Dawn - Octavia E. Butler Earth is destroyed by war and an alien civilization tries to rescue the few survivors. They are also traders in that each new civilization they come across they add their DNA to form a new improved Oankali. They Awaken Lilith and she finds out she's been asleep on-and-off for 250 years. Earth has been cleansed as much as possible by the aliens, but because of the destruction most large animals are extinct. A lot of the plants have been changed by radioactivity or because they were changed by the aliens. They want Lilith to Awaken each group of 40 people. She knows they'll think she's one of their jailers and will either never trust her and/or kill her. That does happen and someone she cares for is killed. In fact, she can't go to Earth with the first group because they are so against her.

This book was so good and so depressing because it does look as if our world will turn out this way sometimes but have no alien "saviors". I'm going to read the 2nd book directly after I finish this review.