I haven't grouped my read books together in a post for a while, but I finished the second book before I posted here--it's been over a week. Both novels are in a three-volume series called Lilith's Brood or Xenogenesis that I borrowed from the Essex Library.
In Dawn, war has destroyed Earth. Hundreds of years later, Lilith Iyapo is awakened by powerful aliens, the Oankali. The Oankalis believe human hierarchical tendencies doom them to death by war or other destruction. Therefore, they allow humans to mate with Oankali to produce human-Oankali constructs, guided by the ooloi, a third Oankali "sex" or be sterilized and live with other humans.
Lilith is chosen to awaken and explain the process to other humans. Many humans consider her a traitor to her species.
Adulthood Rites focuses on Akin, Lilith's son, a construct born of human and Oankali parents. As a young child, he was kidnapped by a group of human resisters who have rejected a life with the Oankali and established their own communities.
Akin recognizes the drive of humans to procreate. After he returns to his own home, he works to establish a human colony on Mars where humans' fertility can be restored and they can procreate.
Butler is a brilliant writer and her worlds are vivid. I am not as drawn to these books as I was to Kindred or to the Parable stories. I'll have more to say when I finish the third book, Imago.
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