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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Really fun and quick read. I like the concept of the patternist series so far. I think the 4 stars is probably colored by having just gotten through several LeGuin novels but still enjoyed. I didn’t think Teray was a particularly compelling character - obviously the story has to start somewhere, but I think the reader would have benefitted from getting more of his backstory and upbringing. Amber, the healer, seemed much more interesting to me.
I'm not sure whether I'd read this before. It's Butler's first published book, but chronologically in the Patternmaster series, it's the last book. Of the four, Wild Seed is far and away the best. As a series, Patternmaster is nowhere near as good as Xenogenesis.
This story struck me as kind of standard for sf/fantasy. There's a young man who doesn't know his heritage, but he learns it. He was doing okay, then he loses everything. He perseveres and survives. He has a nemesis who seems stronger, unbeatable. Then he makes a friend, goes on a quest. Along the way, he discovers that he is special; he has a destiny.
It's okay, but not special. Unlike the six Butler books I just read before this one, there's no sex and no genetics here. The adept telepaths who began to organize themselves in Mind of My Mind are now the dominant power on Earth. The descendants of the genetic mutants we met in Clay's Ark rove in packs and attack the telepaths, whose powers can't intrude on their thoughts like they can on the minds of non-telepathic non-mutants. The future world of this book is centered on a slice of California, and technology and urban areas have apparently faded away. The telepaths (Patternists) ride horses and live in a feudal system of large houses, each led and protected (and maybe terrorized) by a Housemaster.
In place of the sexual politics and matings of Butler's other books, here the relations are about power and control in (mostly) a nonsexual way. There are dependencies and a form of enslavement among the Patternists. While mildly interesting, it's stuff I've seen in dozens of books and not nearly as inventive as the Xenogenesis books.
This story struck me as kind of standard for sf/fantasy. There's a young man who doesn't know his heritage, but he learns it. He was doing okay, then he loses everything. He perseveres and survives. He has a nemesis who seems stronger, unbeatable. Then he makes a friend, goes on a quest. Along the way, he discovers that he is special; he has a destiny.
It's okay, but not special. Unlike the six Butler books I just read before this one, there's no sex and no genetics here. The adept telepaths who began to organize themselves in Mind of My Mind are now the dominant power on Earth. The descendants of the genetic mutants we met in Clay's Ark rove in packs and attack the telepaths, whose powers can't intrude on their thoughts like they can on the minds of non-telepathic non-mutants. The future world of this book is centered on a slice of California, and technology and urban areas have apparently faded away. The telepaths (Patternists) ride horses and live in a feudal system of large houses, each led and protected (and maybe terrorized) by a Housemaster.
In place of the sexual politics and matings of Butler's other books, here the relations are about power and control in (mostly) a nonsexual way. There are dependencies and a form of enslavement among the Patternists. While mildly interesting, it's stuff I've seen in dozens of books and not nearly as inventive as the Xenogenesis books.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this for the Reading Women Challenge 2020: A book featuring Afrofuturism.
I have a hard time with scifi/speculative fiction beyond dystopias. Scifi just isn't my thing, never has been. I thought I would drag me feet in reading this but once I got into it I found it quit interesting in term story.
I have a hard time visualizing exactly what that author is seeing without clear, explicit descriptions and that really hampered my enjoyment of Patternmaster. This is technically the 4th book in the series but the first one Butler wrote and the world building is bare bones, almost non-existent. I originally was glad this was not too long but considering the issues I had with this book, it was too short. I really had no understanding of what kind of world this was set in. Even the little description of the landscape did not help with anything. This was also an issue with how the clayarks are describes. I need more than a three sentences.
I also found the writing bad. I found myself mentally editing it while I was reading. I found it clunky at times and a lot of the dialogue flowed unnaturally. And the plot moved way too fast to the point where things where moving in a way that was just convenient for storytelling. This will sound harsh but it needed more editing than it already received before publishing.
