Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · 1993
Set in a 2024 California of drought, fire, corporate feudalism, and crumbling gated communities. Lauren Olamina, a young Black woman with hyperempathy, founds a new religion called Earthseed and leads a walking exodus north. Butler's accuracy is disturbing.
The case against
Lauren is a teenager whose homemade scripture is never once wrong, and the novel believes her every word: for a book about the danger of easy belief, it never doubts its prophet. The Earthseed verses read to unconverted eyes like fortune cookies with ambitions, and the road north is paced at one atrocity per mile marker. But the story opens in 2024, and that year arrived roughly as scheduled. Prophecy forgives a lot.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
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