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Ron's Reviews > Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
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by
(Feb 2016, adjusted rating down after reading Dawn. Butler did do much better.)
This might have been the must-read dystopia of the 90s. Perhaps it's because Butler tries too hard. Or readers can't see past the obvious shortcomings.
Dystopias have been with us since 1984 and Brave New World, and Utopia's since Mores and even Plato's Timaeus. But Parable of the Sower could have been this generation's dystopia. A really engaging, challenging story of believable, empathetic characters. Great social commentary.
What's wrong? One, her protagonist's "hyperempathy syndrome" is stupid and unnecessary. Hokey.
Two, in a society crumbling under natural and man-made disaster, public water, phones, electric shouldn't operate. And insurance? Yeah, it didn't pay, but they shouldn't have expected it to. Scarce coffee but plentiful tea. Many such disconnects which throw the reader out of the story. Butler seemed to not understand that a solar water pump is actually an electric water pump. If the solar array is broken, an alternate (probably low-voltage DC) electricity source may work.
Three, if Butler could have gotten past her own social-racial memories, she would serve herself better. Readers are subjected to no less than four lectures about "debt slavery." Her sense of history and justice was just too two-dimensional.
Four, Butler takes 130 pages to set up the story. Lots of preaching and repetition. Thirty should have sufficed.
Five, speaking of preaching, her Earthseed religion, while a realistic construction for the adolescent Lauren, slowed rather than propelled the story. It is a logical construct for a teen in a changed and changing world and helps define her character, but Butler seemed selling it a la L. Ron Hubbard. Readers could skip the "scripture" quotes as they really don't bear on anything (other than Lauren's state of mind).
I understand and appreciate books by/about people undergoing a crisis of faith; I do not appreciate books by/about people creating a religion—especially when they try to convert me before they've even explained what it is or why I should care. This shortcoming is partly offset by Butler including credible characters who think Lauren's new faith is claptrap.
Like Ender's Game: unnaturally bright, mature individual overcomes both enemies and friends to save the world (maybe). Echoes of Ayn Rand . . . which comparison probably sets Butler spinning in her grave.
Do read this book. Parable of the Sower could have been a great event in fiction, but isn't. (I don't think Ender's Game is either, but it came closer.)
[Revised 8/18/2014 due to helpful reader feedback.]
[Revised 1/11/2017 to correct many typos and tense clashes]
This might have been the must-read dystopia of the 90s. Perhaps it's because Butler tries too hard. Or readers can't see past the obvious shortcomings.
Dystopias have been with us since 1984 and Brave New World, and Utopia's since Mores and even Plato's Timaeus. But Parable of the Sower could have been this generation's dystopia. A really engaging, challenging story of believable, empathetic characters. Great social commentary.
What's wrong? One, her protagonist's "hyperempathy syndrome" is stupid and unnecessary. Hokey.
Two, in a society crumbling under natural and man-made disaster, public water, phones, electric shouldn't operate. And insurance? Yeah, it didn't pay, but they shouldn't have expected it to. Scarce coffee but plentiful tea. Many such disconnects which throw the reader out of the story. Butler seemed to not understand that a solar water pump is actually an electric water pump. If the solar array is broken, an alternate (probably low-voltage DC) electricity source may work.
Three, if Butler could have gotten past her own social-racial memories, she would serve herself better. Readers are subjected to no less than four lectures about "debt slavery." Her sense of history and justice was just too two-dimensional.
Four, Butler takes 130 pages to set up the story. Lots of preaching and repetition. Thirty should have sufficed.
Five, speaking of preaching, her Earthseed religion, while a realistic construction for the adolescent Lauren, slowed rather than propelled the story. It is a logical construct for a teen in a changed and changing world and helps define her character, but Butler seemed selling it a la L. Ron Hubbard. Readers could skip the "scripture" quotes as they really don't bear on anything (other than Lauren's state of mind).
I understand and appreciate books by/about people undergoing a crisis of faith; I do not appreciate books by/about people creating a religion—especially when they try to convert me before they've even explained what it is or why I should care. This shortcoming is partly offset by Butler including credible characters who think Lauren's new faith is claptrap.
Like Ender's Game: unnaturally bright, mature individual overcomes both enemies and friends to save the world (maybe). Echoes of Ayn Rand . . . which comparison probably sets Butler spinning in her grave.
Do read this book. Parable of the Sower could have been a great event in fiction, but isn't. (I don't think Ender's Game is either, but it came closer.)
[Revised 8/18/2014 due to helpful reader feedback.]
[Revised 1/11/2017 to correct many typos and tense clashes]
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Reading Progress
December 18, 2009
– Shelved
January 3, 2010
– Shelved as:
science-fiction
Started Reading
January 4, 2010
–
Finished Reading
September 19, 2010
– Shelved as:
apochalypse-or-post
Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)
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Beth
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Jun 30, 2015 09:11AM
Hmm, good to know. Sounds like I would have to skim large parts. Also, I hate slow beginnings. Thanks for the warning.
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YES. Glad someone else thought the hyperempathy was completely unnecessary.
yo, you know the book is titled “1984,” right?
Oops. Been there four years. You're the first to mention it. Thanks
Brilliant review, well-written. Thank you!
Wish i had listened to the few warnings there were to be found. But with such high overall reviews i tried to tead it anyway. I finally am giving up. It is poorly written crap in my opinion.
I liked the book but too wondered why the hyper empathy was a "thing" considering it was no big part of the story. Maybe it's a build up to the next book?
Maybe. Butler was apparently thinking of something she failed to convey to most readers.
I was thinking that the "hyper-empathy" thing was, actually, just regular empathy that most people had lost with the social breakdown. I thought it was going to be revealed as such when she was speaking with Harry, or Bencole was it? In this sense, any kind of regular empathy or feeling for others would be seen as dangerous "hyper-empathy" in world where everyone was definitively out for themselves. Also, I think there is still slight remnants of "civilization" in the 2024 of the book, so I think there could be some phone and electric services working. It wasn't complete ruin just yet, like it is in The Road or Station Eleven.
