theinkwyrm 's review for:

Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler

3.0

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Upgraded from 2.5 to 3 stars because the writing was good and as a book it was entertaining. That being said, I think that as both an individual book and the conclusion of a series, I think that this is one of Butler’s least successful. As an individual book, it follows too closely to the plot points of Mind of My Mind to be very satisfying and of the two I think it is the less well done. I was also less attached to these characters than I was to Mary and the others in MoMM. But it’s as the conclusion of a series that the weakness of this book really comes through. I already knew from the first couple of books that this wasn’t going to be my favorite Butler series, but honestly Clay’s Ark and this book really cemented that for me because they were completely unnecessary. Clay’s Ark introduced a new group that seemed like it was intended to be the primary antagonist to the Patternist group that this series is about, but this book barely mentions them at all and definitely not in the powerhouse villain way that Clay’s Ark sets us up to think they’ll be (they mainly serve as a way to force our main POV and the antagonist into their final confrontation). Patternmaster falls flat because instead of setting up a reckoning between these two power groups, it instead focuses on a power struggle between two people in one group. I think that if this had been longer (or if there was another book in this series), she would have had the space to set up a conflict between the Patternists and the Arkists that served as a test of Teray’s newfound power and leadership in a way that would have been a satisfying conclusion to this series, but as it is, this could have been a duology with just Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind and accomplished the same thing in fewer books.