Wild Seed

Oh, what a sad book. Just deeply sad in its premise of human trafficking, eugenics, a man controlling people emotionally to bend them to his will. Butler's novels all seem to come from these intensely uncomfortable personal horrors and I felt this one more than most because they are so ordinary and human, explicitly not alien and only a little sci-fi.

Great novel for all of that. I love her insight into personalities and motivations. And her ability to adapt some strangeness - the magical abilities, the longevity - into a story about humanity. About the history of African Americans, at that! In a weird oblique way. There's a lot of depth here and I think I only got about a third of it. But the surface story was also compelling and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.