Parable of the Talents: A Novel

Fantastic sequel. It's a rare writer who can improve on an original idea.

Governments and religions are big subjects. It's amazing that Octavia E Butler can make them seem so accessible; that the answers to the squabbles over 'who's right and who's wrong' could actually be so simple, if only we were prepared to be honest with ourselves. This is a book that speaks to the here and now. If you're concerned about what is happening in the world today, read it. If you have ever asked yourself about religion and the function it serves in our society, read it. If you just like a good book with a strong storyline, read it. It can offer something on all of these levels, and personally speaking, I have yet to stop thinking about the questions it raises.

Parable of the Talents is a great read - pertinent for these times. Octavia Butler's influence continues to grow - with NASA recently naming the Mars landing site after her.

I had high hopes based on the author's other work, but was very disappointed. This book is largely told through the diary of an unpleasant female cult leader - she is egotistical, considers herself to be always right, blames others for everything that goes wrong, and barely mourns her husband when he dies suddenly. Regrettably, the author portrays this character as a 'Mary Sue' i.e. an unrealistic heroine with infinite emotional and physical resilience who is effortlessly accepted as a leader by others despite her failings and who we (the readers) are expected to admire. There is some attempt to explore the main character's relationships with her daughter and brother, but this needs to be fleshed out so that her other family members become more three dimensional. There is no real character development over the course of the book because the central character never admits that she is wrong. Nearly all of the story occurs within a prison camp and given the narrative style this is told largely through diary entries listing abuses by the guards, including torture, many rapes, and the (inadvertent?) death of several characters. These events are unpleasant to hear about and not very original. Moreover, a diary was poor choice of narrative device for these scenes because events that should be exciting and emotionally charged do not happen in real time, but are described through great dumps of exposition. As a result it is boring to read the abusive scenes are stripped of nearly all the emotional significance. In my view this book should have been rejected by the publisher and the author advised to substantially rework it. The narrative can't decide if it is a story about a religious cult and their internment in an abusive prison camp run by religious extremists (a social and political commentary story that requires exploration of multiple interned characters and involves a number of action scenes), or a story about the family relationships of the central character (an individual story centred on emotions). As it is the novel falls between two stools, so neither of the stories is properly developed. I would only recommend this book as a cautionary example for overconfident novelists!

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD* WHOA. This is a great book (and series), but DANG, it's an emotionally destructive read on so many levels. I had to stop for breaks at several points just because it all became too much for me. Ms Butler wrote The Parable of the Talents in 1998, but she totally could have been describing what happened in the 2016 US elections!! 🤯 I feel like Larkin was too harsh in her reflections on her mother Lauren, given everything that Lauren went through and the fact that Larkin was literally stolen from her. Larkin only met her mother 'occasionally' after she found Lauren - when they were in their 30s and 50s, respectively. She had no clue what her mother had done to find her, despite reading her journals, which are only glimpses into the past - and had definitely been brainwashed by Marc (who I pretty much detest). If anything, Larkin had already made up her mind about her mother before they even met, and condemned her without any evidence. It's sad to see the deterioration of the US in the books, which seems to be coming to pass in real life, although without the level of violence and destruction in the book... yet. It's also sad to see that the 'good Christians' are up to their same old, violent BS - trying to convert the heathens by killing the heathen in them to save the person, to paraphrase. Even in a fake future, it never changes. Religious fascists always think their religion is the one and only true faith, and others WILL convert - by any means necessary - or they will die. I think that's what Earthseed's tenets speak to me so much. They're not trying to force anyone to believe in some imaginary being. They are deep truths that we can all see happening around us. Like the saying goes, "the only constant in life is change". There are some bright spots in the series, such as Lauren finding people who loved her, managing to reconnect with her daughter - no matter how strained their relationship was, at least she knew Larkin was alive and doing well, and living to see Earthseed grow and getting to watch the first 'seeds' shoot off into space to fulfill her Destiny. I really wish Ms Butler had lived long enough to finish writing the series because I think books about Earthseed's struggles to create better lives on new planets would have been super cool, with a lot of possibilities to encounter other life forms. Guess we'll have to leave that kind of story to other writers...