Another amazing dip into the world Octavia Butler built, I will say I do wish it followed the characters from the first book more or filled us in more fully on what happened between the books. However you easily fell in love with the new characters and where you a dropped into the story again. 

Octavia E Butler doesn't write books that should be read all at once. In my experience, they're much better when you take time to digest each section. This is to her credit because she has this unique way of mirroring humanity back to the reader. This book follows Akin, the first human-born male construct (human/alien hybrid). It follows him as he grows up in this role. How do others treat him because of these things he has no control over? How can he find his place in the world while facing this contradiction within him? It also has an interesting commentary on consent vs coercion and is allowing people to live always a mercy, or can it be a cruelty. There are so many themes that are explored and I love it. I would recommend all of her books that I've read, this one included.

I just want to talk about how horrible all parties are to Akin. The resister humans kidnap him and are often very abusive towards him. But it's revealed that the aliens left him with the humans for a prolonged period on purpose. This caused great pain for both him and his sibling. This thing that is so crucial to his development and life as an alien was stolen from him by both parties. I would even argue that the aliens are more to blame because they fully understood what they were doing to him and how it would affect him, whereas the humans couldn't fully understand. They used him as an experimental rat without a care for his well-being. I think all of it was cruel. That's one thing that irks me about the aliens. They are so calculated, clinical and logical. Sure, they can feel emotions. But they lean much farther towards the calculated, logical side than humans normally would. This comes with positives, like being about to do things with their bodies and advance themselves. But it also comes with the negatives of being unable to really relate to the other species they encounter (such as humans). Maybe the third book will introduce the aliens as having their own contradiction.

After I finished, there was a passage I kept coming back to read. Akin is advocating for the humans to have Mars. An older alien (I forget what it was called) basically told him that they would let him do what he believes is right, but that it is a cruelty. Akin protests, but is forced to acknowledge that it likely is a cruelty. Yet he still holds out hope for the possibility that the humans will be able to overcome their contradiction.

Octavia Butler's second in the Xeongenesis/Lilith's Brood series does not disappoint. The series itself, about humanity's last hope for survival is to join with the alien species that rescues it, continues to show humanity at its best and worst. Great sci-fi/speculative fiction uses the genre to explore modern issues.  Here Butler succeeds.  What's even better, she doesn't choose sides. Well, not really. People who resist the aliens and those who join them are both shown in as compassionate a way as possible. We are merely spectators in their struggle. We don't get to decide, we get to watch. 

The people she gives compassion to are people I wouldn't think deserve it. As the resistors continue to live long lives, they increasingly become violent against each other and the aliens, kidnapping their children, other resistor villages' women and supplies. The story follows Akin, Lilith's human born son, as he tries to find a solution for them. These people aren't painted as monsters for the most part. Some are, but the majority of the people who want to stay human and be human and do cruel things are given more layers and are more complex than I expected. 

Overall, the writing is wonderful. It flows and makes sense. Whether we can see what happens coming or not, it's fun to live in the prose. What's hard is the view that having children is what keeps humans going and give them purpose. Like I get it, but it would have been interesting to see some of the resistor villages explore creativity, plays, music, etc. Would that have changed? If humans who resist the alien assistance aren't able to reproduce, what life would people make? What would society be without kids, in general? Are humans designed to self-destruct? 

All great things here to explore. Other topics for future justin to think about: Gender spectrum with the Oankali; polyamorous relationships only in the construct/alien culture; Does it matter that some form of humanity would continue? How would queer people fair in this world? 

Looking forward to finishing this series and seeing where Ms. Butler takes it.