Book Review: "Parable of the Talents" by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This addition to the Earthseed series took a twist with the story coming from the original protagonist's daughter's point of view. Throughout the book you follow Ashe's thoughts, Lauren's journals, as well as some writings from Ashe's father. The story continues with Acorn being established and facing adversity. Another extremist religious establishment threatens their existence and brings harsh circumstances the group must survive, unfortunately, not everyone did. In this process many of their children are taken, including Ashe when she was still only a baby. This book is her journey coming to know her past and confronting the truth of it. Although originally this was meant to be a trilogy, I do not feel a third book is necessary. Octavia leaves the reader feeling content ending the story. I did enjoy this book and, being written in 1998, felt there were very current topics and ideas present. The extremist side echoed ideas written also by Margaret Atwood and her book The Handmaid's Tale. I do, however, still prefer Parable of the Sower over this, though it was very well written. In future I would like to put together all the different Earthseed verses so that they are in one place as those were well done and I enjoyed reading them.

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