African American Book Review

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Synopsis: Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Review 1: 5 out of 5 stars, Called "A masterpiece from one of the essential sci-fi writers"
Octavia Butler's "Kindred" is a novel which fits into many literary niches. It could be seen as a milestone in both African-American literature and science fiction; it's also a novel with a lot for feminist readers and critics. But ultimately the power of this book allows it to transcend all labels. "Kindred" tells the story of Dana, a 20th century African-American woman who is married to a white man. Throughout the book Dana is mysteriously thrust back and forth in time between her world and the world of her ancestors in the 19th century. She seems to be tied to one ancestor in particular: Rufus, the white son of a slaveowning family. Part of Dana's struggle is to deal with the utterly alien world of Rufus' slaveowning culture.Butler brilliantly weaves many powerful themes into this gripping story: violence, sexual desire, race, literacy, language, law, and education. The story is peopled with well-developed characters who have complex, interconnected relationships. Butler vividly evokes how the slave system both physically brutalized blacks and psychologically warped whites.Butler's prose is lean and muscular. She grips you from the stark opening lines: "I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm." The story is richly ironic and heartbreaking. 

Review 2: 2 out of 5 stars, Called it "Good concept, but boring."
When I first started reading this book I really liked it. I liked the premise and how quickly the story was moving. But then it hit a brick wall from there. I feel as if nothing happened in this book and the story just stood still. I wanted to finish the book just to see what would happen and I was sadly disappointed when nothing really did.  The author had a good concept but fell short once it came to the telling of a good story.

Source: Amazon.com/Books

African American Book Review

 




I read a glowing review about this trilogy a while back and it mention how there aren't all that many fantasy novels with action and adventure that have a strong Black female lead.  Supposedly publishers are looking for more books like this from authors.   This book series caught my attention once again because of the cover pictures.  It's not very often that you see a powerful African American woman who looks like she can kick someone's butt on the front cover of a book.  And just by looking at the covers you can tell this is an adventure series with strong Black female leads.  There's a lot of Egyptology in the books as well which is appealing to people who are into mythology.  Here some reviews for book one that I have listed below.


5 out of 5 Stars - Richly Imagined and Thorough Urban Fantasy Series Debut

By Tracy: The first thing I did when I finished reading Shadow Blade earlier this morning was make sure that my memory was correct, and that it was the beginning of a series and not a standalone novel. Not because I didn't like how it ended, but because I was so impressed with Seressia Glass' fully developed and vibrant world rich with ancient Egyptian and Africa history, not to mention the three dimensional characters, zippy narrative, and intriguing plot.  I'm thrilled to say that Shadow Blade hit all my happy spots. All of them. I loved it.  I'm not going to summarize the plot here, as it's been done sufficiently in the product description and in more depth in other reviews. I just need to express what I most enjoyed about it. I loved the setting, Atlanta. I was really impressed with the flawless blend of history and mythology that never - for me - bogged down the story or stuttered the plot. I found the lead character, Kira Solomon, to be a stunning blend of intelligence, confidence, and aptitude with her work (both jobs), devotional commitment to her calling, and refreshing innocence and sense of yearning with everything else. Some reviews have criticized that dichotomy, but for me, it made perfect sense. The poor girl has been able to touch exactly NO ONE in her entire life without it ending in coma or death or pain. Twenty-six years of complete physical solitude unless she's killing. The wounds on a person's psyche under those conditions are unimaginable, horrifying, and entirely well represented by Kira's responses to events in Shadow Blade. I believed it utterly and I sympathized completely with her, as my admiration for her as written grew and grew. And kudos to Glass for the masterful development of Kira through the arc of the story.

 

2 out of 5 stars Wow. This story needs a better editor.

By Amazon Customer: I should start this off by saying that the characters and the setting reminded me strongly of the Kate Daniels series... and that is what lead to my great disappointment with it. Kate Daniels series is great. This is very very mediocre. The writer just talks too much. And says nothing of import. I couldn't help but re-write sentences, paragraphs and even entire scenes in my head. There was so much extraneous STUFF that had no purpose. And everything is explained in great detail-- even when it really doesn't need to be.There was a lot of potential here but the execution isn't at all up to par. Another issue is the 'big bad opponents'... the half breeds are idiots, the "OMG I'm can't believe it's a SEEKER DEMON!" is defeated entirely too easily and wasn't scary at all. In anyway shape or form. Oy. For most urban fantasy heroines the 'biggest bad' in this book-- the creature controlling the seeker demon-- would be just a routine exercise. For example, the first Kate Daniel's book had Kate facing 40 out of control vampires she has to figure out how to control with her mind and then kill them (after defeating their controller)... for a WARM UP to fighting a nasty serial killing creature that can only be killed by a very fragile weapon and a zombie dragon. That's what I call BIG BAD. These were just... remedial not so good guys.  Sorry, the writing needed a heavy editor and the story wasn't believable or consistent and the danger was laughable.