618 reviews for:

Patternmaster

Octavia E. Butler

3.91 AVERAGE

stitchinthyme's review against another edition

3.25

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

bea_pants's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous reflective medium-paced

danielles_reads's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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A long leash is still a leash.

I was really nervous to read this series, but I'm glad I started with this one instead of following the publisher's order. You can definitely tell it's Butler's debut, as it feels so straightforward, tropey, and almost optimistic compared to her later works I've read. It's definitely still doable to follow along without having read the other books, especially as a seasoned SFF reader. And this had the benefit of making me really curious to learn more about the history of this world that I know the other books go into.

What makes this book feel optimistic to me is the ending.

The bad guy dies at the hand of the good guy, and the king-equivalent was really just testing the good guy all along to make sure he would have a worthy successor.

That's such a classic story that I had to keep reminding myself this was written by Octavia Butler!

While this was pretty short, I liked Teray as a character. Of course, the whole thing with marrying his sister is pretty gross, and I'm glad

they were separated tbh

. I like that he wanted to do the right thing, but often wasn't sure how exactly to do it. I also liked that he wanted to maintain his independence, no matter the cost (though having it constantly negatively affect the women in his life was tiring), but that he gave up some of it for the right person. Amber was a great match for him, and I like that she was so outspoken and blunt. I also like that she was apparently bisexual in a book written in the 70s! Amber and Teray's relationship developed super quickly to the point that it felt like they became super close at the snap of a finger, but I like how they worked together. The whole idea of

Amber learning how to kill Clayarks more effectively specifically because of her healing skill

was really interesting. But it also makes me look forward to reading Clay's Ark to see their side of things.

The entire way the Patternmaster society works is very intriguing, with their shields and linking. I thought the idea of a Patternmaster's transition to adulthood being them absorbing the emotions of everyone around them to be really interesting. The whole thing about mutes having thriving societies that were destroyed though is very eerie and I'm a bit nervous to learn more about that.

And of course, Robin Miles' narration was great, and I look forward to listening her narrate the rest of the series!

cb613's review

4.5

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

evermatt's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

iamdoug's review

4.0

adventurous challenging dark medium-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

alsoapples's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

turtletats's review against another edition

2.0

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I'm glad I read this last in the series, wouldn't have continued if it was the first. A very anti climactic ending to the patternist books, where the first 2 were both just shy of 5 stars for me.

I'm pained to rate any book by butler so low but.. yeh

savaging's review

3.0

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I think I'm reaching a conclusion, and it's that I don't love Octavia Butler's books. The gender stuff is rough. This book at least has a queer character, but still women are almost always the property of men. Hierarchies are deeply entrenched and inescapable. We don't spend much time with anyone at the bottom of the ladder.

This book did make me appreciate Clay's Ark more, seeing how she went back to flesh out these people a little.

nanno_lib's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated