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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"She knew now how the slaves had felt as they lay chained on the bench, the slaver's hot iron burning into their flesh. In her pride, she had denied that she was a slave. She could no longer deny it. Doro's mark had been on her since the day they met."
I have never read anything like this before, and the unique, powerful, main characters, Doro and Anyanwu, are a huge part of that. Their complicated relationship is the main focus of this epic story, with underlying complex themes of slavery, eugenics, abuse, family, mental health, survival, and self-determination with never a letdown between these 2 opposing characters' points of view. Part alternative history, part science fiction, there is a lot going on here and a lot said between the lines. From start to finish, Butler never loses her focus on the protagonists. I was both satisfied with where she took her duo but so excited that this is a series so I can look forward to where Octavia Butler's imagination will take Doro and Anyanwu.
I have never read anything like this before, and the unique, powerful, main characters, Doro and Anyanwu, are a huge part of that. Their complicated relationship is the main focus of this epic story, with underlying complex themes of slavery, eugenics, abuse, family, mental health, survival, and self-determination with never a letdown between these 2 opposing characters' points of view. Part alternative history, part science fiction, there is a lot going on here and a lot said between the lines. From start to finish, Butler never loses her focus on the protagonists. I was both satisfied with where she took her duo but so excited that this is a series so I can look forward to where Octavia Butler's imagination will take Doro and Anyanwu.
I think this is the only one of the Patternist books that I will give 5 stars. They’ve all been good, but this one checked the boxes for me. I love a good prequel, and although I don’t think this counts as a prequel it felt like one given the I had previously read Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind.
Anyanwu is an unforgettable character. Stronger, more likable and more developed than Mary in MoMM. I think that’s why I give it 5. It felt so great to find someone who felt Doro’s true match (even if Mary was the one to end him).
And the ENDING - her deciding to live on and her change her name to Emma, the same Emma from MoMM. Yes!!
If I were to bump it down to 4, it would be for the dizzying number of times she switches the focus of the 3rd person omniscient from Doro to Anyanwu. At times I found myself getting frustrated at how much I was having to pay attention to that.
Anyanwu is an unforgettable character. Stronger, more likable and more developed than Mary in MoMM. I think that’s why I give it 5. It felt so great to find someone who felt Doro’s true match (even if Mary was the one to end him).
And the ENDING - her deciding to live on and her change her name to Emma, the same Emma from MoMM. Yes!!
If I were to bump it down to 4, it would be for the dizzying number of times she switches the focus of the 3rd person omniscient from Doro to Anyanwu. At times I found myself getting frustrated at how much I was having to pay attention to that.
I had marked this as "Read," but having just re-read it (?), I'm not sure I had ever read it before. Unlike the other Octavia Butler books I've marked as "Read," I don't own an old copy of this one. In any case, the story and the characters seemed new to me.
The central characters are Anyanwu and Doro. Anyanwu is a woman from somewhere near Benin (West Africa), and she has very unusual powers. Unlike Butler's Xenogenesis books, here there are no space aliens — only humans with genetic mutations that give them powers, mostly of the psychic sort. Although Anyanwu is the focus of the story, Doro is the engine that makes everything happen. He is an African man, centuries old and completely immoral. He exists to collect and breed people whose genes hold the potential for these extra-human powers, and he's already been doing it for a long time before he meets Anyanwu and takes her to America in the 1600s.
Doro bends people to his will, but he has a charisma that makes them love him as well as fear him. The story made me think a lot about enslavement and power. He creates communities of both black and white people and compels them to produce children, sometimes with him and often with each other. He's breeding for high-level telepathy, and he's playing it by ear, using his sense of people's latent potential. He has his reasons. Often the resulting children become highly disturbed, even insane, when they reach adulthood. It's all rather horrifying.
Anyanwu meets Doro again and again in her long lifetime (he travels a lot among his far-flung communities), and while she (possibly only she) is not mentally enslaved by him, he controls her in other ways. Throughout she remains strong and resistant, and looking back, I think it was brilliant of Butler to show us the character of Doro and his awful work through Anyanwu, who I found entirely sympathetic. Even so it's hard to take, because clearly sometimes Anyanwu desires Doro sexually even though he's been using her and tormenting her for so long.
There's a lot to think about here concerning sexual consent and sexual power. There is never a graphic sex scene, but Butler conveys the desire and satisfaction that Anyanwu (and other people) get from sexual encounters with Doro. Sometimes Anyanwu just submits, when she's in the midst of hating him intensely, because his powers threaten her children. At other times, though, she really wants him. This is creepy and disturbing and fully believable.
The central characters are Anyanwu and Doro. Anyanwu is a woman from somewhere near Benin (West Africa), and she has very unusual powers. Unlike Butler's Xenogenesis books, here there are no space aliens — only humans with genetic mutations that give them powers, mostly of the psychic sort. Although Anyanwu is the focus of the story, Doro is the engine that makes everything happen. He is an African man, centuries old and completely immoral. He exists to collect and breed people whose genes hold the potential for these extra-human powers, and he's already been doing it for a long time before he meets Anyanwu and takes her to America in the 1600s.
