Octavia Butler?

HATED IT.

Same here. And yes, clumsy and uncomfortable is a very good description of it.

I didn't hate it. I thought it was really interesting. But I love Octavia Butler, so I may be biased.

I found what I wrote right after I read it:

Weak. So disappointing. I love Octavia Butler's work, and waited as long as possible before starting this one because I knew it was her last.

I shouldn't have rushed. OB's characteristic is power without glamour, of painful compromises that verge on change/accept or perish.

I bought the alliances of her humans with aliens, for instance, and felt the regret of what the humans did to survive even while they were granted power previously impossible.

But the interactions in Fledgling just read like GHB to me. No matter how many times it was stated, it was all about addiction. That's subject matter I'd enjoy reading OB's take on, but here it wasn't portrayed with tension, just excused and glamourised.

I didn't like anyone in the book, care about their travails or dilemmas, or want to know more about them.

And let's not even start in on the shoddy proofing. Spellchecking isn't enough, people.

I adore Octavia Butler, FWIW. She's right up there with my all time favourites. I was so disappointed by this book.

I kind of liked it. I don't really remember it that well, though, so it didn't leave much of an impression I guess.

I feel like my comments on it are somewhere in this thread, actually.

You made me go back and look, and it seems I have bitched about it before. I do hope Nicole checked out other OEB, because I think it's easily the weakest of her work.

I have been pushing Kindred lately, which I love. And I have kids who are into vampires, so I thought I might try to sell Fledgling too.

My mother used to want me to stop reading SF&F, and tossed Kindred to me in that cause. She should have checked the rest of Butler's oeuvre beforehand...

My sister who only consumes SF&F because of me liked Kindred on its own terms. I thought it was a wonderful book. Thought-provoking and powerful.

Oh yes, I adore Kindred. One of my favorite books, actually, and I agree much better than Fledgling.

I am doing a project called Understanding The American South. Recommend books to me that speak to this topic - history, culture, cooking, whatever. (Nonfiction preferred, though - I am not much of a fiction reader).