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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780446675789
ISBN number: 0446675784
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: January 01, 2000
Publishing house: Grand Central Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 27706
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
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Octavia Butler tackles the creation of a new religion, the making of agod, and the ultimate fate of humanity in her Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower, and now continues with Parable of the Talents. The saga began with the near-future dystopian tale of Sower, in which young Lauren Olamina began to realize her destiny as a leader of people dispossessed and destroyed by the crumbling of society. The basic principles of Lauren's faith, Earthseed, were contained in a collection of deceptively simple proverbs that Lauren used to recruit followers. She teaches that 'God is change' and that humanity's ultimate destiny is among the stars.In Parable of the Talents, the seeds of change that Lauren planted beginto bear fruit, but in unpredictable and brutal ways. Her small community is destroyed, her child is kidnapped, and she is imprisoned by sadistic zealots. She must find a way to escape and begin again, without family or friends. Her single-mindedness in teaching Earthseed may be her only chance to survive, but paradoxically, may cause the ultimate estrangement of her beloved daughter. Parable of the Talents is told from both mother's and daughter's perspectives, but it is the narrative of Lauren's grown daughter, who has seen her mother made into a deity of sorts, that is the most compelling. Butler's writing is simple and elegant, and her storytelling skills are superb, as usual. Fans will be eagerly awaiting the subsequent installment in what promises to be a moving and adventurous saga. --Therese Littleton
Amazon.com Review:
Octavia Butler tackles the creation of a new religion, the making of a god, and the ultimate fate of humanity in her Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower, and now continues with Parable of the Talents. The saga began with the near-future dystopian tale of Sower, in which young Lauren Olamina began to realize her destiny as a leader of people dispossessed and destroyed by the crumbling of society. The basic principles of Lauren's faith, Earthseed, were contained in a collection of deceptively simple proverbs that Lauren used to recruit followers. She teaches that 'God is change' and that humanity's ultimate destiny is among the stars.
In Parable of the Talents, the seeds of change that Lauren planted begin to bear fruit, but in unpredictable and brutal ways. Her small community is destroyed, her child is kidnapped, and she is imprisoned by sadistic zealots. She must find a way to escape and begin again, without family or friends. Her single-mindedness in teaching Earthseed may be her only chance to survive, but paradoxically, may cause the ultimate estrangement of her beloved daughter. Parable of the Talents is told from both mother's and daughter's perspectives, but it is the narrative of Lauren's grown daughter, who has seen her mother made into a deity of sorts, that is the most compelling. Butler's writing is simple and elegant, and her storytelling skills are superb, as usual. Fans will be eagerly awaiting the subsequent installment in what promises to be a moving and adventurous saga. --Therese Littleton
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Rated by buyers 
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Octavia Butler's book is Part II of Parable Of The Sower. While the very first hundred or so pages seem a bit difficult to get through lacking story and motivation, it is a necessary primer and like writers of old, Octavia believes in setting the table very first before serving the meal. The meal itself is an utter and shocking page turner. Octavia is a master at creating misery without sounding miserable and pathetic. There is a definite reflection of the US of today. She changes names and augments situations but in many ways, this is an exaggerated U.S. of 2007.
The situation between Lauren and her daughter will lead to an utterly devastating and bone crushing conclusion. I can safely say in reading it, I had to stop, cry, and sit by myself trying to absorb what I have just seen. This is utter tragedy and tore my insides in two. It was that hard to read and imagine but it was an integral commentary about Christianity and belief systems in general. Octavia's message was driving it down to a personal level and it worked.
I would call this one of the greatest books I ever read and would recommend it to anyone.
Rated by buyers -
This book is the continuation of Lauren Olamina's life story, picking up where Parable of the Sowers left off. It has much to say about how one transcends trauma, about what compels human beings to make the choices they do when the range of choices gets narrower and narrower. The reader becomes engrossed in Lauren's survival and what that means to other important characters. Most importantly, the reader is challenged to explore the various ways people choose to cope with destructive forces beyond their control.
Rated by buyers -
The late Octavia Butler is recognized as one of the world's most respected female sci-fi writers, and her book Parable of the Sower (1998) and Parable of the Talents (2000) helped her achieve this status.
Both of these books have to be read to get the full story of Lauren Olamina, the books' African-American heroine. Butler, who loved writing apocalyptic type fiction (books focusing on what happens after the world is nearly destroyed) begins Lauren's story in Parable of the Sower. It is the year 2024 and people (namely Americans) have finally decided to go ahead and half-way destroy the world, resulting in America being reduced to the world's "lower power." Our treasured dollar is now worth pennies, our system of government has collapsed, most American citizens live in poverty, and more than half are homeless. As one would guess, many people go crazy during this time. Besides being concerned about not starving to death or dying from the flu, people also have to worry about being burned alive by stoned druggies or killed for their shoes.
Lauren, nearing puberty, lives in this world with her father, three brothers and stepmother in a walled community in California. As a result of her mother taking drugs, Lauren suffers from hyperempathy, a syndrome that causes her to feel other's pain--real or fake. But that seems to be her only weakness. She is exceptionally intelligent, creative, and strong-willed. Though a preacher's kid, her questions about God and how He could allow this kind of chaos to exist, turn her into an "unbeliever." She walks away from Christianity to create and embrace a philosophy she calls "Earthseed." This philosophy teaches that "God is Change," as change is the only thing constant in the world. The philosophy is humanistic in that is calls for total responsibility of individuals to shape their lives as they work with God--as God is change. For example, an Earthseed verse in the book is: God is Change, God is Infinite, Irresistible, Inexorable, Indifferent, God is Trickster, Teacher, Chaos, Clay--God is Change; Beware: God exists to shape and be shaped.
