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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this more on reread but I still find it super frustrating. Wild Seed is definitely the best, most interesting of the Patternist books. I'm disappointed that this book is primarily a pretty straight up power struggle without the complications of Wild Seed. The romance is also very unearned. The most frustrating thing to me is that Butler's telepathic society is just as needlessly cruel as any non-telepathic one. I'd be willing to follow that, but only with more direct exploration of how people could directly feel each other's pain and still choose to inflict pain.
slow-paced
Great Environment - environment based plot, too short, not enough plot, very original.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
My first time not loving a Butler book. I found myself uninterested and skimming a lot of it, and probably would have liked it a lot more if her other works hadn’t set my expectations so high. I just finished Clay’s Ark and it is just unfair to compare…
Patternmaster is the final book in Octavia E. Butler's series of the same name and brings together plot threads laid out in the previous three books. It takes place in the future where there is a fight for humanity. In one corner are the Patternists, first introduced in the second book. The Patternist at the center has been infected with the virus established in the third book and is slowly dying. In the wake of his decline, there emerges a fight for his successor. One of his many offspring Coransee is strong and expects to take over the Patternmaster role. In comes Teray, a young patternist who is another one the Patternmaster's many sons who is just coming into his strengths. He allies with a healer in the house to lay a claim to the future rule. This sets up not only a huge battle with his brother Coransee, he also has to survive against the Clayarks- people who have been infected with the virus in a previous book and roam the land like animals. It all comes to a head, though certainly not everything in resolved and would have been interested in what came after this.
Why force us into any familiarity with the Clayarks if they’re just a dumb foil for a power duel? Really unsatisfying end.