Dawn
Xenogenesis: Book One
Transgendered secondary characters. Gender issues; queer issues.
. Highly Recommended.
September 28, 2005 | Revid 342 < prev | next >
Lilith awakens in a plain room. She vaguely remembers Earth's civilizations at war with each other, and comes to realize she's been rescued by a truly alien race called the Oankali, who appear to her as something like a humanoid version of slugs mixed with the mythological Medusa. Lilith works to overcome her fears and repulsion and to learn about the Oankali and their plans for those humans they have rescued from extinction.
Dawn takes a bit to become an engrossing tale of two species trying to understand each other. Like Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean, Butler delves into what makes one human by offering up an alien race in comparison.
The trilogy is also available in one volume as Lilith's Brood (ISBN 0446676101).
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