You’d think living during a plague (The Stand, The Walking Dead, Domesday Book) and a time when unmarked federal agents are kidnapping people off the street (Little Brother, Hunger Games) might not be a good time to read dystopian fiction like Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. You’d be wrong. “What makes dystopian fiction different is that its creators are oddly optimists at heart, as we are. These works are not about prediction, but prevention. The stories warn of just how far things can go if action isn’t taken.” – Slate