Fledgling | Octavia E. Butler | Second Favorite of Butler's work

Fledgling | Octavia E. Butler | fledgling is a fantastic reimagination of the vampire novel

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Fledgling

	Fledgling Octavia E. Butler Grand Central Publishing, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Second Favorite of Butler's work

I've read all of Butler's pieces except Mind of my Mind and I have to see this is my second favorite piece next to the Parable miniseries. Butler did such a wonderful job of depicting the emotional progressions of ehr characters as if they were regular everyday people. Shori is an inspiring heroine and is probably the most memorable feature of this book. Highly recommend this read for those interested in science fiction or vampires.

fledgling is a fantastic reimagination of the vampire novel

fledgling is a brilliant re-imagination of the vampire myth by one of the most creative writers in the genre of "speculative fiction."

The story begins with a young woman who wakes up, bruised and burned in a cave. The woman leaves a cave and discovers a razed village nearby and meets a young man who she bites, feeds on and then has sex with. One of the many unusual aspects of this tale are the details that the young woman appears physically as a pre-pubescent, dark-skinned female while the man is white and in his 20s.

Eventually we learn that the name of the young vampire is Shori Mathews and although she looks like a 10 or 11 year old she is actually 50-60 years old, which is young (but equivalent to an adolescent or teenager) for her kind, the long-lived symbiotic, vampiric species known as The Ina.

Butler weaves a suspenseful plot around these basic story ideas, as we learn more about the unusual nature of Ina culture and society while the book progresses to a pleasing conclusion.

Some of the idea this "genre fiction" novel grapples with are miscegenation, gender-stratified societies, the nature of addiction and racism. As always, in creative and enthralling ways Butler excites and intrigues the reader with her vision and insight of her final book. It's one of the sadnesses in life that we will not have the opportunity to experience any new works by this gifted author, one of the few African American females writing speculative fiction.

GRADE: A.

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Interesting

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.

Interesting ideas, but left me cold

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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