Parable of the Sower

[mild spoilers] There were a lot of things I didn't like about this book, but it's well worth a read.

First, the main character starts to think through her own religion, complete with scripture verses. I had a hard time taking the verses seriously, since they were so broad as to be meaningless. Second, the romances seemed forced and awkward. Still, there's a ton to think about, especially in the meaning of community and its relevance today.

This book was raw and realistic to the point of being a bit scary. Octavia Butler's writing is powerful and doesn't shy away from telling things the way they really are.

I rarely enjoy reading in the dystopian genre, but I know if she wrote it, I'll enjoy it.

Science fiction often aims to speak broadly about mankind, either where we come from or where we're going. Usually this leads to novels that feel impersonal. Not the case with Butler. In all her works, that I've read so far, she's always displayed the nuanced tapestry of human emotion. She understands that rarely is something absolute. If we hate someone we don't just hate them. We can pity, envy and even love them all at the same time. Though at times it's hard not to feel as though our narrator isn't a sheltered 18 year old girl speaking but Butler herself in all her wisdom. On one hand she often speaks broadly of the world with a deep philosophy on life, adding another layer to this already interesting character, on the other it's slightly jarring having someone speak so deeply about the world who has yet to fully experience it.

Butler expertly manages to maintain both intrugue and tension throughout the first half of the novel but drops the ball in the second half where stakes should be at there highest. We meet character after character with little to no fanfare or fireworks and each hurdle is overcome without much difficulty or sacrifice. Similar to Kindred this book doesn't really have a climax, more the story just reaches its natural conclusion and simply ends.

This book felt too real. It’s heavy, honest, and full of heart. The world is falling apart, danger is everywhere: the drug epidemic, homelessness, climate change, and the LA fires. And yet, we watch this young woman, Lauren, build hope in the middle of it all. Her journey made me feel everything. It’s disturbing, intense, and way too close to reality. Not an easy read, but definitely an important one.

I was both embarrassed and a little intimidated to pick up Octavia Butler for the first time, so it took me a second to be fully invested. One I was, however, I couldn't put this down. This is everything that I want in my dystopian fiction. Endlessly amazing.

I can finally say I know why Butler is all of my favourite authors' favourite author.

3.5 Stars
Review Coming Soon

Intense and brutal and hits way too close to home for comfort, which is, in part, the point. The near-future dystopia feels VERY near these days, and while technically this is speculative fiction, it's barely speculative and barely fiction. There's a little something extra to it beginning in 2024, the current year, but it was written in 1993 and obviously RL 2024 isn't where book 2024 is. But fast-forward 20 or 30 years, and maybe?

This is a tough read, and I don't know if I can say I "enjoyed" it, but it's certainly well-executed, believable, and upsetting. I've read a bunch of reviews trying to see not only what others thought but also whether I had missed key takeaways -- I don't think I did -- and I am struck by the things a lot of the negative reviews are complaining about. Some of then don't like "Earthseed," which is protagonist Lauren's invented religion based around change. I saw one person complaining that it was unbelievable because the police -- and the book starts in LA, so it would be the LAPD! -- are depicted as unhelpful and corrupt. A couple people didn't like the prose; people are entitled to their opinions, but I thought it was perfectly fine.

An early takeaway for me was preparing for impending disaster instead of pretending it won't happen, but Butler wrote this to envision the near-future based on the continuation of contemporary trends. So I think a better takeaway more accurate to her perspective is to effect change now to avoid this bleak future. I wish I were more optimistic about that.

I think that this book just wasn't for me. I've never really been a huge fan of dystopia, or YA dystopia for that matter, and Parable of the Sower didn't do much to make it stand out from the others. I did like the ideas of Earthseed and the effects of religion that were discussed, but that's pretty much the majority of what the book had going for it. It started fairly slow, the plot wasn't too interesting, and the romance was creepy.

Grim. Felt somewhere between The Stand and The Road. Just a kind of post-apocalyptic story that I guess doesn't really work for me. I wonder if it felt more science fiction-y and less really just-a-few-years-in-the-future when it was written. The religious element also just didn't work for me. Not sure whether I will read the sequel at some point, but definitely passing on it for now.

