Octavia Butler died two weeks ago. I’d just finished her most recent novel, Fledgling, a week before that. Very good; I think of her as really hitting her stride, for while I seem to recall enjoying her earlier novels, I thought Parable of the Sower was great. I should go and reread that book and its sequel, Parable of the Talents; I’ve only read the latter once, and I’m not quite as sure what I think of it. Heck, I should go and reread all of her books. (I’ve spent too much money on computer stuff recently – time to reread books I already own instead of buying more new ones.) Lots of things I like about them; I was about to write down a list of qualities that they share, but the results were too reductive, so I’ll just say that they’re good SF which touches directly on important social issues of our time.

She was 58 years old; if I had to guess, I would have thought she was a bit younger than that. Too early for her to die, though.

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