One thing that struck me about several of the novels we've read thus far is that their speculation is based on human biology; specifically, the attempt to alter and control it. In the past I came across a word for this; post-humanism, a nebulous and ill-defined term, but one ultimately centered around the concept of building better humans. There have been aspects of this in most of the books we've read, such as...

K, first off, "Bloodchild" = creepy and not to be read right before going to bed, especially if one is particularly phobic about personal invasion by insects to begin with. Personal nausea aside, though, the contrast between assimilating a species into one's own, and using the Other as purely breeding ground is fascinating. "Bloodchild" made "Lilith's Brood" sit far more easily with me.

Ooloi--when I first saw the word, it looked very familiar, but I've never read anything by Butler before, and poking around on the web, she's the only one who's meant to use the word.

Not really a criticism of Butler's work, but an observation I've been mulling over for a while...