Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler
138 pages
Published 1976
Read from July 30 to July 31
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
I think I regret reading this series following the internal chronology. Reading them in order published would have started me off with this book; all the worldbuilding details might possibly have been intriguing in that case, and made me curious for more, instead of seeming an end product of three volumes methodically arranged to get to a certain point. What I mean is, this book felt dry and laconic, cladded with technical details of psionic attack and riposte, the checks and balances of Patternists against mutes and Clayarks against Patternists, without much heart evident beneath the superstructure. Far too much of Patternmaster felt like notes for how a larger story world would function, the sort of girders and supports that, ideally, should be shrouded with engaging character and story.
Only the character of Amber -- tough, ambitious, an unapologetic and confident bisexual -- rose above the clunky exposition and board-setting. The final confrontation of Teray and Coransee felt like a matter of procedure, a checkmark on the hero's résumé, noted with a nod from the dying authority figure. If there had been further adventures to come, a payoff for the "Clayarks are people too!" foreshadowing early on in the book, I wouldn't have minded; like Le Guin's Earthsea books, I could see the Patternist series following small, defining encounters in the life and rule of Teray, developing the world of psychic southern California, actually moving some pieces across the chessboard. Instead, Butler went backward to put all those pieces into place. I'm not complaining, exactly -- Wild Seed was terrific, and Clay's Ark was a good read -- but reading it all in the order I did, Patternmaster is a letdown.
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