Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great sci fi story with deeply affecting characters, October 12, 1999
I first read Survivor after seeing Octavia Butler speak at a Sci Fi conference not long after the book came out. I was impressed with the woman in person and I was amazed by her writing. Not only was Survivor a great science fiction story, it spoke to me in ways most science fiction could not. Being black/white/native american and female, I didn't find many characters in novels (science fiction or otherwise) who resembled me or the people in my family. But, more than that, Butler writes with sensitivity and skill on behalf of all of her characters, male or female, black white or asian, human or other-wordly. In this book, I found my own sense of the world mirrored back to me and treated with gentleness and love. That was a very new experience for me and one I will never forget. I have loved Butler's work since and much of it is even more fascinating and innovative than Survivor but this book will always remind me of how acknowledged I felt when I first read it. I have always meant to write to Butler about this so that she could know one of the reasons why so many people think highly of this book and wish it were still in print.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"She'll learn. She'll become one of us.", August 28, 1999
After reading "The Evening and The Morning and The Night", I rushed out to purchase every Octavia Butler book I could find. "Survivor", in it's plastic book covering, with it's edges worn and color faded, was the first I found. I only recently found out how luckly I am, in that the author herself, hate's it (Blasphemy!), and wishes it never to be reprinted. "Survivor" is a tale of missionaries fleeing from a plague riddled earth, who find themselves trapped between two warring tribes on a distant world. The Garkohn hosts' come bearing fruit, and soon the colony of missionaries find themselves confined to the valley in drug-induced complacency. A young, 'wild' human, one of many kidnapped in a raid by Tehkohn natives, yet the only one to survive, is again plunged into a world not unlike the savage Earth of her youth, forced to learn a new language and new culture for yet the third time. An opportunity of chance and misfortune will bring Alanna back to the valley, but will the missionaries overcome species prejudice and accept help from the 'Tehkohn enemy'? "Survivor" explores the complex realm of human emotions by giving us character's we can identify with, set in a future that seems all too likely to occur(See Clay's Ark). The world Butler creates for us is indeed real, the motivations our own, with a plot that is sure to keep you up all night. "Survivor" is what the world will make you if you pay close attention to details. A must have that is hard to get, but worth it's weight in gold!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"She'll learn. She'll become one of us.", August 29, 1999
By A Customer
After reading "The Evening and The Morning and The Night", I rushed out to purchase every Octavia Butler book I could find. "Survivor", in it's plastic book covering, with it's edges worn and color faded, was the first I found. I only recently found out how lucky I am, in that the author herself, hate's it (Blasphemy!), and wishes it never to be reprinted. "Survivor" is a tale of missionaries fleeing from a plague riddled earth, who find themselves trapped between two warring tribes on a distant world. The Garkohn hosts' come bearing fruit, and soon the colony of missionaries find themselves confined to the valley in drug-induced complacency. A young, 'wild' human, one of many kidnapped in a raid by Tehkohn natives, yet the only one to survive, is again plunged into a world not unlike the savage Earth of her youth, forced to learn a new language and new culture for yet the third time. An opportunity of chance and misfortune will bring Alanna back to the valley, but will the missionaries overcome species prejudice and accept help from the 'Tehkohn enemy'? "Survivor" explores the complex realm of human emotions by giving us character's we can identify with, set in a future that seems all too likely to occur(See Clay's Ark). The world Butler creates for us is indeed real, the motivations our own, with a plot that is sure to keep you up all night. "Survivor" is what the world will make you if you pay close attention to details. A must have that is hard to get, but worth it's weight in gold!
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