3.8
Fledgling Lib/E
Review Readers who believe that the science fiction genre boasts no quality literature need look no further than Butler for proof to the contrary...This is a much deeper and much more emotional story about what it means to be 'other.' Tracey Leigh turns in a performance worthy of the material, which is no small feat...Listeners follow the character while she figures out who and what she is, and they will not doubt the journey for a single moment.-- "AudioFile"It is hot! The vampires don't glitter, but it's a spectacular novel for people who like reading horror.-- "Time"It is somehow more eerie to hear a person narrate the impending doom in a horror story than it is to read the same words on a page...[as in this] novel about a girl who learns she is a vampire...Fledgling is a descendant of Dracula, to be sure, but it also deals with themes of race, family and belonging.-- "New York Times"A master storyteller, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature. -- "Washington Post"The first Octavia Butler novel I ever read was Fledgling, and it was a revelation...The highest praise I can give: Octavia Butler will astonish you.-- "Tor.com"Butler has created a new vampire paradigm-one that's more prone to sci-fi social commentary than gothic romance-and given a tired genre a much-needed shot in the arm.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Butler has a reputation as a master for good reason, and her narrative flows quickly and seamlessly along as Shori seeks those who would destroy her. Gripping and memorable, Butler's latest is a welcome return performance.-- "Booklist (starred review)"A finely crafted character study, a parable about race, and an exciting family saga. Exquisitely moving fiction.-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" Product Description Fledgling, the late Octavia E. Butler's final novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, fifty-three-year-old vampire.Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of otherness and questions what it means to be truly human. About the Author Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, one of very few African American women in the field. She won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and was the first science fiction writer ever to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius grant in 1995.Tracey Leigh is an audiobook narrator and actor with numerous theater, television, and radio credits.
Literature & FictionLiteraryScience Fiction & FantasyFantasyParanormal & UrbanScience Fiction
RELEASED2007
PUBLISHERBlackstone Publishing
LANGUAGEEN
An American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. [Comment by Tricia Sullivan, on The Guardian][1]: Octavia E Butler (1947–2006) > I was teaching in New York when I came across Octavia E Butler's Kindred in a secondary-school catalogue of novels recommended to support diversity. It caught my attention because Butler was described as a science-fiction writer. I thought I was familiar with science fiction, but I'd never heard of her – nor have a great many other readers, I suspect. For many years, Butler was the sole African-American woman novelist in science fiction. Kindred tells the wrenching and unforgettable story of a young black woman who time-travels and saves the life of her slaveholder ancestor, but it is, in Butler's words, "a grim fantasy", not science fiction. > Beginning in the 1970s, Butler wrote three sequences of novels: the Patternist books, the Lilith's Brood series and the Parable novels (incomplete at her tragic death in 2006). Critically respected, she won the Hugo and Nebula awards, received a Clarke nomination, the PEN lifetime achievement award and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. A serious writer working in a field that is seldom taken seriously, Butler addressed biological control, gender, humanity's relationship with aliens, genetics and even the development of a fictional religion. Her narratives leave space for the reader's involvement while exploring the nature of change. They gaze unflinchingly on power dynamics. "Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles," Butler stated, "and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together." Butler's writing is courageous, stimulating and infused with a rare purity of intention. Crushingly, she died at the height of her powers. [Bloodchild and Other Stories][2] is a good place to begin discovering her work. [1]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/14/science-fiction-authors-choice [2]: http://openlibrary.org/works/OL35621W/Bloodchild_and_other_stories
3.8
Fledgling Lib/E
Review Readers who believe that the science fiction genre boasts no quality literature need look no further than Butler for proof to the contrary...This is a much deeper and much more emotional story about what it means to be 'other.' Tracey Leigh turns in a performance worthy of the material, which is no small feat...Listeners follow the character while she figures out who and what she is, and they will not doubt the journey for a single moment.-- "AudioFile"It is hot! The vampires don't glitter, but it's a spectacular novel for people who like reading horror.-- "Time"It is somehow more eerie to hear a person narrate the impending doom in a horror story than it is to read the same words on a page...[as in this] novel about a girl who learns she is a vampire...Fledgling is a descendant of Dracula, to be sure, but it also deals with themes of race, family and belonging.-- "New York Times"A master storyteller, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature. -- "Washington Post"The first Octavia Butler novel I ever read was Fledgling, and it was a revelation...The highest praise I can give: Octavia Butler will astonish you.-- "Tor.com"Butler has created a new vampire paradigm-one that's more prone to sci-fi social commentary than gothic romance-and given a tired genre a much-needed shot in the arm.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Butler has a reputation as a master for good reason, and her narrative flows quickly and seamlessly along as Shori seeks those who would destroy her. Gripping and memorable, Butler's latest is a welcome return performance.-- "Booklist (starred review)"A finely crafted character study, a parable about race, and an exciting family saga. Exquisitely moving fiction.-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" Product Description Fledgling, the late Octavia E. Butler's final novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, fifty-three-year-old vampire.Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of otherness and questions what it means to be truly human. About the Author Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, one of very few African American women in the field. She won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and was the first science fiction writer ever to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius grant in 1995.Tracey Leigh is an audiobook narrator and actor with numerous theater, television, and radio credits.
Literature & FictionLiteraryScience Fiction & FantasyFantasyParanormal & UrbanScience Fiction
RELEASED2007
PUBLISHERBlackstone Publishing
LANGUAGEEN
An American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. [Comment by Tricia Sullivan, on The Guardian][1]: Octavia E Butler (1947–2006) > I was teaching in New York when I came across Octavia E Butler's Kindred in a secondary-school catalogue of novels recommended to support diversity. It caught my attention because Butler was described as a science-fiction writer. I thought I was familiar with science fiction, but I'd never heard of her – nor have a great many other readers, I suspect. For many years, Butler was the sole African-American woman novelist in science fiction. Kindred tells the wrenching and unforgettable story of a young black woman who time-travels and saves the life of her slaveholder ancestor, but it is, in Butler's words, "a grim fantasy", not science fiction. > Beginning in the 1970s, Butler wrote three sequences of novels: the Patternist books, the Lilith's Brood series and the Parable novels (incomplete at her tragic death in 2006). Critically respected, she won the Hugo and Nebula awards, received a Clarke nomination, the PEN lifetime achievement award and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. A serious writer working in a field that is seldom taken seriously, Butler addressed biological control, gender, humanity's relationship with aliens, genetics and even the development of a fictional religion. Her narratives leave space for the reader's involvement while exploring the nature of change. They gaze unflinchingly on power dynamics. "Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles," Butler stated, "and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together." Butler's writing is courageous, stimulating and infused with a rare purity of intention. Crushingly, she died at the height of her powers. [Bloodchild and Other Stories][2] is a good place to begin discovering her work. [1]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/14/science-fiction-authors-choice [2]: http://openlibrary.org/works/OL35621W/Bloodchild_and_other_stories
