Fledgling

Readers who believe that the science fiction genre boasts no quality literature need look no further than Butler for proof to the contrary. Though the story revolves around nonhuman vampires, this is not a horror novel, nor is it a romance, yet it contains elements of both. In Butler's hands this is a much deeper and much more emotional story about what it means to be "other." Tracey Leigh turns in a performance worthy of the material, which is no small feat, as the main character is an amnesiac 53-year-old female vampire in the body of an 11-year-old. Listeners follow the character while she figures out who and what she is, and they will not doubt the journey for a single moment. S.D.D. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 22, 2005
The much-lauded Butler creates vampires in her 12th novel (her first in seven years) that have about as much to do with Bram Stoker's Dracula as HBO's Deadwood
does with High Noon
. They need human blood to survive, but they don't kill unless they have to, and (given several hundred years) they'll eventually die peacefully of old age. They are Ina, and they've coexisted with humans for millennia, imparting robust health and narcotic bliss with every bite to their devoted human blood donors, aka "symbionts." Shori is a 53-year-old Ina (a juvenile) who wakes up in a cave, amnesiac and seriously wounded. As is later revealed, her family and their symbionts were murdered because they genetically engineered a generation of part-Ina, part-human children. Shori was their most successful experiment: she can stay conscious during daylight hours, and her black skin helps protect her from the sun. The lone survivor, Shori must rely on a few friendly (and tasty) people to help her warn other Ina families and rediscover herself. Butler, keeping tension high, reveals the mysteries of the Ina universe bit by tantalizing bit. Just as the Ina's collective honor and dignity starts to get a little dull, a gang of bigoted, black sheep Ina rolls into town for a species-wide confab-cum-smackdown. In the feisty Shori, Butler has created a new vampire paradigm—one that's more prone to sci-fi social commentary than gothic romance—and given a tired genre a much-needed shot in the arm.