I didn't hate it. I thought it was really interesting. But I love Octavia Butler, so I may be biased.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.
Mal ,'Serenity'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Pix - Mar 06, 2009 7:36:43 pm PST #8548 of 28431
The status is NOT quo.
§ ita § - Mar 06, 2009 7:37:45 pm PST #8549 of 28431
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
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.
§ ita § - Mar 06, 2009 7:38:27 pm PST #8550 of 28431
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I adore Octavia Butler, FWIW. She's right up there with my all time favourites. I was so disappointed by this book.
Gris - Mar 07, 2009 1:13:00 pm PST #8551 of 28431
Hey. New board.
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.
§ ita § - Mar 07, 2009 1:31:29 pm PST #8552 of 28431
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
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.
Kat - Mar 07, 2009 2:00:13 pm PST #8553 of 28431
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
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.
§ ita § - Mar 07, 2009 2:07:41 pm PST #8554 of 28431
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
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.
Pix - Mar 07, 2009 3:28:52 pm PST #8555 of 28431
The status is NOT quo.
Oh yes, I adore Kindred. One of my favorite books, actually, and I agree much better than Fledgling.
flea - Mar 10, 2009 8:54:30 am PDT #8556 of 28431
information libertarian
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).
Hayden - Mar 10, 2009 8:59:31 am PDT #8557 of 28431
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
WJ Cash - The Mind of the South
VO Key - Southern Politics in State and Nation
C Vann Woodward - The Origins of the New South
C Vann Woodward - The Strange Career of Jim Crow