FACT SF Reading Group

May 2007

May 7: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

Ten people gathered at the North Village library for this discussion of Octavia E. Butler’s final novel. We had one first-time attendee. The story deals with a young woman who wakes up with no memory and tries to determine who and what she is. She quickly learns that she is not human, but instead is a member of a humanoid species with many characteristics of vampires. She eventually comes to learn a great deal about her heritage and the social structure of her race. Eight of us had read Butler before, and eight started and completed this book.

Some of us trouble finding copies of Fledgling to read, despite the trade paperback being out for only a few weeks. We suspect that bookstores and libraries had trouble figuring out where to shelve this book, since it deals with vampires but has no horror elements.

The protagonist’s story is told in first-person, and the author does a beautiful job of developing the story’s world, the plot, and the narrator’s emerging personality. One person commented that the book was effortless to read. Many of us felt Butler’s prose style was superb.

Several of us pointed out that this story deals with Butler’s commons obsessions: race and otherness. The social structure of the vampiric race is well thought out, and it is presented over the course of the novel without tedious info-dumps. The vampires are seriously about science, and they are exploring eugenics and cloning.

The relationships of the vampires to humans are carefully developed. The two races turn out to be symbiotic, with the vampires calling all the shots. Some elements of this relationship are sexual, and we found the scenes illustrating this creepy. One member wondered why so many authors are interested in vampire sexuality. The symbiosis is basically a voluntary and humane form of slavery. We found this disturbing, but appreciated how the author developed the concept so well. It challenged us to consider whether a symbiotic life was worth living. One quote from a human to his vampire illustrates this: “Do you love me or do I just taste good?”

The end of the book is a courtroom drama between different factions of the vampires. This was an effective way to present more of the world of vampires, particularly how members of a race of near-immortals might argue serious issues. But we generally felt the trial was an artificial device that hurt the narrative momentum, and therefore our enjoyment of the story.

We all appreciated Butler’s clear writing. Most of liked the story a lot. A couple of people didn’t connect with this book as much as with some of Butler’s prior work, but they said they still liked it. One member said this book was the most thought-provoking he’d read in several years. One of us usually does not like vampire books, but really enjoyed Fledgling’s exploration of otherness. She said that she almost cried when she got to the end, since we would not be seeing any more books from Octavia Butler.

After the meeting, we had a nice dinner at Fuddrucker’s.

May 22: I Hope the World Can Take It by Artemus Shelton

Nine people showed up at A. T.’s house to discuss the new novel by Reading Group member Art Shelton. The book tells a near-feature cyberpunk science fiction tale full of action.  The story follows a data courier who gets into trouble when carrying some especially secret information. One member had read Shelton’s work before, in a writing group. Eight of us started the book, and five finished it.

The story starts with a bang and never lets up. Most of us got involved with the main character and action quickly, and the story kept us going until the end. The surprise twist near the end is well-executed. Some of us felt that the story reads like a screenplay.

This book works well as an action novel. We really did not see as many new concepts and technologies as we would prefer in a science fiction novel. Most of the sf ideas here seem to come from the fiction of William Gibson, and a couple of us thought this book felt like a sequel to the film Johnny Mnemonic.

Our favorite supporting character was the Asian grandmother that gets pulled into the adventure. We thought she had a lot of potential, and wished she could have taken on a larger role in the story.

The writing shows promise. Shelton exhibits an ability to write action. There are several nice passages of descriptive prose. We wished some of the supporting characters had been developed better. A couple of us were bothered by inconsistent use of italics, but were not sure if this was the fault of the author or the proofreader. We think the author needs to learn more about writing in first-person voice, which is notoriously difficult. For example the narrator is portrayed as an uneducated person, yet he sometimes uses vocabulary that such a person would not know.

Overall we were pleasantly surprised by this early work of Mr. Shelton. Many of us know several aspiring writers, and we feel that Shelton has accomplished more than most by completing the book and making it readable. We encourage him to continue writing and to dreaming up big ideas.

After the meeting, we had a nice dinner at Mongolian Grille.

--A. T. Campbell, III