Dawn (Xenogenesis, Bk. 1)

There is absolutely no reason to hesitate in reading this book. Octavia is one of the best authors of sci-fi and this book is a gift to the imagination. Enjoy this gift Octavia has bestowed.

Octavia Butler recently died in Seattle. Her passing is a great loss to literature in general and science fiction in particular. She once said that she didn't really write `Science Fiction' as such because she did know much about science. In fact her books do tackle some of the big themes of SciFi, but are not in the `hard science' genre. Her themes were race, sexuality, and the nature of `reality.' Ms Butler was dyslexic, gay, above average in height, African American, and a genius. She lived as a hermit in the middle of a major city and created a body of work which stands with the very best. She won both Hugo and Nebula Awards several times and the MacArthur Foundation `Genius' Award in 1995. I think she is one of the few SciFi writers to have received this recognition. I am posting this review on each of the Xenogenesis Trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) sites as well as the volume where they are collected; `Lilith's Brood.' All are excellent and recommended. In this series Ms Butler took on sexuality and the nature of `humanity' in a startling new way. She gradually takes the reader from the perspective of a `human,' specifically an Earthling who encounters an alien race to the perspective of the `alien,' specifically the descendent of interbreeding between humans and aliens who is now the `human' and sees Earthlings as the aliens. Ms Butler skills are so great that this change in perspective goes so slowly that the reader is largely unaware until it has been accomplished. While some will dither about which of Ms Butler's novels are her `greatest,' few will argue that this series is superb. I have read nearly all of Ms Butler's works and enjoyed them all. I think she was one of the finest writers of speculative fiction in recent history and will miss her work.

This Xenogenesis series is reminiscent of Stranger in a Strange Land. And Octavia Butler is a writer of the same calibur as Robert Heinlein. Her writing is complex, fully fleshed out and engrossing. I cared about the characters, was sometimes disturbed by the story, and completely sucked into her world. I read this Trilogy in a couple of days. Excellent! Dawn, Adulthood Rites & Imago (collected in the omnibus book Lilith's Brood).

Take a few (formerly) cliched SF elements - a post-apocalyptic earth; alien abductions; humans repopulating the planet. Now, shake them up and filter them through Butler's prose, and you have a wonderful new animal (which would make the DNA-magician alien characters in this book proud)! The setting is nothing you've seen before, a whole new level in organic technology. The aliens are repugnant and compelling at the same time - not just because Butler says they are, but because through her words we feel the "alienness" of them. The humans are as fully-fleshed out as any in the best contemporary literature. The relationship between them is enormously complex, both physically and psychologically, and is the driving force in the story. The main character, Lilith, is a strong, African-American woman; if Alice Walker wrote science fiction, Lilith would be in that world. This is the first novel by Butler I've read. I'm glad it's the first of three in this series - now I know exactly what to pick up next.

"Dawn" was my first experience in Science Fiction. I couldn't believe I waited so long! I inhaled all three of the Xenogenesis books and am now reading her short stories, "Blood Child." The biotech stuff really intrigued me, especially since I work at an immunology research laboratory! Cancer and genetic diseases play a very important part in Ms. Butler's work.I find the race issue to be secondary in her work and that her feministic approach to life is much more in the forefront. Either way, of course, being the subjugated being in one's world produces a certain world view - where one sits determines where one stands - something I can definitely relate to!Between the medical, gender, racial, human and moral issues brought out by the wonderful story-telling, there is an enormous amount to think about.