James Nicoll Reviews

Octavia E. Butler’s 2014 Unexpected Stories is a collection of science fiction stories.

Unexpected Stories is only barely a collection, as it contains but two stories. One fewer and it would be a novella. Or a short story.

Unexpected Stories is also the solution to a personal problem.

I really wanted to review a Butler work. This doesn’t seem a terribly difficult task, as I’ve not reviewed Adulthood Rites, Imago, Parable of the Talents, or Fledging¹. However, there were two problems:

• I wanted to review Butler under my Doing the WFC’s Homework banner. I prefer to focus on books published in the last decade, which rules out all of the books mentioned above. However, Unexpected Stories is only eleven years old, close enough for my purposes. Especially if I pretend it’s still 2024, which for various reasons appeals right about now².

• The other issue is that once I have read Fledgling, I will have read all of Butler. Current circumstances justify the ​“there is no second marshmallow” rule, so I will gratify that particular urge sooner rather than later. Just not today.

Unexpected Stories collects two previously unpublished stories, A Necessary Being and ​“Childfinder.” Why the first was unpublished seems unclear, but ​“Childfinder” was a victim of Harlan Ellison’s inability to resist buying new works for The Final Dangerous Visions, even while being unable to deliver a publishable final product.

Foreword (Unexpected Stories) • essay by Walter Mosley

A brief, heart-felt introduction from Mosley, who is someone whose books I should really review one of these days.

A Necessary Being • novelette by Octavia E. Butler

The Empire fell centuries ago, leaving in its wake a common language and small communities struggling for survival in a desolate world. Phenomenally caste-ridden, each community relies on blue-skinned Hao to lead them. As Hao are rare, some groups will kidnap Hao, cripple them to prevent them from fleeing, and force them to grudgingly lead.

The Rohkohn tribe’s Hao, Tahneh, was raised in the tribe. Her father was kidnapped, hamstrung, and spent his life bitter and resentful. Tahneh has been unable to produce an heir. Should she die, the Rohkohn will be left leaderless. This would be a calamity at the best of times. During the current drought, it might be apocalyptic.

Rohkohn salvation comes in the form of a Hao and two companions seen wandering not too far away. All the Rohkohn need do is kidnap this Hao, murdering his companions if necessary, then force him to accept leadership of the Rohkohn.

As the daughter of such a kidnapping victim, Tahneh is loath to resort to these measures. What other course of action is open to her and her people?

This novella is short on details that other authors might have considered. The Empire is mentioned only in passing. It’s unclear how or why the current caste system exists. Was the Empire technologically sophisticated enough to have imposed a genetic caste system? Or is this a natural characteristic of the species? Unknown.

What is clear is that the system exists, and is not going away. Satisfactory solutions, to extent those exist, will have to accommodate the unchangeable. Which is to say, it’s an Octavia E. Butler story.

“Childfinder” • short story by Octavia E. Butler

To her former colleagues in the organization, Barbara’s decision to leave is both unfathomable and unacceptable. Her exit is unfathomable because the organization provides psi-positive people with the support and community the psi-negatives could never offer. Her exit is unacceptable because Barbara is the only psi known to have the knack for finding pre-psi folk young enough that their potentials can be realized.

Therefore, the organization sees no alternative but to hunt down Barbara (who is hiding in her all-African American community) and drag her back the organization (which is majority white). The organization is confident that their superior numbers will win the day. That Barbara would have contingency plans is never considered.

This is a bog-standard psionics tale, with the twist that, as Butler isn’t pitching this to Campbell, she is free to ask ​“OK, but how would this play out in Disco Era America with its existing racial setup?” Poorly, is how. But you knew that from its author.

Afterword (Unexpected Stories) • essay by Merrilee Heifetz

Heifetz (Butler’s executor³) explains the paper chase that led her, Butler’s cousin Ernestine Walker, curator Sue Hodson, and assistant curator Natalie Russell to the long-unpublished ​“Childfinder.”

Extensive archives require detailed indexing. Or dedicated people willing to invest time perusing clues.

As one would expect, the two stories are skillfully written. It might seem odd that two stories, whose acknowledged common element is having been previously unpublished, share the theme of unwilling service… unless you’ve read other Butler works, in which people frequently find themselves forced into unwanted roles, thanks to existing power systems seemingly beyond their ability to reform.

Unexpected Stories is out of print. That was unexpected.

1: Or Survivor, which I do own. You know how almost every author has a book so awful they repudiated it? Survivor is Butler’s. Because she wouldn’t allow it to be reprinted, my tatty paperback is worth an astonishing amount.

2: If the US voters who landed us in the current circumstances could die by inches in some thematically appropriate manner, that would be swell.

3: Are you a writer? Do you have a literary executor yet? Don’t make me retell a dire cautionary tale, the details of which I have forgotten, whose import I probably misunderstood.