Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)

by

248 pages

English language

Published Dec. 26, 1997

ISBN:
978-0-446-60377-5
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Goodreads:
60929

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4 stars (3 reviews)

Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.

The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not …

3 editions

reviewed Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) by Octavia E. Butler

Sexy incestuous alien tentacle time for health and happiness

5 stars

Another essential Butler novel. It's the first post-post apocalypse novel I can think of, because earth is wiped out in a nuclear conflagration, but the story starts after the final human survivors have been whisked away on a huge alien spaceship by a race which compulsively genetically merges itself with species it encounters. With humans the compulsion is particularly strong, it's sexually charged. They are at times lustful, loving, protective and dictatorial.

The echoes of slavery and colonisation are hard to escape here, as with all Butler's fiction. If you've read The Patternist series and Kindred, you will find familiar ideas from those books here.

Dawn showcases one of the greats of the genre at her finest, and I am relishing the prospect of the two sequels.

reviewed L'Aube by Octavia E. Butler

Une déclinaison particulière de la rencontre entre l'humanité et des extraterrestres

5 stars

Une humanité qui s'est autodétruite lors d'une guerre. De rares personnes survivantes récupérées par des extraterrestres. Parmi elles, celle qui va constituer le fil rouge de ce roman : Lilith. Le roman adopte son point de vue pour découvrir peu à peu une société extraterrestre Oankali riche et complexe. L'Aube propose une déclinaison originale du "premier contact" au sens où cela n'a rien d'une rencontre sur un pied d'égalité : l'humanité se retrouve entièrement placée sous la dépendance des Oankali, lesquels se trouvent en position d'analyser et d'étiqueter l'humanité à partir de leur propre perception, et d'imposer (ou du moins de tenter d'imposer) leur grille et leur fonctionnement à ce qu'il reste de l'humanité. Lilith va se voir confier un rôle particulier dans leurs projets. Délivrant un récit intime, servi par une plume très fine, c'est une histoire qui s'avère aussi riche que déstabilisante, abordant et invitant à questionner l'altérité, …

reviewed Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) by Octavia E. Butler

dawn

4 stars

The Oankali have strange and disturbing ideas about consent, which makes this an uncomfortable book to read. (This is, like, intentional, though.)

There's a disregard for singular 'they' as a genderless pronoun, instead 'it' is used to refer to the Ooloi; this doesn't feel as bad as it might because it's apparently the pronoun that the Ooloi chose to use for themselves in English

The biggest problem I have with it technically is that not all that much happens for much of the book? At least the first half is spent with Lilith just learning things about the Oankali. Which is interesting, but pretty slow