Review: Parable of the Talents
Parable of the Talents continues the tale Octavia Butler began in Parable of the Sower.
All the praise I heaped on the first part continues to be true of the second (and final) part. Butler takes her dystopia to its crushing extremes in ways that may feel eerily precognitive. There are obvious parallels to our current politics despite Talents being published in 1993. To me that speaks more to Butler’s ability to understand and reflect on American society than any intent to predict the future. She saw the core features of humanity and America that are on display here and on the news pages back then and put them on paper in this immersive story. All the facts and philosophies that underlie Talents have permeated the literary and historical scene for quite some time. It Can’t Happen Here and 1984 lay out the strategy, but Butler humanizes it.
Strongly recommended.