Octavia Butler was the first African American woman science fiction writer and is one of my favorite authors. I just finished listening to the sound recording of Kindred and will be returning it to the library soon. More a work of historical fiction than science fiction, Kindred is an exploration of how a modern woman would cope with living without the freedoms she was used to post civil rights era as she time traveled to antebellum Maryland.

Although I liked Kindred, I like Octavia Butler's short stories best. I would highly recommend Bloodchild which, according to Butler, is an exploration of the circumstances in which a man might willingly go through the painful process of pregnancy and childbirth for the sake of love, in the way that women do. Interestingly, Bloodchild is often misinterpreted as a work of class subjugation or slavery. I wonder if this is due to Butler's perspective on pregnancy or whether it is due to the different roles that we, as a culture, expect from men and women and the changed perspective of the roles when gender is switched. I also find my own emotional reaction to a species other than human being in charge to be interesting. Sort of like in Jurassic Park where humans animals became prey rather than predator. If you read, or have read, the story I'd be interested to hear your perspective on these things.