Reflection's Edge

Book Review: Fledgling, by Octavia Butler

Reviewer: Romie Stott

Shori can't remember what happened - only that she woke, badly injured, in a cave near a burned settlement. But Shori is fast enough to run down a deer, and strong enough to kill it. Shori can heal a crushed skull in a matter of days. And when Shori drinks a little blood from a willing man, he tells her she's a vampire. With help from a sympathetic human, Shori tries to discover what she is, find others like her, and figure out who wanted to kill her so badly.

Octavia Butler is one of speculative fiction's most respected authors. She has won Hugo and Nebula awards, has received a lifetime achievement award from PEN, and is the recipient of a MacArthur foundation "genius" grant. She is known for her clean, dense prose and her breathtaking ability to convey an entire world - or an entire character - in little more than a paragraph. Butler is also one of the most obviously black voices in genre fiction; her stories often explore racism and cultural differences, her fantasy worlds are afro- rather than euro-centric, and her protagonists are typically black and female.

Fledgling, Butler's first novel in seven years, is no exception. Narrator Shori is the ultimate in social marginalization - black, female, a child, a mix of vampire and human, and disconnected due to her amnesia. As for vampire culture, it is distinctly tribal (and reminiscent of Heinlein) - group homes in isolated areas, strong family ties, seperate male and female vampire communities, and what amount to line marriages. Most of the book's plot revolves around Shori's attempts to discover what happened to her destroyed (and for her, forgotten) community, and whether the attack which precedes the book was racially motivated.

Butler's take on vampires is an uneven one; although she makes oblique references to folklore and past perceptions of vampires, her vampies are unquestionably both modern and Western - burned by sunlight and openly sexual. Thus, some of Butler's hand-waving (and incorrect) explanations of contemporary vampire myths will irk die-hard vampire enthusiasts. However, her decision to give vampires and humans a symbiotic instead of predatory relationship is a unique and refreshing approach to well-trod territory. Butler's vampires, unafraid of exhausting a prey population, can live in rural areas and form close ties to their family of human "symbionts." Butler's science fiction background shows in her scientific explanations of vampire biology, freeing them from religion and the notion of inherent evil or damnation - which will relieve some readers, but make others feel she has missed the point.

Much depth can be found in Fledgling, but this may come from knowledge of (and respect for) the author; if the same book was written by an unknown, it would doubtless receive less critical acclaim. The plot is meandering; the writing is often bland and mealy. Butler's decision to make Shori amnesiac robs the story of much of its emotional weight - since she can't feel her losses, how can we? It also makes Fledgling unfold at a markedly slower pace than Butler's other stories, with an irritating degree of repetition (and overuse of the word "recognize") as Shori recaps almost every chapter - sometimes more than once.

Many fans will be thrilled to read any new Butler after the long drought, especially those who enjoy her frank and visceral sex scenes. However, Fledgling is Octavia Butler lite, almost certainly her worst book. Its social commentaries aren't as astute as those in her earlier works, her characters are often one-note, and her prose is uncharacteristically dull. Nevertheless, Fledgling retains Butler's unique voice, and in the end it reads like what it is - a book Butler wrote to amuse herself. Most readers unfamiliar with Octavia Butler would be better off starting with one (or several) of her other books, but casual vampire fans may enjoy her unusual spin on the genre.

To buy a copy of Fledgling, click here.

If you liked this book, you may also enjoy:

Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler

Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein



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