Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsSlavery and time travel; a confusing combination!
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 29, 2011
After reading about Ms. Butler's reputation for her quality writing skills, I was looking forward to reading my copy of "Kindred". While the story aptly covered the deplorable conditions connected with antebellum slavery, the science fiction portion of this tale, the transition between different eras, was quite awkward and obtuse in both its manner and believability. If the author wanted to tell a tale of forced labor conditions she simply should have produced ah historical novel rather than attempting to add the science fiction addendum. Furthermore, if the heroine was returning to the plantation in order to ensure that her relative from the past, Hagar, was safely born, why did the author have her return once this birth had occurred? The child was freed at that point and was safe from immediate harm. This last return unfortunately forced the author to write a highly bizarre and useless ending that was much out of character with the rest of the text. Lastly, the character development was neither complete nor compelling regarding Dana. She came across as rather flat, lacking in the courage associated with a person of character and was always carping about her difficulties with life at the cost of ignoring those in much worse conditions around her.
I will not give up on the author with this single reading but, rather, will purchase another one of her books with the hopes that this was not one of her finest and that 'the best is yet to come'.
