Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower Year Begins

Photo by Sheila Maldonado

We were getting some relief from  the holiday weekend heatwave earlier in the month when Sheila talked about how Saturday July 20th, 2024 was the first journal entry date of Octavia Butler‘s [wikipedia]  (post-?)apocalyptic Parable of the Sower.

So of course I had a to get a copy and started reading it right away when it arrived and WOW/YIKES! Of course, Octavia Butler is brilliant!   She got deep in my head and tapped into some surprising emotional nerves. The deceptively simple language and storytelling is masterfully executed. The writing had no need to be inaccessible or ornate or to impress.

I’m almost a third through the book already . . . which is a feat for me – the slowest reader. And the next step in reading through 2026 of the book having made it through the desperate years 2024 and 2025.

Photo by Sheila Maldonado

I have so much to say but I need to get back to my own damn writing so I will wait.

The world-building in this book is bananas.  So skillfully done with details parsed out in drips/floods and exposition slipped in effortlessly.

[The photos are Sheila’s copy.]