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)

I have always loved this book....

What did you love best about Parable of the Talents?

The vision and sheer terror that Octavia Butler can communicate while telling a story of hope. it's a gift she has.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Parable of the Talents?

The enslavement parts. I've read this book several times but hearing voices put to this part...unsettling.

What three words best describe the narrators’s performance?

Good. The voice of her daughter was my favorite. I would like to listen to her read more. What else has she done??

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I always have an extreme reaction to Octavia Butler--you're dead if you don't. I didn't cry this time, although I thought I might.

Any additional comments?

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For such a time as this...

You didn't know you needed this, but you do. The narrators have comforting voices, a necessary thing for such a heavy and pensive book as this. Octavia writes through Lauren Olamina and her daughter Larken as if they are right next to you. She weaves this not so dystopian future into philosophical territory of morality, faith, and chaos with each journal entry. I can see why she needed a break after writing them. This is where we are headed, and the only solace on Earth may be in the hope of the stars.

Though Provoking

The Earth Seed series is a masterpiece. Parable of the Sower filled me naive hope & Parable of the Talents tempered that naiveté with a reminder of the cost of progress. This book, in particular, gave me a lot to ponder & created space for me look at what kind of decision maker I am, & want to be, in the world.

The narrators performed wonderfully, I was truly lost in the world of Lauren Oya Olamina & Earthseed.

Octavia Butler is Brilliant Beyond Words!!

Parable of the talents is eerily relevant, brilliantly written, profoundly thought provoking. Everyone should read/listen at least once their lifetime.

Finally!

I read Parable of the Sower over 10 years ago in school and I finally got around to this book. I loved it, and I enjoyed the narration.
I have enjoyed every Octavia Butler book I've read (or listened to) thus far.

I long for the stars

I couldn’t stop hearing this book. This story, along with The Parable of the Sower, has been running through my life like threads in a tapestry, running through my life in the air that I breathe. My gratitude to Octavia Butler for bringing these words to light and to life.

Amazing but incomplete

I wish Octavia Butler had finished this series. I wish there were more detail about the latter half of Loren's life. The story jumps from extremely detailed accounts of her early and middle life and then skips decades ahead when Earthseed has magically become a vast, wealthy endeavor on the verge of fulfilling the destiny, with all the steps in between missing.

I hate the distance Marco has sewn between Loren and her daughter, and I don't understand why Larkin so frequently claims to hate her mother. Earthseed is weird but it's a less harmful cult than the "Christian America" that Marco embraced, and, bizarrely, came to represent despite being gay and a mediocre preacher.

Marco is one of the most despicable characters I've read about. Others may disagree but he seems to me worse than Keith. I can at least understand Keith's motivations, and his sins, however bad, were made as a child. What Marco did to Loren seems unforgivable, particularly for a grown "man of God", and his cowardice is unending, never admitting his church's crimes or his own role in them.

As a final note, people have compared Trump to President Jarrett. They're both demagogues who used the phrase "Make America Great Again" and focused popular distrust towards "others", but that's as far as the comparison goes. But we could someday end up with someone like Jarrett-- a seemingly good Christian man who at heart is a puritanical fascist. Let us hope we never do.

great story, the recording needs to be edited

This story is great. Top notch sci-fi. This recording would benefit from having silence added at the end of the chapters before the next chapter begins. As it sits now, chapter announcements come up right at the end of the previous chapters final sentence, almost interrupting it. Definitely worth a listen though.

Thought provoking

Octavia Butler is a wonderful writer and thinker. The future is now. I will be recommending this book to younger people. I’d love to see what my grandchildren say about this book 25 years from now.

great read

fabulous story
I could have listened to more books -
definitely worth listening to