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Clay's Ark
''Clay's Ark'' (1984) is a novel by American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The last published of her '' Patternist'' series, the novel serves as a prequel that accounts for the arrival of the Clay Ark disease that leads to the evolution of clayarks, the mutants that threaten human survival in the series debut novel, 1976's ''Patternmaster'', and 1978's ''Survivor'', which Butler later disavowed. Plot The novel is set in a near-future dystopia in which most people must live in gated communities or in armed nomadic groups called "car families". The novel traces the experiences of Blake Maslin, a physician living in Southern California, and his sixteen-year-old twin daughters, Rane and Keira. Traveling across the Mojave desert, the three are kidnapped by Eli Doyle, the only survivor of Clay's Ark, a spaceship that made an emergency crash landing in the desert on its return from the first human mission to another planet. Eli is infected with an alien microorganism that g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octavia Butler
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In ''Kindred'', by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. Born in Pasadena, California, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Butler found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop, was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction. She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patternist Series
The ''Patternist'' series (also known as the ''Patternmaster'' series or ''Seed to Harvest'') is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future that involves telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague. A profile of Butler in ''Black Women in America'' notes that the themes of the series include "racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people." Butler's first published novel, 1976's ''Patternmaster'', was the first book in this series to appear. From 1977 until 1984, she published four more ''Patternist'' novels: '' Mind of My Mind'' (1977), ''Survivor'' (1978), '' Wild Seed'' (1980) and '' Clay's Ark'' (1984). Until Butler began publishing the '' Xenogenesis'' trilogy in 1987, all but one of her published ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Seed (novel)
''Wild Seed'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia Butler. Although published in 1980 as the fourth book of the '' Patternist'' series, it is the earliest book in the chronology of the Patternist world. The other books in the series are, in order within the Patternist chronology: ''Mind of My Mind'' (1977), ''Clay's Ark'' (1984), ''Survivor'' (1978), and ''Patternmaster'' (1976). Plot ''Wild Seed'' is the story of two immortal Africans named Doro and Anyanwu. Doro is a spirit who can inhabit other people's bodies, killing anyone and anything in his path, while Anyanwu is a woman with healing powers who can transform herself into any human or animal. When they meet, Doro senses Anyanwu's abilities and wants to add her to one of his seed villages in the New World, where he breeds super humans. Doro convinces Anyanwu to travel with him to America by telling her he will give her children she will never have to watch die. Although Doro plans to impregnate her himsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the technological singularity, singularity. Science fiction List of existing technologies predicted in science fiction, predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many #Subgenres, sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octavia E
Octavia may refer to: People * Octavia the Elder (before 66 – after 29 BC), elder half sister of Octavia the Younger and Augustus/Octavian * Octavia the Younger (c.66–11 BC), sister of Augustus, younger half sister of Octavia the Elder and fourth wife of Mark Antony. * Claudia Octavia (AD 39–AD 62), daughter of Claudius and Valeria Messalina and first wife of Nero * Octahvia (fl. 1980s), American vocalist * Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006), African-American science fiction writer * Octavia (early 20th century), the name taken by Mabel Barltrop of the Panacea Society in 1918 * Octavia Spencer (born 1972), actress * Oktawia Kawęcka (born 1985), jazz musician, singer, flutist, composer, producer and actress Culture * Octavia (play), ''Octavia'' (play), a tragedy mistakenly attributed to the Roman playwright Seneca the Younger that dramatises Claudia Octavia's death * Octavia (opera), ''Octavia'' (opera), by Reinhard Keiser * ''Octavia'', a romance by Jilly Cooper ** Octavia (TV ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patternmaster
