Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the story:


Near of Kin by Octavia Butler


This story is part of the group discussion of Octavia Butler's short story collection Bloodchild and Other Stories. (See the discussion hub topic for more info.)

This is my least favourite of the stories. There isn't even a tiny inkling of science fiction in it.

Yeah, I think I agree with that. There's no law requiring Butler to only write sci-fi, but I don't have to like it. This story in particular feels like listening into some other family's argument. While popular in Literary circles, I've always felt we each have enough interpersonal drama in our own families that there's no sense in importing someone else's.

G33z3r wrote: " This story in particular feels like listening into some other family's argument. While popular in Literary circles, I've always felt we each have enough interpersonal drama in our own families that there's no sense in importing someone else's..."

Exactly!! I read for escapism not realism, and certainly not that realism.

Didn't hate it, didn't love it, but definitely not sf. I cared about the tension b/t & I thought the narrator had an interesting personality. I also thought the prose was maybe a little smoother than "Speech Sounds." I felt the end was anticlimactic, however.

Of the first 5 stories in the collection, I definitely feel like "Bloodchild" and "The Morning and the Evening and the Night" are the strongest, and they also have the latest publication dates, 1984 and 1987. ("Next of Kin" is 1979.)