Wild Seed - Octavia E. Butler

Wild Seed (The Patternist #1) – Octavia E. Butler

Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An ancient spirit with boundless powers, he possesses humans, killing without remorse as he jumps from body to body to sustain his own life. With a lonely eternity ahead of him, Doro breeds supernaturally gifted humans into empires that obey his every desire. He fears no one — until he meets Anyanwu.

Anyanwu is an entity like Doro and yet different. She can heal with a bite and transform her own body, mending injuries and reversing aging. She uses her powers to cure her neighbors and birth entire tribes, surrounding herself with kindred who both fear and respect her. No one poses a true threat to Anyanwu — until she meets Doro.

The moment Doro meets Anyanwu, he covets her; and from the villages of 17th-century Nigeria to 19th-century United States, their courtship becomes a power struggle that echoes through generations, irrevocably changing what it means to be human.

My Review of Wild Seed

I had heard of Octavia Butler before – heard of books like kindred and the parable of the sower. But I had never heard of this series. And I didn’t know what to expect at all. I didn’t even really read the plot of this one. I knew it was a prequel to The Patternist – which is some sort of dystopian sci-fi. Everyone raves about Butler’s writing and prose, and when I saw a recent review of one of the later books in this series it sounded fascinating so I thought I would pick this up and try the audio version. After a bit of a reading slump, I tried a few audiobooks I couldn’t get into – So I started listening to this one while hanging out the washing last week. AND OH MY GOODNESS! I couldn’t turn it off!

From the very first section of the book, I was utterly enthralled. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be along for the ride.

Doro is an immortal being who jumps from body to body and lives for thousands of years. Anyanwu is also powerful, she can heal herself and shapeshift at will. When Doro finds Anyanwo in Nigeria and convinces her to travel with him she assumes she will be his wife and live in a new colony of people that he has created with special gifts. However, she soon comes to realise that she has been coerced into being a breeder for Doro’s ultimate goal of breeding a race of humans with amazing powers that will overrun the world.

How have I not read anything from Octavia Butler before? Just incredible! I adored how she wrote this one and I am hoping that all her other stories are written as flawlessly! I don’t know quite how to describe it. While other authors write stories, she weaves ideas and plot together in such an amazing seemless way. There was a point of the book where it hit me that she has just given me a big lesson in ethics and humanity. But not just delivered the lesson to me, but made me FEEL it. Made me actually FEEL the themes that she delves into.

And the audiobook! Absolutely fantastic! I would say the BEST female narrator I have ever heard (and I have over 300 titles in my library!). Her portrayal of all the characters was absolutely superb. I was gripped on to every single word and character.

Yes, parts of it were slow-moving, but I have not been able to stop thinking this novel since I finished it! It has been a very long time that a book has moved me so much, in such an amazing way.

I would not recommend it if you are in the mood for a light read. There are some dark, bleak themes in these pages. What is humanity? Why do we do the things that we do? We live, breed and die. Is that all that we do? Is this all that we are leaving in our wake? What would happen if we could live forever – Would we view the world as Doro? Or as Anyanwu? Butler makes you consciously wonder what on earth the point of all of this is. But at the same time, captivate you with the world’s beauty. I have never read anything like this.

Doro. I loathe him but at the same time – what a magnificent character! How lonely it must be to live millennia, all alone. With nothing else to do but try and manipulate the future through advancing the human race. What would any of us do in his place?

My gosh, my brain hurts. I am thinking about things I have never even considered before. And FEELING it at a level that I never knew existed before this book. Eugenics and morality. Hope and despair. Humanity and the meaning of life.

How have I never read anything of Butlers before now? This was written BEFORE I WAS BORN and yet is so pressing to the events of today’s world.

I absolutely cannot wait to read more of her work. I have so much to catch up on! I am going straight on to the second in the Patternmaster series after Wild Seed, Mind of my Mind.

(5 / 5)