While there are many courses and tutorials online, learning from a book is still one of the best ways to greatly improve your skills. Below I have selected top Octavia Butler books.
- Kindred (2004)
- Bloodchild and Other Stories (2005)
- Parable of the Sower (2019)
- Dawn (Xenogenesis, Bk. 1) (1997)
- Fledgling (2007)
- Wild Seed (2001)
- Lilith’s Brood (2000)
- Seed to Harvest (2007)
- Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, Book Two) (1997)
- Parable of the Talents: A Nebula Award-winning novel of a terrifying dystopian future (2019)
Kindred (2004)
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him.
Bloodchild and Other Stories (2005)
A perfect introduction for new readers and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes “Bloodchild,” winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and “Speech Sounds,” winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in print for the first time, “Amnesty” is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders.
Parable of the Sower (2019)
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy.
Dawn (Xenogenesis, Bk. 1) (1997)
Lilith lyapo awoke from a centuries-long sleep to find herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. Creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased strength, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to Earth–but for a price.
Fledgling (2007)
This 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, 53-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.
Wild Seed (2001)
Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex — or design. He fears no one — until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kissand savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one — until she meets Doro. From African jungles to the colonies of America, Doro and Anyanwu weave together a pattern of destiny that not even immortals can imagine.
Lilith’s Brood (2000)
Presented for the first time in one volume with an introduction by Joan Slonczewski, Ph.D., LILITH’S BROOD is a profoundly evocative, sensual — and disturbing — epic of human transformation.Lilith Iyapo is in the Andes, mourning the death of her family, when war destroys Earth. Centuries later, she is resurrected — by miraculously powerful unearthly beings, the Oankali.
Seed to Harvest (2007)
In the late seventeenth century, two immortals meet in an African forest. Anyanwu is a healer, a three-hundred-year-old woman who uses her wisdom to help those around her. The other is Doro, a malevolent despot who has mastered the power of stealing the bodies of others when his wears out. Together they will change the world. Over the next three centuries, Doro mounts a colossal selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race of telepaths.
Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, Book Two) (1997)
Told in the haunting voice of Lilith, the heroine of “Dawn”, this book is thestory of Lilith’s only son, Akin. Though he resembles a normal human, Akin isthe first “construct”–part man/part alien.
Parable of the Talents: A Nebula Award-winning novel of a terrifying dystopian future (2019)
In order for me to understand who I am, I must begin to understand who she was. Asha was born into a broken world. There are many things she needs to know: how her country could embrace a violent, far-right President promising to make America great again, why they turned a blind eye to the suffering – and the truth about her mother.
Best Octavia Butler Books Worth Your Attention
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some octavia butler books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler
Author(s): Ibi Zoboi
ID: 3611179, Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group, Year: 2022, Size: 17 Mb, Format: epub
God is Change: Religious Practices and Ideologies in the Works of Octavia Butler
Author(s): Aparajita Nanda, Shelby Crosby
ID: 3181165, Publisher: Temple University Press, Year: 2021, Size: 5 Mb, Format: pdf
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler
Author(s): Gregory J. Hampton; Kendra R. Parker
ID: 2847407, Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, Year: 2020, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are really hot items according to The New York Times, others are composed by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant links you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.