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juushikaTitle: Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood Book 2)
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Published: New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2012 (1988)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 277
Total Page Count: 160,635
Text Number: 469
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: With Human/Oankali settlements established on Earth, one construct child—born of a mix of both species—obtains a clear view of the resisters, humans who refuse to be a part of the cross-species assimilation. Adulthood Rites feels like the least successful of the Xenogenesis series, which hardly means it's bad. Much is an issue of pacing: the first half is slow and meandering, the second half crowded with action. But it's also that the initial novelty of the premise has passed, and I've grown critical of the book's rules. Humans are defined by their hierarchical tendencies and their ability to develop cancer, and they're all heteronormative and gender essentialist, and the sum effect feels both simplistic and insufficient—if for no other reason than the fact that this could as easily and more accurately describe non-human animals: it fails to capture what makes humans unique, or explain the Oankali obsession with them.
Yet Adulthood Rites serves a valuable function. Lilith's story was about a human taking the alien's side, with caveats; Akin's story is about an alien taking the human's side, with caveats. It's an extended devil's advocate, yet capable of surprising sympathy. Butler excels at this—at interactions which are as rational and justified as they are insidious and harmful, which are all the more unsettling because they wield such conviction. This series is impressive—so even if Adulthood Rites is the weakest installment, it's still worth reading.
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Published: New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2012 (1988)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 277
Total Page Count: 160,635
Text Number: 469
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: With Human/Oankali settlements established on Earth, one construct child—born of a mix of both species—obtains a clear view of the resisters, humans who refuse to be a part of the cross-species assimilation. Adulthood Rites feels like the least successful of the Xenogenesis series, which hardly means it's bad. Much is an issue of pacing: the first half is slow and meandering, the second half crowded with action. But it's also that the initial novelty of the premise has passed, and I've grown critical of the book's rules. Humans are defined by their hierarchical tendencies and their ability to develop cancer, and they're all heteronormative and gender essentialist, and the sum effect feels both simplistic and insufficient—if for no other reason than the fact that this could as easily and more accurately describe non-human animals: it fails to capture what makes humans unique, or explain the Oankali obsession with them.
Yet Adulthood Rites serves a valuable function. Lilith's story was about a human taking the alien's side, with caveats; Akin's story is about an alien taking the human's side, with caveats. It's an extended devil's advocate, yet capable of surprising sympathy. Butler excels at this—at interactions which are as rational and justified as they are insidious and harmful, which are all the more unsettling because they wield such conviction. This series is impressive—so even if Adulthood Rites is the weakest installment, it's still worth reading.
