and it takes on a news report kind of tone - Butler does not burden the reader with intimate personal accounts that would haunt the corners of your brain. There is little in the way of uplift in this tale - nor should you expect any in a truly dystopian novel.

In the truest sense of hard-core old-fashioned science fiction, Butler's tale is a warning - it is speculative fiction. Butler speculates what would happen if the division of church and state were dissolved and corporate greed given a free hand. The tale is told in several voices, which separates it from "Parable of the Sower." While Lauren Olamina's voice dominates, the switch to her Daughter's voice who disapproves of her Mother, and her crusade levels off and balances the extremes of liberal self-righteousness that could have easily neutralized the validity of this novel.

"Parable of the Talents" is much better than its predecessor and is written so seamlessly, that you would not have to read "Parable of the Sower" to understand it. Butler has a better grasp of her characters and surer sense of where she's heading in this offering. The book matures significantly and reaches a sustained level of superb writing mid-way that lasts till the end of the novel.

I'm saddened that Octavia Butler passed away before her time and before completing this saga. She was a visionary author with the chops to shatter the glass ceiling of the white-male dominated world of science fiction and show everyone how it's done.

"All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God
Is Change."

This book was intense. I liked that I got to experience the story from different points of views, especially Lauren's daughter. Often Lauren comes across very cold and emotionless. It isn't until well past the middle point of the story that you really feel any passion from her at all. I liked how Butler fully developed all of the characters, even the ones we are introduced to towards the end of the story. Butler paints such a frightening but believable picture of the future. So much so that I wondered how the story would end the entire time I read the book. I just could not imagine an ending where things worked out.

Lauren's story is one of perseverance more than anything else. There is love in her life, there is struggle and there is pain but throughout it all she had her passion, EarthSeed. And, in the end, that's what mattered most.

This is an apocalyptic tale, an explores particularly the role religion plays when everything is turned upside down and all the old social norms are inoperative. Of course the most common way of thinking about that is the rigid fundamentalist structures that become abusive of the masses to the benefit of the few and seem to have a special attraction for authoritarian and sadistic personalities who abuse the power they acquire within these institutions. There is plenty of evidence of that scenario here. But the main focus is on the development out of crisis of a vision that will sustain a new religion, one that places the highest value on the survival of the life forms that have come into being in this particular time and place and locate that within the entire universe. This is the God who is Change, the God that is the very stuff of the stars. The destiny of humanity cannot be limited to the destiny of the earth. This is not a technological solution for Butler, but a religious one.

Olamina's daughter recounts the troubles faced by Earthseed as it establishes its first community and attempts to begin its journey to the stars. Parable of the Talents feels like the middle book it as meant to be. It's more of the same as Parable of the Sower, but even grimmer, with dystopia-building which grows especially preachy and redundant but, in moments, functions as an apt warning. The narrative structure provides adequate momentum and an interesting external view of the protagonist--but not enough happens, and Earthseed itself doesn't develop significantly until the tail end of the book. This is one of Butler's weakest novels: hardly awful, but still a disappointment. I don't recommend it, but I wish we'd had the chance to read its intended sequel.

Parable of the Talents is the continuation of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, where the reader catches up with Lauren Olamina and her group as they settle in to a safe existence. Or so they think. This book delves deeper into the Earthseed religion and its conflict with the future's form of mainstream Christianity. The reader almost doesn’t have to have read the first book to understand what is going on in this one. Events from Parable of the Sower are reviewed, but not to the point that it bogs down pace of the story. Rather than making this an advertisement for the Earthseed religion, Butler uses various points of view on opposing sides of the issue. This allows the reader to choose whether they want to pity, believe or rail against Lauren and the sacrifices she makes to ensure her beliefs spreads. Several portions of the book are difficult to read, mostly involving the brutality of the Christian Crusaders. I saw other reviews where readers were dismayed that the villains in the book were Christians. I found no problem with this. The world Octavia Butler so beautifully sets up is no more different than any other historical time period where power-hungry individuals twist things for their own gain. Treatment of the Earthseed followers parallels that of Protestants, African slaves and Native Americans. While the story comes full circle, the reader is left to ponder the decisions of the main protagonists, all of which added great tension and conflict throughout the novel.

Parable of Talents shares the journals of Taylor Franklin Bankole and his wife Lauren Oya "Olamina" Bankole which their daughter is reading her historical memories and lifestyles of her parents. She is able to see how the economy has changed--Apocalypse-like, inhabitants of this sectioned community has accumulated from a few to nearly 100, and soon Lauren was united with her thought-to-be-dead brother Marcus in the slave-trade, who has no idea who he is. Parable of the Talents also refers to the scripture Matthew 25, the parable of talents Jesus taught.

This story grabbed my interest to continue reading the pages to see how everything is put together as far as the movement Lauren created as a destiny of survival but later got caught into a slavery-collared community. Slavery again in 2027 and Lauren and community members were caught in 2033 while Larkin was a baby...but one to survive has to learn their captors motives, ways, and habits and use this to find a way of escape!

Even though this book is based in fantasy, l found felt that it was laying it on rather thick, as far as making most of the Christian characters appear to be fanatical in there nation's. As a Christian, I found the book to be an interesting read, but more so a challenging read, and I found myself having to constantly remind myself that this book is pure fantasy. In conclusion I must say that I enjoyed the first book of the series better.

Good read. I was taken aback by the "Make America Great Again" slogan of the presidential candidate in this book in view of what is going on now with our current president. I wondered if she, Octavia Butler, is a prophit, or can see into our future some how. Just kind of scary coincidence. Anyway, enjoyed the book. Kind of sad ending between mother and dauther. But what can you expect with all the years of separation between them.

Many distopian novels Could be classed as adventure. This isn't adventure. First published in 1998, it is eerily realistic. There is no deus ex machina and no happy ending. It's just a realistic and intellectually satisfying ending.What's really good about this, and its predecessor, The Parable of the Sower Parable of the Sower, is the very real portrayal of human relationships.No major character is all good or all bad. Even the minor characters are complex enough that you sense that if you saw more of them, they would be more complex.

