Dawn Butler Puns

I went into this book with very high expectations, but alas…for me it was a very average book and I am not intrigued enough to continue the series. Some things I made note of:

1. I found Lilith to be a frustratingly difficult protagonist to sympathise with. From the beginning we are given absolutely no background about her as a person, who was she on Earth, what kind of personality did she have, what was her job, what were her passions – all things that should play a role in her reaction to her present situation. However, we are given frustratingly little information – her family died in the war and that’s about it. Not even her grief about that is explored.
2. Precisely because of this we end up seeing a very one-dimensional reaction to her being captured – constant contempt towards the aliens – which gets tiring very fast. Yes, it would make sense if it was one of several emotions she was experiencing, but there is only passing mention of fear, curiosity, or doubt. What is motivating her to defend the human race, why does she think humans should not be tampered with for the better good, why does she think humans should be left to their own devices despite committing suicide as a species– these are important philosophical questions and I get no insight on why Lilith makes the arguments she does when talking to the aliens.
3. In the second half of the book, we are introduced to other humans – none of them are very interesting and are given very generic character traits. And I was baffled until the very end as to what was so special about any of these humans, including Lilith. Where were the scientists, anthropologists etc. who may actually have worthwhile skills in this situation?
4. The Oankali, were intriguing but I am unable to articulate exactly why but I did not find them very interesting.

Overall, I found the book to be meh at best. I know there are a lot of people who regard this book very highly, so I am very interested in reading all the differing opinions out there, what was it that you liked about the book.

https://youtu.be/gOA4RdUJVrc

https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1454087843819794438

i wonder if her fellow panelists, especially ian hislop, would have a go at her on labour party stuff

She was kicked out for calling Boris Johnson a liar and it is a fact that he was fired from The Times for making up (effectively lying) quotes as well as fabricating many other inconsistencies during his time in office and the press.

Ignoring political persuasion I genuinely don't understand how an individual could believe Boris Johnson has anything but his own best interests at heart. Help me understand?

Seems to be what everyone is talking about with lots of Labour MPs and Corbyn sending out messages of solidarity with Butler almost immediately but it's been nearly 24 hours and Starmer hasn't said anything. Why do you think that is?

Labour MP accused the prime minister of misleading the Commons and the country over coronavirus.

The Labour MP Dawn Butler has been ejected from the Commons after saying Boris Johnson had lied repeatedly to fellow parliamentarians and the country, and then refusing to withdraw the remark.

“The prime minister has lied to this house time and time again,” Butler told the deputy speaker, Judith Cummins. When asked to “reflect on her words”, Butler added: “It’s funny that we get in trouble in this place for calling out the lie, rather than the person lying.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/22/dawn-butler-ejected-from-commons-for-saying-johnson-has-lied-repeatedly