By Octavia Butler
20. Dawn
21. Adulthood Rites
22. Imago
I like omnibuses. With a collection the size of mine, the more compact format is a vital space saver even if they are a little more difficult to physically handle. The real downside of an omnibus is that when closely related books are bound together, I find that they begin to blur together. And so, because I read these three books in one go as a part of an omnibus, I've decided to review them as one work.
Lillith's Brood is a three story arc centered around a set of related characters. A true science fiction story, Lillith's Brood presents an unusual idea of what would interstellar travelers really be like. We generally tend to think that aliens would not only look a lot like us but be motivated by things that motivate humans. Think Startrek or Star Wars. Even War of the Worlds involves aliens who want to dominate our world for its resources. Butler, by contrast, came up with a very alien extraterrestrial race. One who's motivations are unfathomable to us. On the one hand they save the human race from self destruction, but on the other hand they wish to destroy humans as humans by blending their genetic code with human genetic code and creating a new species. And they have the technological superiority to force the humans into this blending. Clearly, the human response was not entirely positive.
It really is an excellent series written by a master of the genre. This review cannot possibly hope to convey the worth of this work of literature.
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