Parable of the Talents (novel)
Sequel to Parable of the Sower, winner of the Nebula Award.
Parable of the Talents is a 1998 science fiction novel by Octavia E. Butler. It is the sequel to *Parable of the Sower* and the second of two books in the series. The novel won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
The story is told primarily through Lauren Oya Olamina's journal entries, with some passages by her husband Taylor Franklin Bankole. Set in 2032, five years after the previous book, Lauren has established a community called Acorn in the hills above the coast of Northern California. The community is built around her religion, Earthseed, which teaches that humanity must leave Earth and settle other planets to reach maturity.
The United States has become a dystopia under President Andrew Steele Jarret, who leads a Christian fundamentalist movement called "Christian America." Using the slogan "Make America Great Again," Jarret seeks to purge non-Christian faiths. Slavery has returned, enforced by "shock collars," and many people escape reality through virtual reality headsets called "Dreamasks."
Crusaders from Christian America attack Acorn, turning it into a re-education camp. For a year and a half, Lauren and the other adults are enslaved with collars, forced to work, and the women are regularly raped. In 2035, Lauren and her followers rebel and kill their captors, then scatter into hiding. President Jarret is defeated in 2036 after the unpopular Alaska–Canada War and revelations of his involvement in witch burnings.
Lauren searches for her daughter Larkin for over a year, traveling through Northern California and Oregon. She also begins spreading Earthseed by teaching individuals and training them to teach others. In Portland, Oregon, she gains wealthy followers; one helps her publish *Earthseed: The First Book of the Living* online. The religion grows nationwide, but Lauren eventually gives up hope of finding Larkin.
Larkin is adopted by an African American Christian America family and renamed Asha Vere Alexander, after a Dreamask hero. Her adoptive parents are unloving and abusive. As an adult, she reunites with her uncle Marcos "Marc" Duran, who was thought dead in the previous novel and is now a Christian America minister. With his help, she becomes an academic historian and leaves the Christian faith. Marc, who had re-established contact with Lauren, tells Asha her mother is dead and never reveals the truth.
- author
- Octavia E. Butler
- published
- 1998
- genre
- Science fiction
- awards
- Nebula Award for Best Novel (2000)
- series
- Second in a series of two, sequel to Parable of the Sower
Lore & Background
Acorn is attacked and taken over by Christian American 'Crusaders' and turned into a re-education camp. For a year and a half, Lauren and other adults are enslaved with 'slave collars' and forced labor, and Lauren and several women are regularly raped. In 2035, Lauren and her followers rebel, kill their captors, and disperse into hiding. By 2036, President Jarret is defeated after a single term due to the 'Alaska–Canada War' and revelations of his role in witch burnings. Lauren searches for her daughter Larkin for over a year, then re-establishes Earthseed by teaching individuals during her travels, gaining a following among the affluent in Portland, Oregon. She publishes Earthseed: The First Book of the Living online, launching Earthseed nationwide. Meanwhile, Larkin is adopted by a Christian America family, renamed Asha Vere Alexander.
Reader's Guide
Parable of the Talents won the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novel. The academic Jana Diemer Llewellyn regards it as an indictment of religious fundamentalism and compares it to Joanna Russ' The Female Man and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. In 2017, Los Angeles Times op-ed editor Abby Aguirre likened the religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism of President Jarret to the 'Make America Great Again' rhetoric of the Trump administration. In 2020, amid an uptick in interest in Butler's writing attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parable of the Sower appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 2025, LA Taco writer Marina Watanabe said modern Los Angeles resembles the fictionalized version in Parable of the Sower, citing a fire that burned much of Altadena in early 2025 and 'a right-wing demagogue rising to power with the slogan: Make America Great Again.' An opera version of Parable of the Sower, co-written by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon, debuted in 2023. Butler had planned several more Parable novels, including Parable of the Trickster, which would have focused on a community's struggle on a new planet, but she encountered writer's block and shifted to her final novel, Fledgling.
Did You Know?
- The novel is told from the points of view of Lauren Oya Olamina, her daughter Larkin Olamina/Asha Vere, and Lauren's husband Taylor Franklin Bankole.
- President Andrew Steele Jarret uses the slogan 'Make America Great Again' in the novel.
- Lauren dies at age 81 after watching the first shuttles leave Earth for the starship Christopher Columbus.
- Butler planned a third Parable novel titled Parable of the Trickster, but encountered writer's block and never completed it.
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