Adulthood Rites: Book Two of the Xenogenesis Series (1988)
By Octavia Butler
Extinction; Genetic engineering; Mutations; Posthuman; Race; Science fiction; Speciation; Transgenics
Kidnapped from his Oankali family, Akin bonds with factions resisting the alien intervention in human reproduction and promises to aid them in their quest for autonomy.
Akin looks human until he opens his mouth. Not only is he incredibly intelligent and well-spoken for a toddler, but Akin is equipped with Oankali sensory tentacles in his mouth. He is the first Oankali-human male construct born to a human since the Oankalis began to combine genetically with humans. Earth has changed since the first Awakened humans were sent to repopulate the destroyed planet; now, bands of resisters have formed towns, and they trade objects they are able to recover or create from the debris left on Earth. One of the most precious commodities to resistance humans is a human-looking construct, for they cannot reproduce on their own. Akin is kidnapped and sold to Phoenix, a settlement populated by some of the earliest Awakened people. For over a year, he lives with Gabe and Tate, two resisters who were formerly close friends of Lillith, his mother. In Phoenix, Akin develops a greater understanding of human motivation than any Oankali or construct before him, and he promises Tate that he will try to convince the rest of his people to allow a self-populating human colony to survive. As he grows older, Akin wanders from resistance settlement to settlement, “tasting” the new sights and compiling them as evidence in his case for a human colony. After traveling back to the main Oankali ship, Akin receives permission to transform Mars for human occupation, in spite of the Oankali assurance that the humans will once again self-destruct. Now, Akin must find a way to recruit humans in spite of a newly altered exterior that marks him as a construct.
Human purpose is written directly into the genes, and Oankali fear for the survival of the species precisely because they can read the doom spelled out in DNA. Humans are driven, according to Oankali, by Human Contradiction – highly evolved intelligence clashing with hierarchical behavior. Essentially, the baser human instincts that have been carried forward in the DNA from Neanderthal ancestors, including the need to subjugate others, often drives humans to employ superior intelligence in destructive manners. Indeed, the humans who populate the resistance communities have already found means of developing weaponry to use against other towns. In order for the traders to kidnap Akin and garner the wealth he represents, they nearly beat his human protector to death. Combining with the Oankali allows both humans and their alien counterparts to genetically diversify while the hybrid species thrives; existing humans are flawed and overspecialized, with dangerous genetic mutations lurking alongside the destructive instincts. While the genetic alterations create enhanced constructs, they also signify the change of lifestyle the humans must adopt; an Oankali mating couple, though initially distasteful to many humans, will allow positive elements of humanity to transcend natural instincts. The humans create guns knowing that such weapons can only be used on one another, thus indicating that the self-destructive hierarchical behavior will reproduce in whatever society humans form. Akin’s colony on Mars may be doomed from the start.
Evaluation: This novel offers good material for discussing the impact of selective genetic engineering on various factions of society. However, while this is an interesting work of fiction, it does not stand alone from the rest of the Xenogenesis trilogy.
– Natalie Champ