Beyond preaching just this, Lauren also believed that humankind's ultimate destiny was to settle other planets--no heaven, no hell.
This concept of God may seem weird to many people, and very heathenistic to the religious. When I very first read Lauren's idea of God and humankind's purpose I was slightly put off. But in those days and times the world seemed to be coming to a total end. It seems fathomable that a "religion" that calls for total belief in one's self and the hope of escaping earth could be founded and gain followers. After all, religion's main purpose is to give our lives meaning.
After becoming confident that "Earthseed" could help give people renewed hope and purpose, Lauren began to plan how she could reach people. She hoped to one day leave her walled community to do this. However, she was forced out of her community while in her teens, as druggies stormed into her neighborhood, set fires to the houses, and raped, mutilated and killed most of inhabitants. Lauren escaped somehow, and found only two of her neighbors (an older man and woman) that had also managed to escape. She had already lost her father and oldest brother in childhood to druggies, and the rest of her family had been killed in the attack.
Nearly fugitives, the trio set out on the highway to find another community, work where they could get it, or possibly to Canada or Alaska. They faced being robbed, raped, forced into slavery, or murdered while on their journey. As they traveled, Lauren began telling them about Earthseed, as she did with everyone who eventually joined their band--as people liked to travel in large numbers to avoid being robbed. She soon found several other empaths, as well as a man as old as her father that she fell in love with. He had a large piece of land, and although he did not believe in Earthseed, he agreed to let her set up a community to teach this philosophy/religion. The book ends with her trying to build and maintain this community.
Parable of the Sower is one of the most thought-provoking fiction books I have read.
Embracing the Real World (The Black Woman's Guide to Life After College)
Rated by buyers 
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The book is set in the post-SHTF world, action taking place in the Pacific Northwest/Northern California. It describes United States in a such a way that Germany leading up to the Second World War comes to mind. Violence, poverty, unemployment, inflation and a general sense of despair pervades the world of this book. Simple existence and the sense of humanity is not taken for granted, as characters in this book are forced to fight for their place under the sun.
Protagonist of this novel is a remarkable woman striving to establish her own identity, and community in a world that seems very scary to us, yet hauntingly plausible. She is a visionary, able to influence those around her through her writings and through preaching of her own religious/moral views.
During times of despair, tough, fanatical leaders often emerge and people tend to follow them blindly, while creating even more havoc in the process. (Hitler and Stalin come to mind) This book is no exception. A militant Christian preacher is elected to be the President of the United States, with disastrous results to follow: more war, persecution and poverty.
Many times I have read posts and emails with their main line of reasoning going something to the extent of: "When SHTF, I will head for the hills and tough it out with my buddies and weapons..."
After reading this book, I realized that it is not going to be an easy task by any means. Even if you manage to establish a community of like-minded individuals. Even if you are well armed and self-sufficient, you are still not going to be safe from heavily armed fanatics bent on enforcing the "Will of God".
This is a painful book to read. Main character and those around her go through some hellish events in the course of this book. These are truly horrific and Butler manages to describe them with just enough of a gritty details for the suspension of disbelief to be complete. IMHO, she goes a bit overboard with this and the book becomes unbearable and depressing at times. Perhaps that was her intention
I would recommend reading this book if you are interested in feeling or imagining "what it would be like" to live in a post-SHTF world. This is a work of fiction, science fiction to be exact, but it is more of a "soft" type of science fiction: there are some futuristic technologies described, but they are plausible and not too far removed from reality.
Overall I would give this book a "B"
Plot: "A"
This is an interesting and engaging story very relevant to modern times and humanity in general.
Storytelling: "B-"
Some lengthy descriptions of various minor characters add little to the story, except they only increase the sense of despair. Perhaps it was Butler's intention, but it seemed unnecessary to me.
Writing skill: "B+"
Her writing is not bad at all, a bit poetic one might even say.
This is the second book in the series, very first being [url=http://www.amazon.com/Parable-Sower-Octavia-E-Butler/dp/0446675504/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200042766&sr=8-2]Parable of the Sower[/url], but can be read out of sequence.
Parable of Talents won a prestigious Nebula award for science fiction.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a sequel to Parable of the Sower. In my review of Sower, I had doubts about the religious writings and ideology of the main character, Lauren. Thus I really appreciated that here, Butler brings other voices into the mix, other narrators who question and even oppose Lauren's vision. This lifts her Earthseed religion out of its starry-eyed beginnings in the very first book, and brings it into context as a noble but not necessarily infallible belief system, one that redefines God in quite secular terms.
I still have mixed feelings about Lauren's Earthseed religion, but this book left me turning it over in my head -- even seeking out scholarly articles written about the book to get different perspectives on it. Any work of fiction that is so thought-provoking, well-written, and engrossing deserves five stars.
I have to confess that before reading this book, I had no idea what the word "talent" meant in this context. I read the Parable of the Talents (the actual biblical parable, Matthew 25:14-30), and couldn't make any sense of it. When I finished Butler's book and still found the parable incomprehensible, I searched my library for information about it. (See now why I became a librarian?) Anyway, I realized to my embarrassment that a "talent" in the Bible is a monetary unit! Suddenly the parable made a lot more sense. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to look into that before I'd read Butler's book.
Apparently, Butler planned on continuing her series past these very first two books, but sadly she passed away before writing another. The two Parable books stand well on their own, however, and I recommend them to all readers, even those who normally stay away from science fiction.
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