I would have given it 3 stars if not for the that made absolutely no sense. I even would have tolerated but just made it more unbelievable.
I have a hard time with scifi/speculative fiction beyond dystopias. Scifi just isn't my thing, never has been. I thought I would drag me feet in reading this but once I got into it I found it quit interesting in term story.
I have a hard time visualizing exactly what that author is seeing without clear, explicit descriptions and that really hampered my enjoyment of Patternmaster. This is technically the 4th book in the series but the first one Butler wrote and the world building is bare bones, almost non-existent. I originally was glad this was not too long but considering the issues I had with this book, it was too short. I really had no understanding of what kind of world this was set in. Even the little description of the landscape did not help with anything. This was also an issue with how the clayarks are describes. I need more than a three sentences.
I also found the writing bad. I found myself mentally editing it while I was reading. I found it clunky at times and a lot of the dialogue flowed unnaturally. And the plot moved way too fast to the point where things where moving in a way that was just convenient for storytelling. This will sound harsh but it needed more editing than it already received before publishing.
I would have given it 3 stars if not for the
Spoiler
pregnancy twistSpoiler
Amber and Teray's sudden relationship that also happened to fast and did not add anything to the storySpoiler
the pregnancy twist
3 out of 5 stars. A weak ending to the Patternist series, but still a good a read.
Quick reminder: There are two ways to read Octavia E. Butler's Patternist series: the order in which it was published--Patternmaster (1976), Mind of My Mind (1977), Survivor (1978, disowned and never put back into publication), Wild Seed (1980), and Clay's Ark (1984); or the chronological order of the in-universe story--Wild Seed (set in the 1600s and 1700s), Mind of My Mind (set in the 70s, contemporary for when Butler wrote it), Clay's Ark (set in a futuristic dystopia of 2021), Survivor (set in space and on another planet), and Patternmaster (very far future where humanity is divided). I have chosen to read it in the chronological order at the advice of a friend and because I prefer to read it that way.
Centuries after the grim finale of [b:Clay's Ark|50358516|Clay's Ark (Patternist, 3)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594622698l/50358516._SY75_.jpg|1008173], modern society has long collapsed. The world is divided into three species, all of them apart of humanity in one form or another: the all-powerful and psychic Patternists, the many descendants of Doro; the sphinx0like and feral Clayarks, descendants of the depraved and mutated members of Eli's community in Clay's Ark, who brought back a parasite from space; and the mutes, called so because they have no special abilities whatsoever. The Patternists are now the most prominent population on Earth and have built their own societies with a sort of caste system that they rule over each other and the mutes. Everyday they face threats from the Clayarks who live out in the wilderness. In fact, it is the Clayarks' act of violence which kicks off the story.
Rayal is the Patternmaster, the most powerful of the Patternists who rules over all. He has had many wives, including his own sister Jansee (still follow in Doro and Eli's footsteps, I see), and thus many children. In the prologue, Rayal and Jansee are attacked at night in their home by the Clayarks, resulting in Jansee's rather gruesome death. Rayal survives, but he has a long road to recovery. He realizes his time is at an end. The right of succession is pinned upon the two sons he had with Jansee, Coransee and Teray. Coransee already has many servants and a great psionic powers, but Teray is fresh out of his education as a Patternist. Coransee is a cruel man who vies for the Pattern wielded by his father and to control the lives of Teray and those around him. Teray must deal with Coransee and inherit the Pattern from Rayal, and he promises to be nothing like his brother. Or will he?
