Wild Seed

If you have every read any of my reviews, you know how I love novels that are character studies.
Wild seed is not a long novel, yet it so beautifully encompasses the lives of its two main characters over centuries. It is a work of art.
It is written by Olivia Butler, and is the first book in her Patternist series, though it is the third to be published.

In order of story: Wild Seed, Mind of my Mind, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster.

In order of publication: Patternmaster, Mind of my Mind, Wild Seed, and then Clay’s Ark.

There is one more book in which Octavia Butler wrote called Survivor. Initially it was supposed to be part of the series but she was dissatisfied with it and it was never published beyond the first edition.

Crushing on Octavia Butler: I love her ability to convey emotions without exaggeration. Her stories are often about heavy topics, yet she manages to write her them in such a balanced way. It’s as if her stories say: this is horrible, but it is also true, and her characters say: We can handle this, and thrive because of it.

Synopsis: It is about Anyanwu and Doro, two powerful immortal beings. Doro, a kind of being that is not quite human, and yet not spirit, is seeking to build a world where there are more people like him. He cannot die.
Anyawu, a shape shifter and healer. She will live forever if Doro doesn’t kill her.

Some of the themes I loved in this particular story are:
Love as a journey: I loved the way as time grew, Anyawu continued to know herself more intimately. She discovered what she could do and the depths of her abilities. Even though it happened before the book started, we also got a sense that Doro knew himself so well because he had spent so long, thousands of years, getting to know himself.

Identity as more than our bodies: Maybe because Anyawu was a shape shifter and Doro was not tied to any particular body, it was easy to see that their true selves were’t found in their bodies. There was a particular phrase that Doro said at the beginning of his relationship with Anyawu, ‘I must rest this body if it will be of any use to me,’ in a sense our bodies are houses that we ourselves live in. We must honor them so they can be useful to us, but they are truly nothing more. Yet, so much of our identity is tied to how we look. Particularly our skin color, I like the way that Anyawu still had a deep connection to where she came from and her people by esteeming her black skin. More than that, the way Olivia Butler wrote black skin to be celebrated, is beautiful. Yet, their skin color was not the sole root of the characters identity.

Nurturing as a Strength: Anyawu was a nuturer. It became apparent in the way she seemed to be drawn to the broken and outcasts and in the way they became whole because of her reality of them. She never saw anything wrong with them, and through her eyes they began to see themselves whole instead of broken.

Romantic Love: I can’t not talk about Isaac and Anyawu and their unlikely love story, however, even more unlikely is the love between Doro and Anyawu. The pulling and shoving, the struggle to be seen and respected, it is a complex relationship and I am grateful to have been an audience to it.

Read if: You love science fiction or alternate reality or just a good story about learning one’s self. Or if you want to find out how good Octavia Butler’s writing is!