Imago (Book Three of the Xenogenesis Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "I slipped into my first metamorphosis so quietly that no one noticed..." (more)
Key Phrases: construct ooloi, one sensory arm, sensory arms, Sao Paulo (more...)

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.

Product Description

The conclusion of the Xenogenesis trilogy chronicles the life of Jodahs, the offspring of human parents and an alien whose mission is to function as a gene trader in a human world increasingly hostile to aliens. Reissue.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446603635
• ISBN-13: 978-0446603638
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #379,577 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 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 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

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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