This book is a sequel to Parable of the Sower. In my review of Sower, I had doubts about the religious writings and ideology of the main character, Lauren. Thus I really appreciated that here, Butler brings other voices into the mix, other narrators who question and even oppose Lauren's vision. This lifts her Earthseed religion out of its starry-eyed beginnings in the first book, and brings it into context as a noble but not necessarily infallible belief system, one that redefines God in quite secular terms.

I still have mixed feelings about Lauren's Earthseed religion, but this book left me turning it over in my head -- even seeking out scholarly articles written about the book to get different perspectives on it. Any work of fiction that is so thought-provoking, well-written, and engrossing deserves five stars.

I have to confess that before reading this book, I had no idea what the word "talent" meant in this context. I read the Parable of the Talents (the actual biblical parable, Matthew 25:14-30), and couldn't make any sense of it. When I finished Butler's book and still found the parable incomprehensible, I searched my library for information about it. (See now why I became a librarian?) Anyway, I realized to my embarrassment that a "talent" in the Bible is a monetary unit! Suddenly the parable made a lot more sense. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to look into that before I'd read Butler's book.

Apparently, Butler planned on continuing her series past these first two books, but sadly she passed away before writing another. The two Parable books stand well on their own, however, and I recommend them to all readers, even those who normally stay away from science fiction.

Parable of the Talents is the sequel to Parable of the Sower. Given the subject matter of the first book, I was a little nervous and intimidated about reading this new one. My nervous anticipation was not unfounded. Just as with the first, all hell breaks loose at some point in this book and it is not easy to read.

The protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, has settled the town of Acorn for the past three years, but her husband Bankole keeps insisting that they leave to go to one of the more settled towns. However, Lauren still envisions the prospects of Earthseed and hopes to see it blossom and grow from the small town. Both she and Bankole are ecstatic when she finally learns that she is pregnant with her child.

When her daughter Larkin is only three months old, the town of Acorn is torn apart and destroyed and none of their lives will ever be the same when the world around them decides Acorn is not in step with the rest of it. Parable of the Talents becomes a story about survival through the worst possible human conditions. Fortunately, Octavia Butler spares us some of the details even though she writes with brutal honesty throughout this story.

I have yet to be disappointed with any work from Butler. I find her work prophetic and quite frightening at times because of this. Still, she always has characters who are well-rounded and developed. I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would also say to read Parable of the Sower first.

Octavia Butler was definitely a force to be reckoned with - her books are powerful and very real, very believable.

"Parable of the Talents" was somewhat hard for me to read because of all the injustice perpetuated in the name of religion. As a child, I too suffered abuse, intolerance, and just plain meanness from people who were supposedly "Christians."

In this bleak future, free education is a thing of the past, poverty & violence & homelessness are rampant, the separation of church and state has been forcefully rousted, and the Church is leading the country - and doing a bad job of it, completely ignoring the rights of the populace.

The writing is powerful, and as other reviewers have stated, this books speaks to humanity - not just blacks, or whites, but all races.

There are almost too many points of view in the book - the poems (which are lovely, and make me wish that Butler had actually published a book of poetry called "Books of the Living"); Asha/Larkin's writings; Lauren Oya Olamina's journals; and Marcos Duran's book excerpts (which were pretty useless for advancing the story).

The other negative is that the ending is almost too pat, too quick. There was a lot of struggle, and then boom - Earthseed succeeded (of course, after many years).... there was a lot of story that Butler didn't tell us, and I wish she had.

Parable of Talents (PoT) was a great book for me. Much of the SF/Fantasy I've read in the last few years depends on deus ex machina. See Star Trek -- at the last moment someone presses the red button on the alien artifact and the story ends -- not satisfying. PoT's plot is driven by people throughout. Olamina wants to build a future with Earthseed. Her husband, Bankole, just wants a future for their family. Olamina's brother embraces the Christian Authority as she runs from it. All this happens as the safety net on the lower and middle class breaks in the United States.
PoT also rises above with its character depth. Too often, SF novels have characters that are either the author's ideal person or their concept of evil. The most interesting plots are not Good Vs. Evil, but Good Vs. Good; we get a lot of Good Vs. Good in PoT. True, much of the plot is driven, from off-screen, by Jarret and his Christian America, but the spot light is always on the protagonists and showing how they get along and deal with themselves, each other and the events around them.
The down side is, the events of the novel are bleak. Rape, murder and other forms of brutality occupy most of the book. More than once, I questioned weather I really wanted this as entertainment, but the characters are so compelling, the pages turned themselves.
The character Marcus Duran helps the story immeasurably, but he is not shown in the best light possible. The majority of the book focuses on Olamina with a parallel story on her daughter. Too many major characters can defocus a plot, but I wish more time was devoted to Marcus. If he had a more compelling character, the story would have been more interesting (to me, anyway).
PoT's message -- "turn your back on the poor at your own expense" -- was interesting and easy to swallow after reading. I live in California, where the book is set, and see the motivations for the story all around me. PoT opened my eyes and I'm always grateful for that.
The pacing of the story keep me turning pages at a rapid rate throughout the 400+ pages. The end, however, felt rushed. It felt like the book ended in the last 15 pages as if the author thought, "Whoa, I must end this book. Now!" Still, the ending was satisfying, if quick.

Continuing from "Parable of the Sower", this book finds Lauren and her followers in Earthseed as they struggle to make their small community thrive in the time of chaos in what's left of the United States of America. Actually, this is all told through the eyes of Lauren's daughter Asha, who, through her mother's journals and teachings, tries to understand the mother she hardly knew. A religious zealot became President of the country, and Lauren's community was destroyed for its heathen views and all the children were placed with other families, so Asha grew up never knowing her mother. Asha weaves together her own story with that of Lauren's struggles to rebuild her Earthseed community, and she tells of how she finally met her birth mother with the unwitting assistance of Lauren's estranged gay brother. The first half of the book is a bleak report of the atrocities done by men to women and by zealous humans in the name of religious beliefs. It nearly overwhelms the story and detracts from what Butler is presenting, but eventually this improves and it becomes the compelling story that it ought to be, although overall it's not as potent as "Parable of the Sower". Like the first book (and books by Margaret Atwood, Sally Miller Gearhart, and Marge Piercy), Butler expresses a fascinating feminist view of the political, social, and personal turmoil our country faces, and the potential path that could be taken.

