So, I'm about 1/3 of the way through Fledgling, and

[snarp]

and Octavia Butler was completely insane.

I mean, the Xenogenesis series made this fairly clear, but this book contains every questionable decision Xenogenesis made multiplied by a factor of eight.

Comments

[annotated_em]

*pops out of lurking*

Oh my goodness, I'm glad it wasn't just me. Haven't read Fledgling, though I've talked with people who have, and I have read Lilith's Brood. Which. Aliens. With the doing this for humanity's own good. And. And. Yeah.

[holyschist]

I could have, if the book had been written different, read it as some kind of commentary on colonialism, but if it was, her conclusions really bothered me.

[annotated_em]

Yeah, that. Very much that. I was mostly okay with things till I got to the end of the first book and it was all surprise!pregnancy because hey, that's what you need when you've just lost your partner, and let us not forget what was essentially tentacle rape.

...and the next two books didn't improve. Argh argh argh.

[holyschist]

And just about everyone else seems to think Butler was amazing and brilliant (and she was brilliant, no argument there), so then I kind of wonder if I'm just not smart enough and I'm missing the real commentary, which is less hinky than what I see. IDK.