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Patternmaster is the last volume of Ms. Butler’s classic* Patternist series (AKA “Patternmaster series��. I read this volume as part of the omnibus Seed to Harvest 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 Clay's Ark 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 Octavia Butler 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!
** Survivor (Patternmaster #3.5)