If I was ranking this purely on the terms set out on GoodReads, that one star meant "didn't like it" this would be a one star rating for me. (Hell, half star on LibraryThing because "hate" is more like it.) But I do recognize this is a well-written book that someone more sympathetic to its message might like a lot more, even love. So I can't see giving it a one, but because I couldn't bear to finish this I can't justify giving this a three either--thus the two and a half stars.
This is my first book by Octavia Butler, and unless someone can tell me it's atypical, it will be my last. I think this is just a mismatch between book and reader for reasons of worldview more than anything. I have loved books by authors well to my left or right politically. I think my being able to enjoy stories that go against my philosophy depend on three things. First, quality; second, if there is enough overlap in view to prevent total cognitive dissonance; third the level of didactic polemic. (This really bothers me, a book can be congruent with all my ideals, but if I find it too heavy handed, I can be turned off.)
If a story is strong style-wise or has imaginative world-building or characters I care about, then that can overcome a lot. In the case of Butler, I can't fault her storytelling. Well-paced, with a clean, spare style, and well-drawn secondary characters, this is a thoroughly realized and vivid, scary dystopia. The story, covering three and a half years between 2024 and 2027, is told through the diary entries of Lauren, who is fifteen at the start of the story. She suffers--or is gifted (or both) by "hyperempathy." She can feel your pain--literally.
Her diary entries are headed by short verses in bold font setting out her religion "Earthseed" whose mantra is "God is Change" and that "The Destiny of Earthseed / Is to take root among the stars." I think that religious angle, concentrated in that first person voice, and that my beliefs seem to be pointed at as the problem with the world is why around 130 pages, I found myself starting to skip passages in irritation, squirming inside as I read like someone listening to a tedious and unconvincing sermon. It doesn't help that Butler has no discernible sense of humor.
I've seen this book compared to Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Both involved dystopias caused by global warming and involved critiques of private enterprise, and I doubt there's much difference politically between Atwood and Butler. Yet I could get through and enjoy Atwood's novel and even found her thought-provoking--despite finding aspects of her dystopia even less credible than Butler's. I think part of that is that the title characters in Atwood aren't all that sympathetic. Not Mary Sue heroes like Lauren I was supposed to root for and I didn't feel preached at. Atwood simply *showed* us her dystopia and her implied critique of private enterprise came from the events of the story--not from lecturing the reader that hiring private security and management and working for a corporation is the equivalent of "slavery."
Although in the end, it's not just I can't believe in this dystopia, I don't find it or its solution thought-provoking or original. The book 1984 asks us to look at the havoc the corruption of language can do; Fahrenheit 451 looks at a world where all books are burned; The Handmaid's Tale a misogynist theocracy; Brave New World the danger of altering human beings themselves. I can't say I find the dangers of global warming as resonant or startling--you hear about the dangers incessantly in universities and the media. (To be fair to Butler, her book dates to 1993--back then the concept might have struck me as fresh.) I also found the creed of Earthseed trite.
If you have more tolerance for the preachiness, are more sympathetic to the belief that privatization is evil and Global Warming the gospel, you might find this far more your cuppa.
Butler's gifts as a writer are obvious--if someone could point me to a book of hers less PC Central and/or less preachy in tone, I'd be willing to try another novel by her. After all, it's not like fine stylists with strong female protagonists are common in science fiction.
