#845 Crossover- Octavia Butler

#845 Crossover- Octavia Butler

The bad part of town in this factory town has some odd characters, scary, dirty, and pretty much out for themselves. But even through hard living, tough girls need love too. Jane has lived by herself for the last 90 days. Her shifts at the plant go on, with her being twice as productive as anyone else. Her headaches have gone away too. But that all about to change. Some problems you juts can’t shake.

“What am I that I could need you anyway…She wished she had said the words to him but it didn’t matter. It was just another of the things she didn’t have the courage to do. Like accepting the loneliness or dying or…”

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total= 28

#816 Speech Sounds- Octavia Butler

#816 Speech Sounds- Octavia Butler

The world has been stricken with a man-made virus, a disease that acts like a stroke on the mind and body. “The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most.”

So now the world that is left is without speech. In a post disaster L.A., Rye is trying to catch a bus twenty miles to Pasadena. Transportation doesn’t come by that often and can be very dangerous. As she expected, on the  bus a violent fight broke out. Because of the disease it was hard to communicate or understand what this argument was about.

“She had heard so little coherent human speech for the past three years, she was no longer certain how well she recognized it, no longer certain of the degree of her own impairment.”

“Loss of verbal language had spawned a whole new set of obscene gestures.” Of course!

The bus empties out with Rye afraid of a gunfight. Along comes a former cop still fulfilling his duty. He takes Rye with him and she allows for a rare relaxing of her defenses. They connect, but her bliss is short-lived as they come upon more trouble and he is killed. In the end, at the moment of her greatest despair, she finds hope in the future.

There is definitely more than a little Mad Max in here. In the afterward, Butler writes: “I began the story feeling little hope of liking for the human species, but by the time I reached the end of it, my hope had come back.”

Rating: 7-7-8-7= 29

#788 Near of Kin- Octavia Butler

#788 Near of Kin- Octavia Butler 

A young woman deals with the death of her mother. She was given up by her mother immediately and raised by her grandmother. While her mother was sometimes around, she was not involved nor close saying that she was unfit to be a mother. 

“I believed what I said before—that she had wanted a child to prove she was woman enough to have one. Once she had the proof, she went on to other things."

The girls uncle was her closest relative and now helps her sort through her mother’s belongings and her own feelings of resentment and hurt. She finally confronts the truth she has unraveled about who her father really is. Butler calls this story a “Sympathetic story about incest.” That it is for good and bad.

Rating: 7-8-7-6 Total= 28

#760 The Evening and the Morning and the Night- Octavia Butler

#760 The Evening and the Morning and the Night- Octavia Butler

A portion of society is stricken with Duryea-Gode Disease, a genetically transferred condition that devolves into animalistic violence and cannibalism. It is supposed to be a cross between Huntington’s Disease, Phenylketonuria disorder and Lesch-Nyhan disease, but sounds to me like it turns people into flesh eating zombies.

The people that have the gene are aware of it and know that as some point they will “drift” into a spiral ending in murder, self destruction or imprisonment in centers designed to house them. It’s a horrible death sentence that causes those with the gene to commit suicide, or at the very least not have children to pass it along. But human nature as it is, some still have children.

Lynn and Alan live in an apartment together with 4 other DGDers. They find comfort in each other. Eventually they decide to visit Alan’s mother who is in a high end facility for those who have already drifted. What they find there is both a revelation and somewhat hard to handle. The decisions they will have to make about their future gets more and more complicated.

Notable Passage: “If you work hard enough at something that doesn’t matter, you can forget for a while the things that do.”

Rating: 7-8-7-7 Total= 29

#736 In Spite of Darkness- Alixa Garcia

#736 In Spite of Darkness- Alixa Garcia

The Suns have been quieted and the land has fallen into darkness. The humans have lived without solar warmth for eight years. Luminescent beings called Sol gatherers hide from them afraid they will be stolen and disappear forever.

 “The Sol Gatherers were effected by mood—fear and love being the strongest emotions that could make their firelike skin radiate.”

Mikra, born on the first day of the war and at the beginning of the current darkness is a mixture of Sol Gatherer and Pattern Keeper. For generations the Sol Gatherers had flown together to different dimensions in search of suns and returned to share their magnificence. This time, however they have not returned and the child gatherers are without teachers and the lineage is in danger of being broken.

This could be a morality play about human disrespect and destruction of the planet, or it could be a parable about forgotten culture. Either way it’s a powerful story about hope and perseverance in the face of utter darkness.

Notable Passage: “…and like any movement toward an unfolding future, so thundered down the unknown hand of destiny.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#733 Blood Child- Octavia Butler

#733 Blood Child- Octavia Butler

In this reality a group of humans fled earth as refugees and now live on another planet with superior beings. They are large slug-like creatures that, after seeing the violence in human nature, keep them in preservations. They allow humans and themselves to live together as host families. “Host” also being literal as they are used to incubate their young. When old enough, they are implanted with baby slugs.

“They don’t take woman” he said with contempt

“They do sometimes.” I glanced at him. “Actually, they prefer woman.

You should be around when they talk among themselves.. They say woman have more body fat to protect the grubs. But they usually take men to leave

The woman free to bear their own young.”

“To provide the next generation of host animals,” he said, switching

from contempt to bitterness.

In the family we see, Gan has just become implantation age and is chosen by his host slug for the job. There is a theme of subservience, with most humans living off the eggs of slugs that keeps them in a dreamlike trance and also helps them live longer. That theme turns into one of choice and free will as Gan has second thoughts about the situation.

There is a lot packed into this story. In the preface to this collection Butler, talks about her struggle with the short story:

“The truth is I hate short story writing. Trying to do it has taught me much more about frustration and despair than I ever wanted—yet there is something seductive about writing short stories. It looks so easy. You come up with an idea, then ten, twenty, perhaps thirty pages later, you’ve got a finished story.”

For the most part, I have had some trouble with stories that pack in so much, with stories that could and should be turned into longer pieces. However, this story I like both at this length, and could also see it expanded to a larger format. Perhaps it’s the genre. It’s more about the conceptual situation you’d want to hear more about than the characters themselves. Either way, good start to this book. 

Rating: 8-8-8-8- Total= 32

#708 Small and Bright- Autumn Brown

#708 Small and Bright- Autumn Brown

Like most readers, I love language. Used as mere communication, it becomes utilitarian and replaceable. Used as art, it can inspire, excite, uplift. I am thankful to the authors of the Octavia’s Brood socially conscious sci-fi collection. Nowhere else have I found consistent respect for the power of words. I offer as example, the wonderful opening of Autumn Brown’s story:

“I dream again that I am lost again in the tunnels of our cities. The fire extinguished, but still a cool blue glow lights my way. The faster I run, the higher I ascend in the city toward the surface, and the light becomes brighter and burns my skin. I fill with knowing, knowing the place where I am going. More and more light fills each room. My skin burns and then becomes darker somehow. And then I am there at the door in the surface, and if I climb through, death and freedom await me. I stand there looking up. Up.”

A prisoner awakes from a subterranean cell and gets ready to surface for her punishment. This community under the earth is called “The people who are buried.” Nobody who has surfaced has ever returned. She will be separated from her family, her child, and most probably her life. Surfacing into exile is her punishment.

Before surfacing her mother tells her about blasphemous rumors of survivors still on the surface. They are people that stayed above during earth demise. They are thought to have not lost their color. In this rumor her mother instills hope—hope for her daughter’s life, and hope for the human race. 

“My people have never seen the stars. But we sing of them as though they are the last thing we see before sleeping, and the first thing upon waking.”

She is lifted to the unknown, into a world once belonging to all humans. Is there anything left? Can she survive? Can she return to help the people that have exiled her? Can her sins be redeemed?

Notable Passage: “Tears start streaming from my eyes before I even realize I am on the verge of crying. Something inside of me begins to collapse, and I claw for the edge of my sanity.”

Rating: 9-9-8-8 Total= 34

#673 The Long Memory- Morrigan Phillips

#673 The Long Memory- Morrigan Phillips

Imagine a society where decisions cannot be made unless the holders of history and memory do not approve. The shortsightedness and culture-deaf nature of modern politics would not exist. Now imagine exactly who would try to fight against this system, who would want to shield the masses from remembering.

“It was a part of the identity of the Archipelago that the record of the past should guide the governance of the present and the building of the future.”

The archipelago has a group of Memorials who hold onto long-memory. They are able to tap into the past and remember the stories of the people. They act as clerics, memory as a religion. “It was the exploration of the past, not merely the facts of history but the stories of the past, that made the Memorials so important.”

This system is under attack from a powerful merchant who wants to take over the oldest and most profitable land. To do this he has captured the Memorials and is trying to control history. There is one tool left for the Memorials, to unbind these memories and give them back to all the people. Those who remember the past, will protect the future.

Notable Passage: “Memories are supposed to be shared. It is what gives them power.”

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#645 Black Angel- Walidah Imarisha

#645 Black Angel- Walidah Imarisha

This is another great selection from Octavia’s Brood. A. is a fallen angel, sent to earth as punishment for questioning God letting genocide occur. She has been left with only one wing and she walks the streets of Harlem rarely getting involved in the world around her. She is afraid of more pain, the pain of helping, of associating with a race with so much anger.

“One of the many reasons she avoided interacting with humans when at all possible. She’d already suffered enough pain for them.”

She cant always ignore the violence around her however. She came across a Palestinian man being nearly beaten to death and she intervened. Tamee was the man she saved, and in doing so she used her powerful “voice” that helped rid the perpetrators of their anger and will to so evil. Not wanting to represent the angel that she used to be, she was cold and brusque toward Tamee. That made her all the more real.

“Tamee was taken back by her callousness. She didn’t sound mush like an angel. For one thing, he had not imagined that an angel would curse. He thought there would be more love and compassion. She wasn’t really at all how he imagined an angel. She was a million times better.”

This scene set about a realization in her that maybe she should get involved. Her responsibility was to help. She was in fact an Angel of Mercy, but she could also be an Angel of Vengeance. The world doesn’t need angels it needs courage and strength. If you can help, it is your responsibility to do so.

“A. had seen so many horrific scenes since she had been cast out, so mush violence and hatred and ugliness. She had almost forgotten what else she saw when she gazed down from Heaven; self-sacrifice, immense acts of love. Bravery beyond words.” 

Notable Passage: "The only way I’m like Lucifer is we were both cast out. Him into hell. Me into Harlem…same difference.”

Rating: 7-8-8-8 Total= 31

#582 The River- adrienne maree brown

#582 The River- adrienne maree brown

Like her name above, the story is written with no capital letters. It’s an interesting decision; I guess in a book put together and published by an anarchist collective, even the writing is non-hierarchical. It’s a fine idea. It didn’t really change the way I read the story and I’m not sure I understand the choice entirely. To keep names and other “proper nouns” un-capitalized I understand, but as a sentence starter, I’m not sure I quite get it. No matter, I will continue to think about it, and at least it’s interesting.

The story is about a boat captain in a Detroit ravaged by economic and environmental disaster. The river is toxic and unstable but it is still the heart of the city.

“man detroit is in that river. the whole river and the parts of the river. certain parts, it’s like a ancestral burying ground. it’s like a holy vortex of energy.”

As the city struggles, the class divide has never been more obvious:

“the few people with jobs sat in icy offices watching the world waver outside. people without jobs survived in a variety of ways that all felt like punishment in the heat.”

Outsiders have come in to “help” the city. That means an appointed white mayor from New York, hipsters, opportunists, all the key folks needed for gentrification. Old industry is destroyed and the city is now the leading processor of solid waste—how appropriate. Then, the river literally fights back. There has been a rash of deaths in and around the water this summer. Because of the demographic diversity of the victims they are slow to realize that only “outsiders” have been taken. Help or not, they don’t belong, and although it might not be the way that she would have done it—for the city—it had to be done.

Notable Passage: “hipsters and entrepreneurs were complicated locusts. they ate up everything in sight, but they meant well.”

Rating: 7-9-8-7 Total= 31

#526 Revolution Shuffle- Bao Phi

#526 Revolution Shuffle- Bao Phi

“Whenever we try to envision a world without war, without violence, without prisons, without capitalism, we are engaging in speculative fiction. All organizing is science fiction.”

This comes from the introduction to the collection Octoavia’s Brood. It’s a book of social justice science fiction put together in honor of the great Octavia Butler. What they call Visionary Fiction, this looks to be quite a unique literary experience, like Butler herself.

We are five months into a distopic wartime reality. Seventy-percent of the country has turned to zombies and the Asian and Middle-eastern populations were in internment camp “for their own protection.” They were working on giant machinery that would attract the zombies away from the other populations. Guards were there to keep order: “Zombies. Brown people. On any given day, the armed guards were prepared to shoot either.”

Two armed rebels were overlooking the prison camp ready to try to liberate their people. They know that most won't want to come, and even if they did they’d have no safe place to go. But they have to try.

“They strode down the hill together, rifles in hand, straight for the prison camp. Toward a war that just might turn into something like a revolution.”

Notable Passage: “Tragic times do not beg for complexity…In the wake of disaster, America became even less subtle.”

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30