Seed to Harvest – Octavia Butler

I finally read the Octavia Butlers that I grabbed on a whim at the Big Bad Wolf Sale. I finished Fledgling and moved on to Seed to Harvest. I was actually surprised at how much I liked her writing. For one thing, it’s simple and clear; and for another, the concepts she uses aren’t particularly complicated (as you can see, I am an easy reader. I am the Harley Davidson of readers).

 

Like me, but with less American flag and more pages.

For example, Fledgling starts off a lot like Tanith Lee’s Birthgrave, with an immortal of unknown power or origin awakening from a slumber. Except that unlike Birthgrave, Fledgling did not suck. More on that in another post.

Seed to Harvest is actually a compilation of Butler’s Patternmaster series – Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster. The first two explored the concept of breeding superpowered humans, and the struggle between the long-lived Doro (the guy who breeds everyone) and the women who are his match – the first he finds in some random place in Africa, the last is the final and most successful result of his breeding programme.

Like this, only psychic.

Clay’s Ark introduced an extremely virulent alien disease that results in those who survive it having children that are sphinx-like (I still have difficulty imagining them. Surprisingly I couldn’t find any DeviantArt fanwork of them). Clay’s Ark was pretty brutal with rape, torture and violence, but it fell in with the sort of post-apoc and pre-apoc (must be the first book I read that turned out to be both) setting.

Essentially, those three books were great. They laid down a myth, drew it out and introduced an adversary for the superhumans (who are now all psychics). They were novel ideas. My problem is with the final book, Patternmaster.

There is nothing new about Patternmaster. No new ideas, no new situations. If you had told me that Butler had taken a year-long vacation to Romania and had asked her 16 year-old niece who was a fan of pretty bad fantasy to ghost-write Patternmaster, I would have believed you. I would have been relieved to have believed you. Because Patternmaster sucks.

After building up to the superhumans with psychic abilities being led by the one great psychic who holds the pattern (slavery? or greater good?), and the introduction of the creepy-intelligent-animal Clayark creatures, Patternmaster is an afterthought to complete the cycle.

The story is that Clayark’s have attacked the Patternmaster, Rayal. As he lays dying, his son Coransee (not to be confused with the beer) tries to consolidate his power and either kill or control his only competition for the Pattern – his younger brother, Teray.

Not Coransee

This book is Teray’s monomyth. And Teray is an asshole.

That is the main problem of the story (aside from the sudden departure from good storytelling). Teray is supposed to be better than his slightly power-crazy older brother. We don’t ever see how he is better.

Yeah, he doesn’t place psychic geas’ on his underlings. BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE UNDERLINGS. Yeah he doesn’t misuse his power as a Housemaster to steal people’s wives. BECAUSE HE AIN’T A HOUSEMASTER. Yeah he doesn’t treat people, especially women, like shit and expect them to obey him…oh wait. HE DOES.

So at the end when Rayal tells Teray that he is worthy of holding the Pattern because 1. Rayal was waiting for him and 2. His brother wasn’t ‘good enough’, you’re just like WAIT A MINUTE. I WANT TO VOTE HIM OFF THE ISLAND.

Some people like Teray.

Why was Rayal waiting for him? Before the idea of becoming Patternmaster took ahold of Mr Beer, he was a good Housemaster. In fact, before this, Rayal himself had killed all his siblings (except the one he married) to ensure that he would get the Pattern. Mr Beer was just doing what was expected of him. It sounds like the only thing he did wrong was wanting the Pattern. Which was expected of him.

????????

At the end, Rayal gives some wishy washy excuse about Teray’s healing powers making him a more suitable Patternmaster. That’s just a fluke of luck. He didn’t EARN his healing power. He didn’t WORK HARD for it. In fact, unlike Mr Beer or Amber the badass healer who for some reason follows Teray around, Teray doesn’t seem to have made an effort for anything beyond thinking about himself.

Basically Teray’s moments with Teray sound like this: POOR TERAY. LIFE IS SO HARD. OMG MY WIFE THINKS MY HOT BROTHER IS HOT! SHE BETRAYED ME. DESPITE THE FACT THAT I CHOSE TO PUT US IN THIS POSITION. POOR TERAY. SO POWERFUL YET STUCK HERE. DON’T THEY REALISE HOW POWERFUL I AM?? I AM SO POWERFUL!

It’s like listening to a fantasy lit version of James Franco. So, screw you, Teray. You made Patternmaster suck. And you spoiled all of Doro’s efforts. At least Doro was an interesting asshole.

And yet you’re still here, Franco. Making boring-ass movies like Oz and writing condescending reviews about Superman.

I would still suggest reading these books, but maybe stop at Clay’s Ark and pretend Patternmaster was never written (although it defeats the purpose of Clay’s Ark not to have Patternmaster. argghh).