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Patternist #4
Patternmaster
The combined mind-force of a telepathic race, Patternist thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. For the strongest mind commands the entire pattern and all within. Now the son of the Patternmaster craves this ultimate power, He has murdered or enslaved every threat to his ambition--except one. In the wild, mutant-infested hills, a young apprentice must be hunted down and destroyed because he is the tyrant's equal... and the Pattermaster's other son.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
340 people are currently reading
11.5k people want to read
About the author
Octavia E. Butler
98books20.7kfollowersOctavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.
After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.
After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 840 reviews
April 15, 2019
Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler is a mix of Ursula LeGuin and Robert Silverberg, with a nod to Frank Herbert.
The coolest thing about this very good read is Butler’s ability to create a world intrinsic to itself; the author has crafted a unique, distinctive culture that is alien to us but contextually correct for the world she has built.
Butler’s biography denotes a strong, singular personality and this comes through in her writing. Many books can boast a strong female lead, and Butler’s women are not only strong but also brutally honest with themselves and with the central male protagonist.
Butler also explores themes of interdependence, social status and even slavery. These complex characterizations and intricate group dynamics provide a greater depth and maturity to what is a fine science fiction story to begin with.
If you enjoy SF/F or any variation of speculative fiction, you NEED to read Butler's work.
The coolest thing about this very good read is Butler’s ability to create a world intrinsic to itself; the author has crafted a unique, distinctive culture that is alien to us but contextually correct for the world she has built.
Butler’s biography denotes a strong, singular personality and this comes through in her writing. Many books can boast a strong female lead, and Butler’s women are not only strong but also brutally honest with themselves and with the central male protagonist.
Butler also explores themes of interdependence, social status and even slavery. These complex characterizations and intricate group dynamics provide a greater depth and maturity to what is a fine science fiction story to begin with.
If you enjoy SF/F or any variation of speculative fiction, you NEED to read Butler's work.
March 9, 2021
“A long leash is still a leash.�
The first published and the last in the series of the Patternist novels, Octavia Butler's Patternmaster brings up many of the themes that will characterize the entire series. Uppermost is what it means to be human. Does our future lie with powerful telepaths (Patternists) who have been selectively bred for generations or the mutant Clayarks who roam the landscape, but bear little resemblance to present-day humans? After book #3, Clay's Ark, I was hoping for more on the evolution of this mutated species; however, in Butler's grim world, the Clayarks are little more than monsters to evade or kill. Despite their power, most Patternists are basically slaves to more powerful Patternists. Ultimately, neither the Clayarks nor the Patternists have much purpose beyond survival and power. Any sense of freedom for either group is an illusion. Patternmaster is an interesting finale, but it could have been more.
The first published and the last in the series of the Patternist novels, Octavia Butler's Patternmaster brings up many of the themes that will characterize the entire series. Uppermost is what it means to be human. Does our future lie with powerful telepaths (Patternists) who have been selectively bred for generations or the mutant Clayarks who roam the landscape, but bear little resemblance to present-day humans? After book #3, Clay's Ark, I was hoping for more on the evolution of this mutated species; however, in Butler's grim world, the Clayarks are little more than monsters to evade or kill. Despite their power, most Patternists are basically slaves to more powerful Patternists. Ultimately, neither the Clayarks nor the Patternists have much purpose beyond survival and power. Any sense of freedom for either group is an illusion. Patternmaster is an interesting finale, but it could have been more.
April 23, 2012
After Clay’s Ark, I had no idea what to expect with The Patternmaster. What I did not expect was that the Clayark evolution would basically turn those people into animals � albeit really smart human-like animals � and that they would have no real purpose to their existence save to
be obstacles for the protagonists. Their humanity was almost completely stripped away, despite them fighting so hard to maintain what they could of it in Clay’s Ark.
This book focused otherwise entirely on the Patternists. Two brothers, in particular. All of the Patternists of the past books are gone, including Mary, who created the Pattern and there is little spoken of them beyond what purpose they served in history. Not even their names are mentioned. I did appreciate the intricacies detailing how the Pattern and the Patternist society worked and the descriptions of the mental processes and battles.
Other than the Patternists and Clayarks, there are still humans about. “Mutes,� to the Patternists, who consider them little more than smart animals that can be easily manipulated to serve any purpose, from domestic, to brutal, to sexual. The evolution of slavery, where those
who have not evolved, can serve no other purpose.
A few interesting themes show up. One being that society has reverted to a sub-technological level. Apparently, the Clay’s Ark spaceship was the pinnacle of human technology, and, also served as the downfall of the species. No real reason is given as to why the Patternists no longer have use for technology. Certainly communications isn’t necessary. But � air conditioning? Cars? Netflix?
The most interesting thing about this book as the conclusion to the Seed to Harvest series, is that it is rather anti-climactic. With all the build up regarding the Clayarks and the Patternists, I assumed there would be more to it, but as I read on, I kept looking at the number of pages left and realized that the book would remain focused on a small pocket of the greater world. These books aren’t to be viewed as an epic series, connected through characters and adventures. Instead, it is four different stages in the human evolution Butler has imagined. Apparently, no matter how far the human race evolves, men will always compete against men and women will always be treated as inferior. I had hoped for greater juxtaposition with the Clayarks regarding this, but ultimately, this story was simply about two men and their battle for succession.
I don’t want to say that the final book, or the series itself, was disappointing. It simply wasn’t what I expected � and that’s not a bad thing. Butler is proving to me that she is a master of telling a story so far outside the box. Science fiction and fantasy so often follow the same tropes, with a few twists here and there, but Butler completely ignores it all and forces you to think on so many different angles, all while forcing you to question the rules and morals that society sets upon us.
be obstacles for the protagonists. Their humanity was almost completely stripped away, despite them fighting so hard to maintain what they could of it in Clay’s Ark.
This book focused otherwise entirely on the Patternists. Two brothers, in particular. All of the Patternists of the past books are gone, including Mary, who created the Pattern and there is little spoken of them beyond what purpose they served in history. Not even their names are mentioned. I did appreciate the intricacies detailing how the Pattern and the Patternist society worked and the descriptions of the mental processes and battles.
Other than the Patternists and Clayarks, there are still humans about. “Mutes,� to the Patternists, who consider them little more than smart animals that can be easily manipulated to serve any purpose, from domestic, to brutal, to sexual. The evolution of slavery, where those
who have not evolved, can serve no other purpose.
A few interesting themes show up. One being that society has reverted to a sub-technological level. Apparently, the Clay’s Ark spaceship was the pinnacle of human technology, and, also served as the downfall of the species. No real reason is given as to why the Patternists no longer have use for technology. Certainly communications isn’t necessary. But � air conditioning? Cars? Netflix?
The most interesting thing about this book as the conclusion to the Seed to Harvest series, is that it is rather anti-climactic. With all the build up regarding the Clayarks and the Patternists, I assumed there would be more to it, but as I read on, I kept looking at the number of pages left and realized that the book would remain focused on a small pocket of the greater world. These books aren’t to be viewed as an epic series, connected through characters and adventures. Instead, it is four different stages in the human evolution Butler has imagined. Apparently, no matter how far the human race evolves, men will always compete against men and women will always be treated as inferior. I had hoped for greater juxtaposition with the Clayarks regarding this, but ultimately, this story was simply about two men and their battle for succession.
I don’t want to say that the final book, or the series itself, was disappointing. It simply wasn’t what I expected � and that’s not a bad thing. Butler is proving to me that she is a master of telling a story so far outside the box. Science fiction and fantasy so often follow the same tropes, with a few twists here and there, but Butler completely ignores it all and forces you to think on so many different angles, all while forcing you to question the rules and morals that society sets upon us.
June 6, 2024
Octavia Butler is one of my favorite novelists. I particularly love her Xenogenesis trilogy (published in one volume as Lilith’s Brood)—one of my favorite series of all time. Somehow, I never got around to her Patternist novels.
Patternmaster, Butler’s first novel, has the feel of a great, old school science fiction adventure. It reminds me a little of Ursula Le Guin’s early novels, especially Planet of Exile and City of Illusions—an author taking a first stab at themes they would spend their writing lives wrestling with, here firmly embedded in a pulp scifi adventure context, with little apparent interest in reaching an audience beyond dedicated science fiction readers.
Butler is interested in the multiple meanings of slavery: slavery as a social order, the dynamics of household and plantation in a world ordered into masters, slaves, and the complicatedly neither—but also slavery as the absence of free will. Is slavery a dialectic—one is either enslaved or free—or is slavery one end of a wide spectrum of statuses stretching between freedom and unfreedom? She is also interested in the tension between real world ideas about race and science fictional ideas about race—how centaurs or elves or martians are articulated as races in fiction, and where that does and does not intersect with real world racial hierarchies. And as in all of her work, Butler is intensely aware of how gender orders and influences those structures of power and knowledge, shaping how both men and women experience them.
The novel has a sketchy quality. The characterization is a little slight, even haphazard; the whole book is short; the story begins and ends abruptly, and the plot is not particularly original—especially in the second half, when it devolves into a classic chase story. And yet, as a whole, the novel punches far above its weight. I can’t wait to see where Butler ended up taking this world.
Patternmaster, Butler’s first novel, has the feel of a great, old school science fiction adventure. It reminds me a little of Ursula Le Guin’s early novels, especially Planet of Exile and City of Illusions—an author taking a first stab at themes they would spend their writing lives wrestling with, here firmly embedded in a pulp scifi adventure context, with little apparent interest in reaching an audience beyond dedicated science fiction readers.
Butler is interested in the multiple meanings of slavery: slavery as a social order, the dynamics of household and plantation in a world ordered into masters, slaves, and the complicatedly neither—but also slavery as the absence of free will. Is slavery a dialectic—one is either enslaved or free—or is slavery one end of a wide spectrum of statuses stretching between freedom and unfreedom? She is also interested in the tension between real world ideas about race and science fictional ideas about race—how centaurs or elves or martians are articulated as races in fiction, and where that does and does not intersect with real world racial hierarchies. And as in all of her work, Butler is intensely aware of how gender orders and influences those structures of power and knowledge, shaping how both men and women experience them.
The novel has a sketchy quality. The characterization is a little slight, even haphazard; the whole book is short; the story begins and ends abruptly, and the plot is not particularly original—especially in the second half, when it devolves into a classic chase story. And yet, as a whole, the novel punches far above its weight. I can’t wait to see where Butler ended up taking this world.
March 13, 2016
Patternmaster: Clearly a first novel - Wild Seed is much better
Originally posted at
Patternmaster (1976) was written first in Octavia Butler’s 4-book PATTERNIST series, but comes last in chronology. It takes place several hundred years after Clay’s Ark (1984), back in the Forsythe, CA territory where the Patternists settled down earlier. Society remains scattered and non-industrial, and power is divided between the Patternists, a network of linked human telepaths who can kill at a distance, and the Clayarks, now completely transformed into intelligent, sphinx-like animals with extreme strength, speed, and agility but no special mental powers. The losers in this future world are the mutes, non-pyschic humans who are treated more like pets or servants by the Patternists.
The story centers around Teray, a young Patternist who is one of the many sons of aging Patternmaster Rayal, and Coransee, an older Patternist who is also a son of Rayal and a powerful Housemaster in his own right. As Rayal is aging, sick, and losing his grip on power, various Housemasters are waiting for their chance to seize power and control the Pattern. Coransee sees the raw untrained power of Teray and offers him his own House in exchange for agreeing not to vie for succession. However, Teray knows he does not want to submit to anyone’s authority and refuses Coransee’s offer. This sets up an inevitable battle between the two.
However, what’s interesting about this book is not so much the outcome, but rather the general bleakness and cold-blooded behavior of its characters. It seems to be a pervasive theme of the Patternist series that telepathic powers or physical gifts do not impart happiness, peace of mind, or freedom from oppression. In fact, these powers ensures that Patternist society will form itself into a strict hierarchy based on the ability to dominate weaker telepaths, and the most chilling aspect is that at the very bottom of this social pyramid are human mutes, who serve menial functions within Patternist Households, and are routinely abused by Patternists because they cannot fight back.