I can't say that I found Parable of the Talents as thrilling as Wild Seed, but Butler's vision of an America that so easily slides into facism is especially chilling in light of the lout-in-chief currently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and recent political events. Reading this passage by Parable's President Jarret was especially eerie:
"We are God's people or we are filth! We are God's people or we are nothing! We are God's people! God's people!"
If that's not a portent of "You're either for us or for the terrorists," I'll eat my bathrobe.
Lauren Oya Olamina is a prophet who dreams of building a network of communities bound together by Earthseed, a belief system of her own creation (largely culled from Buddhist, pagan, and other nature-based religions with a little bit of Christianity thrown in). Ultimately these seed communities will work toward building communities in outer space, what Olamina calls "the Destiny". Among the ruins of a post-apocalyptic America, Olamina and her multi-ethnic band of believers live relatively quiet lives while working to spread the "truth" of Earthseed.
Olamina and her band of followers are captured by rogue practicioners of "Christian America" (CA), the political/religious sect led by President Jarret. The Earthseed settlement is repurposed as an internment camp for vagrants, thieves, drug dealers, and anyone who isn't a CA follower. Olamina and her followers are separated by gender and enslaved for a period of seventeen months, and their children are taken away from them under the guise of saving them from an un-Christian life. After an (unlikely) landslide frees the captives, the Earthseed settlement fragments, and Olamina rededicates herself to advancing spreading the teachings of Earthseed around the world while searching for her daughter, Larkin.
I found the novel's structure a bit distracting. While we're mostly reading Olamina's words, they're viewed through the eyes of her daughter Larkin, now called Asha Vere. Because the story is revealed through the eyes of a skeptical daughter who feels she was sacrificed at the expense of her mother's beliefs, it is difficult to trust Olamina's narrative. We admire her drive and dedication, but we can't help wondering whether she could have done more to find her daughter.
I've been drawn to Octavia E. Butler's work lately, largely because her novels center around Black women who find themselves in unusual or extraordinary circumstances. While I'm no prophet, I can certainly relate to being uprooted and placed in a wholly unfamiliar situation. From what I understand, Butler's work is noteworthy because of the rarity of character-driven narratives told from a woman's point of view within the genre. Despite the upheaval her multi-ethnic casts must endure, it's comforting to know that we exist in future worlds, where we have heretofore been relatively invisible.
Parable of the Talents offers no answers for how we might divert the uncertain political future that could become our reality if we're not careful. However, after reading it, we are left with a feeling of hope, that even though things may indeed become quite bleak, we don't have to accept being passive participants in our own undoing.

Octavia Butler's book is Part II of Parable Of The Sower. While the first hundred or so pages seem a bit difficult to get through lacking story and motivation, it is a necessary primer and like writers of old, Octavia believes in setting the table first before serving the meal. The meal itself is an utter and shocking page turner. Octavia is a master at creating misery without sounding miserable and pathetic. There is a definite reflection of the US of today. She changes names and augments situations but in many ways, this is an exaggerated U.S. of 2007.
The situation between Lauren and her daughter will lead to an utterly devastating and bone crushing conclusion. I can safely say in reading it, I had to stop, cry, and sit by myself trying to absorb what I have just seen. This is utter tragedy and tore my insides in two. It was that hard to read and imagine but it was an integral commentary about Christianity and belief systems in general. Octavia's message was driving it down to a personal level and it worked.
I would call this one of the greatest books I ever read and would recommend it to anyone.

At times one would think a person from the religious right participated in writing this book, however, after completing it, you understand the purpose; to show that humans can achieve the ultimate goal once a divine purpose is attached to it. At times the writing in this book is particularly gloomy, but realistically, it's not far from what some actually experience in their present day life. However, its the gloom and sorrow of the book that allows for the development of what the characters need, the "restoring hope" (that all-important human element).
The parable of religion? Without hope, or what some may refer to as a vision, it's virtualy impossible for any people to move past their deteriorating conditions. It's this hope that Lauren Olamina solidly embeds within the doctrine of Earthseed, and that eventually allows for them to "reach for the stars." One can appreciate the perseverance of Olamina to see her vision through, while at the same time attempting to right the wrong that was done to her, and thousands of others, by the religious extremists.
My only disappointment was that the book appeared to end so quickly; would love to see some sequel that centers around the development of her daughter.

This is one of the better dystopian novels I've read and one that in many ways describes a future that seems unfortunately possible at the present time.

I was intrigued by the main character's creation of a unique and compassionate belief system, but I was stymied about the necessity of space travel as part of it. For me, it was a jarring note—and others may not find it so.

Octavia E. Butler seems to be an under-appreciated writer in the SF/F world, and I urge you to explore her unique writing genius. You can choose from many books.

This is one of the very best novels ever written; it ranks right alongside Edgar Pangborn's "Davy." The sequel to "Parable of the Sower," it is that rarity: a sequel even better than the book it is a sequel of. The America portrayed in the Earthseed novels is indeed horrible, but it is eminently believable as a possible result of the corruption and incompetence of the faux President and his evil cronies. Could Octavia Butler be a prophet as well as a brilliant writer?

Some have complained about the dark future envisioned in "Earthseed." But while it is entirely appropriate to be horrified and angered by the cruelty, oppression, and injustice of the future Butler presents, we should be inspired by Lauren's continuing hope and perseverence and determination and the eventual triumph of Earthseed. We should be doing everything we can to insure that the bleak future described in the "Earthseed" novels will NOT actually happen, because that future, frightening as it is to contemplate, is all too possible.

I read "Parable of the Talents" before I was able to get my hands on "Parable of the Sower." Both novels are so outstandingly excellent that little was lost by reading them in the wrong order, but it would be better to read "Parable of the Sower" first.

