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Parable of the Talents by [Octavia E. Butler]

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Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents Kindle Edition

by Octavia E. Butler (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

2,769 ratings

Book 2 of 2: Parable

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Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel: The powerful and compelling sequel to the dystopian classic Parable of the Sower

Lauren Olamina was only eighteen when her family was killed, and anarchy encroached on her Southern California home. She fled the war zone for the hope of quiet and safety in the north. There she founded Acorn, a peaceful community based on a religion of her creation, called Earthseed, whose central tenet is that God is change. Five years later, Lauren has married a doctor and given birth to a daughter. Acorn is beginning to thrive. But outside the tranquil group’s walls, America is changing for the worse.

Presidential candidate Andrew Steele Jarret wins national fame by preaching a return to the values of the American golden age. To his marauding followers, who are identified by their crosses and black robes, this is a call to arms to end religious tolerance and racial equality—a brutal doctrine they enforce by machine gun. And as this band of violent extremists sets its deadly sights on Earthseed, Acorn is plunged into a harrowing fight for its very survival.

Taking its place alongside Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Butler’s eerily prophetic novel offers a terrifying vision of our potential future, but also one of hope.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

Print length

434 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Publication date

July 24, 2012
File size

5557 KB
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Books In This Series (2 Books)

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Parable

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Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler

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2
Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler

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$12.99

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From the Publisher

From the Illustrated Biography


Octavia E. Butler at age thirteen Butler began writing the year before when a science fiction film—the cult favorite Devil Girl from Mars—inspired her to create something of her own.	Parable of the Sower book tour Butler on a book tour for Parable of the Sower in New York City in 1993.	Octavia E. Butler's legacy When Butler passed away in 2006, the New York Times eulogized her as a world-renowned author whose science fiction explored 'far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human.'

Review

“One of the finest voices in fiction—period. . . . Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Splendid . . . provocative . . . a parable that deserves to be pondered.” —The Plain Dealer

“Enthralling . . . compelling and truly original.” —The Denver Post

About the Author

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a bestselling and award-winning author, considered one of the best science fiction writers of her generation. She received both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and in 1995 became the first author of science fiction to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. She was also awarded the prestigious PEN Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Her first novel, Patternmaster (1976), was praised both for its imaginative vision and for Butler’s powerful prose, and spawned four prequels, beginning with Mind of My Mind (1977) and finishing with Clay’s Ark (1984).

Although the Patternist series established Butler among the science fiction elite, it was Kindred (1979), a story of a black woman who travels back in time to the antebellum South, that brought her mainstream success. In 1985, Butler won Nebula and Hugo awards for the novella “Bloodchild,” and in 1987 she published Dawn, the first novel of the Xenogenesis trilogy, about a race of aliens who visit earth to save humanity from itself. Fledgling (2005) was Butler’s final novel. She died at her home in 2006.

From the Back Cover

Lauren Olamina's love is divided among her young daughter, her community, and the revelation that led Lauren to found a new faith that teaches "God Is Change". But in the wake of environmental and economic chaos, the U.S. government turns a blind eye to violent bigots who consider the mere existence of a black female leader a threat. And soon Lauren must either sacrifice her child and her followers -- or forsake the religion that can transform human destiny. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Booklist

Butler concludes the spiritual and physical journey, begun in Parable of the Sower (1993), of Lauren Oya Olamina, an 18-year-old African American who has survived most of her family's demise and a lengthy journey on the dangerous roads of early-twenty-first-century California. She has created her own religion, Earthseed, which empowers people to master change and has as its ultimate goal the colonization of other worlds. Olamina has gathered around her a community of outcasts and wanderers that is beginning to thrive when a fundamentalist Christian wins the presidency. His zealots overrun Olamina's village, enslave the adults with pain-inflicting collars, and adopt the children into Christian American families. Olamina must somehow free herself and her followers and begin another painful journey to find her infant daughter. She is unexpectedly reunited with her brother Marcus, but instead of helping each other, they are on opposite sides of a deep religious chasm. The novel revolves around the question of which is more important to Olamina: her fledgling religion or her own flesh and blood. Roberta Johnson --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Library Journal

