Unexpected Stories
Two Novellas
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Narrated by:
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Robin Miles
About this listen
This exciting collection presents two previously unpublished stories by SF legend Octavia E. Butler.
A Necessary Being precedes the events of Survivor, Butler's third (famously disowned) installment in her Patternist series, and includes characters from it, focusing exclusively on the Kohn, aliens who build their social hierarchies on the blueness of their fur.
In Childfinder, a black woman with the gift of identifying children with latent psychic ability refuses to share her skill with an organization of white telepaths.
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A Tough Review To Write...
- By AlTonya on 04-05-21
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Fledgling
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted - and still wants - to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
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Why is everyone okay with the child porn imagery?
- By JG on 07-18-20
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Bloodchild and Other Stories
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Malik Rashad, Allyson Johnson, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A perfect introduction for new listeners and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and "Speech Sounds," winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in audio for the first time, "Amnesty" is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders. Also new to this collection is "The Book of Martha" which asks: What would you do if God granted you the ability—and responsibility—to save humanity from itself?
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Some are good
- By Jennabug on 08-10-24
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Parable of the Sower
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose unlikely prophet is 18-year-old Lauren Olamina. The young woman's diary entries tell the story of her life amid a violent 21st-century hell of walled neighborhoods and drug-crazed pyromaniacs - and reveal her evolving Earthseed philosophy. Against a backdrop of horror emerges a message of hope: if we are willing to embrace divine change, we will survive to fulfill our destiny among the stars.
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Dystopia before dystopia was cool...
- By Amber on 05-28-14
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Kindred
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Kim Staunton
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
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The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
- By Jefferson on 12-05-10
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The Birthday of the World
- And Other Stories
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled fans with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.
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Only worth it for Paradises Lost
- By DEC on 10-27-21
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Wild Seed
- The Patternist Series, Book 1
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries.
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A Tough Review To Write...
- By AlTonya on 04-05-21
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Fledgling
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted - and still wants - to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
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Why is everyone okay with the child porn imagery?
- By JG on 07-18-20
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Bloodchild and Other Stories
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Malik Rashad, Allyson Johnson, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
A perfect introduction for new listeners and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and "Speech Sounds," winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in audio for the first time, "Amnesty" is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders. Also new to this collection is "The Book of Martha" which asks: What would you do if God granted you the ability—and responsibility—to save humanity from itself?
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Some are good
- By Jennabug on 08-10-24
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Parable of the Sower
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose unlikely prophet is 18-year-old Lauren Olamina. The young woman's diary entries tell the story of her life amid a violent 21st-century hell of walled neighborhoods and drug-crazed pyromaniacs - and reveal her evolving Earthseed philosophy. Against a backdrop of horror emerges a message of hope: if we are willing to embrace divine change, we will survive to fulfill our destiny among the stars.
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Dystopia before dystopia was cool...
- By Amber on 05-28-14
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Kindred
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Kim Staunton
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
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The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
- By Jefferson on 12-05-10
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The Birthday of the World
- And Other Stories
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled fans with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.
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Only worth it for Paradises Lost
- By DEC on 10-27-21
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My Soul to Keep
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
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A Book I Can't Keep
- By Mistsofjade on 07-19-20
By: Tananarive Due
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Noor
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Délé Ogundiran
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt...natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong". But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is.
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Slow audio speed to 0.9x
- By Camille on 02-02-22
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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The Found and the Lost
- The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Jefferson Mays
- Length: 34 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Every novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, an icon in American literature, collected for the first time - and introduced by the legendary author - in one breathtaking volume. Ursula K. Le Guin has won multiple prizes and accolades, from the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to the Newbery Honor, Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, and PEN/Malamud awards. She has had her work collected over the years but never as a complete retrospective of her longer works.
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You gotta be kidding me.
- By Spam on 07-02-19
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Dawn
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Julienne Irons
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.
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Too Sexual
- By Amazon Customer on 08-29-23
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Ikenga
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Nnamdi's father was a good chief of police, perhaps the best Kalaria had ever had. He was determined to root out the criminals that had invaded the town. But then he was murdered, and most people believed the Chief of Chiefs, most powerful of the criminals, was responsible. Nnamdi has vowed to avenge his father, but he wonders what a 12-year-old boy can do. Until a mysterious nighttime meeting, the gift of a magical object that enables super powers, and a charge to use those powers for good changes his life forever.
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Another Great Book by Nnedi Okorafor
- By Watchman on 05-20-21
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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The Eye of the Heron
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups - the farmers of Shantih and the city dwellers - live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the city, the city bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to form a new settlement further away, the bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the "rebellion".
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Great story!
- By trailtrekkie on 02-24-20
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The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Tandy Cronyn
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Outer Space, Inner Lands includes many of the best known Ursula K. Le Guin nonrealistic stories (such as "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," "Semley' s Necklace," and "She Unnames Them") which have shaped the way many listeners see the world. She gives voice to the voiceless, hope to the outsider, and speaks truth to power - all the time maintaining her independence and sense of humor.
