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julieandrewsToday (June 22nd) is Octavia Butler's birthday. She would've been 61 this year.
The first book I read of hers was Parable of the Sower and I really liked it. It was unlike other science fiction I'd read. I went on to read more of her books... I think I've read a little less than half now. I read enough to start noticing themes that I didn't agree with, that remind me of themes in Orson Scott Card's books. So like with OSC, I have a love-hate relationship with her work.
But I would've loved to have met her in person. She's one of Clarion's success stories. And Clarion does have many success stories, but she'd be near the top, for sure.
I wish I'd known it was her birthday today, yesterday, when I was in Borders. Because now I want to pick up her collection of short stories, Bloodchild and Other Stories.
Read more about her on Wikipedia.
The first book I read of hers was Parable of the Sower and I really liked it. It was unlike other science fiction I'd read. I went on to read more of her books... I think I've read a little less than half now. I read enough to start noticing themes that I didn't agree with, that remind me of themes in Orson Scott Card's books. So like with OSC, I have a love-hate relationship with her work.
But I would've loved to have met her in person. She's one of Clarion's success stories. And Clarion does have many success stories, but she'd be near the top, for sure.
I wish I'd known it was her birthday today, yesterday, when I was in Borders. Because now I want to pick up her collection of short stories, Bloodchild and Other Stories.
Read more about her on Wikipedia.
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Date: 2008-06-22 09:17 pm (UTC)I wonder if that can be extended to OSC.. where his humans are controlled and oppressed by an AI orbiting satellite in the Memory of Earth books, adults in Ender's Game, and God in some of the other stories.
What bugs me is clearer in Memory of Earth than in Octavia Butler's books. Where a gay man and a woman who seems not so keen on the idea get married to have children for the sake of the human race, or whatever, because they were told to. And then they decide it's not so bad after all and they've found happiness together. But that tends to open up the whole can of homophobic worms, and that's not quite what my issue is.
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"Bloodchild" definitely sounds interesting. And sounds like it could be a contender for a retrospective Tiptree.