Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler

Rating: 3.5 Stars

The Rohkohn Hao, Tahneh, was sharing her evening meal with her chief judge and discussing the current drought when she first learned of the foreigners who had entered her territory.

Review

A Necessary Evil is about an alien race that is strictly class-based. In each class, your rank is additionally determined by how much blue you have in your colouring. Above all classes are the Hao, who are pure blue, a warrior-class that is faster, stronger, camouflages better and lead their tribes.

A tribe without a Hao is considered incomplete. So each tribe will do whatever they can to secure a Hao. Sometimes they are born, but if not, they steal one from another tribe and force them to serve them.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Rating: 5 Stars

I lost an arm on my last trip home.

The Plot

On her 26th birthday, Dana is transported back in time and space to the ante bellum South. The last place in history a black woman wants to be in. But Dana has no choice. Her fate and the fate of Rufus, the heir to the plantation and her distant ancestor, are intertwined.

Dana has to find a way to survive in a world where she has no rights and noone to help her.