Product Description
"Octavia E. Butler is one of the finest voices in fiction--period. . . . A master storyteller, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature."-The Washington Post Book World "Readers familiar with . . . Parable of the Sower and Bloodchild will recall that [Butler] never asks easy questions or settles for easy answers."-Gerald Jonas in The New York Times Fledgling, Octavia Butler's first new novel in seven years, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human. Octavia E. Butler is the author of 11 novels, including Kindred, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and numerous other literary awards, she has been acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations that range from the distant past to the far future.
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 perfect
This book arrived well before the expected date and was a great buy. I will be buying from them again.
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Book purchase - Fledgling
This is a fabulous book - a new view of vampires by a sci fi author, Octavia Butler. It was her final book. A tale of love, dependency, intense attraction, and healing (rejecting revenge.)
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 Interesting ideas, but left me cold ( kensimon )
Fledgling is an amazingly innovative vampire tale. In this story, humans and vampires have a symbiotic relationship: vampires need human blood to survive, but they do not kill when they bite. Vampires secrete a venom which gives humans intense pleasure; more than one or two bites, and the human becomes addicted, chemically bound to vampires for life -- and chemically forced to obey. Vampires and their bitten humans thus live together in secretive, cooperative communities, with the humans free to pursue their own occupations and interests -- but never free to leave due to their addiction. It's like being dragged to a happy commune and kept there with an electric fence.
Shori is a vampire. When she awakens, severely injured, with no memory of who or what she is, she must slowly piece her life back together. It isn't long until she discovers that someone, for some reason, has tried to destroy her and her entire family.. and that they are not done trying.
Fledgling touches upon ideas related to family, community, and love. Butler portrays racism within the vampire world, different from human racism yet equally destructive. This book is a parade of provocative ideas.
Unfortunately, despite all that Fledgling has going for it, it left me cold. I don't know if Shori was supposed to be likable, but I did not much like her. She came across as cold and detached, and I think this is more a product of Butler's narrative style than of her actual intent. The narrative takes us through Shori's attempt to protect herself and her companions, and lands us smack in the middle of a courtroom drama, albeit a courtroom run under the rules of this vampire world. To me, it felt like a clinical, static way to work through the plot.
Finally, I was uneasy with, even irritated by, this world that Butler imagined. Symbiotic or not, vampires essentially addict humans and force them to abandon their families and lives. How convenient that the humans in the book seem to grow content after a short period of confusion and distress. I guess if I was being injected with addictive venom, I'd be compliant, too.
Clearly, I have some unease with the world Butler presented here, but my three star rating is not due to that. It's due to the fact that I never really came to care about these people and their conflicts, all presented through a narrative voice that I can only describe as cold.
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 Interesting ( colejar )
This was the first (and only) book I've ever read my Octavia Butler. I bought it after hearing a brief review of it on a radio progam. I love the way Ms. Butler wrote the book, unfolding just a little knowledge as the story unfolds. If you haven't read the plot synopses on Amazon or elsewhere, do yourself a favor and skip them. They reveal too much. Half the fun of the book is the fact the you are completely in the dark about the character when the story begins. You learn her story little by little, and that made it very interesting.
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 No bite ( bettym245 )
I love Octavia Butler, but this book did not live up to her talent. I found the story to be boring, and the sexual scenes with a character who physically resembles a young prepubescent girl very disturbing. I stuck it out to the end with the hopes that the story would improve, but no such luck.
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