Reviews

Seed to Harvest, by Octavia E. Butler

cleo_reads's review

This is a beautifully written, intense, disturbing series. I wish I’d known that the books are organized in the order that they take place, not the in the order they were written.

I usually prefer to read books in the order they were published - and I think the series would have made more sense to me if I’d started with the book she wrote first, even though it takes place after the others - the other three books expand on what happened to get to that point.

ale_ja's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.75

read this series including the forbidden one (survivor) which i believe was much better than octavia butler gave herself credit for,
these were v good, i especially loved wild seed & mind of my mind & i suspect that that may b mutual considering patternmaster was where these all began, i rlly appreciate that core themes/ideas from this series (genetics, evolution, disease, “sub”races, etc) were ones i recognized from her short stories & also what i’ve heard of her novels that i haven’t read yet, much respect for finding the ideas that call to u & sticking w them from every angle

la_favorite's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

sarahlinoleum's review

5.0

Butler is a book-writing BAMF.

sbossen's review against another edition

4.0

Octavia Butler creates some deeply interwoven stories and engaging characters and, as always, a pleasure to read.

heyt's review

3.0

Wild Seed

Spoiler

I'm not quite sure what I read but it was very good. In essence this is the story of Doru and Anyanwu coming to terms with their immortality and competing desires with regards to the people they interact with. I felt that this was very much a tale about the struggle to save Doru's humanity.

Mind of my Mind

Spoiler

This was a little weird as a sequel because it was in the modern era. We learn more about Doro's breeding program and intentions. I think I wasn't as enamored of this as the first because Anyanwu is such a minor character in this and she was what I loved so much about the first one. There's still a great discussion on forms of slavery and controlling your creations to be had from reading this.

Clay’s Ark

Spoiler

So this was weird and totally unrelated to the first two books. This is just as dark but a different take on altered humanity than the pattern. This one deals with an external change to humanity rather than the internal breeding focus of the first two.

Patternmaster

Spoiler

I now see how Clay's Ark fits in the Patternist world but it also seemed a bit random. This focuses on the Patternist society and the way it works now that the external change to humanity has become more widespread.

Overall I enjoyed this series because Butler is a master of her craft but I'd be lying if I didn't say how uncomfortable I was as I read this. I ended up spacing the series out over three months because to read them all in succession would have been too emotionally draining. I appreciate the way that Butler has used this multigenerational story to dive deep into humanity and its foundations as well as into aspects of power and slavery. Glad to have read it but slightly traumatized.

cmd_prompt's review

3.0

3.5 stars overall, with the individual books being rated 4, 4, 3.5, and 2 stars.

ccopeland8303's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

kim_hoag's review

5.0

The title is an umbrella for four related books. Butler is one of the best in this or any genre. No aliens with weapons, no space ship battles. What she does is take one human aspect or gene, change it, then stand back and see what develops. What makes humankind vulnerable? What does it take to change our psychology in a way that pushes it beyond human, or is it less, and what happens to the altered and to those around them? Take all the basic emotions, what will be stretched, atrophied, new? Her creativity seems endless.

I have found this the basis for her other books I have read, but this series seems to really epitomize these concepts. A man dies 4,000 years ago and discovers his essence can't. He spends his eternity forcing others with any gifts to reproduce but with minimum success until he meets an African. The basic question of what worth is being human is constantly addressed in this series. It also explores the meanings of survival.

naiadtales's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall rating of the series '4 stars'. The Patternist series was interesting to say the least. Books 1 - 2 were such a fantastic start to the series but then everything went downhill(for me) when we got to Book 3. More detailed reviews are given on the individual books.