Obviously, it depends on what order you read the Patternist series in, but as I said above, Patternmaster is a good book just that it is probably the weakest out of the series. It was Octavia Butler's debut and rarely is a debut 100% perfect. The writing is much weaker here. Not awful or unreadable, but if you read the other books in the series you can feel and see that Butler has a tighter structure going on. There's more telling than showing going here, which, again, doesn't maker the book unreadable or horrible. Besides that Patternmaster's prose is still very readable and accessible. It also has some fast pacing, akin to what [b:Mind of My Mind|52594480|Mind of My Mind|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586833920l/52594480._SY75_.jpg|111957] had--which is one of the best sci-fi sequels ever written, by the way. I have some other critiques as well. First, the climax, the final showdown between Coransee and Teray that I had been waiting throughout the entire book, was over just as quickly as I started. Granted, Butler was never one for dynamic action sequences in this series--the most intense we ever got was in [b:Wild Seed|51947057|Wild Seed|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580819415l/51947057._SX50_SY75_.jpg|1330000] when Doro's daughter killed Anyanwu's husband and then accidentally killed herself--and anyone reading or planning to read this series should bear in mind that just because it is about psychics doesn't mean you're reading a Marvel comic. This is not a series where the characters use superpowers in action sequences. It's a series about the control and desires that come with those psionic abilities and their eventual consequences on the rest of the world after one of the most domineering wielders of those abilities shapes an entire legacy with and around them.
Anyway, the second issue I had is that ending just, well, ends. Of course it all depends on what order you read the series in, but after reading all the other previous books, Patternmaster ends, albeit a bit more hopefully than the rest, in kind of a dull way. It almost like Butler was like, "Well, that's it." But again, this is the first book ever written. Had I read this in publication order or any other different order, I might've felt differently.
My third criticism is in relation to the ending. All of these books are of fair length. They are not overly long and thanks to the pacing they do not overstay their welcome. That being said, I think Patternmaster could've had a slightly longer, more conclusive ending.
What Patternmaster does achieve though is how much the world has changed within its setting and timeline and the subtle commentaries Butler weaves in.
The shadows of both Doro and Eli, two men who sought to increase the numbers of their heritage, both for different reasons and in different ways, can still be felt in this book, which, may I remind, is the last point in the chronology. Doro and his daughter Mary from Mind of My Mind are also reference to. The entire world is the way it is because both of their eugenicist plan with their lineages. And it's ultimately a not very good thing. The Patternist have almost completely gone back to what Doro initially did. They are not creating more descendants, but they have used their abilities to rule over others, even themselves. Although, it should be reminded that Rayal has had many children himself and the two he sought as his potential heirs were the ones he had with his biological sister, but as far as we know he is the only one still doing this. It might be implying that this is something that the Patternmaster can and must do. The Patternist society, as I said before, clearly is one with a caste system and it seems patriarchal in some areas. Mutes are complete servants to the Patternists, however, Patternists who aren't very strong or are on the furthest edges of the Pattern or mental links with their Housemasters are also lower on the totem poles. The Housemasters also keep a multitude of wives if they wish and they decide when and where those wives must bed with them. And the Housemasters can take Mute servants and wives from other Patternists; this happens to Teray when Coransee takes his wife Iray near the book's beginning.
There's one female character who is able to resist this control for some time and she's one of the best characters of the book. Amber is a healer who initially lives under Coransee, but he does not have complete control over her because her great powers as a healer. When she first meets Teray, she gives him a run for his money, but they eventually become friends and eventually lovers. Their relationship together was great and I really do just love how Amber stood her ground and didn't take any of these men's shit. Additionally, Amber is bisexual, something I did not expect and greatly appreciated, and Butler handled her bisexuality very well. Apart of her being bisexual is the reason why she's initially under Coransee's house in the first place, but that part shows that the Patternist society is also heteronormative and queerphobic as well, but this element isn't as focused on. At the end of the day, women, particularly Black women like Amber, are still getting shafted in this far future society. I should clarify that this book isn't a detailed deconstruction of sociological matters, but Butler still shows us the inner machinations of a society still bent on control.
