Adulthood Rites: A human-Oankali child is torn between two speciesOriginally posted at Fantasy LiteratureAdulthood Rites (1988) is the second book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy. It continues the story of Lilith in Dawn (1987), a human woman revived by the alien Oankali centuries after humanity has mostly destroyed itself with nuclear weapons. The Oankali offered humanity a second chance, but at a price — to merge its genes with the Oankali, who are ‘gene traders’ driven to continuously...

Impressive. I definitely liked this second story in the trilogy better than the first. The other was very much a foundation, but while we really don't follow Lillith from the first, we do follow her hybrid son as he makes his way through an early difficult childhood and into his Adulthood Rite.Akim is a victim as much as he is a bridge between the ignorant and dispirited humans brought down to Earth and the aliens who misunderstand our humanity. We're a paradox of hierarchical madness and intell...

I liked the second book in the Xenogenesis series a lot. There were some problems with the fact that I thought the character Akin did a total change that didn't seem reasonable after seeing how the Resisters acted. His thought process that if only the Resisters were granted total freedom would lead them to be better than their overall nature I thought was naive based on what he witnessed and even based on what occurred in book #1.In "Dawn" the main character was told from Lilith Iyapo. Lilith aw...

3.5 stars. I was not as invested like with Dawn, but still curious how the story would develop. Imago next!

Sequel to Dawn. The one where Akin, a human-looking child with a mix of human and oankali genes, is kidnapped and grows up among villages of human resisters. This sequel focuses on the feelings of the humans who have chosen not to mix with or cooperate with the oankali, and so it's not surprising that its view of humanity is depressing as hell.This re-read I noticed something that hadn't struck me the first time: The oankali don't have stories -- don't seem to understand why anyone would want th...

Loved every second of it!

I find it oddly difficult to review an Octavia Butler book without filling it to the brim with cringe inducing sentimentality and hyperbole but I'll be damned if she doesn't make me all pensive and a touch maudlin every time I read her books. I get this feeling that her kindness and compassion always seep through her books and it makes me feel a little wistful that she is no longer with us.Adulthood Rites is the second volume of the Lilith's Brood trilogy. In a nutshell it is the story of the la...

Loved the first book, loved this second one even more. Octavia E Butler was brilliant, her imagination superb!

I will not rest until I read everything by Octavia E Butler.

Get ready to go down the extraterrestrial rabbit hole as our story follows Akin the half Oankali half human son of Lilith Iyapo from dawn the first book. we get an inside look into the Oankali society but not too much to be mind boggling since Akin is only half. He only partly understands the Oankali. even humans like Lilith are a bit of a mystery to Akin. i can't really scratch the surface here without giving away spoilers from the first book Dawn. but although Octavia Butler is a great author,...

This is the second of three novels in the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler. It is a fine example of a well-thought-out and executed sci-fi concept. It held my attention from beginning to end.The main character from the first book, Lillith, may be the only human on Earth who is fertile. She has a child, Akin. However, Akin is not an ordinary human, as he is the child of five individuals; a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a third sex Oankali known as an "ooloi". In partic...

This second of the series left me feeling sad for the humans who keep repeating their stupid, violent behavior. Akin in trying to save them must lose himself and lose his own people.

The story continues few years after the events in Dawn . Earth is habitable again, the Oankali allowed humans to live ‘free’ (they are called resisters) or with them in the Amazonian jungle. ‘Free’ is not just what is should be; all humans have been sterilized and they can only procreate with Oankali involvement, so homo sapiens is heading for extinction. First ‘construct’ - mixed race - children are born; some of the resisters love them, others are afraid of them, others feel revulsion. One

2021 Reread:I love what this book offers. Its not a direct continuation of Lilith's story but it allows you to see what she became and the family she builds with her Oankali mates.Akin is charming and one of my favorite characters of Butler's. This book deals with a fatal contradiction that I agree with Butler in many ways feels like its human nature.I don't agree thats our nature though. I think the last almost 600 yrs of brutality has been confused for human nature. I don't agree that white su...

Adulthood Rites takes place several years after Dawn and shows life on new Earth as both humans and oankali have resettled some of the land and formed villages. The story follows one of Lilith's sons, Akin, a human-oankali construct, as he grows to maturity. Akin is the first construct to be born to a human mother, and because he looks more human on the outside, he's easily accepted by other humans who have chosen to reject the oankali and the gene trade (from Dawn). Looks are deceiving though s...

Would this really have happened to us? If someone pressed the "reset" button on our planet, would humanity go back to pillaging, raping and kidnapping to ensure the survival of their own village or simply for the satisfaction of our basic needs? I find it hard to believe, maybe because I don't want to.According to the alien species in this book, as humans we are deeply hierarchical, we follow or we want to be followed, which is the main reason for the majority of our wars and atrocities committe...

This is a brilliant and mind-blowing apocalyptic tale published in 1988. Instead of a cataclysm like an epidemic or a meteor strike, the event that threatens human existence is a very unusual form of invasion by beneficent aliens after we have nearly done ourselves in.Human warfare and devastation of the Earth nearly wiped out the species, and a superior starfaring race of aliens, the Oankali, have stepped in and preserved the human race. They keep enough in suspension on their ship so that when...

Somewhere between the particular texture of the writing and the thought-sparking brilliance of the ideas, Octavia Butler's work never fails to hook me in so far I never want to leave. Like Dawn, this novel had me rambling on to friends and family about Lilith and her relationships, the Oankali and their culture.One of my friends, when I described how the Oankali feel pain when they cause it, and feel pleasure when they cause it, picked up on the theme that recurs throughout all Octavia's work th...

This book starts years after the first one, as the humans and Oankali are established on Earth, and have been giving birth to Oankali/human construct children for quite a while now. I maybe missed the explanation of why they're called constructs, because aren't all children through the mediating influence of an Oankali ooloi (their third sex, masters of genemixing) constructed, whether part human or not? I mean, isn't that what makes the Oankali what they are?Note: The rest of this review has be...

“Human purpose isn't what you say it is or what I say it is. It's what your biology says it is--what your genes say it is.” Octavia Butler's Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis #2) continues where Dawn leaves off; however, the perspective is shifted from Lilith to her son Akin (who has been created with four other parents). When Akin is kidnapped, the focus of the story is on him growing up among humans who have resisted the Oankali's help. Can Akin convince them the time has come to accept help from