The novel “Dawn” by Octavia Butler was published for the first time in 1987. It’s the first book in the Xenogenesis trilogy, also known as Lilith’s Brood.

When Lilith awakens in what appears to be a prison cell, she thinks that little time has passed since the atomic war that devastated the Earth. A voice asks her questions that sometimes seem meaningless to her and that goes on for a time she can’t evaluate. Her confusion turns into panic when she’s visited in person by a clearly non-human being.

Lilith is explained that the atomic war brought humanity to the brink of extinction but the Oankali, as the aliens call themselves, managed to save a small amount of humans by taking them to the large alien spaceship, where Lilith remained for 250 years in suspended animation. The humans deemed suitable will be trained and returned to Earth to revive it but their children will be partly aliens.