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I can see why a black female author can have it in for the white, right, Christian fundamentalist movement. This movement doesn't seem to have the patience for those that don't fit it with their white bread view of the United States. It doesn't help their cause when they hint that Aids and the 9/11 tragedy are punishment from God.
However, while she gets to release something she's holding in by describing what our country would be if they took over, it's definately fiction. First, there are too many educated, somewhat spoiled Americans who have tasted the good life this country offers, and don't find the more plain lifestyle these folks want as very attractive. Also, we're proving time after time that our country is too strong, with too much left-wing balance to ever crumble and resort to these people to run our country.
Now take out the U.S. and plug in the Middle East, and you've got a more accurate novel. The type of government she describes in her book gets to assume power when there is so much turmoil in the country that the people will turn to the strongest power for stability. It also helps to control the media. It won't happen in the U.S., where too many people have Internet access, but for a country like Afganistan, which has been bombed into the Stone Age, and never made it back beyond the Middle Ages, this becomes a lot easier.
So let's not build up Jerry Falwell as being more powerful than he is. On the other hand, the abuses fostered upon the citizens in this story are frighteningly close to what the Taliban inflicted upon their country just a few short months ago. This is the only beef I have in what otherwise is a very fine novel.
As you've determined, the novel takes place in the not so distant future of the U.S., which has gone through enough turmoil that they've looked to an extremely right-wing government. The story is narrated by three different people: a man, woman, and their child. We get to hear their viewpoints on the world they try to build, how it is taken away from them, and how they reassemble their lives.
It's debateable who is the main character (mother or daughter?), but I'd lean slightly towards the daughter. We are introduced to her early in her adult life, speaking of her parents, and not always glowingly. You see, part of the tragedy is that they were separated early in her life.
Most of her knowledge of her mother is from the mother's writings. The mother started a kind of nature/religious movement, had somewhat of a following, and was known by a lot of people by these writings. So while you get the daughter in present tense describing what happened in her own past, you here the mother's writings as the parent's life happened. This structure works very well, and you get more and more into the characters as the story progresses.
I liked the story very much, and it looks like this tale is headed for another version. It'll be interesting where the author takes it from there, but I'll look forward to it when it comes.

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents are the best written of Butler's books. Stylistically, she just keeps improving as a writer. I understand sci-fi fans might want more science, but thse books are really morality tales about the path she sees our country taking--- and it's not for the faint of heart. Be forewarned, a point in the middle is so depressing I could barely keep reading, and I find the end heartbreaking despite the utopian possibilities offered by the end of Lauren's story. This book is most extraordinary because she frames Lauren's writing with her daughter's observations of her life, and readers are forced to interrogate Lauren's kind of new age spiritual politics with her daughter's embittered, ambivalence to religion and politics. Butler is always interested in how and how much people resist power, and in examining how people survive by doing things that no one would have imagined as a productive possibilities before. This book is worth teaching, as you can explore contemporary political conflict but also think about the allegory of resistance Butler presents here--- something revolutionary as opposed to something that accomodates old systems. I can't wait for the next one.

I've read reviews of this series that have criticized Ms. Butler for having such a bleak view of the future and I agree that her vision for the next 50 years isn't easy to swallow. She tends to focus her work more on societal deterioration and not so much on technological advances like so many other sci-fi writers. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy novels like Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age" but it didn't encourage me to run out and get a Computer Science M.A., reading this book by Ocativia Butler made me think about my community and scrutinize the things I wasn't doing to improve it. Yes, at times "Parable" is hard to read, but it has a big enough dose of reality to serve as a much needed wake-up call to humanity. There is definitely more to life than IPOs and open source software! As a Black woman I also enjoyed that Butler is the ONLY sci-fi writer I've read that knows the meaning of the word DIVERSITY. The main characters in her books are always Black women but they don't live in an all-Black world. Butler is always careful to include characters of all hues and nationalities. I can't recommend this book enough. Go for it!

At the end of Parable of the Sower Lauren Olamina had founded her first Earthseed community: Acorn. She founded the community with those she found on the highways of California as she tried to find safety somewhere among the violence of the United States. A man who came to travel with Olamina, Bankole, allowed her to use land that he owned. Bankole and Olamina eventually married and she had been teaching the community Earthseed and raising the children in it, her alternate religion that she believes is truth. Now that she has founded Acorn Olamina needs for her community to grow. She needs to spread Earthseed to others, to teach, to preach, to help others to know the truth as she knows it. She also needs Acorn to remain safe and protected as any could be killed, captured into slavery, robbed, or raped. Or all of this could occur.

As in the first volume, Parable of the Talents is a novel told primarily in the voice of Lauren Oya Olamina through her journals. So, we are looking at what she wrote of herself and her surroundings from some point in the future. She may have neglected to write about certain events and everything is always from her perspective. This is the part of the format that is the same as Parable of the Sower. What is different is that the chapters include discussion and writing by her daughter, and her daughter has a completely different point of view than Olamina. Shortly after the novel begins we learn that Olamina is pregnant. For her daughter to be writing and writing this well, this has to be coming from at least twenty years in the novel's future if not longer. The daughter offers commentary on Olamina's writing and perspective and gives her own. She also includes brief passages by her father and the occasional passage by Olamina's brother. Together we get a much different view of Olamina as we did in Parable of the Sower. She is still the leader, but her family is resentful and angry. Her daughter comes off as very angry, so we are left to wonder why and we begin to discovery why.

The format change was a bit surprising but it was very well done. It is enough to say that Octavia Butler was one of the masters of speculative fiction and she is in complete control here. This harsh vision of our future and even harsher vision of what Olamina and Acorn undergoes is exceptionally moving and powerful and it is part of a brutal world that I didn't want to leave. Wherever I thought Octavia Butler might go with this novel, she went in a completely different direction but one that felt entirely authentic.

-Joe Sherry

I read this book in the week following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Switching between reading Butler's descriptions of "post-Pox (Apocalypse)" America and watching the country's fearful reaction to its exposed vulnerablity to faceless terrorism, I found her incredibly insightful. Her fascist Christian American Jarrett was reflected in the rabid anti-gay, anti-feminist and anti-choice "God turning back on America" finger pointing of Falwell and Robertson, and I found the unexpected concordance utterly chilling.
The teachings of Earthseed are believable and applicable to real life. "God is Change." It could be a guidebook to ethical living, to learn, teach, work, take care of one another, take an active stance in shaping your destiny, use kindness to ease change. A goal or vision beyond the gruntwork of every day to reach for, in this case, reaching for the stars, literally, a grander, greater goal akin to Kennedy's vision to put a man on the moon within a decade back there in the 60s. I think the tech IPO bust early in the new millenium has made us realize our concentration on material prosperity has fallen a little flat, and a little spiritual or visionary striving will do us some, or even a lot of good. Earthseed is much more palatable than the hateful exclusionary hallucinations of Falwell and his ilk.

