Parable of the Talents

By: Octavia E. Butler

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd, Peter Jay Fernandez, Sisi Aisha Johnson

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of horrifying depravity. Assault, theft, sexual abuse, slavery, and murder are commonplace. Taking advantage of the situation, a zealous, bigoted tyrant wins his way into the White House.

Directly opposed is Lauren Olamina, founder of Earthseed - a new faith that teaches "God Is Change". Persecuted for "heathen" beliefs as much as for having a black female leader, Earthseed's followers face a life-and-death struggle to preserve their vision.

Best-selling author Octavia Butler's fluid writing and keen observations about race, gender, politics, and religion make for a moving parable that will be pondered for generations. A powerful reading from three standout narrators captures the multi-generational sweep of this poignant tale.

Butler's acclaimed novels have won numerous awards, and she is a recipient of a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Parable of the Talents was selected as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.

©2007 Octavia Butler (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic Reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1999

"Octavia E. Butler is one of the finest voices in fiction....period." (Washington Post Book World)
"These...are the keynotes of Talents: family and characters, warmth and endurance, hope and determination. It's a worthy book, well up to Butler's standard for thoughtfulness and insight." (Analog Science Fiction & Fact)
"Though not for the faint-hearted, this work stands out as a testament to the author's enormous talent, and to the human spirit." (Publishers Weekly)

A Look Into Our Future

This is the second book in the Parable series by Octavia Butler. I purchased a copy of this book from Audible.com to read and review for A More Diverse Universe blog tour (November 15 - 17th) As you can see I am just now getting to posting my review. I read the first book in January of this year as a book club book of the month selection. (Review here)
In the first book, Lauren Olamina leaves her burning town and home to find a safe place to live and expand her new belief system called Earth Seed.
In this book (I will try and not spoil it for you) Lauren's community has grown and is thriving. She has married and gives birth to a baby girl. All of this is happening in their small community, Acorn as the rest of the United States is completely falling apart. People are migrating to Alaska (the new promise land) due to climate changes. Political leaders who are extreme right-wing Christians create fanaticals who are burning non-believers a la Salem Witch Hunts. There are ramped lack of trials in court system. Slavery is back in and children are being bought and sold into the sex trade.
This book is bleak to say the least. I was not really expecting it to be a feel good book after reading the first one. I knew things would get worse. I could see it coming. But the reason I liked this book so much is the bleakness. I know that makes no sense at all but it was. I think Octavia Butler shows her deep foresight into our future without really making things up. People are not super humans. People are not flying. She shows us as we are and what will happen if we stay on the course we are on now. It is smartly written with very probable situations and the author really put thought into all the details of our future.
I thought it was perfect to have the chapters read by different voices. Lauren, her husband and daughter each write a chapter or have passages from their journals that tell their side of events. Each narrator did an excellent job.
Due to the bleak nature of this book I would not recommend it to readers with a weak stomach and who are looking for a happy love story.
But do read this one.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Powerful, dark sequel that stands on its own

This book is the sequel to"Parable of the Sower," but it stands up pretty well by itself, though I would definitely recommend reading the first book, because Butler is that good and these books are very powerful. In Parable of the Talents, Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of the first book, continues trying to build a community and a following devoted to her new religion, "Earthseed." Unfortunately, she is trying to found this new religion just when America, in the grip of a near-apocalyptic economic and environmental collapse, elects a witch-burning fundie Talibaptist for President. Lauren and her people are literally enslaved, and Lauren's infant daughter is taken away from her.

This is a dark book, a truly horrific dystopia, but the rape and violence does not read like a gratuitous admixture the way it does in so many books. You know how some authors want to make their books extra dark to let you know that these are Very Bad Times and Very Bad People, so they toss in a little rape, a little dismemberment, like one of those buckets o' blood horror films that just wind up being too schlocky and over-the-top to really horrify you? Octavia Butler doesn't do that. Instead, Lauren tells us what happened to her and her people in very clear but non-graphic terms, and the impact is felt for the rest of the story because even though she is trying to start a hopeful new religion, she hates her abusers with the heat of a thousand burning suns and makes no bones about it. It's very refreshing. None of that "I have to get past this" or forgiveness bull. She does survive and eventually launch her movement, successfully, but it's not like "Oh, and along the way some bad stuff happened."

