THE PLOT: ‘Dawn’ by Octavia Butler is a sci-fi novel about aliens taking over the human race. When Lilith awakes in a small white room, she remembers the devastating nuclear war but doesn’t recall how it ended. Soon she realises she’s on a spaceship and learns she’s a captive of the Oankali; a strange alien race who intervened in the war to save humanity. After centuries of stabilising the world’s atmosphere, the Oankali have chosen Lilith to lead humanity back to Earth. But the Oankali believe in “trade” above all things and freedom for humankind must come at a price.

SUMMARY: Octavia Butler is a phenomenal writer and phenomenal mind. Her ability to draw you into a character and world is un-paralleled. She is one of the few people who can take this concept – humanity being subsumed by an alien race – and make it realistic and relatable to modern readers. This book is not perfect. You can see Butler work through ideas on the page and there are some pacing issues. But the high-stakes plot, complex characters, social dynamics, and intense world-building are infinitely compelling. This is an original concept that tackles some big ideas about environmentalism, racism, sexism and power. With pared-back, elegant prose, Butler uses this novel to mirror society and posit new ideas – the true definition of a work of art.

GOOD BITS:  I’m often drawn to sci-fi in film and TV, but sometimes shy away from the genre in novels. I think it’s because without the visual effects, it can be very hard to bring a human reader into an alien world effectively. What makes Butler such a successful author is that she starts with Lilith’s interiority and makes you identify with her. You spend the whole novel questioning what you would do in that situation, thereby accepting the strange reality of the world-building. By putting character and human interaction and emotion at the heart of a sci-fi story, it becomes an allegory about the terror and beauty of human nature.

NOT SO GOOD BITS: There are moments when the story begins to lag. Once Lilith joins Oankali society, the world-building feels too heavy and she seems too passive. Luckily, Butler recognises this and deftly jumps through time to introduce additional human characters before there’s too much stasis. I loved how this switched the focus of the story to the reactions and interactions between the humans as they worked to respond to the alien presence. Additionally, I felt uncomfortable with the sexual descriptions. Not because they’re graphic, but the idea of sexual trade with aliens is inherently repellent. However, I still value this because – as we’ve seen with different human cultures – sex is a realistic currency and form of power.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘The Fifth Season’ by N.K. Jemisin, ‘The Three Body Problem’ by Liu Cixin, Ursula K. Le Guin, and ‘Arrival’ (film). I would only recommend this to fans of sci-fi and definitely don’t read it as your first Octavia Butler. But if you’re open to the concept then it is, in every sense of the word, fantastic.

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