Octavia E. Butler

For 4,000 years, an immortal has spread the seeds of a master race, using the downtrodden as his private breeding stock. But now a young ghetto telepath has found a way to awaken--and rule--her superhuman kind, igniting a psychic battle as she challenges her creator for her right to free her people.

Mind of My Mind

'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 grows up 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.

Jessica Smith

I felt that this book was a bit messier than Patternmaster, and I enjoyed it slightly less despite still finding it a gripping, fascinating book.

Mind of My Mind is set a long time before Patternmaster, in contemporary southern California. If you're reading in publication order, you're introduced to Doro, a shadowy and sinister man who can switch bodies by killing the former occupant of the body he's switching to. Seemingly immortal, he has spent generations “breeding” people. The purpose of this is initially unclear, although it is apparent that most of the products of this breeding program are mentally unstable – they hear voices, and are prone to sudden violent outbursts.

Then the reader is introduced to Mary. She's one of the products of this breeding program, but she's different – stronger – than all the others have been. As the book goes on, Mary's role becomes clear: she is to be the first-ever Patternmaster, a position that will be familiar to publication-order readers from the first book.

This book deals with many of the same themes as the first: power, control, submission, freedom. There is a recurring argument in both books about whether or not it's worthwhile to sacrifice a little bit of your autonomy – to allow someone else some level of veto power over your own mind – in exchange for guaranteed happiness and all your material needs (and dreams) being met, with Butler's protagonists always coming resolutely down on the side of “hell no”. Power imbalances between the sexes are looked at here as well.

The central conflict between Mary and Doro is extremely well-written, and probably the most compelling thing about this entire book for me. Heading into the climax I really wasn't sure what was going to happen, and I zipped through the pages in my impatience to find out.

The rest of the characterisation, though, felt weaker than in Patternmaster. There are a lot more characters, and most of them aren't fleshed out enough. This book is really about Mary and Doro, and every page that follows a different character (except for Karl, I guess) feels like it's more about advancing the setting/worldbuilding than it is about developing the core story. That's fine, but it did mean the story lacked the tightly cohesive quality of its predecessor.

Overall, this is a really good book, and a worthy instalment of the Patternmaster series. I think I'll read a palate cleanser or two before tackling the reputedly excellent Wild Seed, but I will definitely move onto it soon.

Mind of My Mind

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