The Patternist

4 primary works • 5 total works

Wild Seed

by Octavia E. Butler

Published 1 July 1980

Doro has been alive for almost 4,000 years. He has great power and influence and yet he is alone. He has watched generation after generation of his children die. But he still dreams of breeding a new race of immortal telepaths in his own image. When he encounters Anyanwu, the shape-changer and healer, he knows that he has met his true mate. Although only 300 years old, he is Doro's equal, perhaps the only other one of their kind on Earth. But she has sprung from wild seed, beyond his control, and she is Doro's implacable enemy.

Mind of My Mind

by Octavia E. Butler

Published 24 April 1980

'A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant' VIOLA DAVIS on Wild Seed

'A literary pioneer' VANITY FAIR on Octavia E. Butler

A PATTERNIST NOVEL: BOOK TWO

The baby's name is Mary, and her father is immortal.

For thousands of years, Doro has pursued perfection, experimenting with humanity and seeking out rare - and powerful - talents. His finest creation is Mary, a young black woman who he raises on the rough outskirts of Los Angeles.

Doro knows he must handle Mary carefully or risk her ending like his previous experiments - dead, either by her own hand or his.

What he doesn't suspect is that Mary is beginning to learn just how much power she wields. As she comes of age, Mary must harness her newfound abilities to challenge the ruthless man who controls her - and fight to free her people once and for all.

Clay's Ark

by Octavia E. Butler

Published 1 January 1984

'A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant' VIOLA DAVIS on Wild Seed

'Butler's evocative, often troubling novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human' NEW YORK TIMES

A PATTERNIST NOVEL: BOOK THREE

Blake Maslin is a doctor. In an alternate America marked by volatile class warfare, he and his twin daughters are taken captive by armed men demanding urgent medical care.

In an isolated desert compound, the family encounter a collective of people suffering from an unknown and deadly disease. They appear sickly yet possess unnatural strength, torn between the dangerous compulsion to infect others or to hold on to their own humanity.

In the following hours, Blake and his daughters each must make a vital choice: risk everything to escape infection and warn the rest of the world, or accept their place in this strange new society.

Patternmaster

by Octavia E. Butler

Published 1 January 1976

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.

Seed to Harvest

by Octavia E. Butler

Published 1 January 2007

THE COMPLETE PATTERNIST SERIES.

'Unnervingly prescient and wise' YAA GYASI

Includes the novels WILD SEED, MIND OF MY MIND, CLAY'S ARK and PATTERNMASTER.

'A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant' VIOLA DAVIS

It begins when two immortals meet. Doro is an ancient spirit who changes bodies like clothes, stealing the life from his hosts. Anyanwu can shift her very shape, absorbing bullets as easily as she can heal with a kiss. Their relationship, an epic story of love and hate which spans centuries, will change everything.

Over hundreds of years, Doro pursues perfection, attempting to create a master race of people with the most manipulative of minds. But the Patternists are becoming increasing harder to control, and harder to hide from the world...

In these four novels, New York Times-bestselling author Octavia E. Butler tells the classic story that began her legendary career: a mythic tale of the transformation of humanity.

'One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century' JUNOT DIAZ

'I have never read anything like it' RUSSELL TOVEY

'An icon of the Afrofuturism world, envisioning literary realms that placed black characters front and center' VANITY FAIR