Essentially standard humans occupy the position that slaves did in the US. It is upsetting to see how casually they are treated by their overlords. So what message is Butler trying to convey? That any society, whether of standard humans or telepaths, is doomed to be ruled by force, domination by the strong, and oppression of the weak? Teray does seek to be free of the oppression of Coransee and is sympathetic to the abuse that mutes are subjected to by other Patternists. Eventually he seeks the alliance of a strong female healer named Amber, but his ultimate goal remains to seize control of the Pattern, and when he tastes the feel of power from other telepaths linked to him, he savors it.
It’s actually the Clayarks that are the most unusual aspect of the book. While the Patternists view them merely as highly-organized animals like dog or wolf packs, and don’t hesitate to kill them on sight without question, we know from Clay’s Ark that they are in fact quite intelligent and have the power of speech. Teray briefly speculates on why the Patternists and Clayarks must be implacable enemies, but when it comes down to it he quickly learns how to exterminate Clayarks in the most efficient way with his mental powers, the way you might fumigate a house for vermin. One of the failings of this book is that we are never shown the world of the Clayarks, and this is likely because this book was written first, meaning they would only get full attention in their origin story Clay’s Ark, written eight years later. It’s a wasted opportunity, and I think if Butler could have rewritten this book, that is something she would definitely have addressed.
In the end, it’s undeniable that both Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind suffer a bit from being Butler’s earliest novels. They feel underdeveloped, with some intriguing ideas about power and domination, but not fully exploring it. The books are very short, and while I really appreciate the lack of bloat, their spare stories don’t allow her to really explore the themes she more successfully did in Wild Seed. So if you want to sample this series, Wild Seed is the best place to start. It will be interesting to compare this series with her later XENOGENESIS and PARABLE books.
Patternmaster is narrated by Eugene H. Russell IV, and he handled this harsh story appropriately. Like Neal Ghant in Clay’s Ark, he captures the bleak tone and struggle for survival and dominance among the characters. It would be nice if he was given the opportunity to explore some more gentle moments, but it’s not that type of story.
Originally posted at
Patternmaster (1976) was written first in Octavia Butler’s 4-book PATTERNIST series, but comes last in chronology. It takes place several hundred years after Clay’s Ark (1984), back in the Forsythe, CA territory where the Patternists settled down earlier. Society remains scattered and non-industrial, and power is divided between the Patternists, a network of linked human telepaths who can kill at a distance, and the Clayarks, now completely transformed into intelligent, sphinx-like animals with extreme strength, speed, and agility but no special mental powers. The losers in this future world are the mutes, non-pyschic humans who are treated more like pets or servants by the Patternists.
The story centers around Teray, a young Patternist who is one of the many sons of aging Patternmaster Rayal, and Coransee, an older Patternist who is also a son of Rayal and a powerful Housemaster in his own right. As Rayal is aging, sick, and losing his grip on power, various Housemasters are waiting for their chance to seize power and control the Pattern. Coransee sees the raw untrained power of Teray and offers him his own House in exchange for agreeing not to vie for succession. However, Teray knows he does not want to submit to anyone’s authority and refuses Coransee’s offer. This sets up an inevitable battle between the two.
However, what’s interesting about this book is not so much the outcome, but rather the general bleakness and cold-blooded behavior of its characters. It seems to be a pervasive theme of the Patternist series that telepathic powers or physical gifts do not impart happiness, peace of mind, or freedom from oppression. In fact, these powers ensures that Patternist society will form itself into a strict hierarchy based on the ability to dominate weaker telepaths, and the most chilling aspect is that at the very bottom of this social pyramid are human mutes, who serve menial functions within Patternist Households, and are routinely abused by Patternists because they cannot fight back.
Essentially standard humans occupy the position that slaves did in the US. It is upsetting to see how casually they are treated by their overlords. So what message is Butler trying to convey? That any society, whether of standard humans or telepaths, is doomed to be ruled by force, domination by the strong, and oppression of the weak? Teray does seek to be free of the oppression of Coransee and is sympathetic to the abuse that mutes are subjected to by other Patternists. Eventually he seeks the alliance of a strong female healer named Amber, but his ultimate goal remains to seize control of the Pattern, and when he tastes the feel of power from other telepaths linked to him, he savors it.
It’s actually the Clayarks that are the most unusual aspect of the book. While the Patternists view them merely as highly-organized animals like dog or wolf packs, and don’t hesitate to kill them on sight without question, we know from Clay’s Ark that they are in fact quite intelligent and have the power of speech. Teray briefly speculates on why the Patternists and Clayarks must be implacable enemies, but when it comes down to it he quickly learns how to exterminate Clayarks in the most efficient way with his mental powers, the way you might fumigate a house for vermin. One of the failings of this book is that we are never shown the world of the Clayarks, and this is likely because this book was written first, meaning they would only get full attention in their origin story Clay’s Ark, written eight years later. It’s a wasted opportunity, and I think if Butler could have rewritten this book, that is something she would definitely have addressed.
In the end, it’s undeniable that both Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind suffer a bit from being Butler’s earliest novels. They feel underdeveloped, with some intriguing ideas about power and domination, but not fully exploring it. The books are very short, and while I really appreciate the lack of bloat, their spare stories don’t allow her to really explore the themes she more successfully did in Wild Seed. So if you want to sample this series, Wild Seed is the best place to start. It will be interesting to compare this series with her later XENOGENESIS and PARABLE books.
Patternmaster is narrated by Eugene H. Russell IV, and he handled this harsh story appropriately. Like Neal Ghant in Clay’s Ark, he captures the bleak tone and struggle for survival and dominance among the characters. It would be nice if he was given the opportunity to explore some more gentle moments, but it’s not that type of story.
June 17, 2022
Actual Rating: 3.75/5
The world is no longer controlled by what we would call normal humans. These humans have left their glorious days in the past, and the large and once bustling cities full of skyscrapers are now ancient ruins that mark what once was. Instead, the world is dominated by a specific subset of humans who possess psychic powers. These people are called the Patternists, and they use their mind-control abilities to subdue other creatures and bend them to their will. One person, the Patternmaster, a man named Rayal, is superior to all of them, having control over this psychic net. However, the Patternmaster is dying, which means that one of his hundreds of children will have to replace him. This story follows two brothers who are the most powerful of these children and stand the highest chance of becoming the next Patternmaster. The older brother, Coransee, who already has a lot of power and status, is the obvious candidate, but when his younger brother, Teray, reveals himself as a potential threat, Coransee does everything in his power to subdue him, but Teray is not one to be easily broken.
This is Octavia Butler's debut novel, and interestingly enough, this book, despite being the first book of the Patternmaster series to be published, is chronologically the final book in the story. That's why a lot of people actually start off with the book that comes first chronologically, and end up reading this book at the end. I chose not to do this because I knew that if I would have been inevitably disappointed, since as a debut novel, I was sure this book would have been underwhelming compared to the other ones, where Octavia Butler had more experience as a writer. I'm definitely glad I made this choice. Reading this as the first book in the series, despite it being the last one chronologically, does a good job in building the world Octavia Butler wants us to explore. In this universe, social laws are different. They seem to be an extreme form of ancient Turkish/Arab/oriental culture, where each Patternist owns a "House", where he reigns supreme, and has the right to sleep with any woman (and technically, also man) who is part of that House. Everyone in that house would exist to serve him. As for the "normal" humans who don't possess these psychic powers, they're classified as "Mutes" and are treated as vulnerable servants to the Patternists. We also have another group of people, called the Clayarks, who seem to be a sort of mutated subspecies of humans, who don't have the same powers the Patternists do, but have enhanced combat abilities. The Clayarks are nomadic and are openly hostile to the Patternists, and seek to infect them with a sort of disease that they carry, which the Patternists are vulnerable to.
As we can see, the world is a nicely complex one. The themes of power dynamics and slavery seem to be strongly present in this book. We see this first and foremost between the two brothers, Coransee and Teray. Coransee is obviously threatened by Teray's potential, and tries to break him in every way possible, through brute psychic and physical force, and through social humiliation. Coransee doesn't hesitate to use his social privileges to bring Teray down, such as becoming sexually intimate with Teray's love interests, with or without their consent. Teray is faced with the difficult choice of either becoming Coransee's slave, having limited freedom and being forced to follow his orders and live a demeaning life, or to live a free life, even becoming the future owner of Coransee's House when Coransee takes his spot as the new Patternmaster, with the cost of giving Coransee full mental control over him. Coransee claims that he would never truly interfere in Teray's life, and would only do so if Teray ever chose to rebel against him. This leads to another freedom related theme in this book. Is life worth living, when one knows that they are not truly free, and are simply allowed to exercise their liberties? Teray fights against this notion, and prefers risking his own life and the lives of the people he cares for, instead of submitting to that fate. The relationship between the Patternists and the Mutes also falls under the umbrella of this theme. It is frowned upon to use violence against Mutes since they are considered to be fragile and defenseless against the Patternists, but should we see this as an act of kindness? Why submit the Mutes to a life of servitude in the first place? One can easily see how this type of thinking is present in our non-fictitious world.
The atmosphere is bleak and cynical, and although the book doesn't really have much graphic violence, it does have psychological power struggles that can weigh heavy on the reader. The dirty power games Coransee plays against Teray can be potentially difficult to read, and the abuse of power always present in the book can be unnerving. This isn't an action packed plot heavy book, but a contemplative and atmospheric one. So if one's in the mood to dive into this atmosphere and contemplate the social issues brought up here, this book is worth the read. I recommend people to start with this book, because based on many people's reviews, they were disappointed with this installment after having read the books that are chronologically set before this one. I can understand why, because I found the ending to be a bit underwhelming and rushed, but it didn't bother me because this book didn't serve as the series finale for me, but if it had, I would have been greatly frustrated.
I'm looking forward to reading the next installments of this series. I will be reading them in publication order, and the next books are prequels to this one, so this would be a unique case where the story and the world would develop as we move further back in time. I'm giving this a 3.75; it is a nice book when it comes to the thematic explorations and the atmosphere, but not so interesting when it comes to the plot itself. It was an intellectually satisfying read however, which is why I'm rounding it up to 4 stars.
"A long leash is still a leash."
----------------------------------
You can also read my thoughts on:
#2. Mind of My Mind (Patternmaster, #2) by Octavia E. Butler.
----------------------------------
The world is no longer controlled by what we would call normal humans. These humans have left their glorious days in the past, and the large and once bustling cities full of skyscrapers are now ancient ruins that mark what once was. Instead, the world is dominated by a specific subset of humans who possess psychic powers. These people are called the Patternists, and they use their mind-control abilities to subdue other creatures and bend them to their will. One person, the Patternmaster, a man named Rayal, is superior to all of them, having control over this psychic net. However, the Patternmaster is dying, which means that one of his hundreds of children will have to replace him. This story follows two brothers who are the most powerful of these children and stand the highest chance of becoming the next Patternmaster. The older brother, Coransee, who already has a lot of power and status, is the obvious candidate, but when his younger brother, Teray, reveals himself as a potential threat, Coransee does everything in his power to subdue him, but Teray is not one to be easily broken.
