Reading Order
Parable of the Talents Reading Order
Parable of the Talents (1998) is Octavia E. Butler's sequel to Parable of the Sower and the conclusion of the Parable duology — the continuation of Lauren Olamina's story as she leads the Earthseed community (now called Acorn) in the 2030s and 2040s, only to have the community destroyed by Christian American Crusaders who believe that Earthseed is a heresy, enslave the adults, and steal the children to be raised as Christians. The novel is also narrated partly by Lauren's daughter Larkin/Asha, who was taken as an infant and grew up hating her mother for the life Lauren chose. Parable of the Talents deepens the first novel's concerns and darkens its vision: where Parable of the Sower is about the birth of something new in the face of catastrophe, Parable of the Talents is about the destruction of what has been built and the question of whether it can be rebuilt. The novel also introduces one of Butler's most disturbing elements: the Christian Americans — a movement led by a demagogue named Andrew Steele Jarret, who promises to 'make America great again' — who are not simply evil but are acting from their own sincere religious convictions, which happen to license slavery and the destruction of non-Christian communities. Butler's point is that sincerity does not excuse the harm done in its name.
Where to start
Parable of the Talents — read Parable of the Sower first. The Talents picks up immediately where the Sower ends and requires the first novel's context.
Complete Parable of the Talents Book List
- 1Buy
Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler·1998·The novel — Acorn's destruction by Christian American Crusaders, Lauren's enslavement and escape, and the question of whether Earthseed can survive the destruction of its community; Nebula Award winner. - 2Buy
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler·1993·The duology's first volume — the essential predecessor; Lauren's creation of Earthseed and Acorn, the first half of the narrative that Parable of the Talents concludes. - 3Buy
Kindred
Octavia E. Butler·1979·Butler's most accessible novel — the companion in its account of slavery and the use of speculative elements to make the reader inhabit a reality (slavery, in this case) that otherwise stays abstract. - 4Buy
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood·1985·Atwood's theocratic dystopia — the companion in speculative fiction about Christian fundamentalism's seizure of power; Gilead's treatment of women under religious law is the parallel to Jarret's treatment of Earthseed communities. - 5Buy
It Can't Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis·1935·Lewis's satirical novel about American fascism — the political predecessor; the demagogue who promises to restore greatness and uses religious language to justify violence is the American tradition Jarret belongs to. - 6Buy
The Fifth Season
N.K. Jemisin·2015·Jemisin's first Broken Earth novel — the most important successor in speculative fiction by a Black woman about catastrophe, survival, and the construction of new communities in the face of systemic destruction. - 7Buy
Lilith's Brood
Octavia E. Butler·2000·Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago) collected — the companion in Butler's exploration of alien contact and human survival; the Oankali trilogy is Butler's other major sustained speculation about what it means to continue as a species. - 8Buy
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood·2003·Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy opener — the companion in speculative fiction about the destruction of civilization by corporate and technological power; Crake's Blysspluss and Jarret's Christian Americans are the two modes of civilizational destruction Butler's Parables anticipate.
Parable of the Talents — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Parable of the Talents about?
Parable of the Talents is set in the 2030s and 2040s and follows Lauren Olamina as she leads Acorn, the Earthseed community she has established in coastal California. The community is destroyed by the Crusaders — a paramilitary group associated with Andrew Steele Jarret, the president who has promised to 'make America great again' through Christian nationalism. The Crusaders enslave the adult members of Acorn (using 'slave collars' that deliver painful shocks) and take the children to be raised as Christians. The novel is also narrated, in interspersed sections, by Lauren's daughter Larkin/Asha Vere, who was taken as an infant and grew up without knowledge of her biological family, having been raised to believe her parents were Crusaders killed by Earthseed people. The novel traces Lauren's eventual escape from slavery, her rebuilding of Earthseed, and the movement's eventual launch of the first interstellar mission.
Who is Andrew Steele Jarret and what does he represent?
Andrew Steele Jarret is a senator and then president who runs on a platform of Christian nationalism and the promise to 'make America great again' — the specific phrase Butler uses, written in 1998. He is not a simple villain: he is a sincere, charismatic Christian who genuinely believes that America's problems stem from its departure from Christian values and that restoring those values requires force. His Crusaders are also sincere believers. Butler's point is that this sincerity makes them more dangerous, not less: they are not motivated by personal greed or cynicism but by genuine religious conviction, which licenses them to do whatever they believe God requires. Jarret and the Crusaders are Butler's extrapolation of the Christian nationalist movements she was observing in the 1990s, taken to a logical extreme.
What is the role of Lauren's daughter Larkin/Asha?
Larkin/Asha is Lauren's daughter, taken as an infant when Acorn is destroyed and raised as a Christian by a family that does not know her origins. She grows up to find her mother and the story of her parentage, and her interspersed sections of narration are written with distance and sometimes hostility toward Lauren: she resents her mother for the life Lauren chose, for prioritizing Earthseed over her children. This narrative structure creates a complex, ambivalent portrait of Lauren that the first novel's single-perspective narration could not: Lauren is heroic as a leader and a believer, but she is also a mother who lost her daughter to a catastrophe and whose response to that loss was to continue building Earthseed rather than to search for Larkin. Butler refuses to resolve this ambivalence, which is part of what makes Parable of the Talents the more psychologically complex of the two Parable novels.
What does Earthseed's fate in the novel mean?
By the end of Parable of the Talents, Earthseed has survived the Crusaders' destruction of Acorn, rebuilt, and eventually achieved its ultimate goal: the first Earthseed interstellar mission launches. Lauren lives to see this, though she dies shortly after. This conclusion — the achievement of the goal at enormous cost — is characteristically Butler: she does not write uncomplicated triumphs, and the first interstellar ship's launch is achieved at the cost of everything Lauren lost and sacrificed (her daughter, her community twice over, her health). The 'destiny of Earthseed is the stars' is achieved, but it is not exactly a happy ending. Butler was asking whether survival is enough, whether the cost of survival can ever be worth it, and refusing to answer simply.
What should I read after Parable of the Talents?
After Parable of the Talents, Butler's Kindred is the most accessible other entry point into her work, and Lilith's Brood (the collected Xenogenesis trilogy) is the other major multi-novel project. For comparable dystopian fiction about religious authoritarian movements, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the most important comparison. N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy (beginning with The Fifth Season) is the most important successor in speculative fiction by a Black woman. For the American tradition of political fiction about fascism and Christian nationalism, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here is an important historical predecessor.
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