Wow. Wow. Wow, I am speechless. The art in this book is beautiful and the arrangement was done with clear intentionality. I was moved by it. With respect to it, I must confess that what truly moved me to my core were the words of Octavia Butler. Yes, this is a pre-existing essay. These words are not new, but the accuracy with which Octavia Butler speaks. Knowing but not knowing. Being ahead of her time and living in our time over and over. This book is exactly as we need it. This new presentation did not miss. I LOVED THIS!

There really is no need to introduce the great Octavia E. Butler. One of the mount profound science fiction authors of our time, she never once shied away from the horrors of dystopia, especially from the point of view of the marginalized, who have always and will always suffer the most.

"I didn't make up the problems. All I did was look around at the problems we're neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters."

With everything going on in the world in 2024, we all need the voice of Butler to give us a moment of clarity and reflection. While this essay is available online for free, this book edition is an excellent gift for a graduate. Butler dives into how knowing history and hearing the voices of the past can shape the fictional world of the future that she's known for.

It’s like a picture book for adults! It’s an essay divided into sections with beautiful artwork throughout The section “Respect the Law of Consequences” seemed a little jarringly out of place, but it kind of makes sense on reflection.

This was a beautiful little book.

"...the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope."

I read Parable of the Sower years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. I find myself thinking about it at random times, how bleak that future is, what led to it, what parallels there are to our world today. This essay by Octavia Butler gave the book new meaning for me, colored it more hopefully. There is action required to prevent that future from being ours, and if we look ahead with no hope, we won't take those actions.

I would recommend this essay to anyone who read and was impacted by the Earthseed books.

Thank you to Netgalley and Chronicle Books!

I really liked this short speech from sótanos Butler. She did a good job answering about how she writes the future. I’ve read most of her books so it was great reading something new since she died.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book!

I've read Butler's Xenogenesis Series and Kindred but now I want to read Parable of the Sower. This is short yet interesting, with instances from Butler's life that have influenced her writing and such. I enjoyed the essay as it is very interesting for me to see where inspirations are bred.

"the only safe prediction is that there always will be"

a super short essay from a magazine in 2000 with some stunning art throughout to break it up. While this was interesting as she went into how our mindsets and current environments set the precedent for how we believe the future will be, it felt repetitive in what she was trying to convey even with the length of the essay

“In fact, the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope.”

This book is a reprint of Octavia Butler’s 2000 essay in a bite-sized format, accompanied by stunning space-themed artwork. Octavia Butler was much more than an author who wrote stories with sci-fi aesthetics and embellishments, she carefully observed the world around her and tried to offer hope to the rest of us in these weird times. She always dreamt of a better future and advocated to steer society towards it using her stories. The book may be small and short, but it serves as a reminder that we, in following these suggestions, have the power to work together and avoid manmade disasters. I highly recommend this as a gift for anyone who is a fan of the heart of science fiction, and especially fans of Octavia Butler herself. I will be adding this to the stack of books that inspire my own creative work once it's published.

Thank you to Chronicle Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Great insights for a newspaper reporting course that I'm planning. Butler's advice was prescient and timely to the current news cycle and I feel it would be a good thought exercise for students. A short easy read.

A small volume containing a short essay by Octavia E. Butler on the importance of speculative futuristic science fiction accompanied by some illustrations. Definitely shorter than what I thought but this would be a pretty book to have on any bookcase!

Octavia E. Butler's essay has lost none of its immediacy in the intervening years since it was first published in 2000. Like much of her other work, A Few Rules for Predicting the Future presses readers to consider their role in shaping the future in the face of (even despite) seemingly insurmountable odds. Though poignant, Butler's work is never void of hope.

Even in the digital edition, Manzel Bowman's stunning afrofuturist pieces are a perfect addition to the essay.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A short Octavia Butler essay (about 1,000 word) originally appearing in the May, 2000 issue of Essence magazine here gets a fresh reprint, feeling more than a little prescient as she discusses using history to envision the future (with an all-too accurate sidebar on nations sliding into fascism), unintended consequences, and the influence of one's present on their predictions for the future. The title takes on its own bit of irony when you consider the content. Butler's words are compelling, but it's all-too-brief a walk with her, especially given the number of pages (about 20, a third or so of the book) that are color gradient and nothing more. It's a colorful presentation, but there's a feeling of lost opportunity in not using the space for some additional associated text - another piece about writing, perhaps - from the writer, who died in 2006. The essay is accompanied by five lush two-page illustrations by New York-based artist Manzel Bowman, which are some stunning visual work, but much like Butler's essay, it's a tantalizing sample that leaves the reader wishing there was more weight and substance to the entire effort.

Beautiful book! The artwork is amazing and really complement Octavia Butler's essay. Her essay is still very true and applicable today.

This was a thought provoking essay. It makes you question things while also helping to understand that sometimes there will never be any answers. I loved the artwork.

Thank you net gallery for a copy of this book. This was a short artbook on the musings of Octavia Butler. Enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler is an essay accompanied by beautiful art and ending in a message of hope. When one of Butler’s students asked her what could be done for the future, they shortened her answer to ‘There is none’ instead of focusing on the second part, which is that there are numerous answers.

If we look to the past and see how the worst parts of our history not only came to be but continue to happen, if we count on the surprises, if we’re aware of our biases, and if we respect the law of consequences, we might be able to see where we’re headed and find solutions. I appreciate how candid Butler is without going into hopelessness.

I would recommend this to fans of Octavia E. Butler and writers of speculative fiction.

An essay that's published elsewhere turned into a book of its own seems like a cash grab. It's interesting and thought provoking, but doesn't need to be on its own in this fashion. I would recommend reading the essay though.

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future is an illustrated reformat and re-release of an essay Butler wrote for Essence Magazine. Due out in Jan 2025 from Chronicle, it's 56 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

Octavia Butler was a powerhouse author and a brilliant human being. Her practicality and intelligence shine through every word she wrote. She is always articulate and well spoken and offers astute insights into human nature, speculative fiction, authors and the craft of creative writing, being a minority voice in an overwhelmingly white (at the time) field, alongside her lived experiences.

This is an illustrated short book which is beautifully enhanced by art from Manzel Bowman. It is a collector piece and would make a superlative acquisition for public or home library or (especially) for gift giving.

Five stars, with the codicil that this is an illustrated reprint of a short essay.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I didn't realize quite how short this essay would be! It's interesting, especially as someone who is a fan of Butler's work, but it was originally written for Essence Magazine and is really just a few pages of text. That said, I do think this offers some insight into Butler's thinking about the future and how she went about writing books like Parable of the Sower. Essentially that the future will always be a surprise and our predictions are often more a reflection of our current state of mind or state of being. Worth a read if you're a fan of her work!

Very good, it's Octavia Butler crying out loud!! Art was beautiful as well, and would be a beautiful book to display.