started this on July 20th 2024, the same date as the first entry.

the thing is that all the parts of this i thought were richest and most compelling are not resolved with this book. it's very clearly setting up a series, and looking ahead to that, and that meant it didn't feel like a complete work. there is a satisfying, arcing plot to the novel, of course, but it doesn't get to the places i wanted it to, and that i imagine the series would get to: space travel and religious cults and a bigger insight into earth.

as it is, it's well rendered, and the dystopian world does feel unexpectedly, refreshingly continual - no rapid, massive change, just a descent from here to there. i'm sort of stuck, between admiration for the craft and awareness that Butler's doing something really skilled, even in the brutal simplicity of the plot, and a sense that it's not what interests me right now.