1. Patternmaster by Octavia Butler

[helens78]

Hello! I'm Helens. I just signed up yesterday, snagged a book off my shelf, and read it over the course of last night and this morning. My personal goal is to read twenty new books (new to me, that is) for this challenge; I know a lot of them are going to be re-reads. I look forward to the challenge anyway, though, as I like to have read about 100 books a year (and many of those 100 books are always re-reads).



I discovered Octavia Butler in college, in a comparative lit class about science-fiction books. We read "Dawn", and though it would turn out not to be my favorite of Butler's books, I was inspired enough to go out and get more of them. I finished off the Xenogenesis series and then went for the Pattern cycle.

Patternmaster is the first book Butler published, but in series chronology, it's the last of the Pattern cycle. It opens on a world so unfamiliar that a first-time reader won't necessarily know what they're looking at, which I think is a pretty cool artistic decision. At only 202 pages, it has a narrowed focus, telling the story of the protagonist (Teray) and his struggle to come to adulthood in a hurry and find his place within the Pattern that connects all the Patternists in this world, but Butler's tight, clear writing style gives us a fantastic view of the world she's invented and never leaves us feeling confused. (This is a big deal for me; I often feel confused when writers invent worlds but don't ground me sufficiently enough in them for me to understand what's going on and what the "rules" are.)

I rated it 4.5 stars on LibraryThing, but only because the second (publication date) book in the series is one of my favorite books of all time (Mind of My Mind), possibly my favorite book, if I were held at gunpoint and asked to pick one. I've read MoMM several times in single sittings; it's that good. So there has to be room to go up from here, but not much! Patternmaster remains an excellent book with an engaging world and outstandingly smart, powerful, tough and brave protagonists. (And for those of you who aren't familiar with Butler's work, her protagonists are almost always Black or multiracial characters; many of her books have tall, Black, female protagonists; see the Xenogenesis series and the Parable series.)

Comments

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

Hey, Helens! Glad you joined up.

Butler is on my mental list to read this year, so thanks for the recs.

Obviously (given my first post) I'm going to be re-reading some books for this challenge -- most of the ones I'm re-reading will be books that inspired me when I was young and which I've been sort of "holding in my head" for years. I'm curious to see how they'll inspire me again after ten, twenty, thirty years. Which I'm sure they will. 8-)

Plus, I'm in the middle of an obsessive reading and re-reading of Love and Rockets. 8-)

[rydra_wong]

At the moment, I'm resolving not to count re-reads as part of my 50 - a decision which has absolutely nothing to do with justifying the purchase of lots of new books, honest. But might it be okay/helpful to do some posts reccing things I've particularly enjoyed in the past? Fr'example, I was pondering a list of recs of sf/f by authors of colour ...

[helens78]

I for one would love such a recs post!

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

Right. I absolutely do not suspect you of justifying the purchase of lots of new books. I myself would never do such a thing. *coff* 8-)

I'm only going to re-read some of my "milestone" books; most of the rest are books I *own* but have never *read*, sigh. It's sooooo easy to just keep bringing the books home...

Yes, please do make a recs list of sf/f by authors of color.

[helens78]

most of the ones I'm re-reading will be books that inspired me when I was young and which I've been sort of "holding in my head" for years. I'm curious to see how they'll inspire me again after ten, twenty, thirty years. Which I'm sure they will.

I think that's a really cool idea. I was surprised to see how my reactions to Patternmaster changed just after maybe five years or so (I don't think I'd read it since college); I don't remember understanding it nearly as well as I did this time around. That was an odd sensation, because (of course) I knew everything in college. XD

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

because (of course) I knew everything in college.

Exactly! I read all the books I'm re-reading when I was in college or *just* out of high school. So I'm sure they'll be "different". 8-)

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

I've never been a big Butler fan but one short story of hers blew me away: "Bloodchild". One of the most incredible feminist turnabouts I ever read. Not to mention hooking into a lot of my kinks along the way!

[kake]

Thanks for this post! I read Mind of My Mind when I was younger and thought it was absolutely fantastic. I really should re-read it — in fact I think I'll take it to bed tonight. I recently read the Xenogenesis books all the way through for the first time and wondered why I'd taken so long to get around to it. I've not read Patternmaster, but have just ordered it from Amazon (second-hand – they don't seem to have any new copies).

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

My battered copy of Patternmaster is one of my treasured possessions. I haven't read it since the '80s, though.