"...how could they let insane people gain control of devices that could do so much harm? If you knew a man was out of his mind, you restrained him. You didn't give him power"

Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler

I revisited my youth recently and read some Octavia E. Butler. I don’t actually recall reading the Lilith’s Brood series before, but my youth was a long time ago so I don’t know for sure as I read a lot of her work. I definitely want to (re)read some more now.

I was interested to see how Octavia E. Butler held up from memory as she was my favourite author before I discovered Virginia Woolf: Perhaps not as literary complex as something by Virginia Woolf, and more young-adult than “adult” - absolutely no derogation intended by that, that was just my observation whilst reading these which I found interesting as that’s exactly when I was last reading Octavia E. Butler in anger. She’s an excellent storyteller and it’s easy to become engrossed and as such I was making good headway through the three novels (I’ve said before how hard it is to find time to read nowadays). But then the whole Ukraine thing kicked off and it really put a brake on me finishing the last novel given the whole premise of the books.

Anyway, this quote is the obvious pick.