After the end, the beginning: Octavia Butler’s “Lilith’s Brood” reimagines what it means to be human
In Octavia Butler’s “Lilith’s Brood” trilogy, humankind has awakened from “extinction” to face a new, borderline-impossible choice: survive through change, or die with their humanity intact. First published in May 1987 under the series title “Xenogenesis”—later renamed “Lilith’s Brood”—the trilogy’s three novels, “Dawn,” “Adulthood Rites,” and “Imago,” form one of Butler’s most visionary, haunting works….