Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780446603775
ISBN number: 0446603775
Label: Aspect
Manufacturer: Aspect
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: April 01, 1997
Publishing house: Aspect
Sale Popularity Level: 409860
Studio: Aspect
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Product Description:
Known for her African-American feminist perspective, the author presents the very first installment of a trilogy exploring the death of the earth as we know it and the advent of interbreeding between humans and extraterrestrials. Reissue.
Amazon.com Review:
In a world devastated by nuclear war with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is 'awakened,' she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by very first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever. Bonded to the aliens in ways no human has ever known, Lilith tries to fight them even as her own species comes to fear and loathe her. A stunning story of invasion and alien contact by one of science fiction's finest writers.
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Rated by buyers 
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Lilith is a young woman saved by an alien race known as the Oankali after the superpowers of the time (US/USSR)nuked the world. The Oankali mix their genes with those of other races to evolve, and they have decided that what is left of humanity should be used for this purpose. Lilith is used by the Oankali as a messenger, an ambassador of sorts, to introduce other rescued humans to the Oankali and share the Oankali's intentions for the remainder of mankind.
This book addresses many moral complexities of man. Butler uses the setting of her novel to focus on issues of human sexuality (the ooloi and manner of Oankali reproduction), the "human conflict" (in spite of their plight, the humans still exhibit hierarchical behavior when they should be uniting), and the self-destructive nature of man (a man-made war destroys civilation and mankind continues on a smaller-scale self-destructive path). On the surface, Dawn is a book about the rebirth of Earth and the meeting between humans and aliens after an apocalyptic event. Beneath the surface, Butler addresses deeper issues about mankind. Although this book is wonderfully written and thoroughly entertaining, I had a couple of issues with it:
1. Lilith gave in too easily in some areas. After reading it, I could not understand her easy acceptance of Nikanj - even though he was a child. Butler adequately explains it, but her response, given the circumstances, does not feel authentic.
2. Lilith could have done more to let the other humans know where she stood on the issues. Her position was clear, but only in her thoughts. It seemed that she would have done more to let those close to her know what she believe and wanted.
3. Several editing errors were somewhat distracting.
Overall, the book was well worth the read and I recommend it.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm glad I finally got around to sampling Octavia Butler's SF. She's top-notch, and I only wish I'd found her sooner. "Dawn" is a superior treatment of a classic SF theme that projects troubling here-and-now events into a crescendo of violence that results in the destruction of humanity. This sets the stage for a scenario that posits deliverance at the price of universal slavery to an alien race; a deliverance that will end in extinction as complete as, and far more spiritually devastating than, that already accomplished by fulfillment of the alleged human genetic imperative to self-destruct.
Butler handles this weighty theme with deftness and indirection. The reality of Ounkali domination of every aspect of human life, right down to the neural and cellular level, is masked by the emotional allure of apparently reciprocal inter-species attachments and obligations, and further finessed by the human genetic "sin" of hierarchicalism as manifest in the more than occasional cussedness and irrationality of the humans selected for awakening.
The Ounkali's manipulative genius is such that de facto human enslavement is staged as a benefit of such great value that it cannot be resented - at least not by the principal character, Lilith, whose sense of justice (she and every other human would be dead without alien intervention, after all) is reinforced by the careful indoctrination / conditioning of this woman selected for her unique combination of genetic and experiential characteristics.
I'm deeply impressed with Butler's handling of a theme of such sensitivity and import to American culture without beating us over the head with it. She makes her point about slavery with scarcely a mention of the word itself. It gives us the opportunity to read between the lines, and to think - something we are all genetically capable of, but not necessarily inclined to do.
Rated by buyers 
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This odd series I didn't find too interesting. Maybe I would if I was an invading alien sex therapist. This is almost a horror story, with how creepy it is in parts. Condescending aliens treating people at times how people treat animals, which perhaps it part of the point?
Rated by buyers -
The war is over. Nuclear winter sets in and what is left of humanity squabbles over ever-dwindling resources. Enter the Oankali. An extraterrestrial race who picked up the last vestiges of humanity (and put them into stasis) and took them to their ship orbiting beyond our moon.
Lilith Iyapo was among the last vestiges of humanity picked up and taken to the Oankali ship. Lilith was the human the Oankali chose to become the bridge between themselves and humanity. The Oankali are going to save us from ourselves and they enlist Lilith's help; but there is a price, and that price may be so high that not only may Lilith Iyapo fail in her job to bridge the gap between the two sentient cultures, it may tear the remaining humans apart...leaving no chance to rebuild the once-great civilization that once populated planet Earth.
Octavia E. Butler's Dawn is beautifully written. Lilith, who has so much internal strength, is helpless before the Oankali. And yet, the Oankali are so gentle, so...precise in their study of Lilith and the rest of humanity. Despite the cost of what the Oankali want, Lilith befriends the Oankali, cares for them, and they for her. Lilith's dichotomy is exquisitely illustrated. On one hand she cares deeply for the Oankali. On the other, she knows she must stand by her fellow humans...for the sake of her people's humanity.
Lilith's struggle, literally caught between two separate worlds, is the best of what science fiction is all about. I strongly encourage any one who picks this up to read it without hesitation.
Rated by buyers -
In the very first volume of her Xenogenesis Trilogy Octavia Butler introduces us the wreckage of an Earth we once knew, but no longer. Nuclear Holocaust. It happened. Millions and Billions died. And then the aliens came to rescue the survivors.
Lilith Iyapo is one of the survivors. The novel opens with Lilith being Awakened and interrogated. She does not know where she is or who her captors are. Turns out it isn't the Russians or some other group, but rather the Oankali, an alien race come to save humanity but also to change humanity and change themselves in the process. Told through Lilith's perspective we are given a very personal and narrow reaction to finding oneself isolated on an alien ship and being told two hundred and fifty years have passed and that the aliens have mostly cleaned Earth and intend to recolonize the planet with human Oankali hybrids.
Lilith is to be the mother of this new civilization but she wants nothing to do with it, of course. She knows this would be the end of humanity but what choice does she have?
Dawn is a novel about very first contact, what it means to be human, humanity, genetics, and at times sexuality. With two more novels set in this trilogy, Dawn is an ambitious opening volume to the trilogy with a lot of story left open to interpretation and Butler never quite tells the story the reader expects. Keeping the viewpoint narrowed on Lilith, we are given, as we are in her other novels, a very particular perspective and a strong female lead.
As her other work is, Dawn is a very fine science fiction novel. While more overt science fiction than later novels (or Kindred, for that matter), Dawn is a novel worth recommending even to those who might not necessarily enjoy science fiction (though I would recommend Kindred or Parable of the Sower first).
-Joe Sherry
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