Parable of the Talents is also, indirectly, a mother-daughter story. It's told in the past tense through the journals of both Lauren Olamina and her daughter, whom she never knew until her daughter reached adulthood. Her daughter has a very difficult time coming to terms with who her mother was, and so there are two very different narrative threads woven through the events described in the novel: Lauren, describing much of it as it was happening, and her daughter, commenting (and often, passing judgment) decades later.

This is one of those science fiction books that really should be considered literature, and it's a shame Octavia Butler isn't more widely known. It's even more of a shame that she died before she could write the third book she planned. I give both of the Earthseed books a very high recommendation.

20 of 21 people found this review helpful

Visionary

Now this is why I became a Sci Fi fan; here you have a fully formed idea, how our present trajectory could look like. This is set in a very plausible story, with fully formed, engaging characters. It is told suspensefully, entertaining and thought provoking. You might not agree with the author at all levels, but at least it is a serious contribution to the discussion. The prose serves the story, does not get in the way of the story, the narration also works.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Gripping and real

The story is gripping and feels so real. It's not an easy or pleasant book, but it's interesting, full of ideas and opinions and peopled with great characters.
I really liked the narrator too.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Poor production

The book is amazing. Performance was good, editing/production not so much. Jumps abruptly between chapters with jarring volume changes.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

worth reading

Not a really fast paced book, but the story does move along. In the middle of the book I was annoyed with the amount of time the author spent on theology, "Earthseed". But as the story progresses it does make more sense.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Cannot get through this book

Would you try another book from Octavia E. Butler and/or the narrators?

The title is deceptive; the violence is deplorable; the book it too long and negative.

Has Parable of the Talents turned you off from other books in this genre?

yes, I would shy away from books by this author.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

The readers and characters are excellent as with most Audible books.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

There is lots of action and many people are into this type of storyline.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps the abridged version would have kept my attention better. It is rare that I don't complete a book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Moving Story - great performance

What is most disturbing about this story is how it is not that far out of the range of possibility. If the current economic situation crashed, this is entirely possible. And I found that quite distrubing. The idea is interesting (forming a new religion based on science) and the terrible things that the person went through to get the new idea moving makes the story compelling. I am not a fan of the ending - I found the weakness of the brother/sister bonds very disturbing and how the author kind of forgets that the main character saved the brother from slavery - never seems to come back up.

But the performance is good and the story compelling. worth the listen.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Prophetic and Eye-Opening!

Would you listen to Parable of the Talents again? Why?

I would definitely listen to Parable of the Talents again because it is such an amazing story about perseverance. Laure Olamina is an awesome young woman who is determined to survive in this post-apocalyptic time. And while her religion is not one I would choose, I understand why the Acorn community lives according

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There is a moment in Parable of the Talents when the protagonist and her community are enslaved by a fanatical Christian group and it is such a defeating and hopeless moment. However, things do turn around for the Acorn community...

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Intriguing & Insightful

A captivating and believable look into thirty years from now in Northern California. The planet's warmth pushes rich and poor north, religious extremism grows unchecked, and people are torn between individual survival and holding on to fragments of their humanity.

This book may not satisfy hardcore sci-fi buffs. It's about individual and group struggle in the future, though, just as easily could have been set in any number of dark times in the past that were ruled by corruption, chaos, and spiritual discontent. Characters are well developed enabling the reader to understand and relate to actions and motivations, even when they are extreme. Brutality is rampant, though, rape scenes are thankfully referred to instead of described. An excellent exploration of trust, loyalty, faith, power, and destiny.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful