Who knew that aliens, the apocalypse, and reforming humanity could be so boring and annoying?

The main character is annoying and whines throughout the entire book. What development she does get is forced upon her literally. She doesn't really learn or change and her reactions, after a time, don't follow any coherent psychological state. She's a character who is not relatable or have any really redeemable qualities. The reason she was chosen makes little sense and is weak.

The aliens are also boring and at times read more as Stockholm syndrome rapists than respectable aliens. The reaction they cause in people is more than just initial shock where it incapacitates people for days at a time. The reason isn't physiological but because humanity is so xenophobic. Ya, probably not.

The story barely has a three act structure. Act 1 - main character meets aliens and complains a lot. Act 2 - main character interacts with aliens and complains a lot. Act 3 - main character interacts with other humans and complains a lot.

I read other reviews because this book does have a majority of positive reviews. People claim it's great sci-fi - barely. It's thought provoking - like how am I still reading this? It explores human nature - how much complaining can one person do for 260 pages without ever changing on her own.

The characters are all unappealing, the plot line is mostly explanation-> complain-> observe-> complain-> repeat, and the aliens are so bland you can't root for them or against them. Final Grade - F ( )

Super claustrophobic and grotesque. More alienating than I usually like my sci fi, but it worked so well. ( )

A thoughtful, wonderfully imaginative tale of a group of human beings who've been rescued by extraterrestrial unknown after a nuclear war has wiped out most of the human race. As she did in "The Parable of the Talents" Butler wrestles with the problem and burden of leadership. The titular character is a strong and able and has seemingly been selected by the humans' new hosts to prepare a group of human beings to resettle Earth. However, she doubts their good intentions, seems unwilling to give up her humanity after learning that they have perfected genetic engineering, and has to deal with human nature, which seems no less intransigent and self-defeating on a giant, living spaceship than it did on earth.

Both Butler's description of the aliens and their overwhelming strangeness and Lilith's initial repulsion to them are well-portrayed, as are the efforts she makes to bond with her indescribably weird hosts. There aren't your standard bulb-headed little grey men here -- obviously put a lot of thought into how a species as different as the Oankali and the Ooloi might consider the universe. And, like Butler's earlier novels, there's no doubt that this extraterrestrial encounter will not be entirely chaste: sex and a desire for closeness all play a part here.

In the end, though, this novel, interesting as it is, is too short to be really satisfying. Butler seems to be setting up a trilogy, and I suppose that that's fine: I don't know how she was planning out her work at this stage of her career. But I could have used a bit more of Lilith's story. I suppose that I'll just have to read the other two volumes in this series. ( )

Lilith is a survivor of a catastrophic war on Earth. She finds herself on an alien spaceship where she meets one of the most interesting alien races in literature - the Oankali. The Oankali are a race that travels the universe "trading" genetic material with other races and would like to do the same with humans.
Lilith is chosen to be a sort of liaison between Oankali and the other survivors saved by them. The conversations between Lilith and Oankali are the highlight of this novel. In these conversations, Butler reveals the true themes of the book; the Other, the price of survival, the meaning of identity, sexuality and the ability to make one's own decisions.

To people, the Oankali are so different and repulsive that it seems to be difficult for some characters even to look at them. The dread of the new reality for the survivors is palpable and I had to be in a special mood to pick up the book, it was that real.

However, for me, the novel just lost its magic once Lilith woke up the rest of the survivors. These characters were so bland and unbelievable. I found myself skipping paragraphs just to see what happens at times. I was gonna DNF this at 70%, that was how bad it got.

Another thing that bothered me was the portrayal of humanity in this book. Pretty much all male characters are your proverbial caveman types. Women tend to just go along with whatever they suggest.
The survivors also pair up as soon as they are woken up for some reason, without any real connection.

It made me feel like the Oankali are really right to want to genetically alter humans because they are clearly beyond repair (not to mention they ruined their planet). On the other hand, the Oankali are helpful, stable and logical, but give humans no choice and practically rape them. They are in it for their own reasons, absolutely selfish.

I find it difficult to read this as an allegory of colonialism as it just doesn't work. Still, it is thought-provoking and poses some interesting questions. It's just a little dry for my taste. ( )

This was a great read. I am not a big sci-fi fan because I abhor all the descriptions of spaceship or other mechanical works and don't care for explanations of lightspeed and how far planets are from one another. Just give me the story!

But this type of sci-fi is something that I can get into. Alien thoughts and behaviors (without them being the obvious bad guys), and their interactions with humans.

This was my 3rd or 4th Kindle Unlimited rental and I hope to find more books there that I enjoy as much as I did this one. I'll be continuing with the rest of the trilogy even though Kindle Unlimited doesn't include the audiobooks for the other two books. ( )