Parable of the Sower (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Parable of the Sower
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
author = Octavia E. Butler
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = "Parable" trilogy
genre = Dystopian, Science fiction novel
publisher = Four Walls Eight Windows
release_date = 1993
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 299 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-941423-99-9 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by = Parable of the Talents

"Parable of the Sower" is the first in a two-book series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1993.

Plot summary

Set in a dystopian future, "Parable of the Sower" centers on a young woman who possesses what Butler dubbed as "hyperempathy" – the ability to feel the perceived pain and other sensations of others – who develops a benign philosophical and religious system during her childhood in a walled suburb in a Los Angeles where civil society is near collapse. When the suburb's security is compromised, her home is destroyed and her family murdered. She travels north with some survivors to try to start a community where her religion, called "Earthseed", can grow.

Proposed third Parable novel

Butler had planned to write a third "Parable" novel, tentatively titled "Parable of the Trickster", which would have focused on the community's struggle to survive on a new planet. She began this novel after finishing "Parable of the Talents", and mentioned her work on it in a number of interviews, but at some point encountered a writer's block. She eventually shifted her creative attention, resulting in "Fledgling", her final novel.

ee also

*Parable of the Talents

Awards and nominations

"Nominated":
*1994: Nebula Award for Best Novel - "Parable of the Sower"

References

*Phillips, Jerry. " [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3643/is_200204/ai_n9025528/print Intuition of the Future: Utopia and catastrophe in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, The] " - "Novel: A Forum on Fiction", Spring 2002.

External links

* [http://www.bakaitis.com/?page_id=227 Book Group Discussion Questions (Creative Commons license)]