Doro bends people to his will, but he has a charisma that makes them love him as well as fear him. The story made me think a lot about enslavement and power. He creates communities of both black and white people and compels them to produce children, sometimes with him and often with each other. He's breeding for high-level telepathy, and he's playing it by ear, using his sense of people's latent potential. He has his reasons. Often the resulting children become highly disturbed, even insane, when they reach adulthood. It's all rather horrifying.
Anyanwu meets Doro again and again in her long lifetime (he travels a lot among his far-flung communities), and while she (possibly only she) is not mentally enslaved by him, he controls her in other ways. Throughout she remains strong and resistant, and looking back, I think it was brilliant of Butler to show us the character of Doro and his awful work through Anyanwu, who I found entirely sympathetic. Even so it's hard to take, because clearly sometimes Anyanwu desires Doro sexually even though he's been using her and tormenting her for so long.
There's a lot to think about here concerning sexual consent and sexual power. There is never a graphic sex scene, but Butler conveys the desire and satisfaction that Anyanwu (and other people) get from sexual encounters with Doro. Sometimes Anyanwu just submits, when she's in the midst of hating him intensely, because his powers threaten her children. At other times, though, she really wants him. This is creepy and disturbing and fully believable.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4/5 stars.
Before I go into my review, I want to make a note of something. 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' Arks (set in a futuristic dystopia), 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.
Wild Seed, as shown above, is the earliest part of the series. It follows Anyanwu, an immortal Igbo woman who can shapeshift her body into anything she can take into, or cannibalize into, her body, and Doro, an ancient Kush man (what is now North and South Sudan) who can transfer his soul or essence into the body of any person of any gender and any race who is also immortal. Doro is gifted with telepathic powers and has for centuries sired offspring and charted out his own descendants and even bred with said descendants. When he finds Anyanwu, he takes her with him to America, promising to never hurt her children and her own descendants. But Doro is a powerful man who can intimidate anyone, and he rarely keeps his promises.
This was a great introduction to Butler's work. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good. Much like Frank Herbert's [b:Dune|44767458|Dune (Dune, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555447414l/44767458._SY75_.jpg|3634639], Butler employs an omniscient third-person to tell the story. I think it was appropriate to use in order to get into both Anyanwu and Doro's heads and emotions. However, it did sometimes lead to telling and not showing and there were some moments where the narrative was interrupted but a brief info dump of a certain character or event from some time prior to the current narrative; albeit this only happened more toward the end of the book.
I was ultimately compelled by both Anyanwu and Doro's stories and actions to keep reading. Anyanwy just wants a family and peace. She constantly struggled against the world around her to live this constantly escaping dream. She only fought when she really had to; she resisted this constantly but would have to end up fighting or fleeing in order to get what she wanted. Doro, on the other hand, was quite the villain. His entire breeding plan is pure eugenics, but it's amazing in its own twisted, messed-up way. He seeks to create more psionic descendants like him, searching for those closest like him and weeding out those with weaker or no abilities. The intimidation and fear he puts into people by merely just standing there shows just how dominating he is. Anyone he didn't need he would let them die off in one way or another or he would take over their bodies and then transfer to another one to let them die. Anyanwu prevents many of his attempts to do this, telling him he can't rule his own place or family by violent force.
This dual relationship between Anyanwu and Doro shows, at first, a common divide often shown in early sci-fi works. The male character is cold and terrifying and rules through force, and the female one is passive and nurturing and cares for others. Butler brilliant shows the gradual eroding of this dualism, or at least the beginnings of it. While Anyanwu is still generally sympathetic and compassionate to others and Doro still domineering, the stereotypical and resolute roles and personalities they fill become undone. Anyanwu realizes she can't always stay and be compassionate to defend herself and her loved ones and family. Doro realizes that the more he rules through fear the more his children and descendants will resist him and defect to Anyanwu; and he does--somewhat--become more compassionate towards the end of the book, though he still wants to control Anyanwu. Doro still represents patriarchal power, obviously, and is much more intimidating then some of Anyanwu's first Igbo husbands, however he seems to show how patriarchal power can mold to rise of culture. Anyanwu, with her constantly changing body, represented how the boundaries between culture and nature can blur and how humans are intrinsically apart of both.
It was this vie for control, this endless chase between Anyanwu and Doro, that fueled everything in the story. Both of them can change their bodies, thus transcending race and gender, but at the heart of themselves both Anyanwu and Doro are two, immortal Africans who struggle for their own freedoms. Their freedoms from not only what is going on their world at the time, but from each other as well. They are both repelled and drawn to each other in an endless dance for agency and a future for their descendants.
