Reviews

Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler

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sydschaedel's review

5.0

I love Octavia Butler's work. Isaac Asimov wrote in the introduction to this short story that Butler "draws a picture of an all-but-destroyed society that is so vivid that you will find yourself living in it. And, oddly enough, she manages to end with a ray of hope that you will find yourself accepting gladly." I wholeheartedly agree.

panos's review

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3.0

big concepts in small forms. The way that Octavia Butler uses the form is spectacular. She holds so much information but gives it to the reader very delicately. She does not spit at us the information but gently gives it to us. We get to know this universe easily despite not understanding a lot of things (for example how it all started or how exactly did the people lose their sense of language) it does not matter because the crux of the story is so concrete that in a way covers up all the "holes". For me, it is really hard to do a plot twist in short fiction without being cheap but on this occasion worked. It seemed that when the reader thought that there wasn't any concrete way to tie this loose story Octavia managed to make the perfect ending. While I now understand that science fiction and or fantasy short stories are not for me, I do not regret reading this.