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chapter names
- By Evan Goldsborough on 01-18-20
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Joplin's Ghost
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Lizan Mitchell
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Bram Stoker Award finalist Tananarive Due crafts chilling tales of suspense.
In Joplin's Ghost, 24-year-old R&B phenomenon Phoenix Smalls is on the cusp of fame and fortune. But she is haunted by the spirit of Jazz legend Scott Joplin. After a series of sultry, erotic encounters with the ghost, and with the pressures of stardom closing in on her, Phoenix begins to fear for her life and career.
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Sweeping--a fabulous read
- By Dinisle on 12-24-06
By: Tananarive Due
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Lavinia
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Highly acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin lends a resonant voice to a pivotal yet often overlooked character of Vergil's The Aeneid. Born into peace and freedom, Lavinia is stunned to learn that she will be the cause of a great war - or so the prophecies and omens claim. Her fate is sealed, however, when she meets a man from Troy.
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Fascinatingly well written
- By Kennet on 03-11-09
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Africa Risen
- A New Era of Speculative Fiction
- By: Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Zelda Knight
- Narrated by: Amin El Gamal, Kim Staunton, Dele Ogundiran, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A group of cabinet ministers queries a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendant of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance—and perhaps the world. Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and AfroDiasporic science fiction and fantasy and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here.
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Amazing and creative stories!
- By GiGi409 on 03-08-24
By: Sheree Renee Thomas, and others
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The Book of Harlan
- By: Bernice McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre - affectionately referred to as "the Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians - Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.
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An insightful account of an eventful period
- By Ezinwanyi on 07-26-16
By: Bernice McFadden
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Skin Folk
- Stories
- By: Nalo Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In Skin Folk, with works ranging from science fiction to Caribbean folklore, passionate love to chilling horror, Nalo Hopkinson is at her award-winning best spinning tales like "Precious", in which the narrator spews valuable coins and gems from her mouth whenever she attempts to talk or sing. In "A Habit of Waste", a self-conscious woman undergoes elective surgery to alter her appearance; days later she's shocked to see her former body climbing onto a public bus.
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mindblowingly exquisite!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-23-20
By: Nalo Hopkinson
What listeners say about Unexpected Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JDub
- 06-13-21
Always Interesting
Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors. She baits you in and takes you on a journey. Nothing is different with these two novellas. She left me wanting to know how the two stories characters will continue in there worlds. I was fully invested and my only let down was there wasn't anymore to read.
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2 people found this helpful
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- DEB
- 01-17-22
Print vs Audio
I like reading print, touching paper, turning the page, and stopping to insert a book mark when I read a book. But, I realize the audio format will help me with words that are difficult to pronounce. So now, I will review with an audio format first then read the paper format, because it is more environmentally friendly for the atmosphere on Earth and digital format is harmful to my eyes.
I do love Octavia E. Butler's stories. I read almost all of her books, but I am saddened that her book, Survivor, is unreachable to people like me that can't afford to purchase a new or used copy. I want to read it, so I ask that Doubleday to reprint it. Business wise more money would be gained due the supply and demand for it. Instead of people making "PDF" copies of it and passing it around.
Peace Out!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sang23
- 02-07-20
Great
It's very hard to go wrong with an octavia buttler book. I've liked almost every single one.
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- Mb4pax
- 10-23-22
Fine getaway experience.
Having never read or listened to any Octavia E. Butler's creations, I thoroughly enjoyed these two novellas. Adding in Robin Miles' narration and I had the full package of nuanced storytelling and truly excellent writing. No summaries here, simply an exclamation of 2 hour and 24 minutes of pleasurable listening.
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- Adiva
- 01-23-20
I'm a huge O . Butler stan. great work!
This shirt work was very enjoyable. O.B. at her finest. I'm hungry for more. Excellent narration
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- NaLaH
- 07-21-20
Amazing Short Read
I am always amazed at how I easily allow myself to accept the worlds that Butler effortlessly creates. This was my first time reading her shorter works and each one made me want more. She approaches issues of tolerance, peace, power, land stewardship, aging, psychic gifts and more like no other. Dig in!
And I will read ANYTHING that Robin Miles narrates. She's incredible!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Virginia Hampton
- 08-27-20
amazing as usual!
I am a Butler fan from way back. These stories are worth a good listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- C.
- 12-06-20
Long Live Octavia Butler's Masterful Storytelling
These stories made me even more grateful for Octavia Butler's resolve to share her gift and make the reader feel through words. They also made me miss her equally.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-04-20
AWESOME!
I'm not surprised that these novellas were soooooo great. I wish she were alive for more!
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1 person found this helpful
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- melody sheldon
- 09-10-24
You Can See the Genesis of later works
Sacrifice to make a future is the strongest theme that runs through these works. Speaks to us now across the years.
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