As someone who’s read this twice and even taught it in 9th Grade, it leaves something to be desired. Things that are a little too few and far between: stretches of world-building to make the apocalypse more loved in and undergird; the social critiques; motif bricklaying (e.g. the astronaut stuff); romance plots that aren’t a little skeezy; and explanation for what caused the apocalypse (not always necessary, but could be helpful here).

I read Kindred before and I am glad that the second book I read by her was also really good. Instead of slavery this one tackles consequences of climate change, drugs, politics. It's a survival book, the author's mother was a green thumb, the author researched religions, guns to write it.

It feels so real and there's barely anything magical in it, the “magic” here would be diseases anyway.

The world is brutal. The religion which is supposed to bring relief to people is realistic and practical, it's more like community guidelines.

Loved it, there's nothing to complain about.

Wow. Excellent dystopic sci-fi. Incredibly well written, with great ideas shining light on truths about reality that are hard to ignore. Like all good sci-fi, has ideas in it that will stay with you and leave you thinking.

This review doesn't really do it justice. Look - it's just an amazing book. You've gotta be ready for some tough stuff, but it's very worth it.

Also, there are some interesting parallels to the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, I wonder if it in any way inspired some of this.

Too YA for me. Not nearly as well written as Xenogenesis.

Before I joined the 52 Book Challenge I had never heard of Octavia Butler and I certainly did not pick up dystopian fiction intentionally. And this is why I joined the challenge because Wow what a ride! This book is outstanding and terrifying. Butler wrote it in 1995 and it takes place in California in 2025- in a falling society. Government is ineffective, water shortages are the norm, corporations have pushed the country to dangerous levels of greed and corruption. Failed biotech has created a dangerous and highly addictive drug. I could go on and on. The narration by 15 year old heroine Lauren is unemotional, stripped of any joy and very little optimism. It's a world of survival and of building a community out of ruin. Fantastic read. Highly recommend.

Fantastic and painful. It feels so real in a way that is scary but important. It feels like it's coming from a writer who knows what she's talking about.

It took me too long to read this book, but the dragging of my feet led to me starting this novel, one year from its fictional start date.

Octavia's near term California dystopia is a world we are familiar with. We can see how she build these scenes by extrapolating the societal issues of the 90s to today. Though our immediate 2023 world is not as bleak as the one she narrates, I found eerie truths that are highlighted today - severe weather patterns, inequality of wealth, societal drug reliance, and a dose of anarchy are continued forces of concern.

And we see these all from the eyes of a determined, mature, natural leader in Lauren. She guides us through countless heart breaks and losses, but your confidence in her ability to survive doesn't waiver. It's the same with the people she picks up along the way, then slowly believing in this preacher's daughter. Their strength grows around the new faith she built and her innate ability to create hope when you just can't believe there should be any left.

What a prescient novel to read in 2023! Perhaps it should be classified as horror, because when I look at the state of the world it isn't hard to imagine it devolving to this scenario.

The main character, Lauren, is in somewhat of a Cassandra scenario where she is telling people what will likely happen, but nobody will listen and will in fact actively deny and repress what she is saying. She is the lone voice of wisdom, or at least the voice of practicality without denial.

The novel explores hope, loss, and trust. How well do you really know people you have known all of your life when the world you know crumbles? How do you know you can trust people you have just met? How can you maintain your moral code when the world around you does not follow that same code, and you are pressed in to acts that you would not normally do?

The author makes a bold choice in exploring the beginning of a religious movement while simultaneously setting its goals far beyond just establishing morality. Earthseed is the metaphor for the titular Sower, and where in Maslow's hierarchy is space exploration when you need to determine where you are going to get your next meal or drink of water?

I look forward to reading the second book, and I'm sad that the third book in the trilogy wasn't finished before the author's death. (Doing a little research I see the author intended for there to be several more novels in the series, too.)

this book has me thinking. so much thinking.

edited after rereading:

still holds up really well! i do think that i glossed over lauren and bankole's incredibly uncomfortable age gap the first time (

This started off promising then slogged A LOT in the middle then actually got good and finally ended with a whimper. I found the protagonist really annoying which is ironic considering that's exactly what the person who wrote the foreword said. And her relationship with a 57 year old man as an 18 year old girl that everyone in their group is just totally fine with? Bizarre and unsettling, even in an apocalypse. Also the fact that the group just elected her their de facto leader when Zahra was right there? And were totally willing to go along with her crazy ass Earthseed? Made no sense to me and doesn't seem how actual humans would react at all in that situation.