What makes this strict society all the more tragic once again goes back not only to Doro, but to Anyanwu and Mary as well. If you've read Mind of My Mind, then you remember that Doro was originally an ancient Nubian boy, but switched bodies over the centuries. He eventually got involved in the Atlantic slave trades and sold off and transferred some of his descendants across the seas. In the prologue of Patternmaster, Rayal reassures Jansee that he's still in control of things, but nonetheless he has the future planned out through his sons. Coransee constantly controls and manipulates everything throughout the course of the book. Teray tries not to be like Coransee, and although he's never as cruel as him, he does end up forcing his psychic control over other Patternists and the Mutes and bed several woman. Doro's plan and legacy has been achieved, even though Mary killed him all those centuries ago. Anyanwu tried to stop or at least fight against Doro in Wild Seed for so long, but eventually she succumbed to him. During her struggle against him, she tried to protect both Doro's descendants and her own. Mary, after realizing what Doro was doing decided to break away from him, kill him, and keep the Pattern safe. Now, Mary wasn't a saint; even she was a bit blasé to the early Patternists' treatment of the Mutes, but she did try to undo what Doro had done. All of their efforts, both Mary and Anyanwu's, are gone. Thrown away. Doro won in the end.
And now that I think of it, maybe the ending of Patternmaster isn't as hopeful, if any at all, as I once thought. The book ends with Rayal calling Teray to Forsyth (where the Pattern began in Mind of My Mind) to inherit his abilities and responsibilities and with Amber pregnant with Teray's child. Teray will be the next Patternmaster. He already acted a little like Coransee when getting control over his own House, though not as cruel. He will need to keep up and control the Pattern and have more heirs.
Dammit...Dammit! Doro really did win.
But perhaps, after all his fights with Coransee, Teray will learn to be better. Maybe.
One can only hope.
Quick reminder: There are two ways to read Octavia E. Butler's Patternist series: the order in which it was published--Patternmaster (1976), Mind of My Mind (1977), Survivor (1978, disowned and never put back into publication), Wild Seed (1980), and Clay's Ark (1984); or the chronological order of the in-universe story--Wild Seed (set in the 1600s and 1700s), Mind of My Mind (set in the 70s, contemporary for when Butler wrote it), Clay's Ark (set in a futuristic dystopia of 2021), Survivor (set in space and on another planet), and Patternmaster (very far future where humanity is divided). I have chosen to read it in the chronological order at the advice of a friend and because I prefer to read it that way.
Centuries after the grim finale of [b:Clay's Ark|50358516|Clay's Ark (Patternist, 3)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594622698l/50358516._SY75_.jpg|1008173], modern society has long collapsed. The world is divided into three species, all of them apart of humanity in one form or another: the all-powerful and psychic Patternists, the many descendants of Doro; the sphinx0like and feral Clayarks, descendants of the depraved and mutated members of Eli's community in Clay's Ark, who brought back a parasite from space; and the mutes, called so because they have no special abilities whatsoever. The Patternists are now the most prominent population on Earth and have built their own societies with a sort of caste system that they rule over each other and the mutes. Everyday they face threats from the Clayarks who live out in the wilderness. In fact, it is the Clayarks' act of violence which kicks off the story.
Rayal is the Patternmaster, the most powerful of the Patternists who rules over all. He has had many wives, including his own sister Jansee (still follow in Doro and Eli's footsteps, I see), and thus many children. In the prologue, Rayal and Jansee are attacked at night in their home by the Clayarks, resulting in Jansee's rather gruesome death. Rayal survives, but he has a long road to recovery. He realizes his time is at an end. The right of succession is pinned upon the two sons he had with Jansee, Coransee and Teray. Coransee already has many servants and a great psionic powers, but Teray is fresh out of his education as a Patternist. Coransee is a cruel man who vies for the Pattern wielded by his father and to control the lives of Teray and those around him. Teray must deal with Coransee and inherit the Pattern from Rayal, and he promises to be nothing like his brother. Or will he?