This is Octavia Butler's debut novel, and interestingly enough, this book, despite being the first book of the Patternmaster series to be published, is chronologically the final book in the story. That's why a lot of people actually start off with the book that comes first chronologically, and end up reading this book at the end. I chose not to do this because I knew that if I would have been inevitably disappointed, since as a debut novel, I was sure this book would have been underwhelming compared to the other ones, where Octavia Butler had more experience as a writer. I'm definitely glad I made this choice. Reading this as the first book in the series, despite it being the last one chronologically, does a good job in building the world Octavia Butler wants us to explore. In this universe, social laws are different. They seem to be an extreme form of ancient Turkish/Arab/oriental culture, where each Patternist owns a "House", where he reigns supreme, and has the right to sleep with any woman (and technically, also man) who is part of that House. Everyone in that house would exist to serve him. As for the "normal" humans who don't possess these psychic powers, they're classified as "Mutes" and are treated as vulnerable servants to the Patternists. We also have another group of people, called the Clayarks, who seem to be a sort of mutated subspecies of humans, who don't have the same powers the Patternists do, but have enhanced combat abilities. The Clayarks are nomadic and are openly hostile to the Patternists, and seek to infect them with a sort of disease that they carry, which the Patternists are vulnerable to.
As we can see, the world is a nicely complex one. The themes of power dynamics and slavery seem to be strongly present in this book. We see this first and foremost between the two brothers, Coransee and Teray. Coransee is obviously threatened by Teray's potential, and tries to break him in every way possible, through brute psychic and physical force, and through social humiliation. Coransee doesn't hesitate to use his social privileges to bring Teray down, such as becoming sexually intimate with Teray's love interests, with or without their consent. Teray is faced with the difficult choice of either becoming Coransee's slave, having limited freedom and being forced to follow his orders and live a demeaning life, or to live a free life, even becoming the future owner of Coransee's House when Coransee takes his spot as the new Patternmaster, with the cost of giving Coransee full mental control over him. Coransee claims that he would never truly interfere in Teray's life, and would only do so if Teray ever chose to rebel against him. This leads to another freedom related theme in this book. Is life worth living, when one knows that they are not truly free, and are simply allowed to exercise their liberties? Teray fights against this notion, and prefers risking his own life and the lives of the people he cares for, instead of submitting to that fate. The relationship between the Patternists and the Mutes also falls under the umbrella of this theme. It is frowned upon to use violence against Mutes since they are considered to be fragile and defenseless against the Patternists, but should we see this as an act of kindness? Why submit the Mutes to a life of servitude in the first place? One can easily see how this type of thinking is present in our non-fictitious world.
The atmosphere is bleak and cynical, and although the book doesn't really have much graphic violence, it does have psychological power struggles that can weigh heavy on the reader. The dirty power games Coransee plays against Teray can be potentially difficult to read, and the abuse of power always present in the book can be unnerving. This isn't an action packed plot heavy book, but a contemplative and atmospheric one. So if one's in the mood to dive into this atmosphere and contemplate the social issues brought up here, this book is worth the read. I recommend people to start with this book, because based on many people's reviews, they were disappointed with this installment after having read the books that are chronologically set before this one. I can understand why, because I found the ending to be a bit underwhelming and rushed, but it didn't bother me because this book didn't serve as the series finale for me, but if it had, I would have been greatly frustrated.
I'm looking forward to reading the next installments of this series. I will be reading them in publication order, and the next books are prequels to this one, so this would be a unique case where the story and the world would develop as we move further back in time. I'm giving this a 3.75; it is a nice book when it comes to the thematic explorations and the atmosphere, but not so interesting when it comes to the plot itself. It was an intellectually satisfying read however, which is why I'm rounding it up to 4 stars.
"A long leash is still a leash."
----------------------------------
You can also read my thoughts on:
#2. Mind of My Mind (Patternmaster, #2) by Octavia E. Butler.
----------------------------------
January 14, 2025
This series is so interesting because they're almost like companion novels that inform each other. This one has a driving plot and compelling characters that bring together strands from previous books in the series. Humans are now divided into two biologically different groups in competition with each other and we follow a telepathic character determined to maintain his independence. It's a fascinating and well-written story that just feels like another installment in a series rather than a definitive conclusion. It leaves me wanting more, or at the very least wondering what might happen next.
February 28, 2025
Even though I blabbed on an on about the book and this series at book club, I finally finished it and I'm way too tired and I need to deal emotionally with the fact that I have no more official Octavia Butler books to read... But of course, I can re-read.
This one, the first she ever published, feels more awkward in the prose (I struggled a bit with comprehending on a sentence level, even if that never happened with all of the other books), but it's still damn relevant to the times we live in. Patternmaster (in chronological order) tells an interesting story that takes us from historical patriarchal times, to more liberal times (Mind of My Mind), until we get to a dystopian future where things are even worse, hierarchically. Current & relevant. The obsession in OEB worlds with reproducing made me think of the pronatalist trend. That's an essay I'd still like to write someday.
With this book, all I want to say is Amber 4Ever <3, my no-nonsense bisexual dream!
This one, the first she ever published, feels more awkward in the prose (I struggled a bit with comprehending on a sentence level, even if that never happened with all of the other books), but it's still damn relevant to the times we live in. Patternmaster (in chronological order) tells an interesting story that takes us from historical patriarchal times, to more liberal times (Mind of My Mind), until we get to a dystopian future where things are even worse, hierarchically. Current & relevant. The obsession in OEB worlds with reproducing made me think of the pronatalist trend. That's an essay I'd still like to write someday.
With this book, all I want to say is Amber 4Ever <3, my no-nonsense bisexual dream!
September 6, 2019
Patternmaster is the last volume of Ms. Butler’s classic* Patternist series (AKA “Patternmaster series�. I read this volume as part of the omnibus which consists of the entire series except for the one volume that Ms. Butler disowned and removed from publication**. Patternmaster is also her very first published novel, and of course, she makes it looks as if she has been doing it all her life. Having said that, it is not as polished as her later books.
I read vol 4 just last month and I felt that it could easily have been read as a standalone novel, a very good one too. However, for Patternmaster I feel it is best read after the preceding novels in the series, nothing strange about that until you consider that she wrote this one before the others and they are all prequels to this one. I think this is because of the meaning of the neologism in takes a while to surface whereas the other books are more immediately compelling and accessible. Still, it does become quite a wild ride once you acclimatize to it. (I have read all the previous volumes but over many years so some terms or concepts are a little sketchy in my mind).
Patternmaster is set in the far future of unspecified period where human society has changed beyond recognition. Even humanity, and what it means to be human, is vastly different. Two offshoots of humanity rule the world, “the patternists� a race of telepaths, and the “Clayarks�, humans mutated by the Clayark disease from space. There is also a race called “the mutes�, non-telepathic humans (basically us), who are subservient to the patternists, and are entirely ineffectual in the grand scheme of things. The novel focuses on the battle for supremacy between the world’s most powerful telepath and his younger, potentially more powerful brother. The Clayarks, who are not presented as individual characters, serve more like a group of antagonists bent on destroying the patternists and the mutes.
Even in her very first novel, Butler is already adept at world-building and characterization. However, none of the characters are particularly likable whereas the protagonists in her later books are people you can become attached to and root for. Nevertheless Patternmasteris fast-paced, gripping and has a climatic psychic battle that remind me of the 1981 movie . Unless I am very much mistaken I have now read all of novels now, which is a bit sad as she is one of my favorites. Fortunately, I have memory like a sieve so I can look forward to the rereads.
* Well, I like it!
**
I read vol 4 just last month and I felt that it could easily have been read as a standalone novel, a very good one too. However, for Patternmaster I feel it is best read after the preceding novels in the series, nothing strange about that until you consider that she wrote this one before the others and they are all prequels to this one. I think this is because of the meaning of the neologism in takes a while to surface whereas the other books are more immediately compelling and accessible. Still, it does become quite a wild ride once you acclimatize to it. (I have read all the previous volumes but over many years so some terms or concepts are a little sketchy in my mind).
Patternmaster is set in the far future of unspecified period where human society has changed beyond recognition. Even humanity, and what it means to be human, is vastly different. Two offshoots of humanity rule the world, “the patternists� a race of telepaths, and the “Clayarks�, humans mutated by the Clayark disease from space. There is also a race called “the mutes�, non-telepathic humans (basically us), who are subservient to the patternists, and are entirely ineffectual in the grand scheme of things. The novel focuses on the battle for supremacy between the world’s most powerful telepath and his younger, potentially more powerful brother. The Clayarks, who are not presented as individual characters, serve more like a group of antagonists bent on destroying the patternists and the mutes.
Even in her very first novel, Butler is already adept at world-building and characterization. However, none of the characters are particularly likable whereas the protagonists in her later books are people you can become attached to and root for. Nevertheless Patternmasteris fast-paced, gripping and has a climatic psychic battle that remind me of the 1981 movie . Unless I am very much mistaken I have now read all of novels now, which is a bit sad as she is one of my favorites. Fortunately, I have memory like a sieve so I can look forward to the rereads.
* Well, I like it!
**
December 13, 2023
A joyless tale of generational domination
Patternmaster is the fourth and final book in the Patternmaster series and I can say that while I didn’t exactly enjoy this series, I’m certainly glad I read it and can say it is wholly unique and worth your time. Every book of this series is very different in setting and plot but they all cluster around the same themes: domination politics, patriarchy and eugenics. These themes are then weaved into a very sci-fi tale that spans thousands of years beginning in the 1700s in the fist book Wild Seed and ending thousands of years in a bizarre post-apocalyptical future in Patternmaster.
Minor spoilies ahead
These books are about a society of human beings with special telepathic and telekinetic abilities that have been bred to unleash their potential over many generations by a demigod in the prior books. The second installment Mind of My Mind was a masterful tale about subversion of the power dynamic that results in a new type of human being that fundamentally changes and later controls society. What I found both interesting and depressing is that these same power dynamics are playing out thousands of years later in a brutal and autocratic mind regime in this book. I found Patternmaster really compelling with great main characters Teray and Amber. I also really enjoyed how this story dovetailed with what happened in Clay’s Ark, a book I found really hard to read because it was so unenjoyable. Despite the convergence of the plot lines, I was left feeling that the entire tale was kind of arbitrary because it seems that nothing has changed in human politics despite fundamental changes in human ability. This was a very depressing conclusion but nevertheless poignant.
I overall recommend this series but don’t expect to exactly enjoy it. The sci fi concepts, setting, characters and prose is really top notch but I can’t help to just kind of be bummed out after reading all this.
P.S. I read this series in chronological order, not publication order and it worked for me.
Patternmaster is the fourth and final book in the Patternmaster series and I can say that while I didn’t exactly enjoy this series, I’m certainly glad I read it and can say it is wholly unique and worth your time. Every book of this series is very different in setting and plot but they all cluster around the same themes: domination politics, patriarchy and eugenics. These themes are then weaved into a very sci-fi tale that spans thousands of years beginning in the 1700s in the fist book Wild Seed and ending thousands of years in a bizarre post-apocalyptical future in Patternmaster.
Minor spoilies ahead
These books are about a society of human beings with special telepathic and telekinetic abilities that have been bred to unleash their potential over many generations by a demigod in the prior books. The second installment Mind of My Mind was a masterful tale about subversion of the power dynamic that results in a new type of human being that fundamentally changes and later controls society. What I found both interesting and depressing is that these same power dynamics are playing out thousands of years later in a brutal and autocratic mind regime in this book. I found Patternmaster really compelling with great main characters Teray and Amber. I also really enjoyed how this story dovetailed with what happened in Clay’s Ark, a book I found really hard to read because it was so unenjoyable. Despite the convergence of the plot lines, I was left feeling that the entire tale was kind of arbitrary because it seems that nothing has changed in human politics despite fundamental changes in human ability. This was a very depressing conclusion but nevertheless poignant.
I overall recommend this series but don’t expect to exactly enjoy it. The sci fi concepts, setting, characters and prose is really top notch but I can’t help to just kind of be bummed out after reading all this.
P.S. I read this series in chronological order, not publication order and it worked for me.
April 8, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Within Butler's own work it would be 3 stars, but compared to other authors that I rated this is a 4.
I started the Patternmaster series with this chronological last book, because it was published first. I had the feeling that it would be best to read the volumes as they were written, and in hindsight this was a good decision.