Within Octavia Butler's impressive body of work, this is arguably her most fully realized and solidly constructed novel. It's also a rare example of a sequel that's better than its predecessor. Whereas Parable of the Sower was more about humans struggling amidst a collapsing society, not to mention a tried-and-true road trip saga, Parable of the Talents dwells more on the philosophical and religious ideas that Butler merely introduced in the first story. Via journal articles collected by her long-lost daughter, we learn of the heroine Lauren's attempts to build her nascent religion (Earthseed) and establish a progressive community. Her disciples are then enslaved by Christian zealots and scattered, but the new religion somehow perseveres. Many of Butler's novels describe oppressive near-future dystopias, with varying degrees of plausibility, but the America she creates here is disturbingly possible and is based on current trends in demagoguery, inequality, and poverty. Butler's social commentary is often brilliant, because it builds the story with subtlety and subversion. Butler also dispenses with pie-in-the-sky idealism, as Lauren's struggles to build her new faith and to reunite her scattered family are depressingly but reassuringly believable. Especially poignant are the impossible obstacles and misunderstandings faced by families that have been forced apart by social and political collapse, including the story of Lauren and her estranged and disbelieving daughter. All of Butler's books are recommended for those seeking insights into the human side of speculative fiction, and Parable of the Talents is surely one of her milestones. R.I.P. [~doomsdayer520~]

After reading Octavia E. Butler's "Wild Seed" and several other novels in that series, I have been on a Butler kick for a while and picked up "Parable of the Talents" after finishing its predecessor, "Parable of the Sower". And I ended up liking the sequel better than the original novel.

"Parable of the Talents" is told mostly through the diary entries of Lauren Oya Olamina, creator of the Earthseed religion. The diary entries are interspersed with notes from her daughter, Larkin or Asha Vere, as well as a few entries from some of the other characters the reader meets throughout.

The novel was overall, excellent. Many of the characters, Lauren is particular, are expertly done with rich personalities, motivations, and experiences. We understand why they do the things they do and we care about them, hope they survive. Almost all of them are survivors of sometimes terrible experiences and they are shaped believably through what they have gone through.

These survivors are cast against the backdrop of a very dark world. Characters come in and out of our main characters' lives and there is a definite tension over whether these strangers are friendly or not. The main conflict, the rise of the Christian American movement, is believable and terrifying. These terrors are softened however by the surprising kindness of friends, family, and sometimes strangers. The conflicts very much echo Lauren's religion of change.

There were some minor though significant problems with the novel that hold me back from giving an otherwise excellent read 5 stars. First, I did have some difficulty with the Earthseed religion. It is philosophical in nature and I didn't completely understand how it worked day to day, how people drew hope from it, how they fit it into their lives. Second, I wanted more from both Larkin and Marc. The book is very much Lauren's story but I think it would have benefitted greatly from more character development and pages given to these two. Finally, the end of the novel came too abruptly. Though the majority of the novel spans only a handful of years, the last fifty or so pages span decades.

Even with these detractions, "Parable of the Talents" was a very enjoyable and well-crafted novel by a talented author.

Like many others I anxiously but patiently (if that is possible) awaited Octavia's latest novel, this follow-up to her "Parable of the Sower." Knew I wouldn't be displeased and was correct. Strangely, however, it took me 4 weeks to read, partially because it is a painful rendering of a very plausible future and partly because my life does not allow for much leisure reading. She takes you down and down and down with always glimmers of hope through Earthseed which is a perfect description of human beings struggle to understand life and spirit and hope and what the future holds. A necessary multiple read as there are so many parables and parallels with other literature and real life events. I appreciate the integrity she apparently puts into the writing . A must read!

The Parable of the Talents is the story of a woman attempting to maintain stability in a world of anarchy. I found it to be at first intriguing and promising, then it became absolutely unbearable, and then refreshing, surprising, and enlightening. Although Butler is a powerful storyteller, she lacks in several areas and this novel is significantly flawed.
My problem with Parable of the Talents wholeheartedly began and remained with the people of Acorn, and with Acorn itself. There were way too many characters and families that Butler threw in the story purely for exemplification-they offered absolutely nothing else. Instead of trying to unsuccessfully weave all of these characters into the story, it would have been better to read into a few more well developed characters, leaving the majority of the group nameless. I've noticed that Butler does this in her other work as well and can't understand why. The characters are neither allegorical nor satirical, just a jumble of names and brief physical descriptions that add absolutely nothing to the story.
The very long-winded narrative of the Acorn's daily activities served no other purpose than to show Acorn's philosophy and way of life, which could have been done in a few chapters. The endless chapters narrating the Acorn lifestyle certainly didn't broaden or flesh out any of the other characters, including Olamina. In addition, the never-ending focus on the doctrines of Earthseed for the first 200 hundred or so pages became very preachy and didatic. The excessive lyrics from 'Earthseed' were completely uneccessary. Butler even admits in her afterword that she had to keep "rewriting the first 150 pages or so of Talents and heading up one blind alley or another...I couldn't seem to tell Olamina's story no matter how hard I tried."
Olamina's need to always improve and change was an interesting one and was well manifested in her creation of Earthseed, but it her motives in general were never explained. It was obvious that she wanted to create a progressive group of people who were realistic about 'religion' and had a logical explanation for the ins and outs of life, which is and was appealing, but I kept searching for another reason for Olamina's obsession with her own controlling strength and independence, and never found one. After reading Octavia Butler's afterword, it became obvious to me that Olamina, Acorn, and Earthseed represented Octavia Butler's own values and motivations, which offered me a bit more insight into the character of Olamina. It would be interesting to research exactly how much of Butler's own personality is reflected in her female protagonists and other leading characters.
Despite my griping, I am still impressed with Octavia Butler's mastery of illustrating the follies of human nature and what it breeds. I somewhat enjoyed Bloodchild and the Lilith's Brood series, but I feel Butler has definitely faltered this one. Although this series doesn't have to be read in sequence, I would recommend that those new to Octavia Butler start with Bloodchild, which is a collection of short stories, Lilith's Brood, and then Parable of the Sower and Talents.

