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aubreystapp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
year23's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I am surprised at how much I liked this - even with the problematic race/color essentialism replicated in the Kohn, which I think is why Butler disavowed it - it’s a creative and compelling narrative. I see the Star Trek (or even Doctor Who) allusions here and that may be why I liked it more than expected.
The Tehkohn culture was super interesting, as was the relationship between Diut and Alanna. The theme of survival is strong and I think there are important questions explored in this story that are relevant today (as is common with Butler stories!).
The Tehkohn culture was super interesting, as was the relationship between Diut and Alanna. The theme of survival is strong and I think there are important questions explored in this story that are relevant today (as is common with Butler stories!).
book_nerd_1's review against another edition
I can see why Octavia Butler didn't think this was her best book. There are some pretty odd things about it, including a woman who accepts a man who beats her because that's the way of his people. I think she was trying to do something with that but just couldn't find the words.
Also, it was bizarre that the whole time I pictured Diut as Sully from Monsters Inc.
Also, it was bizarre that the whole time I pictured Diut as Sully from Monsters Inc.
vahala's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
number3nw's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor Spoilers Ahead
I finished reading Octavia Butler's book Survivor, which the author took out of print due to her not being satisfied with it, the book I finally used interlibrary loan to track down, an aging fragile copy I felt bad shoving into my backpack. Well, my feelings are like a lot of Butler fans reviewing Survivor: I can see why she didn't like it, but I still liked it. I liked the story and the prose. Thematically, it was classic Butler with her signature survival philosophy and critique of hierarchical violence and religious bigotry, while also giving us such hits as human/alien interbreeding and a profound love of life and the strange. The biggest miss, in my view, and maybe why she called her third novel her "Star Trek" novel, was making the aliens, the Kohn, essentially human. Different physically, but not much more than fuzzy humans, their hairy coats default color determined their rank in their bellicose culture, and on an Earth-like planet, their society was one that was formerly an empire but had devolved into warring clans. Contrast this with the Oankali in the Xenogenesis Trilogy, who are non-hierarchical and exist in a completely different way in the universe and it is easy to see why the latter is so much more compelling. Of the Kohn, I did enjoy that their fur glowed luminescent with different colors depending on their mood: white for pleasure, yellow for anger, gray for grief. So even with its shortcomings, I enjoyed reading it and, if I were the writer, I couldn't imagine abandoning it like she did, seeing as how it is a solid work of considerable depth. I know from reading her biographies that she struggled with her work and writer's block, and with wanting to be taken seriously as a writer at a time when genre fiction was considered little more than pulp. So I can't help but think that she was her own most discerning critic, and if the current Butler revival is any indication, her suppression of Survivor may have been the right move.
I finished reading Octavia Butler's book Survivor, which the author took out of print due to her not being satisfied with it, the book I finally used interlibrary loan to track down, an aging fragile copy I felt bad shoving into my backpack. Well, my feelings are like a lot of Butler fans reviewing Survivor: I can see why she didn't like it, but I still liked it. I liked the story and the prose. Thematically, it was classic Butler with her signature survival philosophy and critique of hierarchical violence and religious bigotry, while also giving us such hits as human/alien interbreeding and a profound love of life and the strange. The biggest miss, in my view, and maybe why she called her third novel her "Star Trek" novel, was making the aliens, the Kohn, essentially human. Different physically, but not much more than fuzzy humans, their hairy coats default color determined their rank in their bellicose culture, and on an Earth-like planet, their society was one that was formerly an empire but had devolved into warring clans. Contrast this with the Oankali in the Xenogenesis Trilogy, who are non-hierarchical and exist in a completely different way in the universe and it is easy to see why the latter is so much more compelling. Of the Kohn, I did enjoy that their fur glowed luminescent with different colors depending on their mood: white for pleasure, yellow for anger, gray for grief. So even with its shortcomings, I enjoyed reading it and, if I were the writer, I couldn't imagine abandoning it like she did, seeing as how it is a solid work of considerable depth. I know from reading her biographies that she struggled with her work and writer's block, and with wanting to be taken seriously as a writer at a time when genre fiction was considered little more than pulp. So I can't help but think that she was her own most discerning critic, and if the current Butler revival is any indication, her suppression of Survivor may have been the right move.
peachani's review against another edition
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, and Racism
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Infertility, Rape, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
ethanpoole's review against another edition
3.0
Its themes and setting remind me of Lilith's Brood (surviving, control and freedom, prejudice, humans and aliens interbreeding, what it means to be human). The latter is much better, both in terms of writing and plot, so I can see why Butler didn't want this book reprinted. (On that note, it was rather hard to obtain a copy of Survivor; I ended up checking it out from a university library, lol.) I don't think the book stands well on its own, but anyone who enjoyed the other Patternist books and Butler's work more generally will find Survivor interesting and worth reading.
elzabetg's review against another edition
5.0
This gets 5 stars because Octavia Butler. That said, this was definitely NOT her best work. IMO that goes to the Xenogenesis (aka Lilith's Brood) and the < a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52397.Parable_of_the_Sower?from_search=true">Parable Duology. That being said this was readable and in spite of all the issues I had reading it in 2019 that I did not have when I first read it in the 1980s (people change), I enjoyed it.