Octavia Butler, Man...
Typical of her, this is about biology, but since biology isn't so exact a science, unexpected effects in biological things have a strong tendency to turn around and bite you. The result is almost always unsettling. That was true in the few Butler books I've read (Clay's Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Wild Seed), and it's true here in this story.
I think the reason I've read so little Butler is because I have to have my endurance up before I go in. Not because it's hard to read, but because the situations make me a little queasy. It's always good stuff, but I might not be able to handle it if the doses are too big. These are generally not places I would want to live.
But it's damn good science fiction, and just fascinating.
OK, let me stop slobbering over her and talk about this story.
It took until most of the way through this story before I heard about the origin of the condition, It's a magic bullet that cures many kinds of cancer, and has those treated spawn children with the condition. That means that those cancer sufferers will have greatly reduced progeny. Those children with the condition will probably choose not to breed, and those who do, their children will likely not breed. On the other hand, those children of cancer sufferers born before the treatment will be at risk for cancer, and will probably get the treatment when their cancer shows up. In a few hundred years most people with genetic risk for cancer and those people with the condition will be weeded out of the population. That sort of makes me sad.
Most of the action in this story is these people with a terrible condition trying to make some sort of way in life before their inevitable doom descends on them, and then they are offered some sort of hope of something more than their bleak existence. It's not so great, but at least it's something.
Story sure sticks in my head, but I'm not sure I could stand to listen to it again. Take that backhanded compliment how you like.