She said, 'there must be something basic, something really genetically wrong if we're falling for this stuff.' In an interview with Joshua Sanders, Butler said that the space race influenced the writing of Dawn: 'I think of the space race as a way of having a nuclear war without having one.' The idea of a nuclear war being 'winnable' by either side caused her to write the trilogy. Jodahs has unlocked the genetic potential of both the humans and the Oankali. Imago tells the story of Jodahs, Lilith's first child who is ooloi, a third gender.

He eventually convinces the Oankali that the humans deserve their own place to live, and the Oankali make Mars habitable for humans. He is kidnapped by a group of human resisters. Adulthood Rites centers on Lilith's half-Oankali son, Akin, as he struggles with his identity. The other installments are Adulthood Rites (1988) and Imago (1989). The Oankali have total power over the humans' lives, doing whatever they want with their human prisoners and their bodies.ĭawn is the first book in a three-book trilogy called Lilith's Brood. The novel centers on themes of agency, consent, power, and ownership.

Lilith is the first woman to be Awakened from suspended animation, and she is tasked with Awakening the rest of the humans and teaching them how to survive back on Earth. The Oankali picked up the surviving humans and placed them in suspended animation aboard the ship. The human race has nearly killed itself off in a nuclear war. It centers on Lilith Iyapo, who has been kidnapped by an alien race called the Oankali.

Dawn octavia butler sparknotes