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Parable of the Talents
- Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd, Peter Jay Fernandez, Sisi Aisha Johnson
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
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Parable of the Talents
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Summary
Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of horrifying depravity. Assault, theft, sexual abuse, slavery, and murder are commonplace. Taking advantage of the situation, a zealous, bigoted tyrant wins his way into the White House.
Directly opposed is Lauren Olamina, founder of Earthseed - a new faith that teaches "God Is Change". Persecuted for "heathen" beliefs as much as for having a Black female leader, Earthseed's followers face a life-and-death struggle to preserve their vision.
Best-selling author Octavia Butler's fluid writing and keen observations about race, gender, politics, and religion make for a moving parable that will be pondered for generations. A powerful reading from three standout narrators captures the multi-generational sweep of this poignant tale.
Butler's acclaimed novels have won numerous awards, and she is a recipient of a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Parable of the Talents was selected as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.
Critic reviews
- Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1999
"Octavia E. Butler is one of the finest voices in fiction....period." (Washington Post Book World)
"These...are the keynotes of Talents: family and characters, warmth and endurance, hope and determination. It's a worthy book, well up to Butler's standard for thoughtfulness and insight." (Analog Science Fiction & Fact)
"Though not for the faint-hearted, this work stands out as a testament to the author's enormous talent, and to the human spirit." (Publishers Weekly)
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What listeners say about Parable of the Talents
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R Maglajlic
- 22-02-23
A great and hopeful listen
I love Octavia Butler and this book doesn’t disappoint. The actors who read it really brought the book to life.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tamsin
- 17-02-24
an amazing end
the perfect end to an amazing series. I would definitely recommend giving it a read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- pooky
- 24-10-21
Amazing rollercoaster
Beautiful, thought provoking and at times harsh and unpleasant. This concludes the narrative arc with the previous story “the parable of the sower” My comment is that the brilliant performances and chapters are destroyed by the editing, there’s no silence or gaps the audio just slams into the next chapter.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N16
- 16-09-23
Brutal but brilliant sequel
A great follow up story but difficult to stomach a dystopian future novel that has already largely come true. This book was not forgiving and will break your heart in many different ways. Truly she was a gifted author.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Agvas
- 21-08-23
Incredible, at times uncomfortable, but full of important premonitions
Such a difficult but an important read. In fact, if I wasn’t doing this via Audible and urged on by the fantastic narration of Patricia R. Floyd I think I may have had to put it away.
It’s not a kind of read you pick up to relax into a long evening where you aim to escape reality. You escape it alright but there is such ring to reality to this book that you can’t help but cringe with internal fear, thinking how quickly the world as we know it can fall apart. How close we are to the future Octavia E Butler paints in this novel.
Even with regular breaks, those mostly needed to reflect and think about what you just read, this is still one of the books I would recommend to anyone who is a thinker, reflector, who looks for profound truths and search for self and wishes to learn while on the journeys with others.
As a female, and someone who rejoices in the freedoms we allegedly have in current world, I found this even more disturbing read of how quickly the freedoms we treat as given now can be taken away in the name of religion and ideology.
A highly recommended read, especially on audio format. Fantastic all way round.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Kevin Brown
- 15-02-21
I wish I read both this and Sower years ago
What a writer. I'd love to see her books as films. Great writing. Loved it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 25-10-21
epic
I love these books so much. truly amazing series. it's a epic sorry of a modern future dystopian america. books also have some spot on predictions. written in the 90s and in the 1st book ya have climate change,
rich escaping to Mars in a space x kinda thing and others and in the 2nd trump type president who sez the dry old I
unoriginal "make america great again." it's scary good defo one of my favourite stories of all time. up there with the dispossesed and Fahrenheit 451
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ekaterina Butts
- 14-02-22
powerful stuff about following what you're good at
heroine with unique voice, driven by a purpose. about following through on your talent and the price that brings. the uktraviolent vision of America feels like it could be next year, amazing considering it was written in 1998.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- p
- 12-02-23
Incredible writer and so relevant to today
I am loving all Octavia Butler’s work, she is exceptional. Her understanding of humanity is fascinating, prophetic & worrying.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nathan Koren
- 06-07-21
Great story and performance, marred by one flaw
The story is great and so is the narration. However there is a significant flaw in the production: at the end of every chapter, as soon as the last word finishes, the next chapter immediately begins, without even a fraction of a second between one word and the next. This is quite jarring, because the chapters end in a way that invites contemplation, but the instantaneous jump to the next chapter prevents it. would be great if Audible could fix this -- it should be a simple fix!
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1 person found this helpful