Imago

One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had – Junot DiazButler’s prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision * Guardian *A dark, compelling and still horribly resonant time travel story * Independent *[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human * New York Times *No novel I’ve read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential… If you’ve ever tweeted “All Lives Matter”, someone needs to shove Kindred into your hand, and quickly * The Pool *Kindred is that rare magical artifact … the novel one returns to, again and again * Harlan Ellison *One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art * Los Angeles Herald-Examiner *[A] must-read novel * BBC *Everyone should read at least one novel by the grand dame of science fiction, and Kindred is a perfect (and harrowing and disturbing and brilliant) place to start * Refinery 29 *The immediate effect of reading Octavia Butler’s Kindred is to make every other time travel book in the world look as if it’s wimping out… This is a brilliant book, utterly absorbing, very well written, and deeply distressing. It’s very hard to read, not because it’s not good but because it’s so good * Tor *A searing, caustic examination of bizarre and alien practices on the third planet from the sun * Kirkus *One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity * Los Angeles Times *Impossible to turn away from once you’ve devoured the first few pages * Starburst *If you haven’t read Butler, you don’t yet understand how rich the possibilities of science fiction can be * Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction *Butler’s books are exceptional * Village Voice *Few writers in our field are so good at blending page-turners with philosophical questions so seamlessly – Cory Doctorow

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947-2006) was the renowned author of numerous ground-breaking novels, including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science-fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship ‘genius grant’. A pioneer of her genre, Octavia’s dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women’s rights, global warming and political and economic disparity, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.