''Patternmaster'' (1976) is a science fiction novel by American author Octavia E. Butler. ''Patternmaster'', the first book to be published but the last in the series' internal chronology, depicts a distant future where the human race has been sharply divided into the dominant Patternists, their enemies the "diseased" and animalistic Clayarks, and the enslaved human mutes. The Patternists, bred for intelligence and psychic abilities, are networked telepaths. They are ruled by the most powerful telepath, known as the Patternmaster. ''Patternmaster'' tells the coming-of-age story of Teray, a young Patternist who learns he is a son of the Patternmaster. Teray fights for position within Patternist society and eventually for the role of Patternmaster. Plot The novel begins with the Patternmaster, Rayal, in bed with Jansee, his lead wife and sister. For a year, there have been no major attacks from the "Clayarks"; mutated humans the Patternists have been in constant battle against. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Survivor (Octavia Butler Novel)
''Survivor'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler. First published in 1978 as part of Butler's "Patternist series", ''Survivor'' is the only one of Butler's early novels not to be reprinted after its initial editions. Butler expressed dislike for the work, referring to it as "my Star Trek novel." Plot introduction ''Survivor'' follows the early contact between the Missionaries, a group of human colonists fleeing a plague on Earth, and the Kohn, intelligent natives of the planet on which the Missionaries have arrived. In particular, the novel focuses on Alanna, the adopted daughter of the Missionaries' leader, as she attempts to prevent the Missionaries' destruction or assimilation at the hands of a dominant local culture. During the course of the novel, Alanna's experiences assimilating and negotiating with the Kohn draw upon her earlier, similar experience joining the Missionaries themselves, and Alanna's ability to interact with the various cultu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He has also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work. Biography Born in Shipley, Yorkshire, Stableford graduated with a degree in biology from the University of York in 1969 before going on to do postgraduate research in biology and later in sociology. In 1979 he received a PhD with a doctoral thesis on ''The Sociology of Science Fiction''. Until 1988, he worked as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Reading. Since then he has been a fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fledgling (Butler Novel)
''Fledgling'' is a science fiction vampire novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler, published in 2005.Charles, Ron. "Love at First Bite." ''The Washington Post''. Washingtonpost.com. 30 Oct. 2005.Gates, Rob"''Fledgling ''by Octavia Butler." Rev. of ''Fledgling'', by Octavia E. Butler. Strange Horizons. 6 March 2006. Plot The novel tells the story of Shori, a 53-year-old member of the Ina species, who appears to be a ten-year-old African-American girl. The Ina are nocturnal, long-lived, and derive sustenance by drinking human blood. Though they are physically superior to humans, both in strength and ability to heal from injury, the Ina depend on humans to survive. Therefore, their relationships are symbiotic, with the Ina's venom providing significant boost to their humans' immune systems and extending their lives up to 200 years. However, withdrawal from this venom will also lead to the human's death. The story opens as Shori awakens with no knowledge of who or where she is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasitism In Fiction
Parasites appear frequently in biology-inspired fiction from ancient times onwards, with a flowering in the nineteenth century. These include intentionally disgusting alien monsters in science fiction films, often with analogues in nature. Authors and scriptwriters have to some extent exploited parasite biology: lifestyles including parasitoid, behaviour-altering parasite, brood parasite, parasitic castrator, and many forms of vampire are found in books and films. Some fictional parasites, like Count Dracula and ''Alien''s Xenomorphs, have become well known in their own right. Context In evolutionary biology, parasitism is a relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or in another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". According to the immunologist John Playfair, the term 'parasit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symbiosis In Fiction
Symbiosis (mutualism) appears in fiction, especially science fiction, as a plot device. It is distinguished from parasitism in fiction, a similar theme, by the mutual benefit to the organisms involved, whereas the parasite inflicts harm on its host. Relationships Relationships between species in early science fiction were often imaginatively parasitic, with the parasites draining the vital energy of their human hosts and taking over their minds, as in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1895 ''The Parasite''. After the Second World War, science fiction moved towards more mutualistic relationships, as in Ted White's 1970 ''By Furies Possessed''; Brian Stableford argues that White was consciously opposing the xenophobia of Robert Heinlein's 1951 ''The Puppet Masters'' which involved a parasitic relationship close to demonic possession, with a more positive attitude towards aliens. Stableford notes, however, that Octavia Butler's 1984 ''Clay's Ark'' and other of her works such as '' Fledgling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 American Novels
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
