"Cautionary tales at their most bleak and finest..."
Five years after Lauren and her followers settle
into their communal way of life in "Parable of the
Talents", we find Lauren and thriving in a new
community--Acorn--constructed from the ground up by
her and the people of Earthseed. She has a husband,
Bankole--the community's doctor and upon whose land
Acorn grows; Harry and Zahra are married with two
children and all are joined by several dozen
multicultural and "sharer" families who work and
live by the Earthseed doctrines. Built from the ashes of Bankole's family home and
land, Acorn is difficult going, but it is a refuge,
hope for the future, and much more than the people
of Earthseed had ever believed or envisioned. It is,
for Lauren and her people, the seed of man's Destiny--to
take root among the stars. Christian America (CA) has
other
ideas and dubs Earthseed a "cult" made up of sinful devil
worshippers and heathens. Much like the "paints" that
destroyed Lauren's former community--only better equipped,
moneyed, connected and politically sanctioned extremists
of
the moment--the CA target, overrun and confiscate Acorn,
renaming it a Christian camp for "reeducation". Slavery by any other name is slavery, and like the
Nazis before them, and the slave traders before
them, the "teachers" of Camp Christian have committed
their atrocity in the name of God and rebuilding America
to its former glory days of Christian values.
Unfortunately, their vision of America's "glory
days" does not encompass the Earthseeds of the world, or
any other "unorthodox" belief system that clashes with
its ideas of what is right and good for the country. Thus, Lauren and the people of Acorn lose everything
for which they have strove in the last several years
and something much more precious than their
accumulated possessions: freedom. Ms. Butler has never
provided any easy answers or sugarcoated situations for
her
characters and here with unflinching logic and heart, she
takes the people of Earthseed to new paths of endurance in
a world run amok. From her Parables, we gain insight into
what could be, and what we hope to prevent becoming the
future of mankind. Cautionary tales at their most bleak and finest,
both Parable books are shining examples of the old adage:
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Something to keep in mind Reviewed for PNR Reviews by
Gracie McKeever, Author
Reviewed by Gracie McKeever
Posted December 7, 2003
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