Earthseed Series Book 1
This dystopian novel from 1993 is set in the year 2024 and follows 15 year old protagonist Lauren Olamina who feels the physical pain and pleasure of people around her.
Lauren’s neighborhood tries to stay safe behind walls while chaos rules the outside world, but arsonists and drug addicts breach and burn Lauren’s neighborhood, killing her family. Lauren flees the ruins, disguised as a man to hide her vulnerability as a woman and her secret condition of hyper-empathy. She links up with two other survivors from her neighborhood, Harry Balter and Zahra Moss. The growing group of refugees travel north along dangerous highways toward safety. The surviving group reaches Northern California (Humboldt County) and establishes a safe community called Acorn.
Lauren develops a new belief system centered on the core idea that “God is Change,” aiming to plant human life among the stars. In the Earthseed belief system God is not a conscious being, but the natural force of change shaping the universe. Humans cannot stop change, but they can direct, shape, and influence it through conscious action. The ultimate goal of humanity is to leave a dying Earth and establish communities among the stars.
Octavia E Butler is great at building worlds, and that’s just what she did in this book. I didn’t enjoy this as much as some of her other books (Kindred is my favourite of hers), but this was a decent read!
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 50: A book about Afrofuturism
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