This book is somewhat prophetic. Although written many years before the rise of the alt right, Butler captures the xenophobia and religious fervor taking place in our country today. The character Butler creates to serve as leader of the United States frequently uses phrases like "Make America Great Again". President Trump meet President Jarrett.

The sequel to a dystopia. Redemptive as Lauren pushes to change the world, but as told in journals and overviews, the shaper, and her brother and daughter survive but ultimately can not change themselves.

Sequel to Parable of the Sower. This is about what happens in a religious backlash after society has seriously started going down the toilet. Lauren Olamina and her Earthseed community are pretty much considered heretics and aren't allowed to practice their lifestyle of fostering change toward mankind's growth, and we get to follow the story of her people (including her daughter). Wonderful, wonderful book.

This book packs in a lot of story. It continues the story of Lauren trying to build her "religion" (even though it was established that Lauren is trying to "reimagine" or reject traditional religion) of Earthseed, and the world building of the dystopic (and still racially charged) America. Butler doesn't shy away from villains who, backed by their warped sense of religion, prey on anyone (i.e. men, women, children) not seeing their way. It was very emotional, and a very long book, but satisfying.

Not necessarily a better read than Parable of the Sower, but more cleverly crafted. Interspliced with Olamina's journal entries is input from her adult daughter which adds a perspective not available in the first book.
To me Parable of the Sower had a greater feeling of urgency. Wondering how Olamina would survive propelled me through the pages. Parable of the Talents feels slower and more repetitive. I lost count of how many characters were raped or molested. The majority of characters feel so flat and insignificant, it's hard to be concerned when tragedy finally catches up with them. But I don't think that hurts the novel. At heart it's an examination of what could happen after an economic collapse, how different classes struggle to maintain what they have, and how opportunists try to take even more for themselves. More importantly it looks at how religion can become a trap for the desperate or a tool for setting them free.
While individual characters feel flat, the society Butler shows us feels very real. Clearly she's a well educated author, alert to the trends in modern politics and where they might be leading us. If you have any interest in anthropology, sociology, or politics you'll enjoy Parable of the Talents.

I never read Sower, but I read alot of good things about this book so I gave it a try. Glad I did. Every chance I got, I picked up this book. I was impressed by Butler's views of the future as a collapse of society and how it turns on itself any chance it can take. And of the (maybe pagan) religion she creates. But mostly by the characters. She can impress on you the earnesty of Lauren and the fight in her dispite all the atrocities that she's seen and lived though. A nicely written, well thought out novel with good charactization, definitely worth reading.

I enjoyed this book largely because the characters, circumstances and plot were totally believable to me, even though they occur in a "near future" world. Is it still definable as science fiction when it seems like in ten years people might believe that it's fact?
If you like post-holocaust, WWIII, survival, etc, you'll like this book. This book, and it's prequel (Parable of the Sower) are powerful, and are on the short list of books that have impacted me in a long-term memorable way.
Read it. Read anything by Octavia Butler. I've never been disappointed by her, and this book is a fine way to understand how I can say that.

the only problem that I had with this book is that it started slow. I guess i was still working with the speed that the previous entry, "parable of the sower" had left off at. All and all, it is beautiful.

As with the last book, I was impressed with Butler's detail(the religon that Lauren created, the city that was built, the characters' beliefs). There was no disconnect between me and the characters that I was reading about, or the story. The struggle that lauren had endured to keep close to her faith was real. I rose and fell with her triumphs and loses.

A promising writer must put this selection in their studies.

Parable of the Talents is classified as science fiction, but has less of both than usual for this genre. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The description of America led by extreme religious fundamentalism is frighteningly realistic. Meanwhile, despite a few references to futuristic technologies, much of the book deals with fairly primitive living conditions (18th century by the protagonist's reckoning).

In addition to addressing the perils of fundamentalism, the book does a nice job of portraying the benefits of communal living. A striking feature of the book is it's ambivalence towards Olamina and Earthseed. This is neither a screed against goofy cults, nor an apologetic.

A word of caution: for those, like Olamina, who are "sharers" (easily feel the pain of others), the descriptions of child slavery and sexual molestation can be a little disconcerting. Good writers can make the reader feel pain just as well as pleasure, and Ms. Butler is up there with the best.

The story is solid, though I prefer "Sower" more. Others have covered the plot and details well enough, but there's one thing I feel the need to mention: the smacking lips and other mouth sounds from the recording of the primary narrator. It's a small thing, but I found myself often annoyed by it.

Octavia Butler promised this book by 1996, but it was worth the wait! Octavia Butler created a world that will hopefully never occur, but still seems possible. The characters she created search for solutions for the problems of today. I've read the reason she did release the book in 1996 was because she couldn't find answers. But she did find answers it might not have been the easier answers she fought she could create, but it was the answers that hard work and community is what we need to make the world better.

The only drawback to this incredible book is that it ends too quickly. It seemed to me that the ending was very non descriptive of all the work that the main character did. I give much props to Octavia Butler for creating scripture for an imaginary religion. This book and the prequel - Parable of the Sower are both important looks at the future. Some might say that it is pessimistic, but I think that something like this is possible sometime in the future, if not 50 years into the future. I also like the commentary on what could happen if public schooling were eradicated. This book makes me grateful for what does exist, but also makes me aware that these things are not enough and also that they are also in danger.

Octavia Butler has such a talent to pull you in to the story. It absolutely grips you and feels as natural as a friend sitting with you and sharing her experiences. She had an interesting take on the standard dystopian fiction as well. Not ALL doom and gloom but hope too.

I loved it. I was so impressed that I started to research the writer and realized that today is her birthday. (06/22/2011) Spooky, and so is her writing. I became an immediate fan. I will read the other books now that I have been 'bitten' by her charm. The book will make you stop, think and then read the passages again and again. My first encounter with Ms. Butler was through her book titled 'Kindred' which was an earlier effort. This book has shown the growth in her art and power to create an experience. It's your turn to look into the future that we are creating. She has done a better job at detailing the effect of global warming than most of my scientific peers have done and I am finally convinced that we may have a real problem on our hands.

