Now through March 19th, we’re banding with several other indie creators to give one lucky winner $300 worth of sci-fi and fantasy books.

Part of the fun is talking with the other creators about what books to include. We all want to weigh in with books that we’ve loved and love to share.

Octavia Butler is one of those authors I love to share. Not unlike a lot of other Gen Xers, I absolutely filled up with stories from Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke in my youth. And I’d sometimes suggest Bester as an alternate “B” (so I laughed out loud when that joke was made on The Simpsons).

I would absolutely suggest Octavia Butler not only as another “B,” but another author to check out if you haven’t already before. The first novel of hers I read, Wild Seed, was a centuries-spanning epic that I still think about. Next I tackled the Xenogenesis trilogy, and then Parable of the Sower, which is part of prize package we have for this giveaway.

Butler’s protagonists are complex, imperfect, and driven in a very human way. The ideas about self and other and the worldbuilding can be dizzying at times, but always truthful.

For Parable of the Sower, readers might find it more than a bit timely. Written in the early ’90s, it’s actually set in a 2020s full of climate crisis, wealth inequality, and corporate greed. This is the graphic novel version I hope to tempt my kids with at the right age. Perhaps you know of someone who’d like to check it out as well.

So, for this and other stories, don’t forget to sign up for the giveaway before next Friday!

— Bjorn Munson, Artistic Director, JAT