Mind of my mind is the second book to be published in the Patternist/Seed of Harvest Series. It also happens to hold second place in the chronological order of how the story flows.
In the story, it follows Wild Seed, but it was published after The Patternmaster.
Synopsis: It is about Mary, a young black woman who was bred by Doro—her father, lover and creator—to produce telepathic abilities that can further his dream of breeding the perfect race, and Mary’s rise to power to challenge Doro.
Thoughts on the book: In the Patternist series, my favorite is Wild Seed, it is delicious to read because the characters are so complex and well fleshed out. Even Doro, who does such terrible things is hard to hate.
In this book, Mary is not very sympathetic, it is hard to figure out what she stands for or wants until the very end of the book. Also, it switches between the point of view of six telepathic people apart from Doro and Anyaoku, now called Emma. The good things I liked, which Butler does well is:
The strength of her female protagonists is always admirable. The way they exhibit both their humanity and also leadership capabilities. It is something Mary, her protagonist does very well in this story.
Favorite Phrases: “It represented power. Power that I had and that he would never have and while that wasn’t something I threw at him, ever, it wasn’t something I denied either.”
Read if: You are obsessed with the Patternist Series or just Octavia Butler or just science fiction stories.
Reading it will make Patternmaster make a lot of sense, but I don’t think you need it to read any of the books in the series.
Moyo Laditan 