I wanted to know has anyone heard of her or has read anything by her? I picked up her audiobook (Playaway)  Kindred and I've fallen in love with her writing style. She's an African American women that writes Sci-Fi. I'm not even a fan but Kindred is a mix of sci-fi and historical fiction. OMG!  Kindred reminds me of The Time Traveler's Wife  meets Gone with the Wind. I'm very proud of her as an African American women writer because I'm an African American women and I've noticed that there aren' t that many A. American sci-fi, historical ficton or horror writers. It's mostly contemporary Urban fiction that I'm not interested in because I live in a very contemporary urban environment.

I love Octavia Butler!  Her short stories are really wonderful, too.

I just ordered a book by her yesterday. I'm so enthralled!

My favorites are the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Talents.  Outstanding books!  There was talk of a third book in the series, but she died before anything came of it.

Jackie

Have you read Jewell Parker Rhodes?  "Douglass' Women" is one of her books, about the wife and mistress of Frederick Douglass.  I think the book got some not-so-hot reviews but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sandy, Parable of the Sower is the book that I just ordered. I can't wait until I get it.

I haven't read Butler yet but have heard nothing but good things about her. Someone else mentioned Jewell Parker Rhodes and I have to agree she's great. I haven't read Douglass' Women yet but her Voodoo series is awesome.

I really enjoy Butler.  So sad she died when we all would have loved to enjoy her writing so much longer.

I have read all of Octavia Butler's books that I could find and liked them all.  Extremely well-crafted books with stong characters and unique perspectives.  Many people will miss her ....I certainly will.

Patricia,  I ordered Parable of the Sower and I started on it but I just can't really get into it as of this moment. Did you ever feel this way about her books or writing style? Kindred has been my favorite so far and probably because the story just captures you from the first sentence.

I read four books of her Patternist series in the omnibus Seed to Harvest last year.  There is another long out of print book in the series that wasn't included for some reason.  Anyway, I thought the stories were excellent, but I'd recommend reading them in order of publication rather than chronologically as they were arranged in the collection. 

I just finished the audio book for Fledgling and I really liked it.  I cant wait to read some more of her work.

Jackie, you had the same reaction as I did. I am soooooooo not into sci-fi but when I came across Kindred I could not put it down! I looked into her other books but there was nothing that appealed to me. You just reminded me that I should read it again!

I count Octavia among the small group of authors (including Melanie Rawn, David Eddings and Robert Jordan) that stoked my passion for reading as an adult... The first of her books that I picked up was WildSeed, which I still count as one of the best books I have ever read. I went on to read (almost) every book she published before her untimely and very sad death a few years ago.
I saw  previous posters mention the Patternist and Parable series... they were all really great. And I recently read the last book she published before her death, Fledgling, and I am soo sad that we wont be able to read more about those characters.

I love the Patternist novels--particularly Wild Seed.  The last book that was published  before her death was a very original vampire novel.  She'd done some thinking about a vampire culture that I was really enthusiastic about.  I was sad that she wasn't going to be writing more about these vampires.

Shomeret

Shomeret,

What is the name of her vampire novel?

Pamela

7/21/09 Edit:    Nevermind, I found it on amazon.

I just got Wild Seed here on PBS -- haven't started it yet but I'm really excited to get to it. Orson Scott Card actually used the opening from this novel as an example in his book on writing character and viewpoint -- that was where I discovered her. Prior to that I only knew that she wrote Kindred, which didn't really appeal to me because I don't usually like either time travel or historical plots. But of course, if I love Wild Seed like I suspect I will I'll end up reading everything. :)