Intelligent and insightful, Lauren Olamina is only fourteen years old when we first meet her in Parable of the Sower. Born an empath, as the result of her mother`s medical drug use, Lauren suffers the debilitating ability to share the physical pain of others. She exists in a frighteningly plausible future where drugs, disparity, disease, poverty and petty politics dictate daily living. In an effort to make sense of her reality, she begins to develop a spiritual philosophy called Earthseed. After the destruction of her community and the murder of her family and neighbors, Lauren is forced to journey toward a new life using Earthseed as the key to her survival.

I could barely wait for a sequel to Parable of the Sower. If you speak your wish out loud, it may not come true. That`s how I felt about waiting for a sequel to Parable of the Sower. But as always, Octavia Butler came through. Four years afterSower`s publication, Butler graced us with Parable of the Talents.

In Parable of the Talents, Lauren Olamina has grown into an adult woman with immense responsibility, supporters and detractors. She has created a fragile stability in spite of surrounding chaos by establishing the first Earthseed community. She is the mother of two children: Larkin, her flesh and bloodchild and Earthseed, the philosophy and way of life that she has nurtured since girlhood.

Meanwhile, an extreme right wing Christian politic has come to power in the personification of Andrew Jarrett. Promising to re-unite a patriarchal United States and return honor to America, Jarrett scapegoats all religions and spiritual belief systems other than his own as the cause of America`s downfall. Jarrett`s tactics include utilizing techniques such as internment camps and Klan like terrorism. Small though it may be, Lauren`s Earthseed community is soon targeted as a threat to the new America.

In Talents, Butler spends a lot of time developing interpersonal relationships. Using journal entries, the story has four narrators: Lauren`s own voice, her brother Marcus`, her husband Bankole`s, and her daughter Larkin`s. By offering these different perspectives, Butler is able to create a forum for critique, intricacy and depth. She is able to test the philosophy and sincerity of her protagonist.

What`s so interesting about this is that Lauren had become such a heroin in Parable of the Sower that I was possessive and a bit defensive of any criticism of her in Talents. Whereas I was in awe of Lauren inSower, in Talents, I was forced to understand how her actions affected her family and loved ones. The most intriguing example of this is perhaps the relationship between Lauren and her daughter simply because it is so disappointingly real, so full of emotion and misunderstanding.

Parable of the Talents brings to mind such literary works as Margaret Atwood`s The Handmaids Tale and Red Azalea by Anchee Min. While Butler describes a future that is alarming in its possibility, she provides us with a complex and competent guide, in Lauren, to navigate it. Potent enough to stand alone, the reader who skips book one of the series is doing herself a great disservice.