On its own "Patternmaster" is a good sf novel with a fascinating worldbuilding and a social development of humankind that gives food for thought. If I would have it read as the last part of the series I think my impression would have been less favourable, because in psychological intensity and storytelling it is an anticlimax to the chronological first parts.
I learned that "Patternmaster" was Butler's first published novel. It already has the strong topic of selfdetermination and the lack thereof, which makes all of her works, I read so far, special and uncomfortable. And compared to first works of some modern authors I read in the last months, this one is miles ahead.
Butler shines even in her earliest writings.
Within Butler's own work it would be 3 stars, but compared to other authors that I rated this is a 4.
I started the Patternmaster series with this chronological last book, because it was published first. I had the feeling that it would be best to read the volumes as they were written, and in hindsight this was a good decision.
On its own "Patternmaster" is a good sf novel with a fascinating worldbuilding and a social development of humankind that gives food for thought. If I would have it read as the last part of the series I think my impression would have been less favourable, because in psychological intensity and storytelling it is an anticlimax to the chronological first parts.
I learned that "Patternmaster" was Butler's first published novel. It already has the strong topic of selfdetermination and the lack thereof, which makes all of her works, I read so far, special and uncomfortable. And compared to first works of some modern authors I read in the last months, this one is miles ahead.
Butler shines even in her earliest writings.
February 7, 2020
Alright, miss Butler, I’ve had my fill of this particular universe. If I never read a book about mind control, sexual coercion, violence, rape and incest again I shall be very happy.
January 29, 2011
is one of a kind. She is a black feminist science fiction writer and the protege of the great and bizarre Harlan Ellison. She was the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur "genius" grant, which she was awarded in 1995 for pushing the boundaries of her field.
I was intrigued after noticing in the science fiction section of the library. "This must be miscatalogued," I thought, "Because it has a picture of a black woman on the cover, rather than a unicorn or spaceship. And she's not even in a steel bikini." The synopsis of the book intrigued me, and I never forgot it, because a year or two later, I took it and home and read them.
My ex-boyfriend also read them, and immediately implored me to bring home more Octavia Butler, which he plowed through at an alarming rate. She became his favorite author, and he went so far as to name his cat after her.
was Butler's first book, the one she started to write when she was 10 years old after seeing a horrible science fiction movie on TV and deciding that she could do better.
The book is about a psychic race, people who are connected by an enormous, complex mental web that links each and every "patternist." At the center of the web is the Patternmaster, a powerful man with amazing psychic powers.
The Patternmaster, Rayal, is close to death, and this book is the tale of the conflict between two of his many sons over who will succeed Rayal and become the new Patternmaster. Coransee is the older brother and a powerful Housemaster, and is the stronger of the two brothers. He is also calculating and evil. The other brother, Teray, a young man just out of school, is not evil but is significantly weaker than his brother. He is forced by Coransee's cunning tricks to toil as a lowly servant on his estate.
ALong with Coransee's powerful healer, Amber, Teray escapes from Coransee's house and heads to Forsyth in seek of sanctuary from the Patternmaster. As they navigate the treacherous landscape together, they are in constant danger from Clayarks (an enemy species of mutant humans) and Coransee's search party. Will Teray and Amber make it to Forsyth before Coransee catches up with them? Will Coransee succeed in his evil plan to take over the Pattern?
While reading this book, it was obvious to me that this was a first attempt. It was nowhere near as polished or interesting as Kindred or Bloodchild. The story didn't really grab me, and if it was not so short and quick I might not have even finished it. She could have been more thorough with the characterization, and I would have been interested to learn more about their society. There is obviously more to the story than could fit in a scant 200 pages, and it shows.
As this is not one of her more amazing books, a reader new to Butler should definitely start elsewhere. or would surely be a better introduction to this amazing author.
I was intrigued after noticing in the science fiction section of the library. "This must be miscatalogued," I thought, "Because it has a picture of a black woman on the cover, rather than a unicorn or spaceship. And she's not even in a steel bikini." The synopsis of the book intrigued me, and I never forgot it, because a year or two later, I took it and home and read them.
My ex-boyfriend also read them, and immediately implored me to bring home more Octavia Butler, which he plowed through at an alarming rate. She became his favorite author, and he went so far as to name his cat after her.
was Butler's first book, the one she started to write when she was 10 years old after seeing a horrible science fiction movie on TV and deciding that she could do better.
The book is about a psychic race, people who are connected by an enormous, complex mental web that links each and every "patternist." At the center of the web is the Patternmaster, a powerful man with amazing psychic powers.
The Patternmaster, Rayal, is close to death, and this book is the tale of the conflict between two of his many sons over who will succeed Rayal and become the new Patternmaster. Coransee is the older brother and a powerful Housemaster, and is the stronger of the two brothers. He is also calculating and evil. The other brother, Teray, a young man just out of school, is not evil but is significantly weaker than his brother. He is forced by Coransee's cunning tricks to toil as a lowly servant on his estate.
ALong with Coransee's powerful healer, Amber, Teray escapes from Coransee's house and heads to Forsyth in seek of sanctuary from the Patternmaster. As they navigate the treacherous landscape together, they are in constant danger from Clayarks (an enemy species of mutant humans) and Coransee's search party. Will Teray and Amber make it to Forsyth before Coransee catches up with them? Will Coransee succeed in his evil plan to take over the Pattern?
While reading this book, it was obvious to me that this was a first attempt. It was nowhere near as polished or interesting as Kindred or Bloodchild. The story didn't really grab me, and if it was not so short and quick I might not have even finished it. She could have been more thorough with the characterization, and I would have been interested to learn more about their society. There is obviously more to the story than could fit in a scant 200 pages, and it shows.
As this is not one of her more amazing books, a reader new to Butler should definitely start elsewhere. or would surely be a better introduction to this amazing author.
April 27, 2023
2.5 stars. There were too many holes and questions for me to move this even into the 3-star "good" category. This was the debut novel from award-winning Sci-Fi author, Octavia Butler and the second novel I have read by her (Kindred, which I loved) & neither would I place fully into the Sci-Fi category. This one has a strong foothold in the dystopian category. I saw after I got this from the library that even though it was her first published work, it became #4 of a series, so hopefully these prequels answer some of my questions or have a more robust development of the world in which her stories are set.
The story itself is a mix of royal intrigue with all its manipulations and an escapist survival adventure story.
The world-building is not strong other than seeing the class distinctions among the groups: 1) the powerful Patternists who had been selectively bred for mental strength and can link with each other within a psychic network- the Pattern. However, there can be only one who is the Patternmaster, one who can control the Pattern and those linked in. Fights to the death often occur to obtain that position. There are divisions of power within the Patternists class as well.
2) The next class are the "mutes" who appear to be normal humans without the ability to link to the Pattern and are subservient to the Patternists. Basically slaves.
3) Subhuman Clayarks who carry some disease and are the enemies of the Patternists & Mutes. What kind of disease and what does it do to the other groups if infected?
There is Sci-Fi content such as the selective breeding program & the Pattern itself. How did it come about? It wasn't like "the Force" of Star Wars- a channeling of the energy of nature. And not only does it link people together telepathically and empathically but can be used to inflict great harm and death through some type of mental imaging.
The different classes is a great set-up for more exposition of the inequalities amongst them and the moral implications of this dynamic. It would have given the novel more depth.
The story itself is a mix of royal intrigue with all its manipulations and an escapist survival adventure story.
The world-building is not strong other than seeing the class distinctions among the groups: 1) the powerful Patternists who had been selectively bred for mental strength and can link with each other within a psychic network- the Pattern. However, there can be only one who is the Patternmaster, one who can control the Pattern and those linked in. Fights to the death often occur to obtain that position. There are divisions of power within the Patternists class as well.
2) The next class are the "mutes" who appear to be normal humans without the ability to link to the Pattern and are subservient to the Patternists. Basically slaves.
3) Subhuman Clayarks who carry some disease and are the enemies of the Patternists & Mutes. What kind of disease and what does it do to the other groups if infected?
There is Sci-Fi content such as the selective breeding program & the Pattern itself. How did it come about? It wasn't like "the Force" of Star Wars- a channeling of the energy of nature. And not only does it link people together telepathically and empathically but can be used to inflict great harm and death through some type of mental imaging.
The different classes is a great set-up for more exposition of the inequalities amongst them and the moral implications of this dynamic. It would have given the novel more depth.
May 20, 2021
Review from 2021 reread:
I'd give this 4 Stars. Maybe 4 25
Well what a difference a year makes i guess???? This is one of the few OEB novels I've only read a few times. The others are practically worn out in hard copies and well read in digital copies. I reread Butler much more often than I count on ŷ.🤷🏾♀�
Anyway recently I decided to read her novels in order of publication instead of from beginning to end of series.
I was surprised to see this listed as her first novel. For some reason I had been sure that Survivor/Alanna was her first novel.
I liked this. I can see shades of the powerhouse her novels will become in later published novels.
This story contains a really nice portrayal of bisexuality especially for the time period in which it was written and not treated in a salacious way.
I like how sexism is handled in ways that feel both realistic and relatable.
Well done
Review from 2020 reread:
Next to Survivor this is my least favorite Butler novel. Because this was written before Mind of My Mind it feels like a major let down but in fact it's just earlier work.
I'd give this 4 Stars. Maybe 4 25
Well what a difference a year makes i guess???? This is one of the few OEB novels I've only read a few times. The others are practically worn out in hard copies and well read in digital copies. I reread Butler much more often than I count on ŷ.🤷🏾♀�
Anyway recently I decided to read her novels in order of publication instead of from beginning to end of series.
I was surprised to see this listed as her first novel. For some reason I had been sure that Survivor/Alanna was her first novel.
I liked this. I can see shades of the powerhouse her novels will become in later published novels.
This story contains a really nice portrayal of bisexuality especially for the time period in which it was written and not treated in a salacious way.
I like how sexism is handled in ways that feel both realistic and relatable.
Well done
Review from 2020 reread:
Next to Survivor this is my least favorite Butler novel. Because this was written before Mind of My Mind it feels like a major let down but in fact it's just earlier work.
August 30, 2021
Actual Rating: 3.5/5
This is probably my least favorite book in the series although I do still find it good and interesting to think about. I think part of the issue is that a driving force while I read all the other books was figuring out where we are going and I wasn't very impressed with the story told in this one, but I did like seeing all the pieces that we learned about in the many prequel sequels. There was a lot of good but I think an only ok plot and rush character relationship development (that has been a consistent complaint for me in the series) made it a good read but nothing amazing.
This is probably my least favorite book in the series although I do still find it good and interesting to think about. I think part of the issue is that a driving force while I read all the other books was figuring out where we are going and I wasn't very impressed with the story told in this one, but I did like seeing all the pieces that we learned about in the many prequel sequels. There was a lot of good but I think an only ok plot and rush character relationship development (that has been a consistent complaint for me in the series) made it a good read but nothing amazing.
January 10, 2021
the final book in the patternist series, it did not disappoint. i’m so glad i read the books in chronological order (as opposed to the order in which they were written). thanks, alex kats-rubin, for that pro-tip.
everything in this universe now fully makes sense because i see how the details in mind of my mind and clay’s ark all cohere. this book, which is about conflict on earth between essentially alien-infected-super-human-animals and humans who have intense telepathic power, brings up all of butler’s favorite subjects. slavery, empathy, the power of the individual and the collective to shape destiny, relationship to planet, and more. this is the only butler book i’ve read so far where the protagonist is a male� must have been early in her writing career. anyway, as always, there were several moments in the reading of this book where i audibly yelped or was trembling because she writes scenes so powerfully. i am beginning to pick up on the gentle ways she slows down the action of a section, usually with description, right before some crazy shit happens.
love it. love it all. can’t wait to read all her stuff.
everything in this universe now fully makes sense because i see how the details in mind of my mind and clay’s ark all cohere. this book, which is about conflict on earth between essentially alien-infected-super-human-animals and humans who have intense telepathic power, brings up all of butler’s favorite subjects. slavery, empathy, the power of the individual and the collective to shape destiny, relationship to planet, and more. this is the only butler book i’ve read so far where the protagonist is a male� must have been early in her writing career. anyway, as always, there were several moments in the reading of this book where i audibly yelped or was trembling because she writes scenes so powerfully. i am beginning to pick up on the gentle ways she slows down the action of a section, usually with description, right before some crazy shit happens.
love it. love it all. can’t wait to read all her stuff.
