Unaccustomed Stories by Octavia Butler

 

This is a set of two novellas by Octavia E. Butler.  In the first, A Necessary Being, leaders of two opposing tribes face each other.  One has been captured by the other and the ritual would have him crippled so he cannot flee and kept there to produce the next leader.  But the two leaders have an attraction to each other and find a way to overcome tradition and find a solution for moving forward.  In the second, a woman, the Childfinder, finds children who show signs of being psychically gifted.  The childfinder is black and has broken away from the white organization that had started the process.  She now finds and trains only black children, and any white children she finds she uses her powers to negate theirs.  When the original organization shows up, she goes with them, although she knows she will be killed so that her proteges can survive and thrive.

Octavia Butler is one of the masters of the science fiction genre.  Her novels and stories are often set in a black world where the goal is to survive in a world hostile to them.  Readers will be transported to different worlds in which different ways of living are revealed.  The author won the Hugo or Nebula awards as well as receiving a MacArthur genius grant.  This book is recommended for readers of science fiction and dystopian literature.