Dawn
- 256
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Dawn” is first-contact fiction that refuses to tell the reader whether the rescuers are saviours or captors. The Oankali who pull the last humans out of a ruined Earth are truly alien, and Butler keeps their bargain uncomfortable from start to finish; it can be read as a story about assimilation and colonial power. Some find that allegory too insistent, and the book is plainly the opening of a trilogy, not a complete tale.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before. The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.
Reading order · Lilith's Brood
Full order & progress →- DawnThis book
8.08.0 / 10 - Adulthood Rites
8.08.0 / 10 - Imago
8.08.0 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 451 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 75% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 35 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 416 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Dawn?
It has 256 pages — shorter than 85% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 8.0, the closest to this book.
