Parable of the Sower
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Narrated by:
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Lynne Thigpen
About this listen
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.
For her elegant, literate works of science fiction, Octavia E. Butler has been compared to Toni Morrison and Ursula K. LeGuin. Narrator Lynne Thigpen's melodious voice will hold you spellbound throughout this compelling parable of modern society.
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Featured Article: The Best Audiobook Series of All Time by Genre
What makes a good audiobook series? There are as many answers to this question as there are listeners. For some, it might be epic battles. For others, it might be ongoing romantic twists and tensions. For still others, it might be elongated character studies or an in-depth analysis of a particular time and place. But the universal element of a truly great series is that it sticks with you long after the last word. These are our favorites from every major genre.
Editor's Pick
What expert dystopian fiction sounds like
"We lost the genius Octavia Butler far too soon, as evidenced by the close-to-home and all too imaginable dystopian future imagined in the Earthseed duology. Lynn Thigpen’s performance is a work of pure art. As one Audible listener (Amber) put it: "Her voice is raw silk, and her pacing and inflections are perfection, adding layers of meaning to a single word of dialog." Shivers."
—Sam D., Audible Editor
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Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
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Night Stalker
- By: Shirlee McCoy
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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After Special Agent Adam Whitfield’s ex-wife is nearly killed when she stops an abduction, the serial killer that Adam’s been hunting turns his focus on Charlotte Murray for getting in his way. Now, as the Night Stalker closes in, Adam has two missions: bring the murderer to justice and save Charlotte - because failure isn’t an option.
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Christian faith throughout story
- By Anonymous User on 10-20-20
By: Shirlee McCoy
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The Voice of the Night with Short Story, "Silence"
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Pavi Proczko, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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No one could understand why Colin and Roy were best friends. Colin was so shy; Roy was so popular. Colin was fascinated by Roy - and Roy was fascinated by death. Then one day, Roy asked his timid friend: “You ever killed anything?” From that moment on, the two were bound together in a game too terrifying to imagine - and too irresistible to stop.
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can not believe dean koontz wrote this book
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-21
By: Dean Koontz
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That's How I Roll
- By: Andrew Vachss
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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After pleading guilty to a series of homicides, Esau Till sits on death row, writing his life story. But his memoir is his one last chance to protect his brother. And, when it comes to his baby brother, Esau Till is a man without boundaries. When the genetic cards were dealt, Esau drew a genius IQ - and a crippled body. His brother Tory drew a slow mind - and almost superhuman strength. Very early on, Esau learned that the only way to guarantee his brother's safety was to make himself indispensable, so he became the top hired killer for both rival local mobs.
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Roll baby Roll
- By Anonymous User on 05-04-12
By: Andrew Vachss
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Until Tomorrow
- By: Rosanne Bittner
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Addy wants nothing more than to leave her small Illinois home for the gold-rich hills of Colorado, where a teaching job awaits. But her plans are thwarted when a band of outlaws rob the very bank in which she is withdrawing her savings, taking her hostage in the process. Rogue and ruthless, her captives sweep her off to the country with evil intent, but one man stands in the way. Ex-Confederate soldier Parker Cole doesn’t understand his own fierce determination to protect the beautiful captive from his fellow bandits.
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good story but not great
- By joanie on 06-27-20
By: Rosanne Bittner
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Belle Cora
- A Novel
- By: Phillip Margulies
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the home where Arabella Godwin was raised it is forbidden to speak her name, and her picture is turned to the wall. But in the turbulent America of the 1850s, everyone knows her as "Belle Cora", madam of San Francisco's finest bordello. Judges and senators do her bidding; a vicious newspaper editor plots her downfall; a preacher looks at her from across his pulpit and tries to forget that once she was his wife. Merchant's daughter, farm girl, prostitute, mother - the only thing that never changes is her tireless pursuit of the one man who can see her for who she really is.
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excellent
- By Patricia on 05-15-20
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The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
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Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
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Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
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A Tough Review To Write...
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When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.
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Too Sexual
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This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted - and still wants - to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
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Why is everyone okay with the child porn imagery?
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Unexpected Stories
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This exciting collection presents two previously unpublished stories by SF legend Octavia E. Butler. A Necessary Being precedes the events of Survivor, Butler's third (famously disowned) installment in her Patternist series, and includes characters from it, focusing exclusively on the Kohn, aliens who build their social hierarchies on the blueness of their fur. In Childfinder, a black woman with the gift of identifying children with latent psychic ability refuses to share her skill with an organization of white telepaths.
