Book Review - Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Title: Parable of the Sower (Earthseed # 1)
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Genre: Science Fiction/ Dystopia/ Classic
Published: 1993
 
Description: In 2024, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
 
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinary sensitive to the pain of others.
 
When a fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced our into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
 
Review: “Parable of the Sower” tells the story as the various crises that are now also taking place in 2025 have developed further. The climate crisis has led to environment where it almost never rains. Water is scarce. The economic crisis has increased the gap between rich and poor. Polarization has caused entire groups of people to be pitted against other people and you can no longer trust anyone again. The story starts in 2024, but was written in 1993. That blows my mind.
 
In this America that Octavia E. Butler wrote about, cannibalism is back. Drugs that numb cause the worst type of crimes. Lauren Olamina is our protagonist. She lives with her father, a preacher, in a walled community in the hope of being protected from her anarchy outside. Lauren is very sensitive, has hyperempathy, and picks up emotions and pain from other people. Lauren has developed her own ideology, the Earthseed. She believes in a God who is change. This belief develops over the course of the story and ensures that she can persevere.
 
“Parable of the Sower” is a very special book. Especially because of the world Butler is describing and the fact that it was written over 30 years ago. Lauren is a wonderful character, easy to empathize with. Lauren’s beliefs in change, which she shapes and develops through her thoughts, makes you realize that change is possible. That gives hope and courage. And each chapter starts with a piece of her journal: Earthseed, the book of the living.
 
The writing style is descriptive and compelling. More people should read this book to realize what kind of world we would create if we do nothing. Because it is reality, even though this book is categorized as science fiction. Sadly Octavia E. Butler passed away in 2006, but I will read everything on her backlist.
 
Rating: 5/ 5