Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler · first published 1979
57% recommend43% neutral
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.
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I loved Octavia Butler's Kindred. More than the science fiction, its cultural importance cannot be emphasized enough.
on “YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List” ↗- Harry Potter and methods of rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky Great intro to rationality, so fun to see a different take on a world you likely already know. - Kindred by Octavia Butler Such an interesting perspective on the psychology of what it takes to break a human being. In the worst way possible. - The Humans by Matt Haig Being outside of the human race, the…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗For anyone new to Octavia Butler, she has a short list of novels and basically all are good. The list sorted by popularity is a good start: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/29535.Octavia_E_Butler Kindred is excellent and the most popular for good reason. But it as much American history as it is sci-fi. Dawn is my favorite of hers and very sci-fi. Parable of the Sower is also an excellent place to start,…
on “The Life of Octavia Butler” ↗…a few years back which apparently is not a book to my taste. But Andy Weir completely annihilated that wrong perspective on science fiction. Project Hail Mary is interesting, funny and gripping book. Kindred by Octavia Butler (p:287) This book.... From page one I was hooked and almost read it in one go. Butler is a wonderful author and Kindred is a must-read. The book is about a woman traveling back in…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗…may be missing some poems but this is largely what we covered: A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr Arcadia - Tom Stoppard Dulce et Decorum est - Wilfred Owen Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Kindred - Octavia E. Butler Life of Galileo - Bertolt Brecht Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw Suicide in the Trenches - Siegfried Sassoon The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King The Lady's Not for Burning…
on “Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (2009)” ↗Kindred by Octavia Butler. I've been making my way through all of her other works for the past few years. I've read the Xenogenesis trilogy two or three times. Her works speak to me about the human condition…
on “Ask HN: What are you looking forward to reading in 2023?” ↗…Duty-Dance with Death (1969) Michael Moorcock - The English Assassin (1972) M. John Harrison - The Pastel City (1971) Moebius-s Le Garage Hermétique (The Airtight Garage, 1976–1979) Octavia E. Butler-s Kindred (1979) Octavia E. Butler - Wild Seed (1980) Philip K. Dick - A Maze of Death (1970) Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly (1977) Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) Philip…
on “New Wave Sci-Fi: 75 Best Novels of 1964–1983” ↗