Many years ago I read a short story by Butler that totally grossed me out. I think Jack Williamson assigned it in the course I took from him. Sometime later I read and reread Kindred and was completely caught up in it. Why I never went on to read more of her work may be a product of the ambivalence resulting from two such disparate experiences with her writing. This was on the November "100 Kindle books under $4" list, so I got it for me on my second annual birthday shopping spree on Amazon.
The blurb informed me that it was the first of a trilogy, but I hedged my bets and just got the first one. After a few chapters, I bought the rest.
The aliens rescued the survivors of a completely human global holocaust. What comes next is the uncomfortable part. They renew their own species by mixing their genetic heritage with that of new species that they encounter and creating essentially new lifeforms. Humanity as we know it would cease to exist.
Amazingly, the sympathetic characters are the aliens. Butler has created a species which is destroying "us" but they are the ones the reader roots for.
Lilith is the person selected by the Oankali to lead the first group of humans back to earth. She accepts their "deal" but intends to use the return to earth to encourage her people to cooperate until the get "home" then do their best to escape. Only later she discovers that that is anticipated - and the only way humans can reproduce is through their Oankali partners. Still - the most likeable and sympathetic characters are the Oankali.
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