January 8, 2013
The premise of all the books in this series was fascinating. I read them in their story order, as opposed to the order in which Butler wrote them (apparently Patternmaster was first, and the other three books were prequels). I found the ending of Patternmaster a little unsatisfying after so much buildup in the previous books, but this makes more sense now that I know how she actually wrote them. Fascinating stories that I will continue to think about -- the best kind of sci-fi.
October 26, 2017
I could not get my mind off this series....the connection of the stories, but I think I understand. The suggested reading order of these novels makes since to Mi now, Wildseed and Mind of my mind gives you the story of how the patternist came to be, all because of Doro. And the people from Clay's Ark and the Patternist are rivals and these two different stories are actually happening at the sametime, in the same world. I think it's a brilliant concept, if I'm right of course.
August 1, 2024
3 out of 5 stars. A weak ending to the Patternist series, but still a good a read.
Quick reminder: 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's Ark (set in a futuristic dystopia of 2021), 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.
Centuries after the grim finale of , modern society has long collapsed. The world is divided into three species, all of them apart of humanity in one form or another: the all-powerful and psychic Patternists, the many descendants of Doro; the sphinx0like and feral Clayarks, descendants of the depraved and mutated members of Eli's community in Clay's Ark, who brought back a parasite from space; and the mutes, called so because they have no special abilities whatsoever. The Patternists are now the most prominent population on Earth and have built their own societies with a sort of caste system that they rule over each other and the mutes. Everyday they face threats from the Clayarks who live out in the wilderness. In fact, it is the Clayarks' act of violence which kicks off the story.
Rayal is the Patternmaster, the most powerful of the Patternists who rules over all. He has had many wives, including his own sister Jansee (still follow in Doro and Eli's footsteps, I see), and thus many children. In the prologue, Rayal and Jansee are attacked at night in their home by the Clayarks, resulting in Jansee's rather gruesome death. Rayal survives, but he has a long road to recovery. He realizes his time is at an end. The right of succession is pinned upon the two sons he had with Jansee, Coransee and Teray. Coransee already has many servants and a great psionic powers, but Teray is fresh out of his education as a Patternist. Coransee is a cruel man who vies for the Pattern wielded by his father and to control the lives of Teray and those around him. Teray must deal with Coransee and inherit the Pattern from Rayal, and he promises to be nothing like his brother. Or will he?
Obviously, it depends on what order you read the Patternist series in, but as I said above, Patternmaster is a good book just that it is probably the weakest out of the series. It was Octavia Butler's debut and rarely is a debut 100% perfect. The writing is much weaker here. Not awful or unreadable, but if you read the other books in the series you can feel and see that Butler has a tighter structure going on. There's more telling than showing going here, which, again, doesn't maker the book unreadable or horrible. Besides that Patternmaster's prose is still very readable and accessible. It also has some fast pacing, akin to what had--which is one of the best sci-fi sequels ever written, by the way. I have some other critiques as well. First, the climax, the final showdown between Coransee and Teray that I had been waiting throughout the entire book, was over just as quickly as I started. Granted, Butler was never one for dynamic action sequences in this series--the most intense we ever got was in when Doro's daughter killed Anyanwu's husband and then accidentally killed herself--and anyone reading or planning to read this series should bear in mind that just because it is about psychics doesn't mean you're reading a Marvel comic. This is not a series where the characters use superpowers in action sequences. It's a series about the control and desires that come with those psionic abilities and their eventual consequences on the rest of the world after one of the most domineering wielders of those abilities shapes an entire legacy with and around them.
Anyway, the second issue I had is that ending just, well, ends. Of course it all depends on what order you read the series in, but after reading all the other previous books, Patternmaster ends, albeit a bit more hopefully than the rest, in kind of a dull way. It almost like Butler was like, "Well, that's it." But again, this is the first book ever written. Had I read this in publication order or any other different order, I might've felt differently.
My third criticism is in relation to the ending. All of these books are of fair length. They are not overly long and thanks to the pacing they do not overstay their welcome. That being said, I think Patternmaster could've had a slightly longer, more conclusive ending.
What Patternmaster does achieve though is how much the world has changed within its setting and timeline and the subtle commentaries Butler weaves in.
The shadows of both Doro and Eli, two men who sought to increase the numbers of their heritage, both for different reasons and in different ways, can still be felt in this book, which, may I remind, is the last point in the chronology. Doro and his daughter Mary from Mind of My Mind are also reference to. The entire world is the way it is because both of their eugenicist plan with their lineages. And it's ultimately a not very good thing. The Patternist have almost completely gone back to what Doro initially did. They are not creating more descendants, but they have used their abilities to rule over others, even themselves. Although, it should be reminded that Rayal has had many children himself and the two he sought as his potential heirs were the ones he had with his biological sister, but as far as we know he is the only one still doing this. It might be implying that this is something that the Patternmaster can and must do. The Patternist society, as I said before, clearly is one with a caste system and it seems patriarchal in some areas. Mutes are complete servants to the Patternists, however, Patternists who aren't very strong or are on the furthest edges of the Pattern or mental links with their Housemasters are also lower on the totem poles. The Housemasters also keep a multitude of wives if they wish and they decide when and where those wives must bed with them. And the Housemasters can take Mute servants and wives from other Patternists; this happens to Teray when Coransee takes his wife Iray near the book's beginning.
There's one female character who is able to resist this control for some time and she's one of the best characters of the book. Amber is a healer who initially lives under Coransee, but he does not have complete control over her because her great powers as a healer. When she first meets Teray, she gives him a run for his money, but they eventually become friends and eventually lovers. Their relationship together was great and I really do just love how Amber stood her ground and didn't take any of these men's shit. Additionally, Amber is bisexual, something I did not expect and greatly appreciated, and Butler handled her bisexuality very well. Apart of her being bisexual is the reason why she's initially under Coransee's house in the first place, but that part shows that the Patternist society is also heteronormative and queerphobic as well, but this element isn't as focused on. At the end of the day, women, particularly Black women like Amber, are still getting shafted in this far future society. I should clarify that this book isn't a detailed deconstruction of sociological matters, but Butler still shows us the inner machinations of a society still bent on control.
What makes this strict society all the more tragic once again goes back not only to Doro, but to Anyanwu and Mary as well. If you've read Mind of My Mind, then you remember that Doro was originally an ancient Nubian boy, but switched bodies over the centuries. He eventually got involved in the Atlantic slave trades and sold off and transferred some of his descendants across the seas. In the prologue of Patternmaster, Rayal reassures Jansee that he's still in control of things, but nonetheless he has the future planned out through his sons. Coransee constantly controls and manipulates everything throughout the course of the book. Teray tries not to be like Coransee, and although he's never as cruel as him, he does end up forcing his psychic control over other Patternists and the Mutes and bed several woman. Doro's plan and legacy has been achieved, even though Mary killed him all those centuries ago. Anyanwu tried to stop or at least fight against Doro in Wild Seed for so long, but eventually she succumbed to him. During her struggle against him, she tried to protect both Doro's descendants and her own. Mary, after realizing what Doro was doing decided to break away from him, kill him, and keep the Pattern safe. Now, Mary wasn't a saint; even she was a bit blasé to the early Patternists' treatment of the Mutes, but she did try to undo what Doro had done. All of their efforts, both Mary and Anyanwu's, are gone. Thrown away. Doro won in the end.
And now that I think of it, maybe the ending of Patternmaster isn't as hopeful, if any at all, as I once thought. The book ends with Rayal calling Teray to Forsyth (where the Pattern began in Mind of My Mind) to inherit his abilities and responsibilities and with Amber pregnant with Teray's child. Teray will be the next Patternmaster. He already acted a little like Coransee when getting control over his own House, though not as cruel. He will need to keep up and control the Pattern and have more heirs.
Dammit...Dammit! Doro really did win.
But perhaps, after all his fights with Coransee, Teray will learn to be better. Maybe.
One can only hope.
Quick reminder: 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's Ark (set in a futuristic dystopia of 2021), 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.
Centuries after the grim finale of , modern society has long collapsed. The world is divided into three species, all of them apart of humanity in one form or another: the all-powerful and psychic Patternists, the many descendants of Doro; the sphinx0like and feral Clayarks, descendants of the depraved and mutated members of Eli's community in Clay's Ark, who brought back a parasite from space; and the mutes, called so because they have no special abilities whatsoever. The Patternists are now the most prominent population on Earth and have built their own societies with a sort of caste system that they rule over each other and the mutes. Everyday they face threats from the Clayarks who live out in the wilderness. In fact, it is the Clayarks' act of violence which kicks off the story.
Rayal is the Patternmaster, the most powerful of the Patternists who rules over all. He has had many wives, including his own sister Jansee (still follow in Doro and Eli's footsteps, I see), and thus many children. In the prologue, Rayal and Jansee are attacked at night in their home by the Clayarks, resulting in Jansee's rather gruesome death. Rayal survives, but he has a long road to recovery. He realizes his time is at an end. The right of succession is pinned upon the two sons he had with Jansee, Coransee and Teray. Coransee already has many servants and a great psionic powers, but Teray is fresh out of his education as a Patternist. Coransee is a cruel man who vies for the Pattern wielded by his father and to control the lives of Teray and those around him. Teray must deal with Coransee and inherit the Pattern from Rayal, and he promises to be nothing like his brother. Or will he?
Obviously, it depends on what order you read the Patternist series in, but as I said above, Patternmaster is a good book just that it is probably the weakest out of the series. It was Octavia Butler's debut and rarely is a debut 100% perfect. The writing is much weaker here. Not awful or unreadable, but if you read the other books in the series you can feel and see that Butler has a tighter structure going on. There's more telling than showing going here, which, again, doesn't maker the book unreadable or horrible. Besides that Patternmaster's prose is still very readable and accessible. It also has some fast pacing, akin to what had--which is one of the best sci-fi sequels ever written, by the way. I have some other critiques as well. First, the climax, the final showdown between Coransee and Teray that I had been waiting throughout the entire book, was over just as quickly as I started. Granted, Butler was never one for dynamic action sequences in this series--the most intense we ever got was in when Doro's daughter killed Anyanwu's husband and then accidentally killed herself--and anyone reading or planning to read this series should bear in mind that just because it is about psychics doesn't mean you're reading a Marvel comic. This is not a series where the characters use superpowers in action sequences. It's a series about the control and desires that come with those psionic abilities and their eventual consequences on the rest of the world after one of the most domineering wielders of those abilities shapes an entire legacy with and around them.
Anyway, the second issue I had is that ending just, well, ends. Of course it all depends on what order you read the series in, but after reading all the other previous books, Patternmaster ends, albeit a bit more hopefully than the rest, in kind of a dull way. It almost like Butler was like, "Well, that's it." But again, this is the first book ever written. Had I read this in publication order or any other different order, I might've felt differently.
My third criticism is in relation to the ending. All of these books are of fair length. They are not overly long and thanks to the pacing they do not overstay their welcome. That being said, I think Patternmaster could've had a slightly longer, more conclusive ending.
What Patternmaster does achieve though is how much the world has changed within its setting and timeline and the subtle commentaries Butler weaves in.
