Short version:
It's an Octavia Butler book; need I say more? Acquire and read it.
Long version:
I was surprised to realize only a few pages in that Fledgling
(Seven Stories Press, 2005; no editor listed) was a vampire novel. I picked it up purely on the strength of it being an Octavia Butler novel -- the last Octavia Butler novel, as it sadly turned out, with her premature death shortly after it appeared. I have only read a few of her other books, but Wild Seed
and Mind of My Mind
in particular, and her Hugo-winning novelette "Bloodchild
" (which I tracked down after hearing Joey Shoji's creepy filksong) put her firmly in the "read every word this woman wrote" category. Somehow I'd never gotten around to actively tracking down the rest of her books. So when I came across Fledging, I snapped it up without even looking at the inside blurb. I started reading it with the same blind trust: whatever it was about, I was sure I'd like it. I was not disappointed.
So: an amnesiac girl, looking ten or eleven, turns out to be a vampire, sole survivor of a terrible tragedy that has destroyed her family and home. Lost in a human world, she struggles to survive, locate other vampires, and unravel the mystery of who murdered her kin and why. Butler takes up some of the conventions of the vampire genre: her vampires are tall, pale creatures who sleep by day and are destroyed by sunlight. But the lost girl is different: brown-skinned and able to wake and walk in the daytime. Why?
I'm reluctant to say more about the story; it's so good I hate to cheat anyone of the joy of watching it unfold. This is not in any way a conventional vampire novel, either of the horror or the romantic/erotic variety, though there are moments both horrible and erotic throughout. On a superficial level, it's an interesting take on the vampire myth and a gripping story. But it did not surprise me at all, given the author, to find far more to the book than just a good story. Fledgling addresses issues of race and family and the negotiations, and compromises necessary to form a sustainable community when there are distinct, immutable power imbalances between its members. In the previous books of hers that I'd read, the distinction between characters with power of some sort and those without became the source of conflict, making explicit and central the imbalances of status and power we try to transcend or deny in Western society by making the "other" race different in ways much deeper than skin color. Fledgling uses the same technique, but Butler also brings racism explicitly into the plot and shows how ultimately self-destructive it is.
Losing Butler's voice in science fiction was a tragedy. I'm so glad that I got to meet her once (at Balticon back in 2000) and tell her how marvelous her writing was. I sincerely hope that this marvelous novel by a Hugo- and Nebula-winning author (and recipient of a MacArthur "genius grant") was published by a non-genre publishing house as a deliberate decision by the author. Because if the major SF publishers turned it down, they were utter fools. Or worse.
I was up half the night reading Fledgling. I can't recommend it highly enough.
firmly in the "read every word this woman wrote" category
I've pretty much put Ted Chiang in that category and expect that I'll be grabbing everything of his that Dark Carnival has, when I fly to the Bay Area in late September. As for Butler, I had never read anything by her for some reason, but I just added Fledgling to my look-for-this list.
Posted by: Serge | August 24, 2009 at 09:45 AM
...when I saw the heading, I was expecting this to be about a different book. (The next from Sharon Lee & Steve Miller is due out soon, and it's also titled Fledgling.)
Posted by: Paul A. | August 24, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Paul A.: So did I.
Also, how did I miss this entry for over a week? And why is the Dracula entry no longer on the sidebar? Life is full of little mysteries.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | August 24, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Mary Aileen... I think Susan posts those entries with the date on which she started working on them.
Posted by: Serge | August 24, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Serge: Aha! Much becomes clear.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | August 24, 2009 at 03:26 PM
I just bought Fledgling. Mind you, I already have lots of books so it may take some time before I get to it.
Posted by: Serge | August 25, 2009 at 07:36 PM
I've had Fledgling for five years, according to my bookbase, so I'll pull it from the to-read pile and read it next.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | August 26, 2009 at 07:03 PM
I must need a rest because yesterday a quick glance at the list of comments had me read the post's title as 'flagellation', while today it was 'flogging'.
Posted by: Serge | August 28, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Susan, I finished Fledgling last night and I would say that it's not only all a vampire novel, but the vampiric essence comes from many directions. We may be violently agreeing.
Serge, do you want us to wait until you read it befoe we discuss? Don't read my review today if spoilers bother you.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | August 30, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Please don't wait, Marilee. Go for it, and don't worry about spoilers.
Posted by: Serge | August 30, 2009 at 04:34 PM
Oh, good, someone else to discuss with!
Something I meant to stick in my post and managed to forget was how interesting it was to read this book when I'd recently reread Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price, which addresses issues of communal living and mate-sharing in a completely different way (it's basically a gender-flipped poly romance novel).
I find it interesting how Butler turns cultural issues and choices into biological imperatives and then follows the consequences out.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | August 30, 2009 at 05:49 PM
I thought she showed the vampiric influence all the way through not just by the biting, but how almost everybody wants something from everybody else. The issue of race was also writ large and you'd think that such a long-lived family would have noticed there wasn't that much difference because of color.
I have the SFBC omnibus of Spencer's Tinker and Wolf Rules, but not A Brother's Price. I'll put that on my wishlist -- I like her stuff. But I know a fair number of poly families in real life so the way the Ina are organized didn't surprise me.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | August 31, 2009 at 06:53 PM
Hmmm, apparently Spencer has a new book, Endless Blue.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | August 31, 2009 at 06:57 PM
Marilee,
Endless Blue was in fact the very first book I ever talked about on Rixo, way back when. I liked it well enough, didn't love it.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | August 31, 2009 at 07:08 PM
The first I read of Spencer's was the Alien Taste series, which I enjoyed, but not enough to keep, considering my limited bookshelves. It went to the Friends of the Library. That series also considers some unusual family-type relations.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | September 01, 2009 at 03:48 PM