Customer Reviews

Adulthood Rites

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This science fiction work follows up on Ms. Butler's earlier work, Dawn. The book stands alone fairly well, but the story will seem tremendously better placed into context if the reader has read the earlier book, Dawn. Ms. Butler creates yet another of her dystopian earths, but its final crisis is ameliorated by the intervention of an alien species, the oankali. The book tells a crackling good story, but also addresses a key theme--what does it mean to be human? I recommend this book, as it has the old-fashioned virtues of a golden age work, but is told in the fine, well-written style that characterizes Octavia Butler's work. Reading a Butler, one gets the impression that one is watching a grandmaster writing in her prime--and yet, the nice thing about reading her is the sense that the best is yet to come. If you have not read Butler, but you are afraid that sci fi has lost its zing, then read Dawn and this one.

This book is far better than the first in the series. I was completely sucked into the characters, concept, and plot. The device of the alien child - a hybrid that is different from humans in obvious but also extremely subtle ways - is a unique creation in sci fi. His journey is fascinating and cruel, which makes a dark philospical statement on human nature. The dialogue is as excellent as you would expect from any fine novelist.

Humans had finally destroyed themselves and the planet Earth. This book continues the story of the few human survivors who had been captured by a revolting looking but talented alien race and forced to breed with them in order to perpetuate the genes of the human species within a new hybrid race. Most of the book revolves around two ideas, the innate human tendency toward violence and the unwillingness of people to accept others who are different. Those in the book who resist the breeding situation and run away to create their own childless communities are portrayed as an endlessly cranky group, a microcosm of the race who destroyed their own Earth. Every time you read an episode about them they're committing violent acts. They have an especially difficult time in accepting members of the next generation, the hybrids who are only part human. The dilemma posed in the book is that the only way to save the species is to accept and trust the non-human as well as the human.

I found the main character, a hybrid child, really interesting, and the book as a whole intellectually stimulating and full of challenge and ideas.

Akin (Ah-keen) is a human-born construct...a mixture of both Human and Oankali genetic material. He, and others like him, are the first steps toward what the Oankali have promised, toward what the Oankali have exacted after they saved the remains of Humanity from the utter obliteration of nuclear holocaust: the melding of both sentient species.

Akin has a long road ahead of him. He must not only come to grips with who he is, he must also, somehow, determine how to coexist with the multiple factions of both Humanity as well as Oankali.

Adulthood Rites is another well written tale by Butler. However, where the previous novel, Dawn, gripped you and did not let go, this novel merely loosely hangs on. I kept wanting more about Lilith (who was the primary character in Dawn) and her connection to Akin, who is, after all, her son and the future of what both Humanity and Oankali will be. However, the tale does provide a well-drawn narrative of Akin's exploits, and how he relates and interrelates with not only his Human brethren, but his Oankali people as well.

Overall, while Adulthood Rites does not quite stand up to its predecessor in sheer magnitude of story, it is ultimately a well-written novel and I look forward to closing out the Human/Oankali saga sometime soon.

Now I know why the three volume Xenogenesis series was collected in a single volume titled Lilith's Brood. Adulthood Rites is the second entry of three in Xenogenesis and the focus has shifted from Lilith Iyapo to her part human / part Oankali son, Akin. In Dawn we were introduced to an Earth that had all but been destroyed by humanity before the remnants of humanity were rescued by the alien race Oankali. The Oankali survive and adapt by finding new species and civilizations to "Trade" with. In the rescue of humanity, the Oankali will Trade with humans and help humanity repopulate the newly restored Earth. But at a cost. Humanity will no longer be what it once was because a Trade involves both parties giving up something and receiving something in return. Humanity will get another step on the evolutionary scale but will be far more and less than what they once were. Lilith Iyapo was chosen by the Oankali to seed the first colony and awake the remnant from their slumber and teach them to accept the Oankali. In many ways she failed with that first group she was given, but by the end of Dawn Lilith was to found her first community while those who would not accept what had occurred were isolated and left sterile. Breeding could only happen with the permission of the Oankali. At the very end Dawn we learn that Lilith was pregnant.

When Adulthood Rites opens, the story is focused on Akin, one of Lilith's hybrid children and her first son. Because he is part Oankali, Akin is aware in the womb and if he were fully human one would consider him unnaturally precocious. As it stands he is not fully human, though as an infant he looks human enough (except for his tongue). The focus of Adulthood Rites remains squarely on Akin with brief flashes of events surrounding Lilith, but only to a point. I would suggest that 95% of the story follows Akin as he grows and as he is kidnapped by raiders who seek to have children the only way they can, which is by theft. This theft, or kidnapping, of Akin is the event that drives how the rest of the story will play as it shapes Akin into something different than he might otherwise have been had he been left to bond with his siblings.

A major theme of Butler's work here seems to be of the nature of identity. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be different? What does it mean to have an identity in a particular culture and embrace that of another? Or be embraced by another? Butler's fiction, in particular the Xenogenesis trilogy, addresses these issues in such a way that it fits a science fiction story with aliens and tentacles, but it is really a story that addresses what can go on in our society as well. There is a depth here once one looks beyond the surface of an interesting story. Make no mistake, Adulthood Rites is an interesting story.