The shadows of both Doro and Eli, two men who sought to increase the numbers of their heritage, both for different reasons and in different ways, can still be felt in this book, which, may I remind, is the last point in the chronology. Doro and his daughter Mary from Mind of My Mind are also reference to. The entire world is the way it is because both of their eugenicist plan with their lineages. And it's ultimately a not very good thing. The Patternist have almost completely gone back to what Doro initially did. They are not creating more descendants, but they have used their abilities to rule over others, even themselves. Although, it should be reminded that Rayal has had many children himself and the two he sought as his potential heirs were the ones he had with his biological sister, but as far as we know he is the only one still doing this. It might be implying that this is something that the Patternmaster can and must do. The Patternist society, as I said before, clearly is one with a caste system and it seems patriarchal in some areas. Mutes are complete servants to the Patternists, however, Patternists who aren't very strong or are on the furthest edges of the Pattern or mental links with their Housemasters are also lower on the totem poles. The Housemasters also keep a multitude of wives if they wish and they decide when and where those wives must bed with them. And the Housemasters can take Mute servants and wives from other Patternists; this happens to Teray when Coransee takes his wife Iray near the book's beginning.
There's one female character who is able to resist this control for some time and she's one of the best characters of the book. Amber is a healer who initially lives under Coransee, but he does not have complete control over her because her great powers as a healer. When she first meets Teray, she gives him a run for his money, but they eventually become friends and eventually lovers. Their relationship together was great and I really do just love how Amber stood her ground and didn't take any of these men's shit. Additionally, Amber is bisexual, something I did not expect and greatly appreciated, and Butler handled her bisexuality very well. Apart of her being bisexual is the reason why she's initially under Coransee's house in the first place, but that part shows that the Patternist society is also heteronormative and queerphobic as well, but this element isn't as focused on. At the end of the day, women, particularly Black women like Amber, are still getting shafted in this far future society. I should clarify that this book isn't a detailed deconstruction of sociological matters, but Butler still shows us the inner machinations of a society still bent on control.
What makes this strict society all the more tragic once again goes back not only to Doro, but to Anyanwu and Mary as well. If you've read Mind of My Mind, then you remember that Doro was originally an ancient Nubian boy, but switched bodies over the centuries. He eventually got involved in the Atlantic slave trades and sold off and transferred some of his descendants across the seas. In the prologue of Patternmaster, Rayal reassures Jansee that he's still in control of things, but nonetheless he has the future planned out through his sons. Coransee constantly controls and manipulates everything throughout the course of the book. Teray tries not to be like Coransee, and although he's never as cruel as him, he does end up forcing his psychic control over other Patternists and the Mutes and bed several woman. Doro's plan and legacy has been achieved, even though Mary killed him all those centuries ago. Anyanwu tried to stop or at least fight against Doro in Wild Seed for so long, but eventually she succumbed to him. During her struggle against him, she tried to protect both Doro's descendants and her own. Mary, after realizing what Doro was doing decided to break away from him, kill him, and keep the Pattern safe. Now, Mary wasn't a saint; even she was a bit blasé to the early Patternists' treatment of the Mutes, but she did try to undo what Doro had done. All of their efforts, both Mary and Anyanwu's, are gone. Thrown away. Doro won in the end.
And now that I think of it, maybe the ending of Patternmaster isn't as hopeful, if any at all, as I once thought. The book ends with Rayal calling Teray to Forsyth (where the Pattern began in Mind of My Mind) to inherit his abilities and responsibilities and with Amber pregnant with Teray's child. Teray will be the next Patternmaster. He already acted a little like Coransee when getting control over his own House, though not as cruel. He will need to keep up and control the Pattern and have more heirs.
Dammit...Dammit! Doro really did win.
But perhaps, after all his fights with Coransee, Teray will learn to be better. Maybe.
One can only hope.
December 10, 2019
Now that I have finished this book, I have officially read every novel Octavia Butler wrote and published in her short and beautiful lifetime, and am now truly at a loss for what I should even do with my life. I mean, obviously I am going to now seek out her short stories, essays, interviews, and posthumously published work, but as a super fan I still cannot help but feel sad and empty inside.
My dramatic and nonsensical whining aside (sorry, this is a terrible way to start off a “review�), Patternmaster is a great narrative conclusion to Butler’s Patternist series. Even though it was technically the first novel of the series that was published (her debut novel at that), I would argue that the Patternist books should be read in order of narrative to have the greatest impact. This flows as, 1. , 2. , 3. , 4. , and 5. .
Patternmaster opens at the height of the tension between with the telepathic Patternists and the mutated Claryarks—leaving earth’s landscape dramatically changed. Each of these groups are the outcome of a quasi-divergent evolution of the human species, resulting in not just different cultures and religions, but different biological adaptations that challenge what it means to even be “human� in the first place.
The story follows the coming-of-age of Teray, a young man caught up in the power struggle for succession and ascendance as ruler of the Patternists—the coveted role of Patternmaster. I cannot say Teray is a terribly memorable character like his brother-antagonist Coransee or the enigmatic Amber, but given how much exposition is needed to explain this very alien iteration of earth, he fits the bill of relatable protagonist. That said, it is the sci-fi elements and struggle between characters that make Patternmaster standout as a solid Butler novel.
Overall, this is a great story and one that I would definitely recommend.
My dramatic and nonsensical whining aside (sorry, this is a terrible way to start off a “review�), Patternmaster is a great narrative conclusion to Butler’s Patternist series. Even though it was technically the first novel of the series that was published (her debut novel at that), I would argue that the Patternist books should be read in order of narrative to have the greatest impact. This flows as, 1. , 2. , 3. , 4. , and 5. .
Patternmaster opens at the height of the tension between with the telepathic Patternists and the mutated Claryarks—leaving earth’s landscape dramatically changed. Each of these groups are the outcome of a quasi-divergent evolution of the human species, resulting in not just different cultures and religions, but different biological adaptations that challenge what it means to even be “human� in the first place.
The story follows the coming-of-age of Teray, a young man caught up in the power struggle for succession and ascendance as ruler of the Patternists—the coveted role of Patternmaster. I cannot say Teray is a terribly memorable character like his brother-antagonist Coransee or the enigmatic Amber, but given how much exposition is needed to explain this very alien iteration of earth, he fits the bill of relatable protagonist. That said, it is the sci-fi elements and struggle between characters that make Patternmaster standout as a solid Butler novel.
Overall, this is a great story and one that I would definitely recommend.
May 9, 2022
4.5/5
March 16, 2025
This is my least favorite instalment in the series, I even enjoyed / took away more from
than this one lol. I found the main character sloppy, hypocritical, and entitled, but so were the rest of the characters - not that we get a close look at a big ensemble anyway, but no one was likable in the slightest. While Doro, Mary, and even that dude from Clay's Ark had at least
some
interesting traits, none of the characters in this book did it for me. Maybe Amber. But she's stuck with that ... "man". Even the writing felt clunky at times ... Overall, I enjoyed
and
a whole lot more than this book.
October 10, 2012
Patternmaster is the last book in this series by internal chronology, but it was the first published -- in fact, Butler's first published novel -- and it shows.
There is actually a fifth book in this series, Survivor, but it's never been reprinted because Butler decided it wasn't good enough. She described it as .
...Patternmaster is her Darkover novel. The kind without lesbian separatists.
It's set in the far future, hundreds of years after the psychics joined together in their Pattern in Mind of My Mind and the disease from Clay's Ark took over the world.
The Pattern has somehow structured the Patternists into a rigid feudal society in which the feudal lords own everyone under their protection, non-psychic humans are mentally-programmed slaves, and traveling (by horseback!) from one feudal estate to another is dangerous because of the swarming packs of humans mutated by the disease.
Our hero, Teray, is a very very strong Patternist who's just out of school. He's forced into subjecting himself to a really mean feudal lord (upon which the feudal lord also takes over Teray's wife, because ... that's how things work). It turns out that the feudal lord believes himself to be the best candidate for the next Patternmaster, and wants to remove Teray from competition. And now you can guess the entire rest of the plot.
If this actually were a Darkover book and I'd been expecting all the people with surprising facial similarity who have really! tense! confrontations! in which nothing happens except a lot of glaring and flinching because they're psychic, maybe this would have been tolerable -- if only for the one really awesome character, Amber. But it wasn't, and there aren't even any interesting ideas to chew on, not compared to the other Patternist books.
What makes the rather boring premise so much worse is that I really, really hated Teray. He's selfish, entitled, and lazy. He chooses for both his wife and Amber to be hurt instead of compromising his own total independence, which he values more than anything. Then he tries to fix those hurts in ways that make it clear that he thinks of both women as his own possessions, rather than people who should have a say in their own defense. He allows terrible things to happen on his watch because he's too immature and ignorant to realize either that they could happen or that he should do anything about them. The only times he ever does anything right are when Amber makes him. Even the really mean feudal overlord thinks that Teray is kind of a jerk.
I think Butler was trying to make this a story about how the arrogant, untried youth endures adversity and grows up into a worthy person, but I don't have any real faith that he's significantly better at the end of the story. The only help is that Amber is still around (having, for some inexplicable reason -- maybe Teray is just really really cute? -- continued to like him) to continue to knock sense into him.
Either that, or Teray actually does become as good a person as someone like Teray possibly can, given the rules of his horrible, hierarchical, slavery and rape fest of a society. But if that's the case, it's too bad there wasn't either a sequel in which the Patternists get overthrown, or an epilogue about the giant asteroid that slams into North America shortly after the conclusion of the story.
There is actually a fifth book in this series, Survivor, but it's never been reprinted because Butler decided it wasn't good enough. She described it as .
...Patternmaster is her Darkover novel. The kind without lesbian separatists.
It's set in the far future, hundreds of years after the psychics joined together in their Pattern in Mind of My Mind and the disease from Clay's Ark took over the world.
The Pattern has somehow structured the Patternists into a rigid feudal society in which the feudal lords own everyone under their protection, non-psychic humans are mentally-programmed slaves, and traveling (by horseback!) from one feudal estate to another is dangerous because of the swarming packs of humans mutated by the disease.
Our hero, Teray, is a very very strong Patternist who's just out of school. He's forced into subjecting himself to a really mean feudal lord (upon which the feudal lord also takes over Teray's wife, because ... that's how things work). It turns out that the feudal lord believes himself to be the best candidate for the next Patternmaster, and wants to remove Teray from competition. And now you can guess the entire rest of the plot.
If this actually were a Darkover book and I'd been expecting all the people with surprising facial similarity who have really! tense! confrontations! in which nothing happens except a lot of glaring and flinching because they're psychic, maybe this would have been tolerable -- if only for the one really awesome character, Amber. But it wasn't, and there aren't even any interesting ideas to chew on, not compared to the other Patternist books.
What makes the rather boring premise so much worse is that I really, really hated Teray. He's selfish, entitled, and lazy. He chooses for both his wife and Amber to be hurt instead of compromising his own total independence, which he values more than anything. Then he tries to fix those hurts in ways that make it clear that he thinks of both women as his own possessions, rather than people who should have a say in their own defense. He allows terrible things to happen on his watch because he's too immature and ignorant to realize either that they could happen or that he should do anything about them. The only times he ever does anything right are when Amber makes him. Even the really mean feudal overlord thinks that Teray is kind of a jerk.
I think Butler was trying to make this a story about how the arrogant, untried youth endures adversity and grows up into a worthy person, but I don't have any real faith that he's significantly better at the end of the story. The only help is that Amber is still around (having, for some inexplicable reason -- maybe Teray is just really really cute? -- continued to like him) to continue to knock sense into him.
Either that, or Teray actually does become as good a person as someone like Teray possibly can, given the rules of his horrible, hierarchical, slavery and rape fest of a society. But if that's the case, it's too bad there wasn't either a sequel in which the Patternists get overthrown, or an epilogue about the giant asteroid that slams into North America shortly after the conclusion of the story.
February 4, 2018
3.5 stars
This will serve as a review of the series.
I read this series from Wild Seed to Patternmaster for a book club.
I really liked Wild Seed - especially Anyanwu.
