Imago
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4.4 • 47 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower:After the near-extinction of humanity, a new kind of alien-human hybrid must come to terms with their identity -- before their powers destroy what is left of humankind.
Since a nuclear war decimated the human population, the remaining humans began to rebuild their future by interbreeding with an alien race -- the Oankali -- who saved them from near-certain extinction. The Oankalis' greatest skill lies in the species' ability to constantly adapt and evolve, a process that is guided by their third sex, the ooloi, who are able to read and mutate genetic code.
Now, for the first time in the humans' relationship with the Oankali, a human mother has given birth to an ooloi child: Jodahs. Throughout his childhood, Jodahs seemed to be a male human-alien hybrid. But when he reaches adolescence, Jodahs develops the ooloi abilities to shapeshift, manipulate DNA, cure and create disease, and more. Frightened and isolated, Jodahs must either come to terms with this new identity, learn to control new powers, and unite what's left of humankind -- or become the biggest threat to their survival.
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t put it down.
I don’t know that I’ve ever read a series that made me feel so deeply conflicted—frustrated, awed, unnerved, and ultimately, grateful. Imago and the entire Lilith’s Brood trilogy challenged me in ways I didn’t expect, forcing me to sit with discomfort and examine my own assumptions about identity, power, and what it means to evolve.
What struck me most was the way Butler explored choice—or the illusion of it. The Oankali are, in their own way, benevolent colonizers. Their need to merge, to transform, to improve life is sincere, even loving, but it is also inescapable. Humans don’t really have a choice. The ooloi, with their intoxicating presence and biological necessity, reshape human will, and yet… is this violation or salvation? Are they partners, or something more insidious?
I found myself frustrated with human resistance, yet I understood it. I saw the fragility of masculinity laid bare, but I also recognized the terror of losing agency. Butler doesn’t provide easy answers. She simply holds up a mirror and asks us to look. I’ll be thinking about these books for a long, long time.
Outside look at humans
It’s always interesting to read an author who can step “outside” and see humans from another point of view. What a complicated world is described!