Imago (A Lilith’s Brood Novel book 3) by Octavia E. Butler (book review).
For the third of ‘Lilith’s Brood’ novels, we have ‘Imago’, and the metamorphosis of another of her offspring, Jodahs. His full name is Jodahs Iyapo Leal Kaalnikanjlo, the rest of his names indicating his lineage and five parents. Thing is, ‘he’ is changing into an ooloi, the Oankali’s third asexual sex and switches sexes to female at first and then multiple different shapes. This disturbs the Oankali. Not only is this the first time that a ‘human-construct’ has done this but they have an unwitting ability to destroy as well and think he might have to live on-board their mothership than on Earth. Jodahs is determined not to do so.
The second section of the book has Lilith and her family wandering away from the village Lo and asking Jodahs to leave them for extended periods as he waits for his final metamorphosis to take place. In doing so, he comes across a brother and sister, Tomás and Jesusa, who both have serious cancerous tissues, and restores them to health. Something Butler really never explores is the fact that the Oankali see cancer tissue as something that they can correct but also analyse. So why aren’t they cultivating this amongst the resisters instead of letting it happen in the regular course of events?
Jodhah’s brother, Aaor, is also an ooloj and is having worse stability issues than his sibling. Although the Oankali help, it’s really Jodhah who helps him cultivate friendships with more members of the cancer-ridden village.
In many respects, Butler’s trilogy is more about human-alien hybrids and how they adapt than anything more sinister. The pure humans fear them but are eventually won over by them being cured of the cancers and other ailments. The human colony on Mars seems to be thriving, although we don’t see it ourselves. This novel is written solely from Johah’s perspective, so it’s only one perspective. The future for the Oankali is to leave Earth and do a similar mission on any other stricken or otherwise world they might find. I’d have loved to have interviewed Butler about her books. Certainly, with this trilogy, Butler wanted to show that there are good aliens in the universe, even if their methods were rather unorthodox.
GF Willmetts
July 2025
(pub: Headline, 2021 of a 1989 novel. 285 page small enlarged paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-4722-8108-1).
check out website: www.headline.co.uk
