Parable of the Sower

by Octavia E Butler | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by oofiri of Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on 12/12/2007
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5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by oofiri from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Wednesday, December 12, 2007
First volume of the story of Lauren Olamina, a young woman in very disturbed times. I kind of liked even the new religion she comes up with ("God is Change"), and that really is saying a lot.

Can't remember where I found this copy, but picked it up to be released together with the sequel Parable of the Talents, which I got from harmaja.

Journal Entry 2 by oofiri from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Wednesday, January 2, 2008
kirja harmajalla?

Journal Entry 3 by harmaja from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, January 3, 2008
Joo, kirja on minulla! Hassua, aloin lukea sitä juuri eilen ja sain luettua loppuun tänään. Kirjassa ei ollut BCID-numeroa, ja vaikka olin kysynyt BCID:n erikseen sähköpostilla, en sitten ollutkaan itse muistanut kirjoittaa sitä kirjaan! Niin, ja en ollut muistanut edes tehdä journal entryä numeron saatuani. Nyt löysin sähköpostin ja muistin kirjata numeron näkyville.

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Parable of the Sower was a depressing tale of disintegration and chaos. This is exactly the way I picture our future. Hell, this is how present looks in some places.

A gloomy read, and yet somehow inspiring. I also liked Earthseed. Now I'm curious about the sequel, Parable of the Talents. It's a good thing I have it at hand, although it might take me a while to get to it.

I was planning to release the two books together at some point. Now my own plans for life are a bit jumbled, and I'm not sure if I have the time to read Parable of the Talents any time soon. I'm thinking I should just release Parable of the Sower alone, instead of holding on to it for an undetermined lenght of time. I hope that's OK with oofiri.

Journal Entry 4 by harmaja from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, March 20, 2008
I'm passing Parable of the Sower on to Jaakko196, who wishes to read it. It is book #4 in my 2008 Keep Them Moving challenge, hosted by guinaveve.

Journal Entry 5 by VariC from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Thursday, March 27, 2008
Got this from harmaja today. Thanks!

Journal Entry 6 by VariC from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Interesting, a post-apocalyptic novel where the apocalypse isn't a complete collapse but a more gradual decay. Pretty believable too, with the development toward gated communities, privatization, and the changing of the police force.

Earthseed as a religion didn't really impress me that much. The central tenets are fine, but there seems to be too little substance to it, as Bankole notes. Might be that it's meant to be a more “primitive” religion than the current major ones? Apparently the sequel is about developing the religion, and I would definitely be interested in reading that. It is hard to see how Lauren could keep her religion together if it began to expand. Parallel to Islam, perhaps?

The characterization I liked a lot. Lauren in particular is very well developed. She has more insight than most people around her, but it's clear that in the beginning she is still too immature to understand completely how the world works. Her father, while a clear opposing force, is portrayed very well, as more knowledgeable but somewhat set in his ways, not at all as a typical antagonist.

Much of the story is about survival and how you need to trust people to survive. Society, even now but more so in the story, is a bit too geared to sowing distrust, making it difficult to establish trust when the usual patterns break down. Lauren seems to be making the right choices, but some of them have potential problems, and maybe in the sequel those would develop too. Though, what would the moral then be? Be right to distrust strangers, for they will betray you? This book feels more optimistic than that.

Journal Entry 7 by CandyDarling from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Got the book from VariC today, thank you for fulfilling my wish! I LOVED Kindred, and I'm now trying to read all of Butler's novels. :) This will also count in my 50 Books by Writers of Color Challenge.

Journal Entry 8 by CandyDarling at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Parable of the Sower was a difficult read, as I had to stop frequently when the story just got to be too much for me. The book is set some 5 years in the future from now (at the time Butler wrote the book, it was still 30 years in the future), in a time where climate change has rendered California so dry that people are fleeing by foot to Oregon, Washington and Canada, and the borders between states are closed. Those who live in California are either living in fenced, tightly guarded communities, or outside on the streets where life is extremely dangerous. The protagonist, Lauren, is living in a community with her family, but their way of life is constantly under attack.

Butler is a good writer, and Parable of the Sower is a good book, but I cannot recommed it lightly as it gave me nightmares and a terrible anxiety. I read the book in October 2016, and for a long time I could not talk about the book without starting to cry. Now that some time has passed and the book is no longer so fresh in my mind, I can finally write this review, and pass the book on to some hopefully more thick skinned readers.

Journal Entry 9 by CandyDarling at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, April 26, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (4/26/2018 UTC) at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this in the mail to Kemppu, enjoy!

Journal Entry 10 by Kemppu at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Friday, April 27, 2018
Here it is! Thank you very much!

Journal Entry 11 by Kemppu at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Saturday, June 15, 2019
This book was scarily accurate in its vision of the future. The book's future is not far away now, and what happens in the book, already happens in real life in various places - or at least could very well happen.
The Earthseed religion didn't interest me much. I liked Lauren and her group's journey and the ways of surviving the most.

Released 4 yrs ago (7/6/2019 UTC) at Yliopisto/University in Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

In the L building of the university during Finncon sometime on Saturday.

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