Overall very disappointed and will not be returning to Butler's works in the near future. 

I hear a lot about how this particular dystopian fiction is more reflective of today and I can see some parallels.

This was a well written book and I think some nice work went into it. I'm not a big dystopian fan so I could only enjoy it so much. I would say that it was a good read in all!

This was such an incredibly powerful book. Butler presents us with a slow sort of apocalypse - there is no singular moment that changes the world, but rather just a gradual descent where everything falls apart. Reading this at the tail end of 2022, it feels disturbingly prescient - the issues of global warming, police brutality, a housing crisis, and food insecurity were all issues that existed in 1993, but they weren't quite as front-of-mind as they are today.

Of course, the powers of prediction isn't the only way to value science fiction, and that's not all that Butler offers here. What makes this novel such an important read is that it lights a candle in the darkness - it shows us, through Lauren and her burgeoning faith, that we will survive all this. That we can have hope and rebuild. That's what makes this such a special read.

This is a very good book I'm so sad she never got to conti the series after one sequel. 

INCREDIBLE AUDIOBOOK. not good for my anxiety but harrowing in a good way. also not sure i wrapped my head around earthseed, but very interesting to see the “birth” of a religion

 “The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.” 

This book started in 2025 and goes on to a few years later, it's a dystopian world that is not hard to believe at all. This is a an LA which is infested with disease, poverty and water shortage. Not hard to believe right? We could be looking at our near future and that's what makes it terrifying. 

Lauren is living inside the wall where the “fortunate” lives. She's been wanting to pack up and go for the longest time but some things are holding her back until she's forced to when something happens to her hometown.  I love how strong and caring Lauren is. She has helped several people who need it and tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. 

It's both heart breaking and horrifying what happens when there is no proper government ruling and when people are left to fend for themselves. I hope we never get to see that day.

I didn't enjoy reading the bit about religion. Didn't see the point of it that much. Lauren was really passionate about it though and could be quite preachy about Earthseed.

There is a second book to this and I'm not sure if I would like to continue. Thank you to @booksreadbyem for suggesting this for my 12/12 challenge.

I read this for a seminary class on theology and culture.

This book was difficult for me to get through because of the descriptions of brutal violence and how depressing so much of the story was. (I may not have hyperempathy the way Lauren does, but I often wish I were not as sensitive/empathetic as I am even though I recognize that it can also be a gift.) I was also uncomfortable with the relationship that develops between 16 or 17-year-old Lauren and 57-year-old Bankole. I know she had to grow up too fast, but this still seems problematic in terms of consent and power dynamics.

So much of the future described in this novel hits eerily close to home: fires, epidemics, guns, drugs, food and water shortages, while other people insist on living in denial. At one point Lauren says the adults are “still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back.” This seems extremely relevant to all of us wishing things would “get back to normal” as in, life before the pandemic (although “normal” was not working very well for most people even then). It also sounds like all the “make America great again” folks, who seem to think of the 1950s as the epitome of what our culture and society should be.

Quotes that stick with me:
“it took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change.”

“Moral: The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn't always safe, but it's often necessary.”

“Embrace diversity. Unite— Or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed By those who see you as prey. Embrace diversity Or be destroyed.”

“From what I've read,” I said to him, “the world goes crazy every three or four decades. The trick is to survive until it goes sane again.”

“No one should travel alone in this world.”

“It will be hard to live here, but if we work together, and if we're careful, it should be possible. We can build a community here.”

“Human beings will survive of course. Some other countries will survive. Maybe they'll absorb what's left of us. Or maybe we'll just break up into a lot of little states quarreling and fighting with each other over whatever crumbs are left. That's almost happened now with states shutting themselves off from one another, treating state lines as national borders.”