Imago

Butler’s Xenogenesis Series includes three books: Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989). The novels were combined and initially published under the title Xenogenesis in 1989 and later as Lilith’s Brood in 2000. The trilogy is a story of first contact between a tentacled alien species called the Oankali and the last human survivors on Earth. The term “xenogenesis” refers to the production of offspring completely different from the parent, connecting to the Oankali’s need to “trade” genes and create new forms of life. Each novel deals with the tensions in human/Oankali interactions and the delicate balance between autonomy and interdependence for survival. Butler cites the heightened nuclear arms race of the 1980s as the inspiration to write about humans who are genetically predisposed to self-destruction due to their contradictory intelligence and hierarchical nature.

In Dawn, Lilith Iyapo, a Black American, is the first human awakened by the Oankali centuries after nuclear devastation. They assign Lilith the task of waking other humans and teaching them about the Oankali and their proposal to trade genes and repopulate Earth. Torn between her loyalty to her species and her growing bond with an Oankali named Nikanj, Lilith is deemed a traitor by her enemies and a leader by her allies. As she advocates for human independence, she struggles with her own experiences of humanity’s violence and social injustices. The novel concludes with Lilith pregnant with the first human/Oankali hybrid offspring.

Adulthood Rites continues with Akin, one of Lilith’s human/Oankali children. The Oankali have deemed humans genetically doomed to self-destruction and prohibit them from reproducing. Some humans form families and produce “construct” children with the Oankali while others who reject the gene trade are sterilized and establish “resister” villages. Akin’s dual heritage gives him insight into both communities, and he advocates both for the rights of the Oankali and the constructs, and for human autonomy. The novel ends with the Oankali agreeing to Akin’s proposal to set up a Mars colony where humans can reproduce and live without Oankali interference.

Imago takes place a century after the events in Dawn and focuses on Jodahs, another child from Lilith’s family. Jodahs is the first construct ooloi, the Oankali third sex responsible for genetic engineering and reproduction. As the latest and unexpected culmination of human/Oankali evolution, Jodahs is the only one of its kind and is deemed potentially dangerous for its advanced and unpredictable powers of genetic manipulation. Exiled from its Oankali community and reviled by human resisters, Jodahs experiences loneliness and social isolation until it meets two humans willing to build a future based on trust and mutualism with the Oankali. The novel and series conclude with the founding of a new village and the titular xenogenesis of a new species of Oankali-human constructs.

Throughout the trilogy, Butler engages with and problematizes complex analogies to slavery, colonialism, and the ethics of biotechnology. Through a feminist lens of race, gender, and sexuality, the novels explore what it means to be human and autonomous.