Unexpected Stories

Unexpected Stories is, by any measure, an unexpected gift. This slender but resonant volume contains two stories - recently unearthed and never before in print - by one of the most significant figures in modern science fiction: Octavia E. Butler. "A Necessary Being" takes us into the heart of an alien culture with a rigid hierarchical system based on caste and skin coloration. With the arrival of visitors from a distant mountain tribe, the society known as the Rohkohn finds itself faced with the sudden prospect of profound social change. In the second story, "Childfinder," the title character is a woman who uses her psychic abilities to track down children with similar nascent abilities - and protect them from the abuses of a predatory society. These may be early stories, but they are the clear reflections of a powerful and original talent, and their belated publication is a major literary event. As novelist Nisi Shawl notes in her eloquent introduction, we may live in a fundamentally unfair world, but "sweet surprises" occasionally come our way. Unexpected Stories is one of those surprises. It is a book that Butler's many admirers have been waiting for, whether they knew it or not. The Subterranean Press edition of Unexpected Stories will be its first print edition, with a newly-commissioned introduction by Nisi Shawl, and an afterword by Butler's longtime agent and literary executor, Merrilee Heifetz.


Genre: Science Fiction