Parable of the Talents

Talents is a direct continuation of Sower, so much so I almost wish they were published together as one book. Some of the problems I had with Sower are answered here along with further, overall improvements. Gone are the paragraph long monologues of Lauren preaching. An inclusion of additional pov's serves to provide a different, more critical lens of her character. This was necessary as Lauren strayed a little to much into a masonic savior at times. She's a remarkable person no doubt, mighty goals and the remarkable force of will to make them manifest. To the point of zealotry. Butler has managed to make me both fear and dislike Lauren but also rally for her and I now find her as one of the most fascinating characters put to paper. I also have to marvel at Butler's discipline and restraint. This world has so much narrative potential, leaving so much room for additional stories and yet, in this dualogy of less than 700 pages, we're still provided with a focused lush portrait. Finishing this has been bittersweet. This series is extraordinary and it's a tragedy that it was cut short. If it were to continue, I have no doubt that this could've been Butler's magnum-opus in an already unbelievable bibliography.

Back during the election, I think I remember Octavia Butler and this book specifically being referenced as eerily prescient. I don't think I clued in to how specifically prescient it was in that the nation would elect a reactionary demagogue working from a elitist form of Christian values who literally uses “make America great again” as his tag line. Guys, we weren't even recovering from an Apocalypse when it happened...

But unsettlingly accurate future visions aside, this is an unsurprisingly amazing book. It is vast, encompassing both Olamina's story after founding Acorn and her daughter's story and opinions as a frame. It speaks a lot towards the imperfections that come with being human, the betrayals which can so quickly escalate to horrific, as the traitors and bystanders repeatedly justify their actions and move along. It forces us to look at even what the protagonist justifies, and then what excuses we ourselves make, what moral compromises would we rather just not think about.

Butler pulls no punches, and I often struggled to get through because I couldn't handle that much vicarious suffering. Her prose makes Sharers of us all. She was a master, fully deserving of her acclaim and reputation, and this duology in particular are necessary reading in America's current climate.

Reading the first one during the Biden administrations made it feel like it had lower stakes than reading the sequel during trump 2. Even though this one feels not as good to me it just hit harder because we're living it.

Complex and rich, sad and magnificent, timely and intemporal this book doesn't really need my review.

It's too bad this is the last parable book. It's such a unique concept and a really interesting philosophy. 

I just love Butler and her story telling. A wonder sequel with a satisfying ending.

I tore through this one pretty quickly, compelled by the story. I was interested in the complex relationships between Lauren, her daughter, and her brother, and interested in the world building (or rather world-rebuilding) honestly as a model and thought exercise for survival and rebuilding and challenges to contend with in what I see as a possibly very similar descent in the real world. I appreciated the thoughts and questions on building community and cultivating resilience. But I also appreciated the new narrators interrupting Lauren's meditations, which are (intentionally) the work of a self interested philosopher. I was really interested in the people throughout the novel who kept insinuating that Lauren was manipulative and didn't actually care about people, or that if she did it was secondary to her purpose as cult leader and religion founder. Eg: Can you “shape” people and communities intentionally, for your own purposes, and yet also be a person who cares about others and wants a greater good? Questions of power, movements, demagogues. Lauren is a magnetic cult leader just like Jarret - the difference, supposedly, is the end goal and the collateral (or lack thereof) along the way.

It was of course a story in some ways brutal, in some ways beautiful, in some ways warm and others cold. Whether or not you agree with Lauren Olamina's religion, the duology ends with her goal accomplished, and after all the events of two books and several fictional decades, that conclusion feels satisfying. But with the losses along the way, it doesn't feel too perfect.

40% interesting philosophy
40% eerily prescient social commentary
20% misery porn

Butler writes a good yarn so I enjoyed spending more time with Lauren Olamina and her cult of Earthseed. But while the first book was fresh and exciting in how it introduced us to the world and its characters, this one fell a bit flat to me. Too much time was spent on struggles of survival, yet I would have preferred to hear more about the psychological and philosophical reasoning on how cults/religions form. Lauren's daughter definitely brought an interesting outside perspective on her mother, the self-proclaimed messiah, but ultimately that came a little too late. Perhaps I just also had a hard time listening to their cult message over and over again, which seemingly follows the laws of nature and change, yet still chooses the language of theistic religions (‘god'). And obviously their ‘destiny' being the stars elicits some eyerolls nowadays.

This was very very good! Maybe a 4.5 only because I find the endings so abrupt in her novels but that may be me issue. I get why the first book had sooo much set up now. I was SO invested in the characters in this book and really really recommend it. I wish there was more.

A fantastic sci-fi series by an author I'm growing to admire a lot these days. This book is the second one in the Earthseed duology and tbh, I liked book one better. Still, a great read.

Parable of the Talents is set in a dystopian 2035, where the US is governed by authoritarians, with Christian fundamentalists unrestrained and running wild.

What makes this 5 stars for me is the frightening, detailed, gritty portrayal of the future and how it came about due to politics and manipulation of religious beliefs. At times it hits eerily close to home with fears of where 2020 USA could go in the future.

I love Butler's imagination. Her writing feels so unfiltered, like she doesn't leave any dark thoughts out, regardless of how uncomfortable they might make the reader feel. It's a fantastic story, painting a vicious future world, but with a protagonist that gives you just enough hope and strength to get through it.

Even darker than the first one, if that's possible, but I did enjoy reading this series a lot. Especially once I followed the advice of another reviewer and skipped over all the Earthseed verses in bold or italics. I don't think I missed anything.

CW: rape, torture, human trafficking/slavery

This book has frightened me...it's frightened me in the same way “A Handmaid's Tale” once frightened me. It's not hard to imagine a societal breakdown such as the one portrayed in “Talents”...a breakdown where the disparity between rich and poor is so vast and the atrocities done in the name of “God” so great. The descriptions of company towns, reeducation camps, neoconservative religious political leaders...it just doesn't sound that farfetched. Butler knows how to spin a yarn in such a way as to keep me unsettled and almost despondant throughout the entire prose. I know Earthseed is supposed to be a comfort, but all I can see or feel is the desolation of the characters. As well as it was written, I was be glad to finish this and put it behind me. My emotions needed to settle down a bit.