Parable of the Sower

Series: Earthseed, Book 1

By: Octavia E. Butler / Narrated By: Lynne Thigpen

Length: 12 hrs

Hope amongst the stuff that will give you nightmares

As I’ve been an audiobook addict for aaaaages, I’ve managed to collect quite a bit of Octavia Butler’s works for my Library.

But I’m soooo ashamed to say that it wasn’t until my Mom requested it for her Birthday Listens that I got around to diving into anything I have of hers.

PHEW!!! What an intro to a woman whose writing shall be missed (esPECially as she died before the third in this Earthseed Trilogy could be finished)! And that it begins in 2024 makes me wonder just how prescient and/or disconsolate Butler was about the fate of our country.

Lauren Olamina is our young heroine, and she lives in a world devastated by climate catastrophes and poverty (Wellll… an inequality of wealth is definitely there… sound familiar…?). Her family lives with other families, a close knit community that is protected from the great out there by only a wall. On the other side of the wall, chaos reigns. A lone woman can expect only to be raped multiple times by multiple people, then she’ll be murdered, her body left to rot. Indeed, Lauren has seen many, many bodies, in varying states of decomposition. And though her father, a minister, preaches that all will be well within the walls, Lauren isn’t buying it.

And she’s not buying his version of God either. From what Lauren can see, the world is driven by change; Change is God. Thus, she begins living her life based upon her own belief system, which she comes to call Earthseed. She believes people shape God, and they should come together as a community to worship, not an outer image of some God, but an inner creation based upon how they live their lives. Plus, she believes that Earthseed’s ultimate goal would be to travel to outer space, spreading wisdom, living life peacefully, seeking to sow abundance.

But it’s a hard, hard, HARD world she lives in, and after a horrifying tragedy, Lauren has to get going because the walls have been destroyed, all she loves have been slaughtered, and she must take her survival pack and leave. Two friends who also survived join her and, as one of them is white, she thinks that he can be sent out with less danger; it’s not safe to be a woman? Good gosh, it’s TOTALLY not safe to be a black woman, especially young as she is.

The story kinda goes at a slow and steady pace, with spots of violent action thrown in just to give you nightmares, but I never felt bored or that it was plodding. Each chapter begins with Lauren’s musings which have become the doctrine of Earthseed and are contained within (And when you listen to them, you’ll be able to see why there have been actual communities that have taken to patterning themselves after Earthseed). These musings are the things that Lauren comes to sort of preach as people come to join the original threesome; some are definite followers and seekers of the way. Others? Not so much, so there’s some antagonism and tension that runs through the latter part of the book.

At first I thought Lynne Thigpen sounded too old to carry off the life of a young girl, but boy did that view change quickly. Thigpen’s voice became perfect after the first decomposing corpses, after the first all-consuming scorching fires. One comes to see that Lauren is an oooooold soul; she’s seen much, has survived much; she’s wise beyond her years. Adding to Thigpen’s suitability for Lauren is the fact that her voice is low and careful, mastering the male voices as well as the females (No easy feat, I tell you!). How she managed to combine a sense of spirituality even while she was conveying great carnage and violence is amazing. Excellent performance!

So here I am, all dazzled by Parable of the Sower, all Wanting to Hear What’s Next? But I dunno if I wanna jump into the second book, Parable of the Talents, knowing that the third, the tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, will never be. This book ends on a kinda sorta cliffhanger, but without a third book for the trilogy, well, talk about a REAL cliffhanger!

But no matter, this audiobook has me with a hankering to get at the books Ms. Butler did have a chance to finish.

Thank GOSH she was prolific. And Rest In Peace, you sower of seeds, you weaver of dreams… and of nightmares… What a great way to get chills…!