Octavia E. Butler
Book 2 of the Xenogenesis Trilogy
Many years after the close of Dawn, Lilith has joined humans back on Earth and are well into resettlement. There are scores of settlements in the area, although all are remote. The Oankali situation is one where genetic engineering proceeds with the goal of producing both human born and Oankali born offspring (instead of genetically manufactured). This is an important step toward self sufficiency. The human situation is one where humans have been rendered sterile, unless they are willing to participate in the hybrid offspring program. So for humanity as a sustainable species, the outlook is grim. Our protagonist in this volume is Akin, a human looking hybrid child, who is kidnapped by human resisters and left to live with the humans as a way to learn about them and their values.
I continue to enjoy the exploration of human uniqueness, the exploration of human exceptionalism and the way Butler puts traditional colonialist values into the Oankali culture in such a matter-of-fact illumination of human contradictions.
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