One of my favorite books now and since I was a teenager, is her Wild Seed. The first time I read it, it was like a switch flipped in my head, like the author had a direct tap into my brain. What she wrote was what I wanted to read, to see, to explore, and for more than twenty years now, Dono and Anyanwu have lived within me. OEB was who I wanted to write like, growing up.

A truly painful book. ( )

I'm reading these out of order deliberately this time (so as to save my favorite, "Mind of My Mind", for last), and it's been several years since I've read this one, maybe as many as ten years. On a second, very fresh reading, it's quite beautiful -- the story of a man who's immortal because he can't help but kill, and a woman who's immortal because she heals herself and others. Though they're rivals and lovers and enemies, sometimes all at once, sometimes one at a time, they're each other's only peers, and that creates a bond that's written so well I can barely scratch the surface in a short review. It's companionship and frustration and love and commitment and anger and fear and rage, and so real that it outshines any love story I've ever read, even though sometimes you have so little sympathy for one of the characters that it's hard to believe you could ever forgive them. It's a great, great book. ( )

This is the first novel by Octavia Butler that I have read, and going by this work, I have been missing out on something special. This is an outstanding book, a true science fiction classic, and certainly one of the best books I've read in many many months.

Ms. Butler deftly weaves mythology with modern characterization in this tale of two people born with special powers that make them immortal. How both of them put these powers to use, and their attempts to influence each other provide the sparks to their love/hate relationship.

There is plenty of food for thought here, wisdom, emotional insight and dramatic tension, all woven together by some beautiful prose. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/100501.htm...

Very thought-provoking but a quick read. Two immortals with super-powers, one male, one female, meet and develop in the context of the slave trade between Africa and America in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. ( )