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Octavia B. is the John Coltrane of Scifi fantasy
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Bloodchild and Other Stories
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A perfect introduction for new listeners and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and "Speech Sounds," winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in audio for the first time, "Amnesty" is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders. Also new to this collection is "The Book of Martha" which asks: What would you do if God granted you the ability—and responsibility—to save humanity from itself?
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Some are good
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Kindred
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Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
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The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
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Wild Seed
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For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries.
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A Tough Review To Write...
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When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.
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Too Sexual
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Fledgling
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This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted - and still wants - to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
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Why is everyone okay with the child porn imagery?
- By JG on 07-18-20
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Unexpected Stories
- Two Novellas
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Overall
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Performance
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This exciting collection presents two previously unpublished stories by SF legend Octavia E. Butler. A Necessary Being precedes the events of Survivor, Butler's third (famously disowned) installment in her Patternist series, and includes characters from it, focusing exclusively on the Kohn, aliens who build their social hierarchies on the blueness of their fur. In Childfinder, a black woman with the gift of identifying children with latent psychic ability refuses to share her skill with an organization of white telepaths.
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Octavia B. is the John Coltrane of Scifi fantasy
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Some are good
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Ship hurtles through space. Deep within its core it carries the seed of humankind. Launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago, its mission is to find a habitable world for the children - 15-year-old Zoheret and her shipmates - whom it has created from its genetic banks. To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own, on an uninhabited planet, without Ship’s protection. Now that day is almost upon them, but are they ready?
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Sort of Like the Hunger Games
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Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision and try to create such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought 20 of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change.
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Octavia Would Be Proud
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The 13th Paladin Boxed Set
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Ahren's life consists of being beaten up by his drunkard father or bullied by the village lads. But at the annual suitability tests for apprenticeships, the young boy finds himself selected by Falk, the guardian of the forest, to be his apprentice and his world is turned upside down.
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couple of messed up things to it.
- By Matt on 02-08-22
By: Torsten Weitze, and others
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Hedda Gabler
- By: Henrik Ibsen
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- Unabridged
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Hedda Gabler is a classic play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Set in the late nineteenth century, the play follows the life of Hedda, a young socialite whose life is filled with endless boredom and longing. As she struggles to find her place in society, Hedda’s inner turmoil is reflected in her desperate attempts to break free of the societal norms that bind her. This emotional journey is filled with suspense and drama, as Hedda’s choices have the power to shape her own destiny.
By: Henrik Ibsen
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Disorder
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Part dark romance, part fairy tale, DISORDER marks the arrival of bestselling Italian author Rokia, available for the first time in English, in a vibrant translation by Beth Hickling-Moore. The production is voiced by an all-star cast: Diane Guerrero (Orange is the New Black), William Gao (Heartstopper), Freya Allan (The Witcher) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education.)
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All over the place.
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Worlds of Exile and Illusion
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- Unabridged
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Three remarkable journeys into the stars: Worlds of Exile and Illusion includes Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions. These three spacefaring adventures mark the beginning of grand master Ursula K. Le Guin’s remarkable career. Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s groundbreaking classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these first three books of the celebrated Hainish series follow travelers of many worlds and civilizations in the depths of space.
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Isaac Steele and the Forever Man
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- Unabridged
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Agent Isaac Steele has problems. He spends all his splibs on drink and drugs. He has some deep-seated and very much unresolved issues with his parents. And his robotic partner at Greatest Britain’s Department of Clarification, Dr Timothy Stephens, is ruled more by his heart than his hard drive. But all these issues take a back seat when Isaac stumbles upon a case involving the most sensitive information in the cosmos - a Never File, inaccessible to all except those with the highest clearance. He is expressly forbidden to involve himself. So naturally he does.
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Bombastic comedic rollercoster
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By: Daniel Rigby
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The Woman in Coach D
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Jenny sits in the same seat on the same train every week, seeing familiar faces come and go. Until a chance encounter shatters her world. Sixteen years ago, Jenny survived a traumatic ordeal that left her best friend, Susie, missing and presumed dead. The world has its theories about what happened to Susie Patterson, and one of those theories points the finger at Jenny. Now she lives a quiet life, volunteering at a crisis helpline while trying to deal with her own anxiety and the true crime fans obsessed with finding her missing friend.
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OK, but way too long
- By janet on 11-09-24
By: Sarah A. Denzil
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Hood Feminism
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- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. Author Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.
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I Learned So Much!!!
