04/05/2025
Book two was very interesting in the sense we get three perspectives and one of them being her daughter. While I enjoyed the amazing writing, and Butler’s incredible ability to predict a possible future, it was disappointing to not live through the battle of earth-seed against Jarod. Most of it is the battle to find her daughter after Bankole dies and she escapes her slavery. The characters are super strong, and her decision to continue her belief system and the inability of her daughter to recognize her position and what it meant to her was brilliantly written. In fact, the programming of her daughter was very well written and we are led in different directions on what to believe in what she is saying. For me where the story disappointed was the end how the story zoomed through any battle with the religious movement what had set her back. Then, in the end, she only got to know her remains would make it into space, that her sacrifice would finally provide the heaven she promised. I feel like we didn’t get to feel the fulfillment of her journey in the same unbelievable intelligence Butler had in the rest of the book. I suspect book three was supposed to be just that, but sadly it never got written. None of this is to say this wasn’t a great book, as it was, from a character journey perspective. It won awards because it moves you. I think this is just the natural feeling of wanting more and there is no more to read, only what you synthesize in your own head.
2025-13