With all of that said about what the novel is about and what it is talking about, I do need to confess that like Dawn, I found Adulthood Rites to be less engaging and gripping than some of Butler's other fiction. In particular Kindred and the two Parable novels seem to me to be stronger works of fiction than Xenogenesis. What does that mean for the casual reader? Not much. Adulthood Rites would only be considered a "lesser" work of fiction when it is being compared to Butler's own work. Otherwise, I would suggest that Adulthood Rites (and Dawn before it) is a creative look at science fiction and how actually meeting an alien race could and would change humanity irrevocably. To be blunt, Butler tells a damn good story and keeps taking that damn good story in directions that were not necessarily apparent when the story began. She keeps it interesting and she keeps it authentic (as authentic as aliens changing the genetics of humans could be, but it feels real, and that's important).

Bottom Line: Octavia Butler need to be read by more people. She was a top shelf talent with a powerful creative voice and Adulthood Rites is a good novel that suffers only, only in comparison to her own work. In comparison to others, she stands tall.

-Joe Sherry

Better than Dawn (Xenogenesis), the first of the series, and slightly better than the finale, Imago (Book Three of the Xenogenesis Series). All 3 are OUTSTANDING. Save money by buying Lilith's Brood, which contains all 3. See "Lilith's Brood" for more about each book.

watziznaym@gmail.com

From the complete novel Xenogenesis

Lilith Iyapo has just awakened from a 250 year nap. The Earth she once new no longer exists, destroyed by mankind. A strange new alien world has taken its place. Lilith and the remaining survivors have to make a choice: Live long, sterile, childless lives or breed with an alien race and replenish the Earth.

This is a very thought provoking situation in which the life of a race is more important than your own prejudices. Xenogenesis should be required reading.

Long life Lilith, where ever you are.

This is the second in a series, the first being Dawn. I really enjoyed the first book, the subject was fresh and kept me engrossed. The second one, Adulthood Rites was a little less enjoyable. Maybe because I sort of knew what to expect. But my major complaint is about the physical book. I admit,I am a Kindle reader. In some ways I am spoiled. But this series is not available on Kindle. My copy has large pages, but the text was squeezed to the middle! This made the text unnecessarily small and hard to read. Then, around the middle of the book there seemed to be missing pages. As I struggled with this, trying to figure out what was missing I came to realize that they were all there, but out of order. For a book that cost almost $20 in paperback, I expected better.
So to summarize, good story, lousy book.

The second installation in the Xenogenesis series introduces Akin, Lilith's son and a human-born male construct (Oankali-Human mix). In this book Butler takes readers back to the new Earth and shows the changes made, and provides a glimpse into how the Oankali-Human union fares. There are now three groups on Earth: Oankali (consisting of the aliens and their human mates), Constructs (the Oankali-Human children), and Resisters (sterile humans that have refused the Oankali gene trade). Butler takes the time to reveal more information about the Human-Oankali bond and the readers are shown what happens to humans that refuse the trade. Gabe and Tate reappear in this novel and we get a peek into the lives of resister humans.

Through the eyes of Akin, Butler shares the emotional upheaval experienced by the resisters as a result of their circumstances. Being a sympathetic construct (the reasons for Akin's sympathetic viewpoint cannot be revealed without spoilers), Akin tries to give humans another option besides sterility and Oankali mates even though they are continuing to self-destruct.

Butler still gives a lot of attention to sexuality in this novel and many unanswered questions about Lilith are finally answered. This is an excellent sequel, but the few issues I had were:

1. Many of the resisters were too simple-minded. Humans are complex creatures, but many characters, such as Neci and her crew, Akin's abductors, etc., were so simple that they often ignored the obvious. This is particularly evident in Neci's dealins with the two Oankali girls.
2. Typos and editing issues.
3. I felt that this book left a lot of questions about Akin unanswered. Did he find mates? Who went with him to help with the solution he found for mankind? How does it work out? What happened when everyone returned to Lo?
4. The Oankali are thorough but not infallible, it seems like they could/should have missed sterilizing a couple of humans somewhere.

These and many other questions were not answered, but overall it is a good book. Akin is a wonderful character and I hope to learn more about him within this series.

Happening upon a sentient species in the throes of self-destruction, the wise and beneficient Ounkali have imposed a genetic "trade" upon humanity "for their own good." In this impressive sequel to "Dawn" Butler continues her exploration of the theme of benevolent enslavement within the context of human subjection to a unilaterally imposed choice between tri-sexuality and species subversion, or extended youth and sterility.

Even more than the original novel, this story told from the point of view of Lilith's son, Akin, reveals the underlying self-centered hedonism upon which Ounkali paternalism is founded. Perhaps it takes an Ounkali to see them as they really are - and a human understanding to grasp the extent of the damage that their smugness and condescension have wreaked upon the remnant of humankind, whether resistor or "trader."

The irony of a restored Earth where individual choice is illusory, since humanity's destruction is assured and each survivor's physical being is literally the eternal property of an alien will, is given greater depth by what Akin learns - not only humanity but the Earth itself will be cast aside like trash when the Ounkali have extracted from it all that they desire.

Even without this knowledge, Lilith and other accomodators ("traders") must live with and manage bitterness and grief as best they can, for the sake of family and children. One senses that it is not the five-way trisexual matings or their hybrid children they resent, but the fact that sterility is their only other option. Loving their Ounkali kin, and not daring to acknowledge their condition, they nonetheless hate their enslavement.

If "intelligent hierarchicalism" is indeed the fatal flaw of humanity (doubtful), the fatal flaw of the Ounkali is their unquestioning presumption of superiority. They do not listen, and so they cannot learn.

Come to think of it, that's the true fatal flaw of humankind as well.