Bloodchild

Wow, this was amazing. And rough - really emotionally hard, because she is so good at evoking empathy in morally gray situations. Scratch that - Butler is so good at taking situations we tend to think of as morally black and white and evoking empathy to force the reader into the uncomfortable position of realizing their grayness.

I thought “Bloodchild” was a magnificent story, I was touched and shocked and completely drawn in to “Speech Sounds.” But by the time I was partway through “Amnesty,” I had to take a break to collect myself. It's a very brutal story - and I say that with admiration. Incredibly inventive and skillful, just dealing with harrowing subject matter.

I'm glad I forged on and finished though! It's easy to see how Butler became a preeminent name in science fiction - she has an astonishing ability to imagine novel situations and poignantly explore the real human issues they give rise to.

I've only read another book by Octavia Butler (Kindred), and that was the graphic novel adaptation. Now I'm angry at myself for not picking up this book first. Butler was a genius. She truly was. Her stories show such great mastery of the craft of writing. She was one of a kind, and truly deserves more recognition. If this collection of short stories is just a tiny piece of her work, I'm quite sure her novels will be even more fantastic!

What the ** did I just read!? ... was how I felt after reading Bloodchild. It was so unexpectedly creepy and weird. I immediately went back and read it again—and it was even better the 2nd time.

I enjoyed all of the other stories too, particularly The Evening And The Morning And The Night, and Speech Sounds.

The 2 essays are amazing!! Positive Obsession was great for understanding Octavia's background. Furor Scribendi is wonderfully inspiring. Such fantastic advice not just for writers but anyone on how to approach work with passion and consistency.

I'm very disappointed in myself that it took me till this late in my life to discover Octavia Butler. This collection of short stories was just as captivating as the Xenogenesis trilogy which I so adored. Of them, the title story and “Amnesty” were probably my favorites. Both deal with similar themes as Xenogenesis: the ways in which human beings might coexist with alien life forms. In both stories, there are prices to be paid, some of which really are horrific. Butler focuses on humanity's ability to adapt and creates unique hypotheses on what alien life forms might find valuable. I particularly adore the image of alien life forms watching figure skating. Daisuke Takahashi could indeed be a force for intergalactic peace.

Also included are two of Butler's essays on writing and her own personal heritage. These are must-reads for anyone who believes writers are born and not made as well as anyone who questions the “value” of science fiction and fantasy literature. I hadn't really realized what a gateway Butler opened for writers of speculative fiction with her work and how few writers of color there were in the field as late as the 1980s. In her nonfiction prose, she is just as eloquent and candid as her fictional characters.

The only story I didn't really enjoy was “Near of Kin.” While it's interesting to see Butler explore a straight-up fiction story and her writing style still makes it enjoyable to read, the subject matter is just not something I'm particularly comfortable reading. I get enough sympathetic incest stories in my Japanese manga.

Science fiction fans, especially people who love a unique alien contact story should absolutely pick up this collection.

An interesting analyze on the life of other human beings put in the utmost disgusting position of hosting alien larvae. Even more so for the fact that in this story men are put in this position. When I read the afterword for this little story and I got to understand what motivated Octavia to write such story and find out that she, as I, write her problems and issues in different forms in other to come to term with them was amazing. It made me connect with her.
I recommend this to anyone who wouldn't be sick to read about people being cut open.

Short review: I am not particularly a fan of short stories. They just don't have enough for my taste. I want more development of characters and plot. Short stories start ideas but never finish them.

I probably wouldn't have picked this up except for two things. One it is free to stream if you are am amazon prime member or if you are an audible member. Easiest method is to download the audible app, go to channels (their podcast equivalent) and choose Audiobook collection. There are a couple dozen free audiobooks that you can stream there. Several of them are classics, but most of them are not. I have read about six of the available ones to stream.

But the second reason I picked it up is that I have two novels and one more short story collection and then I can say I have read all of the books that Octavia Butler published.

That being said, I liked this more than most short story collections because Butler has comments on each one. She gave context to the short story. Told us what she was trying to do, why she tried to write it, what experiment this story was trying to accomplish. That context gave me an understanding of purpose and that ‘more' that I am always looking for from short stories.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/bloodchild/ but it isn't really anything that I haven't already said here.

Absolutely flawless storytelling, so well put and with perfect pacing. These were gorgeous rich stories while still moving quickly enough. I love Butler's masterful ability to drop the reader into a world and allow them to understand it without extensive world building or exposition. Truly remarkable, possibly the best short story collection I've read.