Dawn

by Octavia Butler

This is some very interesting science fiction. I admit I was first drawn to Octavia Butler's works because I loved the cover images; John Jude Palencar is one of my favorite illustrators. Dawn is a futuristic novel in which the human race has been nearly destroyed and rescued by aliens. The aliens saved them from catastrophe and are ready to return them to a restored Earth, but is the cost worth it? The aliens engage in a form of genetic "trading" with other species as a way to advance themselves. So they are saving humankind by transforming them into something else. The protagonist wakes after centuries of forced sleep and finds herself assigned a leader of the humans preparing to return to Earth. There's all sorts of conflicts going on, not the least of which is most of the characters' discontent with what the aliens have done to them. I found the story really intriguing but the characters rather unlikable. Maybe their unpleasant nature was part of the genetic change they had undergone, I'm not sure. Regardless, it is a book I'd like to read again someday.

Rating: 3/5 ....... 256 pages, 1987

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