From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of the Parable series comes a stunning story of two very different immortal beings meeting and changing other's perspectives for the rest of eternity.
Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex--or design. He fears no one--until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kiss...and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one -- until she meets Doro. From African jungles to the colonies of America, Doro and Anyanwu weave together a pattern of destiny that not even immortals can imagine.

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Format: TradePaperback
Author: Butler, Octavia E.
ISBN: 9781538751480
Condition: New
Dimensions: 8.00 x 0.90
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Year: 2020

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WILDSEED, engaging USA history via Science Fiction. Thank you Octavia E. Butler.

Bernadette S. - 4 years 11 months ago

#SpringPicks Book 1 of the Patternist series from the fantastically talented, thought provoking futurist science fiction writer, Octavia E. Butler. Doro has lived a few thousand years, thanks to his supernatural abilities to assume new human bodies & identities, while remaining who he is, maintaining his sense of power, control & privileges. He has to kill those he inhabits, of course; the costs of doing business. Having been deemed "strange" & thus ostracized since birth, & very protected by his parents as their only surviving child, he has an affinity for others looked at as "different," as witches and/or evil spirits for possessing traits seen as abnormal. Doro "collects" such individuals as he can, selectively seeding their abilities, breeding them to enhance certain special traits, resettling them in communities of his design & choosing. He is building his own "people," under his control, loyal & mostly obedient to him as their creator, their 'god.' During a visit to the African continent to check on his people in one of his established communities, during the height of the African slave trade, Doro finds his people missing & the village destroyed. While using his abilities to home in on where they might have been taken, he senses a new, different entity & goes to check it out. There he encounters Anyanwu, a few hundred years old, shape-shifting "wildseed", also organizing her own community. In an effort to protect her people from Doro's dominance & control, Anyanwu agrees to leave her home & travel with him to his home in colonial New York. Wildseed tells the story of these two, their families & lives from the African slave trade to the European colonization of North America, the establishment of the USA, & USA history thru the Civil War & western expansion. The legacies of racism, sexism, colorism & classism are well explored. Highly recommend.
Thought compelling, emotional story from one of the greatest at the craft

Alex O. - 4 years 11 months ago

This book is absolutely incredible. It's the first book (chronologically) to Octavia E. Butler's Patternist series, but the third one that she wrote (fourth if you count Survivor, which she pulled from publication). The two main characters, Anyanwu and Doro, are captivating for different reasons. While they are both immortals, their methods of survival differ vastly, with Anyanwu being a healer/shapeshifter, and Doro being a body snatcher. This book reads like folklore, with both of the main characters representing different aspects of femininity and masculinity. For instance, Anyanwu's approach to building community is rooted in kinship and taking care of the most vulnerable members, while Doro uses his power to breed more super humans that he can use (mostly) for his own ends. The question then becomes whether Anyanwu will be able to sway Doro into being more compassionate, and if that is even her responsibility. I admire Octavia E. Butler's ability to wrap so many pertinent themes in a compelling and easy-to-read story. I think every person has something to gain from this book, and that your perception will be different depending on the values you hold most dear. As a white male reader who read this book as part of a book club, it made me realize that men often put the burden of emotional self improvement on the women in their lives when we should be doing this work ourselves. I also feel that there is something to be said about whiteness / white culture and it's association with ableism and capitalism. Anyanwu (a Black Igbo women) values all people, not just the ones that can work the hardest or have the most power. And while Doro was born a Nubian thousands of years ago, his spirit becomes intimately involved with the trans-atlantic slave trade where he poses as a white man to find other people with hidden abilities that he can use for his breeding experiments. TL;DR Read this book no matter who you are. There are scenes of incest, so if that bothers you, be prepared. #SpringPicks

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WILDSEED, engaging USA history via Science Fiction. Thank you Octavia E. Butler.

Thought compelling, emotional story from one of the greatest at the craft