There were other characters I enjoyed, such as Isaac, one of Anyanwu's most beloved husbands. I was saddened by his death. He along with other members of Anyanwu and Doro's families were meant to be mirrors of their relationship and the fallout it caused. Anyanwu and Doro are like Afrocentric, super-powered, alternative versions of Adam and Eve; this is the genesis of their story and the story of their descendants and how the initial interactions and actions--their original sins, if you will--become a consequence for the future to come.
If there was anything I frustrated about, despite my praise of this book, was Anyanwu's continued ability to give Doro another chance. I understand this was apart of her nature and arc to seem sympathetic, but after everything horrible Doro did it just got more frustrating.
Overall, I can't wait to continue this series to see what happens to the rest of the world and Anyanwu and Doro's descendants.
Before I go into my review, I want to make a note of something. 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' Arks (set in a futuristic dystopia), 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.
Wild Seed, as shown above, is the earliest part of the series. It follows Anyanwu, an immortal Igbo woman who can shapeshift her body into anything she can take into, or cannibalize into, her body, and Doro, an ancient Kush man (what is now North and South Sudan) who can transfer his soul or essence into the body of any person of any gender and any race who is also immortal. Doro is gifted with telepathic powers and has for centuries sired offspring and charted out his own descendants and even bred with said descendants. When he finds Anyanwu, he takes her with him to America, promising to never hurt her children and her own descendants. But Doro is a powerful man who can intimidate anyone, and he rarely keeps his promises.
This was a great introduction to Butler's work. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good. Much like Frank Herbert's [b:Dune|44767458|Dune (Dune, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555447414l/44767458._SY75_.jpg|3634639], Butler employs an omniscient third-person to tell the story. I think it was appropriate to use in order to get into both Anyanwu and Doro's heads and emotions. However, it did sometimes lead to telling and not showing and there were some moments where the narrative was interrupted but a brief info dump of a certain character or event from some time prior to the current narrative; albeit this only happened more toward the end of the book.
I was ultimately compelled by both Anyanwu and Doro's stories and actions to keep reading. Anyanwy just wants a family and peace. She constantly struggled against the world around her to live this constantly escaping dream. She only fought when she really had to; she resisted this constantly but would have to end up fighting or fleeing in order to get what she wanted. Doro, on the other hand, was quite the villain. His entire breeding plan is pure eugenics, but it's amazing in its own twisted, messed-up way. He seeks to create more psionic descendants like him, searching for those closest like him and weeding out those with weaker or no abilities. The intimidation and fear he puts into people by merely just standing there shows just how dominating he is. Anyone he didn't need he would let them die off in one way or another or he would take over their bodies and then transfer to another one to let them die. Anyanwu prevents many of his attempts to do this, telling him he can't rule his own place or family by violent force.
This dual relationship between Anyanwu and Doro shows, at first, a common divide often shown in early sci-fi works. The male character is cold and terrifying and rules through force, and the female one is passive and nurturing and cares for others. Butler brilliant shows the gradual eroding of this dualism, or at least the beginnings of it. While Anyanwu is still generally sympathetic and compassionate to others and Doro still domineering, the stereotypical and resolute roles and personalities they fill become undone. Anyanwu realizes she can't always stay and be compassionate to defend herself and her loved ones and family. Doro realizes that the more he rules through fear the more his children and descendants will resist him and defect to Anyanwu; and he does--somewhat--become more compassionate towards the end of the book, though he still wants to control Anyanwu. Doro still represents patriarchal power, obviously, and is much more intimidating then some of Anyanwu's first Igbo husbands, however he seems to show how patriarchal power can mold to rise of culture. Anyanwu, with her constantly changing body, represented how the boundaries between culture and nature can blur and how humans are intrinsically apart of both.
It was this vie for control, this endless chase between Anyanwu and Doro, that fueled everything in the story. Both of them can change their bodies, thus transcending race and gender, but at the heart of themselves both Anyanwu and Doro are two, immortal Africans who struggle for their own freedoms. Their freedoms from not only what is going on their world at the time, but from each other as well. They are both repelled and drawn to each other in an endless dance for agency and a future for their descendants.
There were other characters I enjoyed, such as Isaac, one of Anyanwu's most beloved husbands. I was saddened by his death. He along with other members of Anyanwu and Doro's families were meant to be mirrors of their relationship and the fallout it caused. Anyanwu and Doro are like Afrocentric, super-powered, alternative versions of Adam and Eve; this is the genesis of their story and the story of their descendants and how the initial interactions and actions--their original sins, if you will--become a consequence for the future to come.
If there was anything I frustrated about, despite my praise of this book, was Anyanwu's continued ability to give Doro another chance. I understand this was apart of her nature and arc to seem sympathetic, but after everything horrible Doro did it just got more frustrating.
Overall, I can't wait to continue this series to see what happens to the rest of the world and Anyanwu and Doro's descendants.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
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:
Complicated