These two books are well-written books, with a heroine of a cultural and ethnic background that is hard to find in science fiction, especially written by an excellent African-American author.

These two books may mean different things to different readers, depending on the reader’s background. This, I believe, is a sign of a really good writer. What resonates with me may be of no real interest to another reader. There are some things that are too close to what we can see happening in the U.S. For me, at least, the books made me rethink and reanalyze the actions of certain groups and of certain government policies.

The books are set in the near future in western U.S. The U.S. has deteriorated to anarchy, with gangs addicted to drugs with strange side effects such as causing empathic pain/joy, setting of fires, etc. There are millions of vagrants walking the highways because there are no jobs. There are some walled communities whose members must be constantly vigilant.

Both these books are the story of Lauren Oya Olamina, of African-American heritage, who was a “sharer.” This meant that if someone was hurt in her sight, she would feel the same pain he or she felt. This also was true for joy, although she didn’t have much of that. Her first years she lived in a walled community near Los Angeles, which, when she was 17, was burned and almost all of it’s residents killed. She had felt that this may happen and had a pack ready for such an event. Besides essentials for surviving, she had her journal, in which she was already keeping a record of her life and was developing her Earthseed belief. This was a belief for living with whatever conditions one was faced, and using these events to make one’s life, and the life of others better. She believed God was Change and Change was God and that the human Destiny was to go to the stars.

Lauren came from an unusual community with people from almost all racial groups and mixtures. Outside the walls there was a lot of racial distrust. It was also a community where everyone learned to read and write and study as far as possible. She had already finished high school. During this time, later called the Pox, many people didn’t learn to read or write.

In Parable of the Sower, Lauren teams up with the only two survivors she is aware of from her community, and they decide to head north. They learned to do as others did to survive: protect each other, kill when necessary, and strip the bodies of all usable items. In their trip north they teamed up with a number of others who were more caring than most. Among them were former slaves of all ethnic backgrounds. Slaves were kept in electronically controlled collars, and were often used as prostitutes of either sex. On her long trip north she joined up with a doctor, Taylor Franklin Bankole, who was around 50. They eventually married.

The group finally got to some land belonging to Bankole in Mendocino County. There they established their community and named it Acorn. They still had to be very vigilant, as people would try to steal all they had or steal them to sell as slaves.

The second book is the story of the attack and capture of Acorn by American Christian Crusaders, who put the adults in slave collars and took the children, including Lauren’s two-month old child, away so they would no longer be adulterated by the heathens. Bankole was killed by the gas that immobilized them, but this did not stop Olamina (Lauren) from continuing to lead her people. The women were raped by the Christian Crusaders, but when there was a mud slide 17 months later, the collars couldn’t work. They could kill their captors and flee. They had prepared caches of essentials in the mountains around them so they could have some items to start over. They separated into small groups to be harder to find.

The second book is a compilation of Earthseed poetry, excerpts from Olamina’s journals, writings from her daughter (who supposedly compiled this book), and a few excerpts from writings by Bankole.

The book describes the election of the very right-wing Christian American Jarret as President. He believed that anyone who does not believe as he does, should be “reeducated.” The Crusaders took this a step farther. Many American looked to Jarret to bring order to the U.S., but he started a war with Canada and the secessionist Alaska which eventually fizzled, causing many Americans to reassess his message.

Olamina had paid for her brother Marcus, who had been a slave, but he strongly disagreed with her message and had left Acorn. She again found him, but he had become a Christian American preacher. He was a good person, but did not see the evil being done by many of the Christian American extremists. He eventually found Olamina’s daughter and took care of her, but did not tell Olamina.

Olamina eventually found in the Portland area persons who believed in her destiny. She and her group, over the next several decades, expanded her “cult” to the point of being able to build universities, educate scientists, doctors, etc., and prepare for the journey to the stars.

Her daughter never felt that her mother really wanted her, and that she was too dedicated to her cult. She brought out the fact that anyone who is really dedicated to a cause doesn’t have room for a true personal life.