Obviously, it depends on what order you read the Patternist series in, but as I said above, Patternmaster is a good book just that it is probably the weakest out of the series. It was Octavia Butler's debut and rarely is a debut 100% perfect. The writing is much weaker here. Not awful or unreadable, but if you read the other books in the series you can feel and see that Butler has a tighter structure going on. There's more telling than showing going here, which, again, doesn't maker the book unreadable or horrible. Besides that Patternmaster's prose is still very readable and accessible. It also has some fast pacing, akin to what [b:Mind of My Mind|52594480|Mind of My Mind|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586833920l/52594480._SY75_.jpg|111957] had--which is one of the best sci-fi sequels ever written, by the way. I have some other critiques as well. First, the climax, the final showdown between Coransee and Teray that I had been waiting throughout the entire book, was over just as quickly as I started. Granted, Butler was never one for dynamic action sequences in this series--the most intense we ever got was in [b:Wild Seed|51947057|Wild Seed|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580819415l/51947057._SX50_SY75_.jpg|1330000] when Doro's daughter killed Anyanwu's husband and then accidentally killed herself--and anyone reading or planning to read this series should bear in mind that just because it is about psychics doesn't mean you're reading a Marvel comic. This is not a series where the characters use superpowers in action sequences. It's a series about the control and desires that come with those psionic abilities and their eventual consequences on the rest of the world after one of the most domineering wielders of those abilities shapes an entire legacy with and around them.
Anyway, the second issue I had is that ending just, well, ends. Of course it all depends on what order you read the series in, but after reading all the other previous books, Patternmaster ends, albeit a bit more hopefully than the rest, in kind of a dull way. It almost like Butler was like, "Well, that's it." But again, this is the first book ever written. Had I read this in publication order or any other different order, I might've felt differently.
My third criticism is in relation to the ending. All of these books are of fair length. They are not overly long and thanks to the pacing they do not overstay their welcome. That being said, I think Patternmaster could've had a slightly longer, more conclusive ending.
What Patternmaster does achieve though is how much the world has changed within its setting and timeline and the subtle commentaries Butler weaves in.
The shadows of both Doro and Eli, two men who sought to increase the numbers of their heritage, both for different reasons and in different ways, can still be felt in this book, which, may I remind, is the last point in the chronology. Doro and his daughter Mary from Mind of My Mind are also reference to. The entire world is the way it is because both of their eugenicist plan with their lineages. And it's ultimately a not very good thing. The Patternist have almost completely gone back to what Doro initially did. They are not creating more descendants, but they have used their abilities to rule over others, even themselves. Although, it should be reminded that Rayal has had many children himself and the two he sought as his potential heirs were the ones he had with his biological sister, but as far as we know he is the only one still doing this. It might be implying that this is something that the Patternmaster can and must do. The Patternist society, as I said before, clearly is one with a caste system and it seems patriarchal in some areas. Mutes are complete servants to the Patternists, however, Patternists who aren't very strong or are on the furthest edges of the Pattern or mental links with their Housemasters are also lower on the totem poles. The Housemasters also keep a multitude of wives if they wish and they decide when and where those wives must bed with them. And the Housemasters can take Mute servants and wives from other Patternists; this happens to Teray when Coransee takes his wife Iray near the book's beginning.
There's one female character who is able to resist this control for some time and she's one of the best characters of the book. Amber is a healer who initially lives under Coransee, but he does not have complete control over her because her great powers as a healer. When she first meets Teray, she gives him a run for his money, but they eventually become friends and eventually lovers. Their relationship together was great and I really do just love how Amber stood her ground and didn't take any of these men's shit. Additionally, Amber is bisexual, something I did not expect and greatly appreciated, and Butler handled her bisexuality very well. Apart of her being bisexual is the reason why she's initially under Coransee's house in the first place, but that part shows that the Patternist society is also heteronormative and queerphobic as well, but this element isn't as focused on. At the end of the day, women, particularly Black women like Amber, are still getting shafted in this far future society. I should clarify that this book isn't a detailed deconstruction of sociological matters, but Butler still shows us the inner machinations of a society still bent on control.
