Parable of the Talents

No cover — Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Talents (2010, Recorded Books)

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Published Oct. 1, 2010 by Recorded Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-4498-4256-7

(1 review)

Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of depravity. Taking advantage of the situation, a zealous bigot wins his way into the White House. Lauren Olamina leads a new faith group directly opposed to the new government. This is the story of the group's struggle to preserve its vision.

As the government turns a blind eye to the violent bigots who consider a black female leader a threat, Lauren Olamina must either sacrifice her child and her followers or forsake her religion. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations and violence,

10 editions

Flauschbuch reviewed Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Great sequel

5 stars

The second (and unfortunately last) Earthseed book addresses most of the things that bugged me about the first one. Changing the perspective of the narration to Olamina’s daughter and thus a retrospective and slightly academic one is a real masterstroke. It continues the themes of the first book, especially how you have to build community - and a large one - to survive. What also struck me was how well the book conveys the lifelong pain of deeds that seem small in the grand scale of it. This is the one where a guy, running a hateful election campaign with the slogan "Make America Great Again“ becomes President. It's interesting that Butler thought that it would take a lot of societal collapse and an established religious figure to do it. Some people close to Olamina end up voting for him or supporting him and she shows that conflict in a …

The second (and unfortunately last) Earthseed book addresses most of the things that bugged me about the first one. Changing the perspective of the narration to Olamina’s daughter and thus a retrospective and slightly academic one is a real masterstroke. It continues the themes of the first book, especially how you have to build community - and a large one - to survive. What also struck me was how well the book conveys the lifelong pain of deeds that seem small in the grand scale of it. This is the one where a guy, running a hateful election campaign with the slogan "Make America Great Again“ becomes President. It's interesting that Butler thought that it would take a lot of societal collapse and an established religious figure to do it. Some people close to Olamina end up voting for him or supporting him and she shows that conflict in a very realistic way. Needless to say, a lot of horrible things happen in this book as well, and again, it comes with all the content warnings. But it's also kinda hopeful.