The second half of Butler’s Parable books. If you read my earlier post You’ll notice I mentioned really liking the first half of this dou because like Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash it reminds one visually of a GTA game what with it’s shootouts, and arsonists and violent romps through the conutryside. So how does Talents turn out?
Well for starters I suppose it must be saud that Talents can be read as the culmination of the dou. Here we see our protagonist settled. And A la Frank Herbert’s Dune settling into her role as a prophet. We also see the lives of several characters who began the journey with Lauren in the first novel. This time out there is no Journey to the promised land as Lauren and her cult already have a base of operations of their own.
Trouble is not far behind and comes in the usual form of violence and abduction as Lauren’s daughter is kidnapped by the fervor filled Christian American Crusaders who ware taking over future America.
In this way Talents can be seen both as a tale of redepmtion and sacrifice as most of it is filled with Lauren’s struggles to find her abducted daughter.