This review of legendary Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower covers one of the cli-fi classics. Written in 1993, Parable of the Sower is a must-read novel for anyone interested in the emerging climate fiction genre. Butler was clearly ahead of her time, writing a dystopian novel that takes place in Southern California in 2024, where climate change has led to scarce resources, chronic droughts, wildfires, and near social collapse. There are elections, governments, law enforcement, and markets, but most people are generally left to fend for themselves. Protagonist Lauren lives inside a compound with her family and a handful…