Octavia E. Butler
Futuristic novels set in 2025 used to be futuristic. But now that we are only about a decade away, 2025 is now. Perhaps this is what makes this novel so frightening as it is set in 2025 and the future described is actually a possibility within the next 10 years. We are set in Los Angeles in what I would describe as the leading edge of a post-civilized world. Most people in the city are homeless scavengers and a few gated communities are able to hold the hordes at bay. The police are ineffective and it has not rained in 6 years. At the same time, money still has some value and the state and federal governments do exist. In this setting, a young woman is chased out of her community when it is destroyed by vandals and makes her way north, collecting companions along the way. As she travels, she is developing and testing her new religion, Earthseed, as a source of purpose and hope in this crazy world. Butler does an excellent job of revealing the strengths and weaknesses of characters in her portrayal of the emotional drama of survival. At the same time, she develops a world which that is completely new and scary, but completely familiar Not the Hollywood grand finale of most dystopian future novels that are popular, but better off because of her resistance to that trap.
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