In this brilliant sequel to Parable of the Sower (LJ 10/15/93), Nebula and Hugo Award winner Butler continues the compelling story of Lauren Olamina, chronicling her struggle for survival in a socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Lauren has founded a quiet community called Acorn, where she teaches people about Earthseed, her belief that God is simply another name for Change. Her community of believers is threatened, however, by the election of an ultraconservative president opposed to any religion not his own. Among his followers are fanatical terrorists who will stop at nothing to destroy what Lauren has built, including forcibly separating parents from their children. Butler tells this story through Lauren's journal entries, her poetry, and commentary from her daughter. Powerful, moving, and beautifully written, this book belongs in every library.?Laurel Bliss, New Haven, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Amazon.com Review

Octavia Butler tackles the creation of a new religion, the making of a god, and the ultimate fate of humanity in her Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower, and now continues with Parable of the Talents. The saga began with the near-future dystopian tale of Sower, in which young Lauren Olamina began to realize her destiny as a leader of people dispossessed and destroyed by the crumbling of society. The basic principles of Lauren's faith, Earthseed, were contained in a collection of deceptively simple proverbs that Lauren used to recruit followers. She teaches that "God is change" and that humanity's ultimate destiny is among the stars.

In Parable of the Talents, the seeds of change that Lauren planted begin to bear fruit, but in unpredictable and brutal ways. Her small community is destroyed, her child is kidnapped, and she is imprisoned by sadistic zealots. She must find a way to escape and begin again, without family or friends. Her single-mindedness in teaching Earthseed may be her only chance to survive, but paradoxically, may cause the ultimate estrangement of her beloved daughter. Parable of the Talents is told from both mother's and daughter's perspectives, but it is the narrative of Lauren's grown daughter, who has seen her mother made into a deity of sorts, that is the most compelling. Butler's writing is simple and elegant, and her storytelling skills are superb, as usual. Fans will be eagerly awaiting the next installment in what promises to be a moving and adventurous saga. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Lauren Olamina, a black teenager, grew up in a 21st-century America that was tearing itself apart. Global warming, massive unemployment, gang warfare and corporate greed combined to break down society in general and her impoverished southern California neighborhood in particular. A victim of hyperempathy syndrome, a disorder that compels its victims to believe they feel others' pain, Lauren found herself homeless and alone in a violent world. Escaping from the urban jungle of Los Angeles, Lauren founded Acorn, a hard-working, prosperous rural community based on the teachings of Earthseed, a religion she herself created and centered on the ideas that God is Change and that humanity's destiny is to go to the stars. Butler's extraordinary Parable of the Sower (1996) detailed the aforementioned events. In this equally powerful sequel, Acorn is destroyed by the rising forces of Christian fundamentalism, led by the newly elected U.S. president, the Reverend Andrew Steele Jarret. A handsome man and persuasive orator, seemingly modeled in part on Pat Robertson, Jarret converts millions to his sect, Christian America, while his thugs imprison, rape and murder those they label "heathens," all the while kidnapping their children in order to raise them in Christian households. The narrative is both impassioned and bitter as Butler weaves a tale of a frighteningly believable near-future dystopia. Lauren, at once loving wife and mother, prophet and fanatic, victim and leader, gains stature as one of the most intense and well-developed protagonists in recent SF. Though not for the faint-hearted, this work stands out as a testament to the author's enormous talent, and to the human spirit.. Author tour. (Nov.) FYI: In 1995, Butler received a MacArthur Foundation ("genius") Award.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008HALPHC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (July 24, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 24, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5557 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 434 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #16,337 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)

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Octavia E. Butler

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OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947–2006) was the renowned author of numerous ground-breaking novels, including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science- fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius Grant’. A pioneer of her genre, Octavia’s dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women’s rights, global warming and political disparity, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Plamen Nenchev

“Let Us Help to Make America Great Again!”

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2019

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No, this is not a clichéd joke or a poke at we-all-know-who. This is actually the slogan of one of the candidates in the U.S. presidential election in... 2032, from a book that Octavia Butler penned in... 1998. The uncanny similarities with the present do not just end here. There is the preaching for a return to ‘simpler times’, the desire for the ‘strong hand’, the promise of ‘simple solutions’ to complex problems, the vehement rejection of any other opinion than your own.

