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Adulthood Rites

Contributors

By Octavia E. Butler

Read by J. D. Jackson

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$27.99

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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 30, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

From the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower:After the near-extinction of the human race, one young man with extraordinary gifts will reveal whether the human race can learn from its past and rebuild their future . . . or is doomed to self-destruction.

In the future, nuclear war has destroyed nearly all humankind. An alien race intervenes, saving the small group of survivors from certain death. But their salvation comes at a cost.

The Oankali are able to read and mutate genetic code, and they use these skills for their own survival, interbreeding with new species to constantly adapt and evolve. They value the intelligence they see in humankind but also know that the species—rigidly bound to destructive social hierarchies—is destined for failure. They are determined that the only way forward is for the two races to produce a new hybrid species—and they will not tolerate rebellion.

Akin looks like an ordinary human child. But as the first true human-alien hybrid, he is born understanding language, then starts to form sentences at two months old. He can see at a molecular level and kill with a touch. More powerful than any human or Oankali, he will be the architect of both races’ future. But before he can carry this new species into the stars, Akin must reconcile with his own heritage in a world already torn in two.


Octavia E. Butler

About the Author

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, often referred to as the “grand dame of science fiction,” was the author of several award-winning novels including Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and numerous literary awards, she has been acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. She passed away on February 24, 2006.

Learn more about this author