SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in January 2001 and most recently on the 29th December 2001

Thirty years from now, Lauren has devised a new religion, Earthseed, and formed a small community to live according to its edicts. Lauren Oya Olamina Bankole, to give her her full name, wants to expand and spread the belief in Earthseed throughout the world, but has no idea how to go about this.

Sadly for Lauren, America - fed-up with its decline - is beginning a move to a far-right blend of fundamentalist Christianity and fascism.

Obviously this new America won't take kindly to Lauren's new theology. Lauren's naive and honest approach is going to bring disaster down upon them. Lauren, her husband Taylor Franklin Bankole, her brother Marcus and her new daughter, Larkin, are going to have a very, very tough time as two religions collide.

This is a good novel. The adult daughter reviews the diaries of her mother and we are given the intriguing perspective of watching, from the inside, as a new religion is established and developed:

Interestingly, and unfortunately topically, the book posits the religious and moral right of America adopting attitudes more akin to those of the Taliban.