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“Sadly, Octavia Butler intended to continue this into a longer series and she didn’t, so this is kind of a cheat selection because the characters in these books never actually get seen in space…The main character of the first book, who is also one of the main characters in the second book, is growing up in this very slow climate-apocalypse-on-Earth society. The US is really falling apart and she is struggling to survive. At the same time, she is looking at the stars and she is creating her own religion, essentially, arguing that our destiny is to go out and colonize the stars. This is an argument that exists in real life, and I criticize it in my book, but I think Butler presents and frames it really well: why someone growing up in a terrible world like this—more terrible than ours but very similar—would still have hope for a future in space. Then, in the second book, Parable of the Talents, the main character’s daughter really presses her on this and says, ‘Is this what we need to be focused on? There are people starving on Earth. Why don’t you pay attention to me, your own daughter, instead of this dream of space?’ And I think those are also questions worth asking.” Read more...
The Best Sci Fi Books on Space Settlement
Erika Nesvold, Physicist