Octavia Butler has written a stimulating,thought provoking tale of 21st century America dominated by lawlessness, slavery and religious fanatacism. Education, family and even more importantly -community, become essential for survival. Although this futuristic picture is often dark and depressing,Lauren Olamina's Earthseed community's diversity and it's vision for the future provide a positive note. In this "parable",Lauren makes the ultimate sacrifice of her own family to use her talents for the greater good of the community. How inspiring to read of a Black woman portrayed with such strength and fortitude!

Octavia Butler's grim visions of the future are thought provoking, if not totally pessimistic. The book follows up on the adventures of Lauren Olamina. Personally, I didn't like her, but the characters surrounding her were interesting enough that I kept reading. I enjoyed the ending (it was probably my favorite part of the book) and the representation of the Christian (shall we say overlord) denomination was accurate in my experience.

Octavia Butler's tales can be devastating but they are never ordinary. She exposes the hypocrisy of humanity in ways that are both blunt and disturbing. Yet Butler also understands subtlety. Although this book is even more bleak than its prequel, it is also more mature. In this tale of destruction and reconstruction, Butler deftly captures the dialectics of love and hate, courage and fear, hope and despair. I will remember Lauren's determination to reach for the stars even when all has been lost.

I love this book. It shows all of human nature: the good, the bad, the chaos, the order-- and how one community can survive anything together. "Parable of the Talents," teaches a new religion called Earthseed. Lauren Olamina, the main character, preaches Earthseed, always saying GOD IS CHANGE. I'm not very religious, but i can relate to all of the verses. Most of them are very true verses, ones that i can relate to. This book is about the world after the Apocalypse. Slave collars are used to control people, sending them lashes mechanically. A provocative but fascinating book-- and long enough to enjoy all of its layers.
"Parable of the Talents" is a Science Fiction book-- but not the stereotypical robots and Martians kind of a book. It mostly feels like your reading about history-- even though there are some inventions our society doesn't have. Recommended highly from a person who hasn't liked reading much-- especially science fiction- until this book!

I read Parable of the Sower and I felt overwhelmed with thought and visions of the future and I didn't want it to end. I was so happy to follow up with Parable of the Talents. Wonderful book. Octavia Butler does an excellent job at forcing us to view our patterns and choices and the way we are currently dealing with human and social conditions. I strongly recommend this book to everyone but especially if you are looking for a read that will feed your mind and stimulate you intellectually.....
One complaint since the main character Lauren was creating a new way of thinking via Earthseed at times I felt as if I were reading one of those "power for living type books" and it got to be a bit much at times.... Enjoy

This book hurts. It has the potential to do so, because the scenario presented is a very plausible one indeed. Butler describes no faraway utopia-like future with incredible adventures experienced on high-tech spaceships in a universe where the bad guys always loose in a happy ending.
What she describes is one possible scenario of a not-so-far-away future; one step from now, or - as she might say - an extrapolation of what you can see around you, here and now. An all to possible dystopia, that - given the choice - we hopefully choose to avoid.
But she also tells about persistence, trust and hope in a hopeless breakdown environment. Here no superheroes with super-natural abilities save the day or even the universe, but ordinary people following their own ideas of a world worth living in shape their future in spite of all obstacles.
No convenient pastel-coloured fast food, but therefore definitely more the worth reading.

This book, much like Parable of the Sower, draws you in and holds you firmly from beginning to end. The story is rich and characters have depth and are multidimensional. I was sad to finish it knowing there will not be another to captivate me.

I received this book for Christmas, and finished it on 12/27. The first two-thirds were intense, gritty, detailed writing. However, I didn't feel feel that there was enough explanation about how the end was finally reached. (I'm being a little vague here, but I don't want to give anything away to those who haven't read it yet.) Lauren Olamina Oye Bankole's goals were intriguing, and I enjoyed reading about the small steps taken to reach them...so I felt disappointed when the book's steps turned into leaps. Still, it is a fantastic book -- and I hope we'll have a shorter wait for Butler's next!

The Good: A wonderful book of ideas populated with interesting characters. The hunger for new spiritual guidance is a fit with today's situation. Much richer characters and plot than generic sci-fi / fantasy. The Bad: Definitely bleak at times ... but the journey is definitely the reward. Some of the characters / subplots seem to be fragments of a larger story that was edited down (or maybe seeds for new stories in the future). The Black: This book is mistakenly targeted at a black / minority demographic. It is less about racism (though there is that element) and much more about intolerance in general (blacks, women, the "wrong" religion, etc).
Overall, I highly recommend it!

I'm was an Octavia Butler fan before reading this book, and I enjoyed it so much. Completely different characters with unique survival strategies than her other books. How cool that the author explored so many different ways to deal with the end of civilization in her many books. Her main characters are so smart, they inspire me to be strong, follow through, trust the instinct to survive, adapt and thrive. As a Biology major, I appreciate the level of scientific detail she puts into setting up the stories. Great book!

I was mesmerized, horrified, grief-stricken, and elated by turns. This book took me through so many emotions, that I was exhausted when I finished. And yet, I desperately ached for the characters and their extremely human conflicting emotions. I highly recommend the book, and its predecessor, "The Parable of the Sower;" the book that changed forever the way I view divinity.

I want to read more Octavia Butler. She is, hands down, my all time favorite and the Parable books are some of the best! I first heard of her during an interview on NPR in 1999(?). I came in on the middle of it and I loved what she was saying. When I found out that she was an author, I ran to the library. I have never been disappointed in her work. I just wish she had written more.

The late Octavia Butler is recognized as one of the world's most respected female sci-fi writers, and her book Parable of the Sower (1998) and Parable of the Talents (2000) helped her achieve this status.

Both of these books have to be read to get the full story of Lauren Olamina, the books' African-American heroine. Butler, who loved writing apocalyptic type fiction (books focusing on what happens after the world is nearly destroyed) begins Lauren's story in Parable of the Sower. It is the year 2024 and people (namely Americans) have finally decided to go ahead and half-way destroy the world, resulting in America being reduced to the world's "lower power." Our treasured dollar is now worth pennies, our system of government has collapsed, most American citizens live in poverty, and more than half are homeless. As one would guess, many people go crazy during this time. Besides being concerned about not starving to death or dying from the flu, people also have to worry about being burned alive by stoned druggies or killed for their shoes.