Mind of My Mind was hard - Doro was so oppressive, and I didn’t know where things would go with him gone.
Clay’s Ark was a great read on its own. But it was hard to see how it would fit in.
Patternmaster resolves that, & gives some hope for Anyanwu’s descendants.
At first I thought it wouldn’t - everyone was so cutthroat & there was no higher purpose than survival. It felt like dystopian humans with superpowers - not really better than regular humans.
But in Teray & Amber’s story, we see some glimmer of hope for balance in the power struggle. Perhaps Doro & Anyanwu’s descendants have found the right combination of both of their gifts to thrive.
I do wish we understood what Doro was better when we left this. It’s crazy to think he was unique in the entire history of the universe, & none of his offspring inherited his talent.
Other than that, I’m pretty satisfied with this series. SciFi/Fantasy is NOT my regular go-to genre. But Octavia Butler has opened the door a little wider for me. I’ll be stopping in this room again before too long.
This will serve as a review of the series.
I read this series from Wild Seed to Patternmaster for a book club.
I really liked Wild Seed - especially Anyanwu.
Mind of My Mind was hard - Doro was so oppressive, and I didn’t know where things would go with him gone.
Clay’s Ark was a great read on its own. But it was hard to see how it would fit in.
Patternmaster resolves that, & gives some hope for Anyanwu’s descendants.
At first I thought it wouldn’t - everyone was so cutthroat & there was no higher purpose than survival. It felt like dystopian humans with superpowers - not really better than regular humans.
But in Teray & Amber’s story, we see some glimmer of hope for balance in the power struggle. Perhaps Doro & Anyanwu’s descendants have found the right combination of both of their gifts to thrive.
I do wish we understood what Doro was better when we left this. It’s crazy to think he was unique in the entire history of the universe, & none of his offspring inherited his talent.
Other than that, I’m pretty satisfied with this series. SciFi/Fantasy is NOT my regular go-to genre. But Octavia Butler has opened the door a little wider for me. I’ll be stopping in this room again before too long.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2021
Patternmaster concludes the Patternist series. It was the first written but the last in the collection I read, preceded by Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind and Clay's Ark. Though those books were written and published later than Patternmaster, they comprise the back stories to it. I am glad I read them in the order I did as I knew the background of the major conflict in this story.
Butler's themes of identity, race, slavery, oppression and power all come together. The "pattern" is a web of psychic connection between the special people bred by the main character in Wild Seed. These people are as combative, violent and unruly as any of the human race but they do have a mission to protect the world from the Clayarks who brought a deadly disease to Earth from outer space.
I have read a great deal of science fiction and speculative fiction but none of it is quite like that of Octavia Butler. I read this series over the past year while we have been overwhelmed by COVID. It gave me new ways to think about a pandemic and how Earth's current population is dealing with it.
I think Butler provides unique visions for me to ponder and for that I thank her.
Butler's themes of identity, race, slavery, oppression and power all come together. The "pattern" is a web of psychic connection between the special people bred by the main character in Wild Seed. These people are as combative, violent and unruly as any of the human race but they do have a mission to protect the world from the Clayarks who brought a deadly disease to Earth from outer space.
I have read a great deal of science fiction and speculative fiction but none of it is quite like that of Octavia Butler. I read this series over the past year while we have been overwhelmed by COVID. It gave me new ways to think about a pandemic and how Earth's current population is dealing with it.
I think Butler provides unique visions for me to ponder and for that I thank her.
May 10, 2018
Patternmaster was so disappointing. This is the weakest book in the series. I learned that Octavia e Butler wrote this story first, and the other books were to explain the origin of Patternmaster, a sci-fi dystopian.
I was expecting an all out war between the ClayArks and Patternist, but this was just politics. The plot moved fast, and I wasn't able to attach to any characters. I think that this book was mainly plot based and the character development was side lined.
The ClayArks were not really in this story much, so I didn't get to see how they developed mentally, which was very disappointing.
I love this world. Humans still exist, and they're called mutes because they are unable to communicate telepathicly. It was confusing at some parts, because the patternist can read each other minds. So a lot of the scenes were theoretical.
I was expecting an all out war between the ClayArks and Patternist, but this was just politics. The plot moved fast, and I wasn't able to attach to any characters. I think that this book was mainly plot based and the character development was side lined.
The ClayArks were not really in this story much, so I didn't get to see how they developed mentally, which was very disappointing.
I love this world. Humans still exist, and they're called mutes because they are unable to communicate telepathicly. It was confusing at some parts, because the patternist can read each other minds. So a lot of the scenes were theoretical.
February 19, 2025
Hm! Sloppy tired review time. A subway delay made me miss my train connection, so I finished this book with a cold, grumpy lack of leniency.
Octavia Butler writes this book so directly and with so little extravagance that it is hard for me to enjoy wriggling around any ambiguities. The power dynamics are nuanced in the sense that there are many factors and people involved, but there is no question about how totally power drives all relationships and defines the scope of all possible interactions. Teray's beloved and loving wife Iray is weaker than he and therefore his attraction to her is linked to her infantilization (a connection repeated briefly with another weak woman later). When a stronger man demands Iray, her survival strategy of pleasing him fairly quickly turns into real love; she is once again happy in submission. Teray, meanwhile, meets Amber, a woman he barely knows but who is both powerful and 'close to him in the Pattern'—that is, psychically compatible in a way chosen by the chance or fate of biology, out of their control. Their love flourishes despite neither of them particularly wanting it to, or sharing longterm goals.
As in the rest of the series, all this is playing with an uncomfortable acquiescence to unbreakable power dynamics and biological urges. Amber is the biggest exception in the whole series: a badass, independent, bisexual woman who in many ways tears an unconventional path through this fucked up society; but in the end she promises Teray, the new dictator, that she will stay close to him out of love. What an awful happy ending.
Perhaps because this is the first novel Butler published, it focuses on a patriarchal society and familiar power dynamics of men in direct, violent competition for status and women. Even Amber lacks any imagination that she might leave the system or change it: that is simply not possible in Butler's world. Amber's ambitions are simply to achieve a high-status position normally reserved for men.
Any examples of ethical behavior toward weaker people are patronizing condescension, kindness shown toward animals or good slaves. Teray understands that the underlings (we ordinary "mutes") are humans with more potential, but there's no sign that he has any ability to change society. It is literally in his DNA to seize control of the Pattern, become dictator.
As in Clay's Ark, the determinism here, the forbidding of any imagined change, makes me wonder what lessons I am supposed to learn from this, or what insights I am supposed to gain into human behavior. Right now it seems like it's saying "figure out your exact status in society and try to get laid with the person who will make your life least painful."
The most interesting element of the world is the Clayarks, an intelligent social breed of humans driven to breed and consume all resources. Or rather, the most interesting element is the interaction between the two hostile forces of Clayarks and Patternists. Two deeply troubled societies, biologically demented in different ways, are at least an inherent cauldron for imagination: neither society can fully impose its close-minded version of reality while the other lives. Sadly despite an intriguing scene in which a Clayark recognizes Teray and Teray spares their life, their interactions never again make it to words, only to a whole lot of shooting and killing.
Octavia Butler writes this book so directly and with so little extravagance that it is hard for me to enjoy wriggling around any ambiguities. The power dynamics are nuanced in the sense that there are many factors and people involved, but there is no question about how totally power drives all relationships and defines the scope of all possible interactions. Teray's beloved and loving wife Iray is weaker than he and therefore his attraction to her is linked to her infantilization (a connection repeated briefly with another weak woman later). When a stronger man demands Iray, her survival strategy of pleasing him fairly quickly turns into real love; she is once again happy in submission. Teray, meanwhile, meets Amber, a woman he barely knows but who is both powerful and 'close to him in the Pattern'—that is, psychically compatible in a way chosen by the chance or fate of biology, out of their control. Their love flourishes despite neither of them particularly wanting it to, or sharing longterm goals.
As in the rest of the series, all this is playing with an uncomfortable acquiescence to unbreakable power dynamics and biological urges. Amber is the biggest exception in the whole series: a badass, independent, bisexual woman who in many ways tears an unconventional path through this fucked up society; but in the end she promises Teray, the new dictator, that she will stay close to him out of love. What an awful happy ending.
Perhaps because this is the first novel Butler published, it focuses on a patriarchal society and familiar power dynamics of men in direct, violent competition for status and women. Even Amber lacks any imagination that she might leave the system or change it: that is simply not possible in Butler's world. Amber's ambitions are simply to achieve a high-status position normally reserved for men.
Any examples of ethical behavior toward weaker people are patronizing condescension, kindness shown toward animals or good slaves. Teray understands that the underlings (we ordinary "mutes") are humans with more potential, but there's no sign that he has any ability to change society. It is literally in his DNA to seize control of the Pattern, become dictator.
As in Clay's Ark, the determinism here, the forbidding of any imagined change, makes me wonder what lessons I am supposed to learn from this, or what insights I am supposed to gain into human behavior. Right now it seems like it's saying "figure out your exact status in society and try to get laid with the person who will make your life least painful."
The most interesting element of the world is the Clayarks, an intelligent social breed of humans driven to breed and consume all resources. Or rather, the most interesting element is the interaction between the two hostile forces of Clayarks and Patternists. Two deeply troubled societies, biologically demented in different ways, are at least an inherent cauldron for imagination: neither society can fully impose its close-minded version of reality while the other lives. Sadly despite an intriguing scene in which a Clayark recognizes Teray and Teray spares their life, their interactions never again make it to words, only to a whole lot of shooting and killing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2021
Patternmaster is book #4 in Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series, published from 1976 through 1984. I’m in the midst of reading the full series, because it’s covered in Lecture 19, “Octavia Butler and Utopian Hybridity�, from . The books were not written in the order of story chronology; Patternmaster was written first. There is some fan controversy as to whether they should be read in publication order or chronology order. The author’s legacy site () gives a third option, and I am following that. It is:
Book #1: , chronology #1, published 1980.
Book #2: , chronology #2, published 1977.
Book #3: , chronology #3, published 1984.
Book #4: Patternmaster, chronology #5, published 1976.
Book #5, out of print: , chronology #4, published 1978.
I am disappointed. My expectation, set by all three of the prior volumes, that this culmination of the series would involve some sort of ultimate human transformation, was not met. Rather, it tells of a rather mundane conflict between some powerful Patternists - future psionic lords living in a hierarchical social structure. The setting is thoroughly detached from our contemporary world, except through the transformations that took place in the prior volumes. The Patternists developed out of contemporary humanity in Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind � but are now locked into a male-dominant feudal society. The Clayarks developed out of contemporary humanity in Clay’s Ark � but are now nothing more than an animalistic threat to the protagonists of Patternmaster.
I did engage with the characters, and so it is a story well crafted, but nothing more. I suppose the weakness of this, Octavia Butler’s first novel, is the reason why some fans recommend reading in publication order rather than story order. In that way, this one would have faded in the readers� memories, and things would end on her later-written more sophisticated themes. I think Butler should have also added a final sequel to the series, that could have lived up to the promise of the prequels.
Book #1: , chronology #1, published 1980.
Book #2: , chronology #2, published 1977.
Book #3: , chronology #3, published 1984.
Book #4: Patternmaster, chronology #5, published 1976.
Book #5, out of print: , chronology #4, published 1978.
I am disappointed. My expectation, set by all three of the prior volumes, that this culmination of the series would involve some sort of ultimate human transformation, was not met. Rather, it tells of a rather mundane conflict between some powerful Patternists - future psionic lords living in a hierarchical social structure. The setting is thoroughly detached from our contemporary world, except through the transformations that took place in the prior volumes. The Patternists developed out of contemporary humanity in Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind � but are now locked into a male-dominant feudal society. The Clayarks developed out of contemporary humanity in Clay’s Ark � but are now nothing more than an animalistic threat to the protagonists of Patternmaster.
