Imago [Hardcover]

Octavia E. Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1989

Following "Dawn" and "Adulthood Rites", this volume concludes a trilogy following the growth into maturity of a new species, half-human, half-alien, on Earth. The book's narrator is Jodahs, and the story follows his metamorphosis from child, into a member of the third Oankali gender.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This conclusion to the Xenogenesis series (Dawn and Adulthood Rights) focuses on Jodahs, the child of a union between humans, alien Oankali, and the sexless ooloi. The Oankali and ooloi are part of an extraterrestrial species that saved humanity from nuclear oblivion, but many humans feel the price for their help is too high: the Oankali and ooloi intend to genetically merge with humanity, creating a new species at the expense of the old. Even though the Oankali have--against their better judgment--created a human colony on Mars so that humanity as a species can continue unaltered, many human "resisters" either have not heard of the Mars colony or don't believe the Oankali will allow them to live there. Jodahs, who was thought to be a male but who is actually maturing into the first ooloi from a human/Oankali union, finds a pair of resisters who prove that some pure humans are still fertile. These humans may be his only hope to find successful mates, but they have been raised to revile and despise his species above all else. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Octavia E. Butler was the first black woman to come to international prominence as a science fiction writer. Incorporating powerful, spare language and rich, well-developed characters, her work tackled race, gender, religion, poverty, power, politics, and science in a way that touched readers of all backgrounds. Butler was a towering figure in life and in her art and the world noticed; highly acclaimed by reviewers, she received numerous awards, including a MacArthur "genius" grant, both the Hugo and Nebula awards, the Langston Hughes Medal, as well as a PEN Lifetime Achievement award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; First Edition edition (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446514721
• ISBN-13: 978-0446514729
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was the author of many novels, including Dawn, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Award and a Nebula Award, and she twice won the Hugo Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing vision of the future through Butler's eyes., July 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Imago (Mass Market Paperback)

The third book in the Xenogenesis series involves more of the Oankali-Human children born on an earth that will be reaved of its natural resources and left for dead in a scant few centuries.

Butler shocks reader and characters alike -- two of the Human-Oankali children do not take after their parents despite careful genetic planets -- they develop, on their own, into Ooloi -- the most powerful and dangerous creatures of the Oankali race: capable of great healing or concocting lethal poisons from the genetic information that every sense has experienced over their lifetime.

Imago follows first one, then the other ooloi youth as they discover what they are, suffer greatly from lack of skill with the ooloi talents, and loneliness from being the only ones of their kind in the new generation. Eventually they find themselves and manage a sort of stability. The third gender is not as disturbing as it might have been in the hands of a less sensitive author.

This series closes with a solid finality the assimilation of mankind into the Oankali genetics...and the hard fate remaining for the 'purist' humans who choose to terraform another planet to live on, since there will be no earth for them after the Oankali are through.

The series has left me feeling marginally unsettled, given Butler's vision of the future is one that indicates the human race must change if it is to survive en masse

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book..., January 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Imago (Book Three of the Xenogenesis Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

this is a wonderful book, but buy "Lilith's Brood" instead, which includes this book and the other two in the trilogy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Conclusion to a Great Series, May 23, 2002

By 

watzizname "watzizname" (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Imago (Book Three of the Xenogenesis Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

An outstandingly fine story! This is the third and final book of Xenogenesis, also published as "Lilith's Brood" (all 3 books in one cover; cheaper than buying them separately). See "Lilith's Brood" for reviews of the entire series.

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