Kindred

5 Responses to “Kindred”

1. Emily R. Walker says:

   August 7, 2010 at 3:17 am

   It took forever to get the book and by the time I got the book I had to send it back b/c I needed it soon and it never very came. It was a waste of money.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
2. Michael J. Ehling says:

   August 7, 2010 at 6:13 am

   This item cost $9.75. For an eBook at that fee, you would reflect that the publisher would have the common decency to make metadata with the right Leader Name. This publisher, but, has very sloppily made metadata which lists the leader (for Kindle sorting purposes) under her first name rather than her last name. And, since the book is an AZW1 file (the “dreaded Topaz” format), it is impossible to right this sloppy publisher metadata using mobi2mobi.

   For that reason, I have agreed the eBook the lowest possible “star” rating. Note that I am not criticizing the actual literary content of the book, and the leader obviously should not be faulted (since she’s been dead for a couple of years). The fault is entirely the publisher’s.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
3. AliCat says:

   August 7, 2010 at 7:19 am

   The only excellent thing I can say about this book is that Octavia has an appealing writing style and the tale thought is creative. But, Octavia seems to reflect that if you are strong in these areas, you can be weak everywhere else. The first major flaw of this book is how extremely mawkish it is. For instance, there is a slave in the book named Tess. Now, Tess never had any language lines, so my brain came to referring to Tess as slave x because all the additional slaves lacking language lines had no names, so why should Tess? Now, you can imagine how hard it is to make the reader care about slave x who has no language lines, so it took me completely by surprise when something terrible happened to Tess and I was supposed to feel terrible about it. Next, why don’t you kill a character before they appear? Then, protagonist Dana spends some time moping over slave x and getting all worked up about it. But, the characters were so uninteresting that I wondered if Tess having a personality would make any difference. The most appealing character was the terrible guy tom weylin, but octavia chose to ruin this by not deciding whether I should despise him or care for him before writing the book. This wasn’t the only time she couldn’t choose if I should despise a name or care for them. The character Alice was in a terrible situation, so all too accurately she had Alice lash out at everyone around her. I despised Alice, but it seemed like Octavia wanted me to do differently despite building her a revolting character. Rufus weylin was pretty much a repeat of his father, being nice one second then abusing his slaves the additional. The highly obnoxious margaret weylin became a sweet ancient lady in her ancient age, freed of racism and with the ability to no longer annoy everyone. This wasn’t just with caring about characters, but protagonist dana would switch from being a compassionate pushover to being overly assertive. That’s just an example. The tale only gets worse as it goes, as nothing new really happens. Slaves are mistreated I GET IT ALREADY! Pretty much every part after the fourth part was redundant. The ending itself was highly disappointing, even for such a terrible book. The only reason I can reflect of to buy this book is if you’ve never read a book about slavery before. Indeed, the treatment of slaves is accurate to the point that anyone who likes past fiction will be outrageously bored because that’s all their is in the tale. No exciting plot twists, no deep characters, what else do I need to say?
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
4. Anonymous says:

   August 7, 2010 at 9:12 am

   I read many reviews for this book online because I had to choose a book out of a list for school. Nearly all of the reviews said it was a fantastic book, so I chose Kindred. Boy did I regret it.

   Butler takes many vital issues too lightly. The characters do not seem to reflect rape is that terrible. Dana should be even more horrified to see it happening than she is described as thinking. This is the same case as for many additional issues in the book. This makes it unrealistic.

   The book was kind of hard to follow and reasonably choppy. It finished very abruptly, and I was very confused throughout the book. It seemed to be a excellent thought for a book, but Butler should have spent more time building it flow better.

   I was not once warned in any reviews about the grave parts of the book that were for mature readers. There are a number of graphic parts, and I was really grossed out. Butler could have left some of persons parts out or made them less graphic. I DON’T THINK ANYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK, ESPECIALLY IMMATURE READERS AND THOSE UNDER 16.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
5. Anonymous says:

   August 7, 2010 at 11:10 am

   Mrs Butler has made a well justified reputation for herself as one of the most unusual authors of science fiction. Clearly she is a terrific writer, very imaginative, and indeed it is not apparent that she is an African American female writer. She is a terrific writer, period. My all-time favorite is “Survivor”, a very straightforward but gripping tale.

   I can’t say I liked “Kindred” at all, and the reason for this is simple: it is an antithesis of her additional work. Everything that makes mrs Butler’s work fantastic is absent here and everything that makes mrs Butler’s work weak is abundantly present here. There are no science fiction fundamentals present (as Larry Niven pointed out, time travel is strictly a fantasy theme, and unless you use it to get a view of the future it has nothing to do with sci fi) and this book is overwhelmingly African American. It is a past novel with a fantasy twist.

   All persons reviewers that aver they don’t usually like science fiction but do like “Kindred” obviously wouldn’t know sci fi if they met it.

   Mrs Butler even at her worst (as here) is still a competent writer so two stars, but anyone who likes science fiction is advised to stay well clear of this. If you are into African American stuff and want to confirm yourself: “Kindred” may be for you.
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5