Imago

The final installment in the Lilith's Brood trilogy give us a closer, first-person perspective on the Oankali's third gender: the ooloi. Like Akin before it, Jodahs is the first of it's kind: a human born ooloi who struggles to reconcile it's unique combination of human and oankali traits. Unlike Akin, though, Jodhas can modify the genetic structure of living things around it, often subconsciously and without effort, which is dangerous on a planet with so many creatures that can't defend themselves. As such, Jodhas faces a form of exile from its oankali community until it can prove that it has control over it's abilities. It's tumultuous time in metamorphosis is complicated by meeting two fertile humans, with which it desperately wants to mate.

Imago benefits from a more directed plot than Adulthood Rites, and I personally found myself much more drawn to learning about the ooloi than a male construct. In describing Jodah's experiences, there are a few moments of alienness that hearken back to the best parts of Dawn. Butler continues to walk the fine line of empathy for the oankali, and condemnation of their treatment of humanity.

If I can do a bit of armchair-quarterbacking, had Adulthood Rites and Imago been condensed into one ~400 page book by cutting out some of the repetition and lulls, I'd probably love it as much as I love Dawn. Even as it stand, I'm super satisfied with the trilogy, and glad to have read them all back-to-back. Though, I do think that Butler's style of prose suffers a little bit when you read it at such length. I found myself unable to appreciate the subtlety of her writing after engaging with it for so long.