Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was pioneer of her genre, acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. Her award-winning novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women’s rights, global warming and political disparity, and she became the first science-fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius Grant’.
Interest in her work has increased enormously since her untimely death twenty years ago as the issues she addressed in her Afrofuturistic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant. In 2020, Octavia E. Butler became a New York Times bestselling author – an ambition realised posthumously.
From groundbreaking classics to wise advice for future generations, from prescient bestsellers to a novel back in print for the first time in fifty years, here’s our guide to which Butler book you should read next…
WHERE TO BEGIN
This groundbreaking classic redefined American literature. It follows Dana, a Black woman living in 70s California who finds herself repeatedly pulled back through time to a Maryland plantation to save the life of Rufus, the white son of a slaveholder.
‘Her evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human’ New York Times
THE ONES YOU CAN’T BELIEVE WERE WRITTEN IN THE 90S – AND NOT TODAY
Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents
Already disarmingly prescient when they were published, these novels now read almost like prophecy. Lauren Olamina’s story opens in 2024 and features a presidential candidate who promises to ‘Make America Great Again’. But, for Lauren, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of a better way to live – and the birth of a new faith that will change humanity forever.
‘If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it’s one written in the past that has already begun to come true’ Gloria Steinem
YOUR NEW CULT-CLASSIC OBSESSION
It begins when two immortals meet in an African forest. They chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together – and changing the destiny of the human race. A long-awaited new edition of Survivor, chronologically the fourth book in the Patternist series, returns to print in 2026 for the first time in nearly fifty years.
‘Will rewire the mind of whoever reads it… you don’t emerge from the journey unaffected’ Nnedi Okorafor
ALIENS… JUST LIKE US?
The Lilith’s Brood books are arguably Butler’s most quintessential works of science fiction. When Lilith lyapo wakes in a small white room with no doors or windows, she finds herself living among a strange race who intervened in the fate of humanity hundreds of years before. This epic, evocative and unsettling Afrofuturist trilogy explores alien contact and what it means to be human.
‘Butler writes with such a familiarity that the alien is welcome and intriguing’ Lupita Nyong’o
A DIFFERENT KIND OF VAMPIRE NOVEL
Butler’s extraordinary final novel is about Shori, a young girl with no memory of who she is, whose unusual powers and desires lead her to a startling conclusion.
‘The Octavia Butler novel for our times’ The Atlantic
IF YOU NEED A LITTLE HOPE
A Few Rules for Predicting the Future
In strange and uncertain times, where better to turn than Octavia E. Butler? Her honest, wise and hopeful words are for anyone who wants to shape our future into something good. They live on this little book, brought to life with beautiful new artwork by Manzel Bowman.
‘One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century’ Junot Díaz
