Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler by Alexandra PierceMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book drives home, once again, what a tremendous loss Octavia E. Butler's death was. Much has been made about how her "Parable" books predicted, in many respects, the rise of our execrable President. I wish Octavia was here to commiserate with the rest of us about his election, and write thoughtful, heartfelt essays about what to do next and how to go on...but the writers in this collection seem eminently capable of picking up her torch and carrying it.
Some of the essays here brings the reader to tears, with so many people of color talking about what Octavia Butler, an African-American woman writing powerful, feminist science fiction, means to them. Essay after essay, relating how a young person of color saw no one who looked like him or her in any of the SF they read...until they picked up Kindred, or Wild Seed. Some of the most affecting pieces are in Section Four, "I Am an Octavia E. Butler Scholar," which are essays from people of color who won the scholarship to Clarion (the famed writing workshop where Butler got her start) established in Butler's name. This book is sad, but it is also a joy to read, and I hope it finds a wider audience.
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