Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I nice end to the Patternists series.
This last book fell slightly short of the others, for me, mainly because I felt unsatisfied with the conclusion, and I didn't feel that it had the strength and depth of the others (although I think allowances can be made for this being the first one she wrote). But the journey was enjoyable enough that I'd still highly recommend the series.
Ultimately, the stories told in this series are almost all about different types of slavery. Physical/personal slavery, of external factors such as disease/mutation, mental and sexual and emotional slavery--how we face it, how we accept or reject it, ways we find of either coping or escaping it. It's so powerfully illustrated in so many different and unforgiving ways that the theme resonates. I think that's really the power of something like science fiction: taking concepts that we are removed from and putting them into forms that our imaginations recognize.
Ultimately, the stories told in this series are almost all about different types of slavery. Physical/personal slavery, of external factors such as disease/mutation, mental and sexual and emotional slavery--how we face it, how we accept or reject it, ways we find of either coping or escaping it. It's so powerfully illustrated in so many different and unforgiving ways that the theme resonates. I think that's really the power of something like science fiction: taking concepts that we are removed from and putting them into forms that our imaginations recognize.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
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 really enjoyed this book. It might not be an enjoyable read if you're reading this with the expectations of it being a finale sequel, but on its own, it's much more enjoyable than MoMM, and has part of that spunk I loved in Wild Seed. It's its own thing.
Almost all of the men (including Teray) irritated me. What would've made me rate this a 5 is if this book really explored the dynamics of the women and "minorities" (racial/ethnic/lgtbq/disabled) in this very patriarchal cis-het society. And delved into how "connected" and yet so isolated and lonely the Patternists really are. I sense they could learn a lot from the Clayarks. But alas. IMO Amber, Iray, and the Clayark that Teray interacts with were robbed of more prominent roles.
While the book leaves much to be desired, I think it ended on a good solid note and I'm glad I didn't let "Clay's Ark" dissuade me from finishing the series. I'll definitely read it again in a near future.
Almost all of the men (including Teray) irritated me. What would've made me rate this a 5 is if this book really explored the dynamics of the women and "minorities" (racial/ethnic/lgtbq/disabled) in this very patriarchal cis-het society. And delved into how "connected" and yet so isolated and lonely the Patternists really are. I sense they could learn a lot from the Clayarks. But alas. IMO Amber, Iray, and the Clayark that Teray interacts with were robbed of more prominent roles.
While the book leaves much to be desired, I think it ended on a good solid note and I'm glad I didn't let "Clay's Ark" dissuade me from finishing the series. I'll definitely read it again in a near future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Definitely an interesting read doing some of the things that Octavia E. Butler does best. However, it feels relatively light, especially compared to her other works, which can get a lot more visceral and gruesome. It does leave you wanting, waiting to see how dynamics play out on a larger scale, but sometimes stories are just stories by themselves. And this story is quite fine.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of my favorite things I did in 2024 was read all four of Octavia Butler’s Patternist novels. It’s such an interesting series because, on top of the telepathic hiveminds and body-jumping immortal spirit and alien plague that turns humans into sphinxes, it was basically written backwards. This is the last book in the chronologic story, but it was also the first novel Butler ever published, so it feels more like a beginning than an ending. Many of its ideas were explored with more depth in the later/earlier Patternist books. It’s a fun read and a great, vivid depiction of telepathy, but I find myself wanting more even though this is technically the end. Also, I couldn’t help rooting for the Clayarks!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
This is the third book of Octavia Butler I've read (I started another and need to go back to it) and I appreciate that none of her books are the same. Good short read, very interesting world and magic/telepathic system set up. I would like to read more of this series. And impressive that this series started in the 70s.
reviews.metaphorosis.com
2.5 stars
A talented young telepath finds himself sold off to a powerful lord. While he fights and plans to escape, he falls in with an independent female telepath and they form a bond.
People like to say that space opera is derived from westerns. Octavia Butler seems to have set out to prove that on a smaller scale. Patternmaster is transparently the story of a young cowboy ('civilized' man) out in the wilds, killing or escaping wily natives (mutated humans) at every turn. There's a gloss of science fiction, but it's a western at heart.
Sadly, this is not a very good western. It doesn't have the purple prose of Zane Grey, though it does have some of the convoluted relationships of Louis L'Amour. The story adds a layer of slavery, but does so little with it that it remains no more than a thin veneer. This, what should have been the heart of an interesting story, is a device only - characters are acted upon and react, but there's very little introspection. The protagonist resents being sold off, but ... oh well. He doesn't think much about the fact that "hey, slavery looks different from the other side" or "huh, those natives are more interesting than we give them credit for", or even "gender relations in the future seem to have regressed to the 1800s". It's unfortunate, becuase Butler so clearly sets up the possibility for all these considerations, and then utterly fails to capitalize on them.
When I started this series, it was with the impression that Butler was a pretentiously intellectual, elitist author. The first couple of books proved me wrong. The stories were well written and low key, if a little dry. How I wish now that my first, mistaken impression had been correct. The third book was incomplete, the fourth a disaster, and this one not that much better. A dose of elitist erudition might have turned it into a work deserving serious thought.
As it is, what the book has is a very thin story of betrayal, detention, and a long chase scene, with very little philosophical expansion. It's not much, and since the emotions and relations are almost as restrained as in the earlier books, it's not enough even for this story.
This last book in the series was written before the others. It's hard for me to see how it got published. It relies heavily on events established in the prequels, but they're not explained clearly enough for the book to stand alone. Maybe this version was revised after the others were written? If not, I'm not confident an audience would be able or interested to make sense of the world it describes.
I was clearly wrong about Octavia Butler - she's not the stuffy writer I thought she was, and Wild Seed was a good book. Unfortunately, based on this five book series (or even just the four she didn't disavow), she's also not the writer her reputation says she is. If she were, she'd be a lot more interesting.
< br >* On the plus side, the main books of this series had few of the editing flaws I've come to associate with Open Road Media.