What makes this strict society all the more tragic once again goes back not only to Doro, but to Anyanwu and Mary as well. If you've read Mind of My Mind, then you remember that Doro was originally an ancient Nubian boy, but switched bodies over the centuries. He eventually got involved in the Atlantic slave trades and sold off and transferred some of his descendants across the seas. In the prologue of Patternmaster, Rayal reassures Jansee that he's still in control of things, but nonetheless he has the future planned out through his sons. Coransee constantly controls and manipulates everything throughout the course of the book. Teray tries not to be like Coransee, and although he's never as cruel as him, he does end up forcing his psychic control over other Patternists and the Mutes and bed several woman. Doro's plan and legacy has been achieved, even though Mary killed him all those centuries ago. Anyanwu tried to stop or at least fight against Doro in Wild Seed for so long, but eventually she succumbed to him. During her struggle against him, she tried to protect both Doro's descendants and her own. Mary, after realizing what Doro was doing decided to break away from him, kill him, and keep the Pattern safe. Now, Mary wasn't a saint; even she was a bit blasé to the early Patternists' treatment of the Mutes, but she did try to undo what Doro had done. All of their efforts, both Mary and Anyanwu's, are gone. Thrown away. Doro won in the end.
And now that I think of it, maybe the ending of Patternmaster isn't as hopeful, if any at all, as I once thought. The book ends with Rayal calling Teray to Forsyth (where the Pattern began in Mind of My Mind) to inherit his abilities and responsibilities and with Amber pregnant with Teray's child. Teray will be the next Patternmaster. He already acted a little like Coransee when getting control over his own House, though not as cruel. He will need to keep up and control the Pattern and have more heirs.
Dammit...Dammit! Doro really did win.
But perhaps, after all his fights with Coransee, Teray will learn to be better. Maybe.
One can only hope.
Very apparent while reading that it’s her first novel, my least favorite of her books I’ve read so far but still enjoyable.
[a:Octavia E. Butler|29535|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1242244143p2/29535.jpg] is one of a kind. She is a black feminist science fiction writer and the protege of the great and bizarre Harlan Ellison. She was the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur "genius" grant, which she was awarded in 1995 for pushing the boundaries of her field.
I was intrigued after noticing [b:Kindred|60931|Kindred|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232805354s/60931.jpg|1049657] in the science fiction section of the library. "This must be miscatalogued," I thought, "Because it has a picture of a black woman on the cover, rather than a unicorn or spaceship. And she's not even in a steel bikini." The synopsis of the book intrigued me, and I never forgot it, because a year or two later, I took it and [b:Bloodchild|60930|Bloodchild and Other Stories|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170553714s/60930.jpg|1188455] home and read them.
My ex-boyfriend also read them, and immediately implored me to bring home more Octavia Butler, which he plowed through at an alarming rate. She became his favorite author, and he went so far as to name his cat after her.
[b:Patternmaster|116256|Patternmaster|Octavia E. Butler|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516fr4MZBdL._SL75_.jpg|1119636] was Butler's first book, the one she started to write when she was 10 years old after seeing a horrible science fiction movie on TV and deciding that she could do better.
The book is about a psychic race, people who are connected by an enormous, complex mental web that links each and every "patternist." At the center of the web is the Patternmaster, a powerful man with amazing psychic powers.
The Patternmaster, Rayal, is close to death, and this book is the tale of the conflict between two of his many sons over who will succeed Rayal and become the new Patternmaster. Coransee is the older brother and a powerful Housemaster, and is the stronger of the two brothers. He is also calculating and evil. The other brother, Teray, a young man just out of school, is not evil but is significantly weaker than his brother. He is forced by Coransee's cunning tricks to toil as a lowly servant on his estate.
ALong with Coransee's powerful healer, Amber, Teray escapes from Coransee's house and heads to Forsyth in seek of sanctuary from the Patternmaster. As they navigate the treacherous landscape together, they are in constant danger from Clayarks (an enemy species of mutant humans) and Coransee's search party. Will Teray and Amber make it to Forsyth before Coransee catches up with them? Will Coransee succeed in his evil plan to take over the Pattern?
While reading this book, it was obvious to me that this was a first attempt. It was nowhere near as polished or interesting as Kindred or Bloodchild. The story didn't really grab me, and if it was not so short and quick I might not have even finished it. She could have been more thorough with the characterization, and I would have been interested to learn more about their society. There is obviously more to the story than could fit in a scant 200 pages, and it shows.
As this is not one of her more amazing books, a reader new to Butler should definitely start elsewhere. [b:Kindred|60931|Kindred|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232805354s/60931.jpg|1049657] or [b:The Parable of the Sower|52397|Parable of the Sower|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170387743s/52397.jpg|59258] would surely be a better introduction to this amazing author.
I was intrigued after noticing [b:Kindred|60931|Kindred|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232805354s/60931.jpg|1049657] in the science fiction section of the library. "This must be miscatalogued," I thought, "Because it has a picture of a black woman on the cover, rather than a unicorn or spaceship. And she's not even in a steel bikini." The synopsis of the book intrigued me, and I never forgot it, because a year or two later, I took it and [b:Bloodchild|60930|Bloodchild and Other Stories|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170553714s/60930.jpg|1188455] home and read them.
My ex-boyfriend also read them, and immediately implored me to bring home more Octavia Butler, which he plowed through at an alarming rate. She became his favorite author, and he went so far as to name his cat after her.
[b:Patternmaster|116256|Patternmaster|Octavia E. Butler|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516fr4MZBdL._SL75_.jpg|1119636] was Butler's first book, the one she started to write when she was 10 years old after seeing a horrible science fiction movie on TV and deciding that she could do better.
The book is about a psychic race, people who are connected by an enormous, complex mental web that links each and every "patternist." At the center of the web is the Patternmaster, a powerful man with amazing psychic powers.
The Patternmaster, Rayal, is close to death, and this book is the tale of the conflict between two of his many sons over who will succeed Rayal and become the new Patternmaster. Coransee is the older brother and a powerful Housemaster, and is the stronger of the two brothers. He is also calculating and evil. The other brother, Teray, a young man just out of school, is not evil but is significantly weaker than his brother. He is forced by Coransee's cunning tricks to toil as a lowly servant on his estate.
ALong with Coransee's powerful healer, Amber, Teray escapes from Coransee's house and heads to Forsyth in seek of sanctuary from the Patternmaster. As they navigate the treacherous landscape together, they are in constant danger from Clayarks (an enemy species of mutant humans) and Coransee's search party. Will Teray and Amber make it to Forsyth before Coransee catches up with them? Will Coransee succeed in his evil plan to take over the Pattern?
While reading this book, it was obvious to me that this was a first attempt. It was nowhere near as polished or interesting as Kindred or Bloodchild. The story didn't really grab me, and if it was not so short and quick I might not have even finished it. She could have been more thorough with the characterization, and I would have been interested to learn more about their society. There is obviously more to the story than could fit in a scant 200 pages, and it shows.
As this is not one of her more amazing books, a reader new to Butler should definitely start elsewhere. [b:Kindred|60931|Kindred|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1232805354s/60931.jpg|1049657] or [b:The Parable of the Sower|52397|Parable of the Sower|Octavia E. Butler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170387743s/52397.jpg|59258] would surely be a better introduction to this amazing author.
3.5 stars, rounding because this was a work by a young author. For the quality of the themes, the creativity and wonderfully painful hints of the past, it gets rounded to four.
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First of this series I’ve read and it doesn’t seem like the order matters which is good bc i think this one is somewhere in the middle. She really never misses. This one could have been three times as long, and the ending is a bit unsatisfying, but still felt like an earned victory. Love that the healer Amber was bisexual also.