Octavia's Brood

Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements

By: Adrienne Maree Brown, Walidah Imarisha

Narrated by: Je Nie Fleming

Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision and try to create such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought 20 of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia's Brood span genres - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism - but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. The collection is rounded off with essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.

©2015 Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown (This edition 2015 AK Press and the Institute for Anarchist Studios) (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Those concerned with justice and liberation must always persuade the mass of people that a better world is possible. Our job begins with speculative fictions that fire society's imagination and its desire for change. In adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha's visionary conception, and by its activist-artists' often stunning acts of creative inception, Octavia's Brood makes for great thinking and damn good reading. The rest will be up to us." (Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be: The Colorization of America)

"Conventional exclamatory phrases don't come close to capturing the essence of what we have here in Octavia's Brood. One part sacred text, one part social movement manual, one part diary of our future selves telling us, 'It's going to be okay, keep working, keep loving.' Our radical imaginations are under siege and this text is the rescue mission. It is the new cornerstone of every class I teach on inequality, justice, and social change.... This is the text we've been waiting for." (Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier)

"Octavia once told me that two things worried her about the future of humanity: The tendency to think hierarchically, and the tendency to place ourselves higher on the hierarchy than others. I think she would be humbled beyond words that the fine, thoughtful writers in this volume have honored her with their hearts and minds. And that in calling for us to consider that hierarchical structure, they are not walking in her shadow, nor standing on her shoulders, but marching at her side." (Steven Barnes, author of Lion's Blood)

I don't know how to say it.

I haven't enjoyed a book so much in a long time. The writers are fantastic, writing rich speculative fiction, and you can practically hear Octavia over their shoulders, whispering in their ears. I especially love Hollow, because authentic disabled people and chronic pain sufferers are extremely underrepresented in fiction. Wish that one could be made into a novel or series of novels. My one nitpick is that Aftermath was only an excerpt with a cliffhanger. It can't be listened to in audio format, so that is a bummer.

Great idea, not great writing

I love Brown's activism and the idea behind this of taking organizers and social justice activists and hearing their perspectives on the future. But they aren't necessarily great writers, and I only made it half way through.

Some Hits and Misses

Making my way through this collection of writings honoring the spirit and works of Octavia Butler, I found a few favorites and some hard passes. Some could make really interesting movies or video series. The variety and talent displayed by this material has me hoping for a second volume.

This was my intro to AfroFuturism/VisionaryFiction

I liked some of the stories, struggled to finish some, and just plain skipped others. Some of the stories seemed to have been written by professionals with experience in both writing and social justice "fields" and others seemed to have been written by novices or inexperienced students.

Overall I'm glad to have purchased this. I would recommend this for those new to the AfroFuturism genre and maybe even grade school to highschool classrooms.


The voice actor was a bit corny at times and off on her portrayals. For example, one story featured an old woman whose voice was supposed to sound like a young woman but the narrator read all of her parts with a stereotypical raspy old lady voice. Overall she did a good job. I say this while under the impression that this was made for

Lousy audio on this book

I like the stories, but the audio wasn’t crisp at all. I realize the narrator was pronouncing names I was unfamiliar with, but the overall sound was fuzzy and many times I really couldn’t follow the story well because I couldn’t hear the names well enough to grasp them. And, this was listening with headphones, too!

Great, visionary collection

So many new worlds, several of which I really wanted full novels or series of. I really appreciated the analysis and discussion of Octavia Butler's work and legacy. Her stories are so vividly engaging, but deeply meaningful and analytical about society. I came to this hoping for more of that type of experience, so much more than the standard "science fiction" label unhelpfully slapped on her works. I was not disappointed, except when a rich and engaging world and narrative stopped before I was done immersing myself in the setting and stimulating conflicts and characters. Successfully filled my longing for more audiobooks by Butler, until it too was over before I was ready. Will be searching for more works by several of the contributors.

Wonderful collection, disappointing narration.

The stories are fascinating and offer unique perspectives and visions for the future. I am so glad to have a collection like this.

But the narration was distractingly bad. Pausing every few words, inflection inappropriate for the tone of the story... it was hard to listen to and made it sound like they hadn't preread the stories at all. I wish I had ordered a text copy of this book.

terrible narrator

ugh, I couldn't finish because of the narrator. her cadence destroyed any enjoyment I might have had from these stories. try something else, please!

Distracted

I loved the book, the stories were wonderful. The reader was bad. She seemed to just power read through the whole book, like the faster she read, the quicker it would be over. When she did slow down and do different voices, it was way better, but then she sped back up and it distracted me from what the story was actually about.

Octavia Would Be Proud

Octavia Butler would be proud of these writers. Her influence and imagination are all over these stories. "Tragic times do not beg for complexity," an observation in the first story is a terrifyingly topical note on how demagogues take power, one that reminds me of reading her "Parable" series during the white supremacist resurgence of the Nineties. It all felt so on the nose.

The stories are strong throughout and hold up a necessary and vivid mirror to the current political climate while remaining enormously entertaining.

Butler broadened the horizons of science fiction for millions. She grabbed the reins from the predominantly white men filling the shelves and asked what time travel, extra terrestrial contact, and the post-apocalypse could say for her. The children of Octavia that fill this collection, too ask how can speculative fiction bring their needs, their fears into view. And they succeed.