Diverse Position Science Fiction

Pictured is Akin, who looked quite cool on the cover of the second book in the Xenogenesis series. I have regrettably only read through Dawn.

This book starts up at the beginning of the end of man. Ambiguity quickly turns into fear as our protagonist Lilith learns she has been asleep for many, many years, and that the fall of man is old news. It chronicles her steady struggle with acceptance of the life she's been thrusted into, including the decisions she is ultimately not allowed to make, as well as the facts she's not supposed to know (in particular, the briefly evaded subjects of where all the books of the Earth went), despite the promise of being a non-biased group of creatures. She is modified through diet and slight experimentation to live longer and healthier, much to her chagrin. She is treated as she recalls humans having treated animals, though there is some obvious respect given to her by the Oankali, she is being tested for her survival and sexual aptitude through a majority of the pages. While she is initially defiant, she soon becomes reluctant and, eventually, accepting of her fate.

Of course, one of the most interesting themes in this book is the third sex present in the alien race; a genderless role by the name ooloi. Their general purpose is to gather DNA and expand the race, making it perhaps more perfect, perhaps just less the same. It is what their species must do, just as humans have the instinctual drive to reproduce, a fact the aliens take advantage of in their own way. The ooloi gender is one without bias, and represents the potentials of genetic evolution, even for humans, who do eventually sacrifice their own unique encoding in favor of long-term survival, something that isn't surprising by the time it becomes the only option. The hint here is that we are not done evolving, that we are still wrapped up in hating and bombing one another, and that we condition the environment to suit us. When the Oankali come, the structure of human existence is quickly changed, having the survivors live in the new environment around them, and opening up the idea of genetic growth once again, just as animals must change to survive in new environments. Once this happens, Butler has given her interpretation of what potential we might have. Her big message seems to be that if we want to continue evolving, we must seize war and development and instead let nature be our guiding factor. She seems equally interested in the development of proper relationships with those around us; the first time she meets a human in this new world, it's not terribly unlike how she felt when she first met the new alien race, though the human was legitimately more of a threat. This is perhaps a commentary on our naivety in fearing the unknown, and how this is holding us back from advancement. She is told to embrace, and yet she must ease into it. If she didn't, I suppose there wouldn't be a second book. Or a trilogy of books.