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Butler, Octavia E. - Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind
Mon, Dec. 1st, 2008 10:50 pmI am woefully behind on comments, reading LJ, book posts and TV posts, and will probably remain so as I scramble to get through the last two weeks of school! Of course, I may also spam LJ obsessively in a desperate attempt to avoid studying. Who knows?
I've read Clay's Ark and Wild Seed before, which sort of ruined my attempt to read the Seed to Harvest series in the order it was published. Still, I gave it a shot. I think Wild Seed is the best of the series, though I will have to reread it to be sure. Mostly, reading Patternmaster was interesting largely because Butler wrote that one first, then used the other three books in the series to explain how the world got to where it was in Patternmaster.
Patternmaster is set in a future in which most humans are telepathic and linked to the Pattern, non-telepaths are called "mutes," and everyone is threatened by the clayarks, once-humans who were infected with a mutating virus from outer space. Mind of My Mind is set in a not-too-distance future and details the rise of the Pattern and the telepathic race of people.
I... have absolutely no idea what to write for these books, since many of the surprises and twists in worldbuilding were completely unsurprising to me, given that I had read Wild Seed and Clay's Ark, or I felt like there was no tension because I knew the outcome from Patternmaster. I was particularly disappointed because I read Wild Seed first, many years ago, and none of the characters in the other books come close to being as fascinating as Doro and Anyanwu. Mind of My Mind was odd reading because Anyanwu in particular doesn't get much development; of course, this is also not a valid complaint on my part because Wild Seed was written after Mind of My Mind, and Butler probably developed Anyanwu's character much more then.
So overall, this was a rather confusing experience, although Butler's worldbuilding and characters are interesting and complicated nevertheless. I especially like Mary in Mind of My Mind and wish the book had gone on for a bit longer instead of ending where it had; I wanted to see the development from Mary's Pattern to the Pattern in Patternmaster.
I think I'd recommend that people read this in the order it was published, although I'd also recommend that people skip Clay's Ark entirely for the violence and gratuitous depressingness.
I've read Clay's Ark and Wild Seed before, which sort of ruined my attempt to read the Seed to Harvest series in the order it was published. Still, I gave it a shot. I think Wild Seed is the best of the series, though I will have to reread it to be sure. Mostly, reading Patternmaster was interesting largely because Butler wrote that one first, then used the other three books in the series to explain how the world got to where it was in Patternmaster.
Patternmaster is set in a future in which most humans are telepathic and linked to the Pattern, non-telepaths are called "mutes," and everyone is threatened by the clayarks, once-humans who were infected with a mutating virus from outer space. Mind of My Mind is set in a not-too-distance future and details the rise of the Pattern and the telepathic race of people.
I... have absolutely no idea what to write for these books, since many of the surprises and twists in worldbuilding were completely unsurprising to me, given that I had read Wild Seed and Clay's Ark, or I felt like there was no tension because I knew the outcome from Patternmaster. I was particularly disappointed because I read Wild Seed first, many years ago, and none of the characters in the other books come close to being as fascinating as Doro and Anyanwu. Mind of My Mind was odd reading because Anyanwu in particular doesn't get much development; of course, this is also not a valid complaint on my part because Wild Seed was written after Mind of My Mind, and Butler probably developed Anyanwu's character much more then.
So overall, this was a rather confusing experience, although Butler's worldbuilding and characters are interesting and complicated nevertheless. I especially like Mary in Mind of My Mind and wish the book had gone on for a bit longer instead of ending where it had; I wanted to see the development from Mary's Pattern to the Pattern in Patternmaster.
I think I'd recommend that people read this in the order it was published, although I'd also recommend that people skip Clay's Ark entirely for the violence and gratuitous depressingness.
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