From the back cover:
Lauren Olamina’s love is divided among her young daughter, her community, and the revelation that led Lauren to found a new faith that teaches “God is Change.” But in the wake of environmental and economic chaos, the U.S. government turns a blind eye to violent bigots who consider the mere existence of a black female leader a threat. And soon Lauren must either sacrifice her child and her followers—or forsake the religion that can transform human destiny.

Review:
Parable of the Talents picks up five years after the end of Parable of the Sower. Lauren has successfully established an Earthseed community named Acorn, home to about sixty people. They’re self-sufficient and doing well until a well-organized group of crusading Christians arrives to wipe out their heathen ways. Acorn gets turned into Camp Christian, its members enslaved, and its children (including Lauren’s newborn daughter) “rescued” and given to Christian families. The rest of the novel chronicles Lauren’s attempts to find her daughter while trying to ensure that Earthseed succeeds.

The story is told in excerpts from Lauren’s journals, as well from writings of her husband and brother. These selections were chosen by Lauren’s now-adult daughter, who introduces each segment while gradually providing more information about her own life. The daughter finds a lot of fault in Lauren’s actions, especially Lauren’s refusal to heed her husband’s request that they move and raise their child in a more established community. Feeling like she always came second to Earthseed, the daughter is resentful.

I love that we get not only Lauren’s first person explanation of her actions and motivations but also a dissenting voice, critical of the protagonist’s flaws and failings. There’s a great line where the daughter says that if her mother had created Acorn, peaceful haven for the homeless and desperate, but not Earthseed, she would’ve been able to find her a wholly admirable person. I’ve not seen this kind of framework before—protagonist’s story interspersed with unstinting criticism of protagonist. It’s interesting and I admire it a lot.

There are a few things that bug me a little, though. The cultish creepiness of Earthseed is more apparent, now, with established rituals, ceremonies, and hymns, but this is balanced by the daughter’s obvious disdain for the movement. Also, it seems that every Christian man (and practically every man, period) is a hypocrite, molester, or sadist. The ending is also rather rushed, but nonetheless ends on a very satisfying note.

Dark, grim, and fascinating, this duology has been a very good read. I recommend it.

From the back cover:
God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose unlikely prophet is 18-year-old Lauren Olamina. The young woman’s diary entries tell the story of her life amid a violent 21st-century hell of walled neighborhoods and drug-crazed pyromaniacs—and reveal her evolving Earthseed philosophy. Against a backdrop of horror emerges a message of hope: if we are willing to embrace divine change, we will survive to fulfill our destiny among the stars.

Review:
Lauren’s diary entries begin in July 2024, on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, and continue through October 2027, when she is eighteen. In the meantime, the walled neighborhood near Los Angeles in which she and her family live is destroyed and she is forced out onto the road, heading north in search of a better life. Lauren is mature for her years, however, and is more prepared than anyone else for the day when catastrophe strikes. On the road, she collects companions and instructs them in the new religion she has discovered (she states firmly that she did not invent it) while searching for a place they can settle and create a community.

I wondered initially whether I would like this, or if it’d be too religious for me. There were times, indeed, where Lauren’s instruction of her new traveling companions did seem a little creepy and cult-like. Earthseed is really more of a philosophy than a religion, though, and boils down to: “There’s no God who cares about you. So stop sitting around, praying for His intervention, and take care of things yourself.” Since I don’t disagree, the religious stuff didn’t end up bothering me too much.

I found all of the dystopic details very interesting, though occasionally gruesome and horrible. The plot wasn’t complicated—let’s walk North!—but the various encounters with dangerous and desperate people turned what could’ve been a boring travel narrative into something engrossing. I also really liked Lauren, who is smart and level-headed, as well as the way race was dealt with (it’s mentioned and not ignored, but neither is it the defining trait of any character).

I’ll definitely be reading the sequel, Parable of the Talents, and probably checking out other things by Octavia E. Butler, too.