Dawn

Reread this book this year. Written in 1987… and it in my opinion is a foreshadowing of what’s to come or may have already come. Octavia Butler was brilliant. This is Sci- Fi at its best. It’s Sci- Fi that leaves you questioning what is humanity?

Writer Octavia E. Butler’s 1987 Novel’s Dawn is the first novel of the Xenogenesis series. In Butler's Dawn, the humans on Earth are destroyed in a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The main character of the novel, Lilith Iyapo, is a black woman from California, who is rescued by a group of aliens named the Oankali while she is doing anthropological fieldwork in the Andes Mountains. 250 years later, Lilith wakes up on the ship of the Oankali, fully healed. She finds out that the Oankali survives by merging genetically with other life forms in the universe. The Oankali are hoping to repopulate the Earth with Onakali, humans, and an Oankali-human hybrid species the Oankali will create with and without their consent. They need Lilith to act as an ambassador between the Oankali and the humans for that plan to work. The Okankali named Jdahya tells Lilith that humans “are hierarchical. I think your people did not realize what a dangerous thing they were doing” (Butler 37). Butler seemed to have agreed with Jdahya that intelligence combined with an unacknowledged love of hierarchy was humanity's biggest flaw. I feel like the Xenogenesis series will explore this theme throughout the series. I found the essay that Butler wrote for National Public Radio in response to a United Nations conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa in September 2001 useful in writing this ‘review’. Works Cited: Butler, Octavia E. 2001."National Public Radio Essay - United Nations Radio Conference." National Public Radio. Accessed: April 30, 2024. https://legacy.npr.org/programs/speci...

Lilibeth Iyapo survives an apocalyptic global war that has left Earth a radioactive wasteland, only to wake up the captive of a mysterious race of aliens who plan to repair the eco-system and re-populate it with humans (and themselves). They request her help in organizing a small group of survivors they have rescued. They are physically, culturally, and morally very different from humans and much of the plot revolves around the misunderstandings that come with getting acquainted. The first major cultural clash occurs when the 'Oankali' expect Lilibeth to learn their language, but prohibit her from owning any writing materials. A heightened air of mystery permeates the story, as the visitors disclose tidbits on an as-needed basis, while keeping their primary agenda secret. The author was very effective in drawing me emotionally into the experience of the protagonist and I found myself planning countermeasures to the obstacles she encountered. I also found myself vacillating between Lilibeth's quick acceptance of the rules they presented, and the other humans' refusal to be co-opted into something they consider a perversion. The Oankali were an original kind of alien: so physically different from humans as to be instinctually repulsive; aloof and secretive; yet able to admit when they made mistakes, capable of compassion and love: even self-sacrifice. The plot asks critical questions about the essence of humanness, leaving the answers to the reader. This book is the first installment of the tightly-coupled Xenogenesis trilogy (The word is a major clue, should you care to look it up), and leaves major tensions unresolved at its conclusion. I plan to read the next book to find out what happens.