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reviewed Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler (Patternmaster, #4)

Octavia E. Butler: Patternmaster (Paperback, 1995, Aspect) 4 stars

The combined mind-force of a telepathic race, Patternist thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. For the …

A bit of a let-down compared to Wild Seed

No rating

So, I burned through the whole patternmaster series in a matter of months, which is pretty unusual for me. I like to leave big gaps in between installments, so I don't get burned out on a story.

While the series is overall great, I really regret reading the books in chronological order, starting with Wild Seed, and ending with this one, because in publishing order, this is her first book and her first published novel ever. As is to be expected, as Butler's skills as a writer increase, the quality of these earlier and earlier published novels decreases. Patternmaster isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't hold a candle to Wild Seed, or even Mind of my Mind and Clay's Ark. Not to mention that the stories become gradually less ambitious. So, the overall effect is that a series that starts as an epic world-spanning, century-spanning tale of conflict between two primal forces of nature peters out as a story about a brotherly feud. It's a bit of a let-down.

So, if you read this series (and you should), do yourself a favor and read it in publishing order.

@luminaree@bookwyrm.social I loved the Earthseed series as well, such a shame she never got to finish it. I'm working my way through her bibliography right now, and I'd say most of her work is well worth reading, except maybe her really early stuff like Patternmaster and Kindred. (Kindred is good, I just think that aside from its sci-fi twist, it doesn't add a lot to the subgenre of historical novels on slavery.)

@radio_appears@books.theunseen.city Yeah I had very much the same experience with the series (read the whole series in ~2 months) and reaction to this book. I did still enjoy it a lot, but it just didn't go where I hoped it to go.

Unfortunately I didn't know anything about this series before I started Wild Seed, I got it in a humble bundle at some point and it said that Wild Seed was the first book, so I started with that.