Parable of the Talents
Version 1.0.0
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
American release date: August 20, 2019
Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Dystopian Fiction/448 pages
Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★
Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes
Five years have passed since the establishment of the Earthseed community known as Acorn. Although off the beaten path, the residents are still unhappily aware of what is happening in the rest of the world, including the Dovetree massacre which took place too close to home for comfort. A disturbing new player on the political scene is the senator from Texas, Andrew Jarret, who is a throwback to an earlier time and does not like current times or religious tolerance Olamina knows this man will be a nightmare if he ever steps into the national political arena.
Despite everything, Acorn is thriving, and the community is becoming stronger, acquiring new vital equipment, such as a truck, as well as new members, their numbers swelling. Olamina’s husband, Bankole, who is 57 to her 18, is a physician, a skill much in demand. He wants to move to a larger, more established town where they will be safer, especially once Olamina learns she is with child. But she refuses to leave Acorn, and he won’t go without her.
Olamina is shocked to learn one of her brothers is alive and begins to search for him. She is able to find him, and he is not doing well. She buys him from the slaver who has him and takes him back to Acorn. Eventually she learns the story of what happened the day their lives fell apart. But he has changed—he doesn’t care for Earthseed… and he has his own Destiny.
Things go from bad to worse when Jarrett is elected President. What was once a bad dream becomes a true nightmare in every sense of the word. Jarrett’s Crusaders are fanatics who are determined to stamp out the unholy – aka those who don’t agree with Jarrett’s vision. Olamina knows of the collars, and how people are controlled through their use. But she learns firsthand how they work when Acorn is raided by those who stand for Christian America, and the people of Acorn are sent to a re-education camp. But it’s really a prison, and they are all cruelly collared, a distinct form of torture. The children are separated from the adults and sent to places unknown, including Olamina’s baby Larkin. Some people die. And life just got incredibly difficult.
Parable of the Talents is the sequel to Parable of the Sower, in which Olamina’s tale continues. In this book, for the first time we get to hear other voices, including those of Larkin, Bankole, and Marcos. It is an eerily timed vision of some of the things that are happening in America today. I’ll be honest and say I almost gave up reading halfway through the book. I felt triggered for reasons I won’t go into. I think it’s safe to say this is not an easy read. And honestly, the more I read, the more I came to dislike Olamina and Earthseed. There are no heroes here, I think everyone sucks.
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