Patternmaster

Patternmaster (1976) by Octavia Butler is a science fiction tale of telepaths in the race to suceed their aging leader. Butler is (was) one of my favorite SF writers. I have posted on her books before. Others love her too. Her books are always interesting and sometimes plainly weird. I love them. I saw her speak a couple of times and am richer for her words.

The Patternmaster is the leader of the Patternists, the telepaths, and he is getting up there in years. In addition to the Patternists, there are the Mutes, people like you and I who are not telepathic (I am not telepathic, but perhaps, dear reader, you are), and there are the Clayarks, who are part human, and part lion, and have great speed and strength. None of the types of beings gets along especially well with any of the others. Two of the Patternmaster's sons, Coransee and Teray find that they cannot both be alive and live in peace and so they struggle to find which of them will take over from the Patternmaster when he dies.

This is a fun and quick read that challenges assumptions about our daily life while entertaining. No shocking surprises here. Butler writes so that her fictional world is easy to accept, but then you realize that, hey, this is making me think about my world.

Labels: Butler, fiction, sciencefiction, struggle

posted by reader kay at 6:22 AM