"As are most odysseys, these two books were difficult to read but more difficult to put down!"
In "Parable of the Sower", Lauren Oya Olamina--the
oldest child of five and a preacher's daughter in
twenty-first century America--is a youth of vision
and destiny approaching womanhood amidst desperate and
violent times. She has experienced a sheltered
existence, literally, growing up behind bars in
Robledo, California where, beyond her walled
community, social and political anarchy rage. Lauren is also hyperempathic, or what's known as a
"sharer", and has the ability to experience the pain
and pleasure of others as intensely as if it is
hers. This ability is a danger and more a curse than a
gift in a world where human depravities and misery reign
supreme, and particularly in a household where sibling
rivalry and childhood taunting have been taken to
new heights by a sociopathic brother. However, inside the walls is a far safer bet than
anywhere outside could ever be. Outside the walls
exists a world where the police and fire departments
have been privatized, employing not civil servants,
but workers for hire more accessible to the well-to-do
than the average citizen who cannot afford the fees
for services rendered. Outside lurk the disenfranchised,
the uneducated, the envious and a general assortment of
vicious malcontents with easy access to firearms and new
destructive drugs. One group, the "paints"--young skin-
head
types from "good" families, what we might now
call "Goths",
but far more predatory--is a particular danger to the
unprotected, unarmed or unprepared. Though the Olaminas and the citizens of their
Robledo settlement are none of these, it does not save them
when a strung-out mob of "paints" and their brethren
crash a truck through the outside gates and invade
the community on a barbaric spree of murder, rape and
arson. Separated from her remaining immediate family in the
fray, Lauren survives and escapes the raid. She
returns home after her first of what will become
many nights of vagrancy to retrieve her homemade
emergency pack and salvage what other belongings she can
from the rubble. Among the dying embers and carnage, she
is miraculously reunited with two residents from her
community. Harry Balter a young white man she has
known since both were in diapers; and Zahra, a young
black woman sold by her mother and recently brought
to the community to live as one of several "wives" to
the Robledo resident who purchased her. Worlds apart in ideologies, education and
experience, the trio have one thing in common that drives
them on a treacherous cross-country trek north with only
Lauren's gun, money and foodstuffs between them: the
will to survive. The three gain several companions along
the way, others lost and destitute heading north, far from
their current situations. All are survivors of one
horror or another--abuse, rape, prostitution,
indentured servitude, even slavery--all are
searching for and determined to make a better way for
themselves. They are the beginnings of "Earthseed",
a belief system based on co-operative living, faith in
self rather than a higher being, and each-one-teach-one
principals similar to those found in Buddhism. Earthseed,
however, is primarily rooted in Lauren's writings-"The
Books of the Living"--and her one basic conviction: God is
Change. What Lauren and her fellow refugees do not know is
that their trials have just begun. "Parable of the Sower"
is an excellent introduction to Lauren's world and the
characters who will play a major role in the development
of
Earthseed. This book is a fast-paced gripping piece that
admirably sets the stage for what is to come in "Parable
of
the Talents Reviewed for PNR Reviews by
Gracie McKeever, Author
Reviewed by Gracie McKeever
Posted December 7, 2003
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