In one of her interviews given just a couple of years before she passed away, as always speaking in that deep, authoritative voice of hers that makes you instinctively trust what she says, Octavia Butler declares that it is foolish of writers to think that they can predict the future. “When we write about the future,” she says, “what we actually write about is the present, but more of it—more advanced, harder, higher, faster.” Even though she overshoots by 15 years, it is ironic how wrong she was and how much she underestimated her own ability to see the future—even though I suspect she would be much happier if she had failed, at least in this particular case. This book is living proof that bigotry, opportunism and stupidity do indeed transcend time, space as well as generations.

Parable of the Talents is set in the aftermath of a socioeconomic and climatic calamity that has shaken the world to its core and is a direct sequel to Butler's Parable of the Sower, in itself a harrowing apocalyptic journey along the highways of an America that has disintegrated into violence, anarchy and rampant drug use. Olamina has found a safe haven for herself and her followers who she met on the road, but can her community and her nascent teaching suffer the head-on collision with President Jarret’s rising religious fundamentalism?

The book is interesting enough to read for its literary merits. The story and the characters—albeit probably not for the faint of heart—are brilliant and engrossing. What I find far more interesting though and what I also think will transcend time (as it has transcended these since 20 years since the novel was written) are Butler's universal insights into human nature: How easy it is for scared people to flock under the wing of anyone who seems strong and decisive. How quickly ordinary people can turn into monsters. How dangerous are ignorance and prejudice. How tempting is to stop thinking and to let someone else think for you.

These simple truths have outlived Butler and will unfortunately most likely outlive us all.

224 people found this helpful

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Beverly Diehl

Prescient and Terrifying

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2017

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"Help us to make America great again.” The slogan of a overtly religious, bombastic Presidential candidate during a time of turmoil in America. "They say the country needs a strong hand to bring back order, good jobs, honest cops, and free schools. They say he has to be given plenty of time and a free hand so he can put things right again."

Okay, so this creeped me out, in a dystopian novel set in the 2020's - 2030's, published in 1998. There was a LOT that creeped me out: religious fanatics persecuting "heathens" who don't follow the Christian American party line. Beatings, murder, enslavement, rape, stealing of their children... It's an excellent book, very well-written, a classic, but make sure you have emotional support to get through, if these issues trigger you. I found it a difficult read because I couldn't convince myself this would never happen in America, right now.

I found these sections particularly insightful, about this character:
"The working poor who love Jarret want to be fooled, need to be fooled. They scratch a living, working long, hard hours at dangerous, dirty jobs, and they need a savior. Poor women, in particular, tend to be deeply religious and more than willing to see Jarret as the Second Coming. Religion is all they have. Their employers and their men abuse them. They bear more children than they can feed. They bear everyone’s contempt." and

"And the thugs see him as one of them. They envy him. He is the bigger, the more successful thief, murderer, and slaver."

The story is told from the points of view of the Earthseed founder, Lauren Oya Olamina, and her daughter, Asha Vere, and comes to a fairly satisfying conclusion. This is the second in what was meant to be a trilogy, but you don't have to read the first book to understand or appreciate this one.

I particularly relished and saw modern day parallels in this: "In less than a year, Jarret went from being our savior, almost the Second Coming in some people’s minds, to being an incompetent son of a bitch who was wasting our substance on things that didn’t matter."

123 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Sarah Pemberton

Unpleasant, boring and a failure as a novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2021

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I had high hopes based on the author's other work, but was very disappointed. This book is largely told through the diary of an unpleasant female cult leader - she is egotistical, considers herself to be always right, blames others for everything that goes wrong, and barely mourns her husband when he dies suddenly. Regrettably, the author portrays this character as a 'Mary Sue' i.e. an unrealistic heroine with infinite emotional and physical resilience who is effortlessly accepted as a leader by others despite her failings and who we (the readers) are expected to admire. There is some attempt to explore the main character's relationships with her daughter and brother, but this needs to be fleshed out so that her other family members become more three dimensional. There is no real character development over the course of the book because the central character never admits that she is wrong.

Nearly all of the story occurs within a prison camp and given the narrative style this is told largely through diary entries listing abuses by the guards, including torture, many rapes, and the (inadvertent?) death of several characters. These events are unpleasant to hear about and not very original. Moreover, a diary was poor choice of narrative device for these scenes because events that should be exciting and emotionally charged do not happen in real time, but are described through great dumps of exposition. As a result it is boring to read the abusive scenes are stripped of nearly all the emotional significance.

