AUTHOR: Octavia Butler
PUBLISHED: 1979
CATEGORY: Adult/Modern Classic
GENRE: Sci-Fi/Time Travel
PREMISE: A black woman living in the seventies, with her white husband gets sent back in time to her ancestors who live on a slave plantation in the south.
MY THOUGHTS: Butler was an author who was around for quite awhile. She's what I call a quietly well known author. Meaning that in certain reader circles, her name is passed around like wildfire. When I did my search into old sci-fi to look into, her name was one that kept popping up on lists. However, if you talk to a casual/mainstream reader, chances are they'll say "who?". Never mind that she's won both Hugo and Nebula awards.
I wish she was more well known after reading this. This book was awesome. It's like a ten times better version of A Time Traveler's Wife. Some of you may recall, I loathed that book. Well, this book takes that premise of a person time traveling for random reasons and actually gives it a much better spin. Personally, I can't help but wonder if this is where Niffenger got her inspiration from in the first place.
I will warn: this is not a light-hearted book. It does not sugar-coat the south or what went on in that time period. Dana has some pretty horrific experiences while in the past. If you're looking for a romantic view of the past, this ain't it. This is not escapism sci-fi. It does however make you think. If anything, it kind of shows how far we haven't come. There are some attitudes in this book that have not gone away from both the history part and the present day era I'm sorry to say.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sci-Fi fans, Time Traveler's Wife fans, time travel plot fans, those looking for diversity in their sci-fi
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