Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Instagram
  3. Follow us on Bluesky
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • Getting Started in CBR17
    • Rules of Respect
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
    • About Cannonball Read
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • Participant Interviews
    • Cannonballer Location Maps
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
    • Star Ratings
    • Featured Review Archive
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Suggest a Review
    • 2025 Registration
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Social Media

A believable and scary postapocalyptic future

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

March 29, 2021 by caragwapa Leave a Comment

In this post-apocalyptic novel, there is not single earth shattering apocalyptic event.  Instead, there is just a gradual breakdown of society brought about by climate change, corporate greed and social inequality (all interrelated anyway).    Lauren Olamina is a relatively privileged teenager living in a small walled enclave.  She’s privileged in that she has a home, her father still has a job with a salary, and she knows how to read and write.  This is not much, but compared to the thousands, or maybe millions […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: Dystopian, Earthseed, Fiction, octavia butler, post-apocolyptic

caragwapa's CBR13 Review No:5 · Genres: Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: Dystopian, Earthseed, Fiction, octavia butler, post-apocolyptic ·
· 0 Comments

Parable of the Talents: Earthseed #2

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler

March 4, 2021 by slisenbe Leave a Comment

Parable of the Talents is a dark/hopeful/painful/victorious dystopian novel. The 2nd in Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series, it follows Lauren as she fulfills her mission to introduce a faith based on truth and humanity’s future. Read it!

Filed Under: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: octavia butler

slisenbe's CBR13 Review No:6 · Genres: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: octavia butler ·
· 0 Comments

Octavia Butler – Adulthood Rites, well this was disappointing

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

February 25, 2021 by MarkAbaddon 1 Comment

I hate writing negative reviews, especially for authors I love, but this book did not do it for me. Middle parts of a trilogy are difficult, I understand that, but this book just felt repetitive and barely moved the narrative forward. This novel focuses on the first male child born of a human (with genetic input from the Oankali) on earth since humanity was saved from extinction. Lilith, the main character from the first book is the mother but she barely appears as Akin, her […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology

MarkAbaddon's CBR13 Review No:3 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

Kindred – Octavia Butler (1979)

Kindred by Octavia Butler

February 24, 2021 by vel veeter 2 Comments

This is the fourth time I think I’ve read this book, not counting reading the graphic novel a few years back (which I thought was mostly unnecessary). What stands out to me now reading the book again in 2021 is a few shifts in my personal appreciation for the book, and knowing a little more about Butler’s career. Specifically to the last point, this was the very first novel of Butler’s I’d read. I followed it with Parable of the Sower and Parable of the […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: kindred, octavia butler

vel veeter's CBR13 Review No:78 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: kindred, octavia butler ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

God is Change

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

February 14, 2021 by Bea Pants Leave a Comment

Add this one to the list of books I wish I’d read in my teens rather than a butt load of Stephen King. Octavia Butler’s frighteningly prescient dystopian novel needs to be added to every high school curriculum. It is a story of economic and societal collapse, climate disaster and survival in the face of unspeakable pain and loss. It’s a difficult read but none of the horrors feel gratuitous. It comes with many trigger warnings; rape, harm to children, harm to animals and fires. […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #octaviabutler, #octaviasparables, CBR13, octavia butler

Bea Pants's CBR13 Review No:6 · Genres: Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #octaviabutler, #octaviasparables, CBR13, octavia butler ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Dawn – An intriguing take on human-alien interactions

Dawn by Octavia Butler

January 30, 2021 by MarkAbaddon Leave a Comment

I first read the Xenogenesis saga of Octavia Butler when I was a teenager and it arrived with a ton of other books I ordered from some science fiction book club (I had just gotten a job and was a dumb kid, don’t judge). What I remembered most from the initial read was the use of cancer cells by the alien race, the Oankali, to reshape their own bodies which I thought was a brilliant concept (actually still think it is brilliant). Maybe I did […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #octaviabutler, #Science Fiction, alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology

MarkAbaddon's CBR13 Review No:2 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #octaviabutler, #Science Fiction, alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »


Recent Comments

  • Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
  • Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
  • Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
  • Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
  • Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.
See More Recent Comments »

Support Our Mission

  • Support Our Mission: Donate Today!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo

The reviews and comments posted on this site reflect the opinions of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Cannonball Read.

© 2025 Cannonball Read Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) | Log in