Subject: __Imago__ by Octavia E. Bulter Book Review

From: [email-masked] (C. Douglas Baker)
Date: 20 May 1993 20:00:59 GMT

IMAGO by Octavia E. Butler
                 Book Review by C. Douglas Baker
                         [Mild Spoilers]

     Part three of Octavia E. Bulter's Xenogenesis Trilogy,
_Imago_ completes the creation of a new species via Oankali and
human cross-breeding.  _Imago_ deals with the creation of the
first "construct" (half-human, half-Oankali) ooloi, the third
Oankali gender.  Ooloi are necessary for reproduction and the
creation of construct ooloi represent the ability of the new
species to procreate and become independent of its parent
species.  The ooloi are explained in fuller detail in _Imago_
than in the previous novels.  Here the reader more fully
understands the healing and manipulative abilities of the ooloi. 
The ooloi bind their mates to them through a chemical and
psychological process and are equally bonded to their mates.  The
major difference in the new ooloi species is their ability to
metamorphosis or shape-change which they derive from their human
genes' ability to regenerate new types of cells.  The construct
ooloi tend to take on the shape of their mates, thus the title
_Imago_.

     Jodahs, the first construct ooloi, is ostensibly a mistake
made by its ooloi parent Nikanj.  Jodahs must learn to control
its ability to change the genetic structure of living things to
become accepted as part of the Oankali community.  The Oankali
consensus had been that any construct ooloi created by mistake
would be confined to the ship where it would not do any physical
damage to the other earthbound Oankali, humans or constructs. 
Since Jodahs can change genetic make-up unintentionally with a
touch, it has the potential to create mutations or diseases that
would be dangerous to the community.  Jodahs' family, however,
chooses exile in the forest instead.  There Jodahs encounters
human resisters who are still able to reproduce and befriends
them.  _Imago_  is about Jodahs' struggle to gain acceptance into
both the human and Oankali community.   

     _Imago_ completes the Xenogenesis Trilogy by introducing the
last stage of the new species' development--the ability to
procreate.  The new half-human, half-Oankali species, through
Jodahs and its sibling Ahajas, can now fully regenerate on its
own.  Readers interested in the trilogy should read the series in
order: (1) _Dawn_, (2) _Adulthood Rites_, and (3) _Imago_. 
_Imago_ is incomplete without its predecessors; much about the
Oankali and human reaction to them is explained in the previous
novels.

%T Imago
%A Octavia E. Butler
%C New York
%D 1989
%I Popular Library
%G ISBN 0-445-20977-1 (paperback)
%P 220

Doug Baker
[email-masked]
[email-masked]