Dawn

I couldn’t finish this list without including one of the most famous examples of pregnancy in science fiction.

Humanity comes face-to-face with an alien species, the Oankali, who use gene editing, cloning, and mating to refresh their gene pools. The focus is on Lilith, a black woman taken hostage by the aliens who must learn about their plans for her and strategize her responses.

I really appreciate the way Butler’s work manages to speak to the legacy of slavery, particularly through a scene where the aliens create the circumstances for Lilith to breed with a human man in aid of… show more.

This series imagines that the earth has already been destroyed by human beings when an alien species arrives and manages to bring a small group of humans back from the verge of death.

The hook is, these aliens have revived humans in order to merge with them genetically—That is, to become a third gender in human biology, essential to human mating and reproduction.

I loved this series because it imagines a universe and a future so different from anything we’ve experienced, and yet explores and deconstructs the most basic of human behaviors.

Dawn was the first book that nailed my jaw to the table from the opening chapter right through to the last page. I marveled not only at Butler’s wonderful style and inventiveness, but at the boundaries she crossed that I had never dared, and did so without inflicting emotional destruction. Better, she married these shocking concepts with complex social relationships, sensuality, a brilliantly emergent plot, and radical views of a future that still make me squirm (in a good way). An absolute masterpiece that changed my definition of science fiction done well.

A good sci-fi novel should challenge my conceptions of technology, society, and how the two work in tandem. Octavia Butler delivers! Lilith Iyapo finds herself on a spaceship with limited understanding of how she got there. She’s been kidnapped by an alien race and must figure out how to survive with foreign tech and dubiously-motivated alien kidnappers. Far from a kill-or-be-killed gorefest (which I also love, but this isn’t one), Octavia Butler uses the alien civilization as a tool to pick apart our own social situation. Written in 1987, this book has concepts within that I’ve still yet to see… show more.

Never has a book fascinated me and angered me as much as this one. Octavia is a master at pulling the audience in and challenging what the reader sees as normal or acceptable. 

The story opens on a Black woman being held captive by aliens in an empty room with no clue as to how she got there. She is forced to accept them and interact with them in order to save humanity which has been all but wiped out. Follow along as humanity must decide between giving up the ability to have children…or forming a new race with their… show more.

One of Octavia Butler's true masterpieces, this post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel published in 1987 is as relevant today as it was then. This was a book I had to take my time with as there are a lot of very intense themes some readers may need extra time to chew on. These themes were even more important than the characters or the world-building, in my eyes. I loved the incredible strength, wisdom, and patience the female protagonist exhibited in a grim situation. There is no doubt that some readers may find the topics and subject matter of this story quite unpleasant;… show more.

Octavia Butler’s classic trilogy Lilith’s Brood is shocking and sad and strangely funny too. Humanity has all but destroyed itself, but a wise, benevolent alien race saves a few survivors—and tells them that they would be happy to help humanity survive by making babies with them. Very generous, indeed; but unfortunately, the aliens are horrendous monsters. This made me realize with a shock how much we, too, see newness and change often as monstrous, even if we know that clinging to the old will lead to self-destruction. I cannot think of a more topical story.

Having started this list with the titan of gothic science fiction, Mary Shelley, it is appropriate to close out the list with another titan, Octavia Butler. Dawn is the first book of the Xenogenesis series, which—though long-recognised as a science fiction classic—has deep connections to the gothic genre with its “A live! Still alive. Alive…again” (surely a contender for the best opening to a novel), and its captors, strange Awakenings, creatures covered in writhing tentacles, and hybridisation of the human and alien. Underneath all of this, is the complex interrogation of what it means to be human—an exploration suited exceptionally… show more.

When Earth is destroyed by nuclear war, a race called the oankali rescue the few survivors and restore the earth to health. The oankali trade in DNA, and wish to combine their genetic material with that of humans. In doing so they will correct the issues that made humans destroy their planet while adopting human genes that will benefit their own species.

Those who accept the merging of species give birth to hybrid children, while others struggle to maintain humanity’s purity. A new species is slowly being created, and Butler explores how humans might respond to their own children becoming… show more.