Synopses & Reviews
MacArthur Foundation grant recipient Octavia E. Butler's award-winning novels have earned her an acclaimed place in women's fiction, African-American literature, and speculative fiction. The Xenogenesis Series is an evocative, sensual and disturbing epic of human transformation.
Imago
Child of the Earth and stars, Jodahs can shapeshift, heal the maimed, cure cancer, create contagion with every breath, or mutate the ground with a touch. Jodahs is an ooloi, a being beyond gender, born with the alien Oankali power to mix pure DNA within its body. But the child is also the first ooloi born to a human mother, and its destiny is unknown. The future of both humans and Oankali rests in one young being's successful metamorphosis into adulthood.
Jodahs can become a mad, living plague or a bridge of peace. Its challenge is to reconcile its galactic heritage of gene trading with the rage of a people facing a terrifying dilemma. For human children will inherit the universe only if they lose all that which makes them human.
Review
"What 'cyberpunk' author William Gibson does for [white readers], Octavia Butler does for people of color. She gives us a future." Vibe
Review
"A new Octavia Butler novel is an exciting event...She is one of those rare authors who pay serious attention to the way human beings actually work together and against each other, and she does so with extraordinary plausibility." Locus
Review
"Butler's literary craftsmanship is superb." Washington Post Book World
Review
"Butler sets the imagination free, blending the real and the possible." United Press International
Synopsis
The futures of both humans and Oankali rest in one young being's successful metamorphosis into adulthood.
About the Author
Octavia E. Butler is the author of many novels, including Kindred, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Award and a Nebula Award, and she has twice won the Hugo Award. She passed away on February 24, 2006, at the age of 58.