Week Twelve: Diverse Position Science Fiction

Bloodchild

For this week’s reading, I read Blood Child. I really enjoyed this story. At first, I was really confused. I felt like we were thrown into a word, not like our own, but non-the less were expected to understand. There was little description on the setting, or the events that lead to the current situation. After finishing the book, due to lack of sleep of a failing on my part to pay attention to the work being read to me, I was needless to say confused on what just happened. I went online and watched the author’s analysis of the work and read a synopsis. It was so interesting! I then listened to the book again! It all made sense now that I knew what a Tlic and that the main character was indeed human. I was now able to really understand and appreciate the story.
I have always admired stories about heroic characters who gave up themselves for the people they love: Eponine, in Les Misererable, Gandofl in The Lord of the Rings, and Ripley in Alien 3. Those characters in their final act decided to put the wellbeing of the people they cared about before their own lives. I often think about what the world would look like if more people lived this way. That is exactly what Gan did in bloodchild. No one wants to be impregnated by a mysterious, surpressive alien beast, even though it was seen as a great honor. Gan, having seen the terrors of it all and having his eyes open to the terrible truth of it all, despite the risk to his own life, sacrifices himself in order to secure his family’s safety. That is true love.

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