Lauren, nearing puberty, lives in this world with her father, three brothers and stepmother in a walled community in California. As a result of her mother taking drugs, Lauren suffers from hyperempathy, a syndrome that causes her to feel other's pain--real or fake. But that seems to be her only weakness. She is exceptionally intelligent, creative, and strong-willed. Though a preacher's kid, her questions about God and how He could allow this kind of chaos to exist, turn her into an "unbeliever." She walks away from Christianity to create and embrace a philosophy she calls "Earthseed." This philosophy teaches that "God is Change," as change is the only thing constant in the world. The philosophy is humanistic in that is calls for total responsibility of individuals to shape their lives as they work with God--as God is change. For example, an Earthseed verse in the book is: God is Change, God is Infinite, Irresistible, Inexorable, Indifferent, God is Trickster, Teacher, Chaos, Clay--God is Change; Beware: God exists to shape and be shaped.

Beyond preaching just this, Lauren also believed that humankind's ultimate destiny was to settle other planets--no heaven, no hell.
This concept of God may seem weird to many people, and very heathenistic to the religious. When I first read Lauren's idea of God and humankind's purpose I was slightly put off. But in those days and times the world seemed to be coming to a total end. It seems fathomable that a "religion" that calls for total belief in one's self and the hope of escaping earth could be founded and gain followers. After all, religion's main purpose is to give our lives meaning.

After becoming confident that "Earthseed" could help give people renewed hope and purpose, Lauren began to plan how she could reach people. She hoped to one day leave her walled community to do this. However, she was forced out of her community while in her teens, as druggies stormed into her neighborhood, set fires to the houses, and raped, mutilated and killed most of inhabitants. Lauren escaped somehow, and found only two of her neighbors (an older man and woman) that had also managed to escape. She had already lost her father and oldest brother in childhood to druggies, and the rest of her family had been killed in the attack.
Nearly fugitives, the trio set out on the highway to find another community, work where they could get it, or possibly to Canada or Alaska. They faced being robbed, raped, forced into slavery, or murdered while on their journey. As they traveled, Lauren began telling them about Earthseed, as she did with everyone who eventually joined their band--as people liked to travel in large numbers to avoid being robbed. She soon found several other empaths, as well as a man as old as her father that she fell in love with. He had a large piece of land, and although he did not believe in Earthseed, he agreed to let her set up a community to teach this philosophy/religion. The book ends with her trying to build and maintain this community.

Parable of the Sower is one of the most thought-provoking fiction books I have read.
Embracing the Real World (The Black Woman's Guide to Life After College)

Talents talks about Lauren and her husband Taylor who had a baby, but was kidnapped and placed in a family that didn't provide love. This book was a bit hard for me because Lauren is able to see what is really going on around her. She sees how the economy changed, and seems like there are some obstacles. I thought it was emotional, and took me a little while to finish, otherwise I enjoyed it.

An interesting read, with the Earthseed concept ringing hollow - it offers a destiny that's ultimately spiritually unfulfilling. Earthseed seems like just another "what's good for me here and now" belief system with the angle of settling amongst the stars as anything of consequence to strive for. An empty "religion" during empty times - just what Butler may very well meant the book to be all about.

I would be the first to say that Octavia Butler is an excellent writer. However, I found this particular tale too depressing. My problems actually did not lie with the violence of the book. I was extremely bothered by an impression that every single character in this story was a victim (and that includes the villans). Even the ending did not seem any more hopeful. What is the point?

This book is the continuation of Lauren Olamina's life story, picking up where Parable of the Sowers left off. It has much to say about how one transcends trauma, about what compels human beings to make the choices they do when the range of choices gets narrower and narrower. The reader becomes engrossed in Lauren's survival and what that means to other important characters. Most importantly, the reader is challenged to explore the various ways people choose to cope with destructive forces beyond their control.

I love Octavia Butler's daring,caring and strong people who transform her bleak scenarios into hopeful tales of human potential. The theme of the unresolved oppression that continues to breed slavery is never far from her mind or pen. This book is striking to read because although Butler published it in the late 1990s, the danger of future of a U.S. run by Christian fascists led from the White House seems more more real than ever.

For a factual recent history of Christian theocrats in the U.S. read Esther Kaplan's recent book With God on Their Side, and for a trenchant analysis of the philosophy and social base behind this madness read Avakian's Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones, another prescient work from the 1990s.

This book is so good. It is also so scary because the things that happen might really happen to us. We better watch out and try to get along with each other. Octavia Butler, rest her soul, is a genious.

This story is for everyone. Ms. Butler writes like a true prophet. If you like the more social/cultural episodes of The Next Generation, you love any of Ms. Butler's stories. You may even begin to believe she's ghost-written a few of them.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone; it's mostly just torture porn. The formulaic plot and obvious resolution served only the constant barrage of terrible experiences written in an emotionally manipulative fashion to force the reader to "share" (in a parallel with the protagonist's condition (important in the first book and nearly forgotten here)) in the harshest situations the sadist-author could dream up (or copy/paste directly from history) to make her readers suffer. The book isn't poorly-written (most -though not all- of the punctuation and wrong word uses from the first book have been polished away by a new publisher), it's the worse thing that the subject matter and intent of the book were poorly chosen.

Read these books only if you are a masochist, looking for pain and suffering.

With regard to Earthseed, the protagonist's invented religion, it is no more developed and no better explained in this book than in the first. In fact, I found this book to be much more obviously a book about the author's perceptions of the evils (and potential evils) of Chistianity, with Earthseed's presence only as a foil for her evil-Christians to use as an excuse. I was upset not just at the twisted, exaggerated portrayal of Christianity, but also at the total lack of a meaningful alternative belief system in Earthseed; I enjoy studying religions, but Earthseed is insubstantial to the point of non-existence. What a wasted opportunity. (Copied from my Goodreads review)

Ms. Butler's book, while interesting enough as a kind of depressing post apocalyptic novel (even for that genre) is irreparably marred by a profoundly negative caricature of Christians.

I am surprised that such a exercise in bigotry was given a Nebula Award.

Perhaps William F. Buckley's observation about anti-Catholicism being the last fashionable prejudice now can be extended to Christianity in general.