- By Rebecca on 06-13-20
By: Mikki Kendall
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Rage Becomes Her
- The Power of Women's Anger
- By: Soraya Chemaly
- Narrated by: Soraya Chemaly
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why. We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would. Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression.
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Holy Raging Hell
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-18
By: Soraya Chemaly
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Mutual Aid
- Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
- By: Dean Spade
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.
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An excellent primer on collective good
- By Robert R. Fike on 01-27-22
By: Dean Spade
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All Systems Red
- By: Martha Wells
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.
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I just wish all four stories were one book...
- By Garrett Stone on 11-05-18
By: Martha Wells
What listeners say about Parable of the Sower
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sarah C
- 10-29-14
Compelling, Inspirational, Smart Dystopian Tale
I loved the pacing of the performance, the narrator seemed to embody the character of Lauren Olamina. The imagery was engaging, and the geography tested my mental map of California (I've lived in both L.A. and the Bay Area). The theology of Earth Seed had me thinking of the Process Theology I've studied in classes.
Highly recommended Spec Fic!
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12 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-19-12
50% Brilliant
Where does Parable of the Sower rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Parable of the Sower is one the best audiobooks that I've listened to, for the first half.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Parable of the Sower?
The narrative of the slow unraveling of Lauren's community paired with her own transformation into adulthood is facinating and beautifully put together. Unfortunately this level of narrative doesn't carry into the second half of the book. I'll save the spoilers, and only say that the pace, character development, and cast of characters get extremely herky-jerky. This is not at all the fault of the producers of this audiobook, but a problematic feature of Butler's novel.
Have you listened to any of Lynne Thigpen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Lynne Thigpen is terrific as a narrator. She is very well cast for the part. I haven't heard any of her other performances, but this one is delivered with a smart understanding of the character and appealing aesthetic sensibility. Both the idealism of young Lauren, and her character's innate wisdom and strength come through clear as a bell.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Aparries
- 04-08-18
Provocative and beautiful
Parable is a beautifully written tale. Fans of The Colony, The Walking Dead or FTWD, or any apocalyptic tale will find themselves at home in this tale of a society ending. The story is about finding a balance between surviving moment to moment, daring to hope, and planting a future. It’s a very thought provoking story that keeps you wanting more and rooting for humanity... to either survive or die out. Sometimes both at the same time.
Thigpen’s narration wasn’t bad, but it was just that, a narration, not a performance. It kept throwing me off because the protagonist is a teenager, and Thigpen is a mature woman.
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3 people found this helpful
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- B. Nettles
- 09-26-19
Terrific voyage in a possible dystopic near future
Another epic installment by Octavia. She was truly forward thinking. I hope we break a different way.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-20-18
Essential Reading
Butler is an essential American author. Love her work. But why not have the same reader perform both books in the series? Dreading starting Parable of the Talents with a different voice as Lauren.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-10-17
Good Dystopian
Really good read for older teens and adults. Interesting characters that are not predictable along with unpredictable plotline.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-29-20
A dystopia that’s almost too close for comfort
I loved this book. It easily and rightfully makes one reflective upon current events. It was a bold but impactful choice to set the story in such a near future. I’m glad I stuck with it, but was almost completely turned off by the narrator, who is clear and properly emotional but who speaks so slowly that at 1.3x speed she sounds like she’s speaking at a completely normal rate.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-12-18
Simply Amazing
Great story that is very well paced and intensely described. Butler paints a future that is very frightening and very plausible. I loved this novel.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-13-20
Depressing
A short gripe at the start of this review, can you please put the chapter breaks at the chapter breaks? None of them seem to line up and I like to use the sleep timer set to "End of Chapter" to help me figure out how long I have been listening and then to switch to another title. Them not lining up means 30-40 minutes in which I may here "Chapter X" multiple times and then end in the middle of a chapter.
The story is interesting. When reading I thought of it as a very 80's vision of the dystopian future, where the emphasis is more on the rise of gang and drug violence coupled with economic exploitation of the working class, rather than on ecological devastation coupled with exploitation of the working class. There is a general lack of science fiction elements in spite of it taking place 5+ years from when I am writing this, and it mostly focuses on the grinding unpleasantness of the world from the view of someone being grinded.
It did not grab me the way everyone hopes a book will, but it was alright.
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- Carolyn E. Jaques
- 04-13-20
would love to hear more
I loved this narrator!! An interesting dystopian written from a young adult minority voice. A dark tale of hope. oxymoronic yes. but Octavia pulled it off!!
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