I did engage with the characters, and so it is a story well crafted, but nothing more. I suppose the weakness of this, Octavia Butler’s first novel, is the reason why some fans recommend reading in publication order rather than story order. In that way, this one would have faded in the readers� memories, and things would end on her later-written more sophisticated themes. I think Butler should have also added a final sequel to the series, that could have lived up to the promise of the prequels.
August 19, 2023
Romanzo di esordio di Octavia Butler, una delle più importanti autrici di fantascienza di tutti i tempi. Pubblicato nel 1976, dà il via al ciclo dei Patternisti con quello che poi si andrà a collocare come suo ultimo capitolo: gli altri romanzi sono tutti prequel di questo.
Io ho scelto di leggerli in ordine cronologico interno e non in ordine di pubblicazione, per cui per me Patternmaster è stato l’ultimo (scelta un po� obbligata, perché ci ho messo degli anni a recuperarne una copia).
La storia è quella di una sorta di rito di passaggio, la sfida tra i due fratelli Coransee e Teray per il controllo del Pattern. È una tragedia familiare fantasy avventurosa, nello stile di Butler.
SPOILER ALERT
È praticamente una profezia autoavverante: Coransee vuole diventare il capo del Pattern alla morte del padre, Teray non ha intenzione di sfidarlo per quel ruolo ma Coransee non si fida. Perseguita Teray in una maniera che alla fine lo induce a combatterlo e sconfiggerlo.
Ci sono già i temi e gli spunti principali del resto dell’opera di Butler, anche se alcuni sono appena accennati. Quello primario qui è il rapporto di schiavitù che si instaura tra Coransee e Teray, che diventa poi la motivazione per la rivolta di Teray. L’intero sistema dei Patternisti è basato su una rigidissima gerarchizzazione sociale, che prevede diversi tipi di sudditanza e schiavizzazione delle varie categorie umane. Il mondo futuro immaginato da Butler infatti vede gli umani “regolari�, i Mute, come schiavi dei Patternisti, che però a loro volta si schiavizzano tra loro in base a quanto sono potenti. È una specie di feudalesimo alla base del quale ci sono gli schiavi Mute.
Teray finisce per diventare un Outsider, uno schiavo del suo Lord fratello Coransee, cioè un Patternista a cui è affidata la gestione dei Mute. Questo occupa solo la prima parte del romanzo ma è forse più interessante di tutto il resto, e un po� mi è dispiaciuto quando questo pezzo di storia si è interrotto. La posizione di Teray nella casa del suo Lord è a metà: per cui da un lato Butler descrive come Teray debba temere per la sua stessa vita e come non sia libero; dall’altro verso però c’� il suo ruolo di potere relativo e il modo in cui decide di usarlo. Teray è l’eroe buono, per cui cerca di risolvere dei problemi di abuso ai danni dei suoi Mute.
Butler introduce un personaggio femminile interessante, cioè una carta matta che altera gli equilibri di potere: Amber, una potente guaritrice indipendente che diventa la mentore di Teray e poi la futura sposa. Si perde per strada invece il destino della sposa precedente, Iray, che viene assegnata al Lord Coransee quando Teray diventa schiavo (mi aspettavo venisse almeno nominata nel finale, dopo la morte di Coransee, ma la faccenda si risolve bruscamente senza più menzionarla).
Ci sono un paio di spunti che poi Butler ha sviluppato altrove, soprattutto nella trilogia della Xenogenesi, cioè il rapporto con l’alieno e la formazione di legami in situazioni di disparità di potere.
Riguardo all’alieno, in Patternmaster è del tutto assente la dimensione complessissima che Butler sviluppa in seguito, producendo alcune delle dinamiche più interessanti nella fantascienza che ho letto. Qui in Patternmaster, gli alieni Clayark sono rappresentati in modo esotico (sono dei gattoni che un po� mi fanno pensare ai personaggi di Avatar), ma sono poco umanizzati nel senso che comunque non li vediamo quasi mai. Sono presenze, ombre da combattere, e presentarli meglio credo avrebbe generato la necessità di un plot su di loro. Qui invece il focus è un altro per cui i Clayark hanno la funzione di minaccia e di carne da macello, una cosa insolita in un romanzo di Butler (infatti è il primo).
C’� un accenno a quello che vedremo poi in Butler nella scena in cui Teray uccide per la prima volta un gruppo di Clayark: esaminando i cadaveri, si rende conto che tra loro c’erano anche una madre con un bambino piccolo. Il momento sembra puntare a una maturazione successiva di un’idea di pace e integrazione, ma la cosa invece finisce lì. Il punto per i nostri eroi rimane fino alla fine fare fuori più nemici possibile per sopravvivere alla loro minaccia. Butler lavorerà molto per cambiare questa visione in pressoché tutti i romanzi successivi.
Allo stesso modo, sarà soprattutto la Xenogenesi a esplorare la questione dei rapporti creatisi in disparità di potere. Il discorso tornerà anche in Seme selvaggio (1980), a mio parere il più bello dei romanzi dei Patternisti, quello che racconta l’origine di questo potere.
Come impostazione, Patternmaster è un po� strano perché quando inizia la storia non viene spiegato nulla. Ci vuole un po� per capire la complessa divisione sociale e il ruolo che ha ciascun gruppo nominato. L’aver già letto i prequel non è troppo di aiuto, sia perché non è scontato ricordarsi tutta la saga, sia perché Butler di solito scrive dei romanzi standalone, non c’� sempre una progressione meccanica tra uno e l’altro. Patternmaster è ambientato in un futuro molto lontano rispetto all’ultimo prequel, in mezzo ci sarebbero tranquillamente stati altri due romanzi a spiegare come si è giunti alla situazione presentata qua.
Il libro non è mai stato tradotto in italiano, a differenza di tutti gli altri, però si legge tranquillamente anche in inglese. È breve, come la maggior parte dei romanzi di Butler, e scritto in modo semplice e comprensibile.
Nota: in questo romanzo scritto nel 1974, c’� una rappresentazione della bisessualità abbastanza in linea col presente. C’� proprio un siparietto tra i due personaggi principali che spiega come funziona e sfata esplicitamente lo stereotipo “bisessuale = indecisə�. È quella modalità diciamo “didattica�, di utilità sociale, che è diventata molto comune nella narrativa odierna, ma che aveva già fatto la sua apparizione in altri tempi.
Io ho scelto di leggerli in ordine cronologico interno e non in ordine di pubblicazione, per cui per me Patternmaster è stato l’ultimo (scelta un po� obbligata, perché ci ho messo degli anni a recuperarne una copia).
La storia è quella di una sorta di rito di passaggio, la sfida tra i due fratelli Coransee e Teray per il controllo del Pattern. È una tragedia familiare fantasy avventurosa, nello stile di Butler.
SPOILER ALERT
È praticamente una profezia autoavverante: Coransee vuole diventare il capo del Pattern alla morte del padre, Teray non ha intenzione di sfidarlo per quel ruolo ma Coransee non si fida. Perseguita Teray in una maniera che alla fine lo induce a combatterlo e sconfiggerlo.
Ci sono già i temi e gli spunti principali del resto dell’opera di Butler, anche se alcuni sono appena accennati. Quello primario qui è il rapporto di schiavitù che si instaura tra Coransee e Teray, che diventa poi la motivazione per la rivolta di Teray. L’intero sistema dei Patternisti è basato su una rigidissima gerarchizzazione sociale, che prevede diversi tipi di sudditanza e schiavizzazione delle varie categorie umane. Il mondo futuro immaginato da Butler infatti vede gli umani “regolari�, i Mute, come schiavi dei Patternisti, che però a loro volta si schiavizzano tra loro in base a quanto sono potenti. È una specie di feudalesimo alla base del quale ci sono gli schiavi Mute.
Teray finisce per diventare un Outsider, uno schiavo del suo Lord fratello Coransee, cioè un Patternista a cui è affidata la gestione dei Mute. Questo occupa solo la prima parte del romanzo ma è forse più interessante di tutto il resto, e un po� mi è dispiaciuto quando questo pezzo di storia si è interrotto. La posizione di Teray nella casa del suo Lord è a metà: per cui da un lato Butler descrive come Teray debba temere per la sua stessa vita e come non sia libero; dall’altro verso però c’� il suo ruolo di potere relativo e il modo in cui decide di usarlo. Teray è l’eroe buono, per cui cerca di risolvere dei problemi di abuso ai danni dei suoi Mute.
Butler introduce un personaggio femminile interessante, cioè una carta matta che altera gli equilibri di potere: Amber, una potente guaritrice indipendente che diventa la mentore di Teray e poi la futura sposa. Si perde per strada invece il destino della sposa precedente, Iray, che viene assegnata al Lord Coransee quando Teray diventa schiavo (mi aspettavo venisse almeno nominata nel finale, dopo la morte di Coransee, ma la faccenda si risolve bruscamente senza più menzionarla).
Ci sono un paio di spunti che poi Butler ha sviluppato altrove, soprattutto nella trilogia della Xenogenesi, cioè il rapporto con l’alieno e la formazione di legami in situazioni di disparità di potere.
Riguardo all’alieno, in Patternmaster è del tutto assente la dimensione complessissima che Butler sviluppa in seguito, producendo alcune delle dinamiche più interessanti nella fantascienza che ho letto. Qui in Patternmaster, gli alieni Clayark sono rappresentati in modo esotico (sono dei gattoni che un po� mi fanno pensare ai personaggi di Avatar), ma sono poco umanizzati nel senso che comunque non li vediamo quasi mai. Sono presenze, ombre da combattere, e presentarli meglio credo avrebbe generato la necessità di un plot su di loro. Qui invece il focus è un altro per cui i Clayark hanno la funzione di minaccia e di carne da macello, una cosa insolita in un romanzo di Butler (infatti è il primo).
C’� un accenno a quello che vedremo poi in Butler nella scena in cui Teray uccide per la prima volta un gruppo di Clayark: esaminando i cadaveri, si rende conto che tra loro c’erano anche una madre con un bambino piccolo. Il momento sembra puntare a una maturazione successiva di un’idea di pace e integrazione, ma la cosa invece finisce lì. Il punto per i nostri eroi rimane fino alla fine fare fuori più nemici possibile per sopravvivere alla loro minaccia. Butler lavorerà molto per cambiare questa visione in pressoché tutti i romanzi successivi.
Allo stesso modo, sarà soprattutto la Xenogenesi a esplorare la questione dei rapporti creatisi in disparità di potere. Il discorso tornerà anche in Seme selvaggio (1980), a mio parere il più bello dei romanzi dei Patternisti, quello che racconta l’origine di questo potere.
Come impostazione, Patternmaster è un po� strano perché quando inizia la storia non viene spiegato nulla. Ci vuole un po� per capire la complessa divisione sociale e il ruolo che ha ciascun gruppo nominato. L’aver già letto i prequel non è troppo di aiuto, sia perché non è scontato ricordarsi tutta la saga, sia perché Butler di solito scrive dei romanzi standalone, non c’� sempre una progressione meccanica tra uno e l’altro. Patternmaster è ambientato in un futuro molto lontano rispetto all’ultimo prequel, in mezzo ci sarebbero tranquillamente stati altri due romanzi a spiegare come si è giunti alla situazione presentata qua.
Il libro non è mai stato tradotto in italiano, a differenza di tutti gli altri, però si legge tranquillamente anche in inglese. È breve, come la maggior parte dei romanzi di Butler, e scritto in modo semplice e comprensibile.
Nota: in questo romanzo scritto nel 1974, c’� una rappresentazione della bisessualità abbastanza in linea col presente. C’� proprio un siparietto tra i due personaggi principali che spiega come funziona e sfata esplicitamente lo stereotipo “bisessuale = indecisə�. È quella modalità diciamo “didattica�, di utilità sociale, che è diventata molto comune nella narrativa odierna, ma che aveva già fatto la sua apparizione in altri tempi.
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