Don't forget to join the newsletter! 💌

Book Review: Imago - Octavia E. Butler

# Book Review

4 - Stars

My book review policy

Each book in this series takes a brand new character and throws them into a brand new situation that arises directly from the nature of this world that Butler has created. You know you have an interesting world when you call tell so many stories in it and they are all interesting. Who knows, if Butler had lived longer we may have another entry. Certain the human colony on Mars would be an interesting place to visit.

This is by far the strangest book of the series and my least favorite. Still very good by any means. The characters and story were interesting but it didn’t quite live up to the first two novels for me.

It could be because I read them all immediately after one another. I felt like the first two books had a lot to say about human nature. This book didn’t seem to add anything new.

Most of it was focused on the relationships of a new Human/Oankali hybrid. While we do get a lot more insight into the alien Oankali race and how they operate it didn’t feel like there were any new insights into humanity like we got so heavily in the first two books. A lot of the narrative was devoted to Oankali seeming to lust after human beings to form mating groups with.

While the characters and story were interesting, it just wasn’t as meaningful as the rest of the series.

View Discussions on Twitter
Rob Skidmore Profile Photo

Rob Skidmore writes science fiction stories about being human. Raised in rural Western New York, he now lives with his beautiful wife in Utah. They have four kids whose initials spell HOME. By day he's a software engineer. By night he's exhausted. Every door in their basement is painted with a Disney-themed mural. His claim to fame is that he was an All-American and the 2004 New York state champion in the 400m hurdles in high school.

More about Rob

Join the newsletter

Get early updates on my writing, peek behind the scenes, get exclusive deals, read humerous personal anecdotes, and more. No spam. No sharing of your email. Just straight awesome.