Patternmaster

The Patternist Series

By: Octavia E. Butler

Narrated by: Eugene H. Russell IV

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Patternist is a telepathic race, commanded by the Patternmaster, whose thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. Coransee, son of the ruling Patternmaster, wants the throne and will stop at nothing to get it, including venture into the wild mutant-infested hills to destroy a young apprentice - his equal and his brother.

©1976 Octavia E. Butler (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Amazing and at the same time bittersweet 😮😢❗️

This final contribution to this Patternmaster series does not disappoint. Butler has spun a vast web of emotions, power, evolution, passion, revolution, disaster, sexism, subservience, racism trauma and hope . . .

The previous episode of this series (Clay’s Ark) left me bewildered, without the least foreshadowing as to how it fits into this overall narrative. Yet, Octavia’s never failing to astound, using her genius to illustrate a byzantine world beyond the collective understanding!

As was expressed in the title of this review, I found this whole amazingly sweet 💕🍯❗️ upon the completion of the Patternmaster I felt again like a young child in my auntie’s backyard fascinated by the beautiful orange fruit hanging from the persimmon tree! In my young mind, I had reasoned that any fruit that enticing must be delicious! I had to rush over to the tree and taste the fruit! If you have yet to a persimmon, please heed this warning! Never eat this fruit before it has had the opportunity to ripen!!! Biting into that unripe persimmon was so traumatizing that it took me another 15 years to try it a second time. I don’t believe there is anything more bitter. While I was basking in the afterglow of the Patternmaster’s amazing sweetness, I was struck with the most bitter realization, Octavia Butler no longer exists on this plane 💔😰, having died from a stroke in 2006 at the age of 58.

What more would she have blessed us with if given the opportunity? Setting with this revelation is profoundly heartbreaking for me 💔. Yet, at the same time, I am most grateful for access to the writings she was able to complete 💖. I have talked many have never heard of a black Science Fiction writer, let alone Octavia Butler! As I have expressed before, Octavia is a genius from another dimension. Please don’t sleep on her talent!

FINALLY SOMETHING LIVES UP TO WILD SEED!!

Brilliant narrator who wonderfully makes the listener believe that he has intimate knowledge of more than a dozen different characters.

The story itself reminds me of the first book by Octavia Butler that I read, and the reason I'm so into AfroFuturism, Wild Seed. For a while I was worried that Wild Seed was the best story of the genre and that I would never again experience the unadulterated joy of a story of that caliber. I've been exposed to other works by Octavia and other writers and found myself wanting more than the works could offer. This book totally restored my faith.

Not a great narrator

This book is fascinating. Glad I listened. But the narrator was really disappointing. His reading style was very mechanical, and he frequently made errors in pronunciation, emphasis, and voice. Quite disappointing and distracting.

Meh

Listen to the series in the series order, not the publication order. This book is worth a listen because it finished the story, but as her first published, it lacks the polish of the other three.

I am running out of Octavia books to read.

Brilliant book! Patternmaster did not disappoint. I have yet to come across an Octavia Butler book I don't like.

Great 1st outing by Bulter!

A book and a great ending! Butler had more hitting her sleeve then I realized thanks to that great ending!

Annoyed

There's no way I can listen to this. The reader's voice is terribly annoying!!!!! Will have to wait until I have time to read it.

Hard listen

I love Octavia Butler but I had a hard time connecting to this book. I couldn't even tell you who was doing what for whatever reason. This book confused me. I finished it cause I do not like unfinished books in my library.

Fantastic!!!

Loved this story so much I bought the Audible to listen to it after reading the book 2x myself.

Not the best choice for narrator

I have really enjoyed the Patternist series. This book, however, is only average, compared to the others. That is due, in large part, to the choice of narrator. His deep, gravelly voice might be much better suited to other books, but it really detracted from this one. He just doesn’t have the range to do justice to characters such as Amber. I alternated between listening to this in the car & reading the Kindle edition. If it had been feasible, I would have just read this book on the Kindle & skipped the narration entirely.

Her first book?

Published in 1976, I assume it is. Intrigued by her protagonists and their behaviour, I shall now eagerly pursue her subsequent offerings, in chronological order.

Now you know why Clay's Ark was #3

This fourth story ties the threads from books 1 and 2 about the patternists, and book 3 about the clay arks. It was an enjoyable, but perhaps a tad too short read. Being a non-mutant "mute" myself (like most or all of us), I found myself shifting between wishing Tyree well, and wondering how our "mute" branch of humanity would feel in a world dominated by the twin monstrosities of patternists and clay arks. And in that, I think there lies a potential for at least a fifth book in the series.

The narrator has a great voice - in principle - but he chose landing on the "crocodile voice" of vocal fry for a majority of the time. That works better for action movie trailers. Go up half an octave, man, and drop the fry, and you have a great reading voice!