In my view this book should have been rejected by the publisher and the author advised to substantially rework it. The narrative can't decide if it is a story about a religious cult and their internment in an abusive prison camp run by religious extremists (a social and political commentary story that requires exploration of multiple interned characters and involves a number of action scenes), or a story about the family relationships of the central character (an individual story centred on emotions). As it is the novel falls between two stools, so neither of the stories is properly developed. I would only recommend this book as a cautionary example for overconfident novelists!

One person found this helpful

S. Naomi Scott

Dark and Disturbing, but still an outstanding read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2015

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Where Parable of the Sower introduces us to protagonist Lauren Olamina and her journey towards the creation of her first Earthseed community, Parable of the Talents shows us the downfall and eventual rebirth of that community, albeit as a community that is more diffuse and distributed.

It begins five years after the settlement of Acorn, the Earthseed community founded at the end of the first book, and initially shows us the ways in which the community has grown and adapted to the ongoing social collapse that is taking place in the rest of the United States. For a short while life in the community seems good, though there is an undercurrent of possible danger presented in the form of Presidential hopeful Andrew Steele Jarrett, a Christian hardliner who believes that only a return to 'traditional Christian values' will help the country return to its former glory. Even despite Acorn's success, Lauren is also fighting against her own husband's desire to move them away from the community to somewhere 'safer', especially after she becomes pregnant; his fear of the future works directly in opposition to her inherent optimism, and the reader is given a deeper understanding of both sides of the argument as a result of their interaction.

Things begin to fall apart when Jarrett is elected as President, and shortly afterwards the community is attacked by a group of Christian America (CA) Crusaders, the members of the community enslaved. This is where the novel enters its darkest phase as we are given first hand accounts of the abuses meted out on Lauren's people. The children of the community, including Lauren's newborn baby, are taken away, and the men and women of the community are segregated and kept apart. Everything they have built for themselves is torn down and destroyed, and Acorn itself is transformed into a concentration camp, rapidly populated with new internees as the CA Crusaders seek to enslave and dehumanise those they see as a threat to their Christian traditions.

The third act of the novel begins with the prisoners at Acorn winning their freedom, though there is a sense of deus ex machina interjected at this point; the slavers themselves are rendered all but impotent when their living quarters are demolished as a result of a mudslide, allowing the prisoners to break free of their chains and escape. Lauren then sets out to locate and rescue as many of the lost children as possible, particularly her own lost daughter. Along the way we're given a broader picture of the world beyond the confines of Acorn, and it's suggested that those on the outside either don't care about the atrocities being committed by the Crusaders or simply aren't willing to believe that they'd be capable of such acts.

Lauren finally finds her daughter several years later, though the meeting between them is somewhat bittersweet. During her travels Lauren has managed to sow the seeds of a much larger Earthseed movement, while her daughter has been raised in a predominantly Christian manner, albeit while maintaining a degree of skepticism along the way. While there's no happy reunion between them, there is a reconciliation of sorts.

The narrative throughout the book alternates between the voice of Lauren herself, in the form of journal entries, and the voice of her daughter, Larkin, who we eventually learn has been separated from her mother for most of her life. By juxtaposing the two voices in this way we get a strong sense that while Larkin admires and respects the achievements of her mother, it's made clear that she doesn't necessarily agree with her mother's motives and beliefs.

In conclusion, if Parable of the Sower was a dark and disturbing read, this book is even more so. For that reason I'd consider it to outstanding, and definitely worth a read, though it should be noted that some of the themes the book explores may be triggering for some readers.

12 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Parable of the Talents

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

Parable of the Talents is a great read - pertinent for these times. Octavia Butler's influence continues to grow - with NASA recently naming the Mars landing site after her.

k crake

Idealogy or family. Which would you choose?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Fantastic sequel. It's a rare writer who can improve on an original idea.

Mrs. A. J. Whiteley

A Timely Parable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2003

Verified Purchase

Governments and religions are big subjects. It's amazing that Octavia E Butler can make them seem so accessible; that the answers to the squabbles over 'who's right and who's wrong' could actually be so simple, if only we were prepared to be honest with ourselves.
This is a book that speaks to the here and now. If you're concerned about what is happening in the world today, read it. If you have ever asked yourself about religion and the function it serves in our society, read it. If you just like a good book with a strong storyline, read it. It can offer something on all of these levels, and personally speaking, I have yet to stop thinking about the questions it raises.

7 people found this helpful