Fledgling, by Octavia Butler

[landingtree]

This is an amnesia story, where the protagonist finds herself in a situation she doesn't understand and has to work out what happened; and where she turns out, along the way, to be a person of remarkable power and importance. As such, it zips along. I find the amnesia both too convenient (it's carefully targeted to avoid causing any problems that aren't useful to the plot) and really effective. Adding to the paciness, the protagonist (who doesn't initially know her own name) shares with other Butler protagonists I've read a clarity and force of mind and motive: around her, things will get done, and they'll get done well.

It's fun to start amnesia stories not knowing any more than the character does, but also in this case maybe not. Plot description commences here: it's vampires. Or something like them. The protagonist quickly finds that she wants to drink human blood, and that when she does so, the person she drinks from becomes emotionally bound to her, extremely interested in her welfare, and extremely suggestible. Being fed upon is a sexually charged pleasure. This starts out uncomfortable because the protagonist appears to be about eleven years old, but quickly does a partial flip and becomes uncomfortable in the opposite direction as well: the protagonist has to reckon with the control she's achieved before even knowing what kind of being she is, and with the circumstances that deprived her of that knowledge.



What we see of Ina society (the proper name for these vampire-like beings) believes itself to be profoundly functional and civil. This is a book where, if long-standing vampire clans end up at loggerheads, it's the exception instead of the rule, and a trusted legal system will handle it. Ina must take human symbiotes to survive, seven or eight each; those symbiotes form relationships with each other and live in close-knit communities. Sometimes their children find Ina of their own to bond with, sometimes they leave to live elsewhere. Vampire society is hidden by mind-controlling the occasional journalist, but also by being pretty quiet for the most part, causing no more fuss than, say, the Amish.

One of the Ina describes at one point how they made really sure to get a person's consent before making them their symbiote. What this means is 'I had a talk with them about it after I'd only bitten them once or twice.' Two bites is as many as it takes for a vampire to be able to pretty much determine every action a person takes, if they choose to give verbal instructions. The Ina think they aren't doing that, but in an ideal world, you'd want the ambiguity completely off the table! I don't think an Octavia Butler novel is in any danger of being set in an ideal world. Fledgling is never condemnatory, in fact symbiont-Ina society is depicted as at least as functional and happy as life outside, if not more so. There's no deeper layer of 'it was an abusive cult all along' than what's implicit in the premise (though we learn that some Ina communities, offpage, are worse). At the same time, the book repeatedly shows how easy it is for those who hold power to forget how much power they hold. The compromisedness is folded right through. Most Ina in this book are very assiduous about ethical behavior, but in a context where addictive, total mind control is a natural part of life.

Ina can smell that you are lonely. And then, if they feel like biting you, they can make your life a lot more comfortable and fulfilled. Aargh.

Comments

[ambyr]

I really wish she'd been able to continue this series. This felt so surface level in terms of what it shows of Ina culture; I wanted more.

[(Anonymous)]

Me too! And it was clearly setting up for things. I’d have liked to see the perspective of the Shori who’d been acclimatised to the culture again and gone through with all the study she planned.

[landingtree]

Oops, that was me

[leaflemming]

Yes, same. So interestingly like and unlike her other stories about biologically inescapable power relationships. I really wanted to see where she'd go with it all. And the story we do get just whips along; it doesn't feel complete, but for readability it does feel like she's at the top of her powers.