Dawn: Lilith's Brood 1

A new beginning for humanity

The book is primarily dedicated to the topic of recolonising the earth after humans have finally destroyed it. The focus is on a woman in her mid-twenties who is chosen by an alien species to prepare herself and other people who have survived the destruction of Earth for a new life on Earth. The story is not exciting, but at least it is interestingly written and poses many questions about the themes of alien domination, xenophobia and the desire to do something good. As this is only the first part of the trilogy, I am already looking forward to the second.

This is my live review as I read the book. Part 1 - Chapter One. Very boring. A woman trapped in a room alone talking to herself and wondering why she is there. I am probably not going to finish this book unless I force myself to do so out of boredom.... Chapter Two. The woman is being held by aliens on a spaceship. The book is still boring, but the alien has tentacles growing out of his body that the woman thought was his hair at first. "I'll only talk to you if you look at me." the alien says. This is really gross. It makes me think he has a sexual intention, and I don't want to read about that.... "I'm here to teach you to be comfortable with us.," he says. Chapter Three. It's giving me a skin crawly feeling. She is supposed to go to sleep while the weird alien man is in the room. I didn't know what this book was going to be when I started reading it, but the woman is saying "Stay like that. Let me come close and look at you like that." If this were a romance novel they would start "kissing" and then have tentacle sex. I am imagining myself in this situation and I would be clawing at the walls to get away. I guess I don't like this book and need to stop reading it now. This is making me think that people write books to express how they feel. I am thinking that the person who wrote this book thought about what it's like to touch a squid looking alien man. She was so unsatisfied with her human male relations on Earth that she needed that. This is making me wonder if there is a porn version of the movie ET. Chapter Four. The alien goes to the bathroom and the woman wonders what he does in there. Um...when he comes out of the bathroom he gives her a banana, but the book does not say where he got it from. Chapter Five. Crossbreading is discussed. Making alien-human babies! The alien is her captor, but she is talking to him like he is a new friend or "boyfriend." They are walking around outside the ship holding hands. Part one ends with her being given the choice to die, or go forward with the making babies with aliens concept. (Tentacle alien babies....) Part 2 - Chapter One He brings her home to meet his family. At this point the reader should have bought into the whole premise of the book and decided to just go along with the story and not question things. So this is a totally normal meet the parents dinner moment. Nothing unusual, everyone's parents are ailens. I'll stop writing about/reading the book here because I am sure everything that comes after is going to be just as stupid, but I would just have to accept it if I am still reading. I mean you can't argue about everything in the book being stupid, but keep reading it. That makes you stupid. The End

Well, I enjoyed this more than Fledgling, which is to say I'm grateful I read this, at least a little bit. I tend to avoid science fiction, as it just isn't my cup of juice. This book felt flat and dull in some parts and rushed in others. The characters and plot, while having potential, were not as fully fleshed out as I was hoping for. Is every Octavia E. Butler book going to be like this? Although, I will say that the politics and political undertones and the ways they were brought up were well-done and I did enjoy reading those parts.