Mind of My Mind
4/5
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About this ebook
The baby’s name is Mary, and her father is immortal. For thousands of years he has orchestrated a selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race capable of controlling others through thought. Most of his attempts have resulted in volatile mutations, but Mary—whom he has raised in the rough part of a Southern California town—is the closest he has come to perfection. If he doesn’t handle her carefully, this greatest experiment will be his last. As Mary comes of age, she begins to grow aware of her psychic powers. And when she learns of her father’s plans for her, she refuses to acquiesce. She challenges him to a psychic war, battling to free her people and set a new course for mankind.
Multiple Nebula and Hugo award–winning author Octavia Butler’s epic and thought-provoking Patternist series has fascinated generations of readers, exploring the effects of power and what it means to be human. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a renowned African American author of several award-winning novels, including Parable of the Sower, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1993, and Parable of the Talents, winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel in 1995. She received a MacArthur Genius Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work and was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.
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Reviews for Mind of My Mind
305 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is pt. 2 of the Patternist series (by story timeline). It's short and intense, marking an important turning point that leads up to whatever will be. Things are wrapped up for the main characters from Wild Seed and many new ones are introduced. The themes of ownership and symbiosis are very present as in just about anything I've read by Butler.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Hard book to like. It touches on several complex and important themes such as bodily and mental integrity, slavery and racism, but moves quickly and never really delves into the material. Elements of the book stays with you afterwards. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The first Octavia Butler I ever read - they had it in my school library. I'm amazed really that they did, given some of the content, but definitely grateful. Excellent stuff; I love all her work.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doro is an immortal, mind-controlling, body-snatching mutant who has spent 4,000 years on a human breeding program in an attempt to produce more creatures like him. Mary, a telepath with powerful new abilities, is his most promising result yet, but she also may be proof that he's succeeded a little too well. I should mention that this is the third book in a series. I read the first one so long ago that I remember little of it, and I managed to miss the second one, but it didn't really matter. This one stands on its own well enough.I'm really not sure quite what to think about it, though. It's reasonably well written, if a little talky. It's also disturbing, as it features incest, domestic violence, eugenics, murder, and various kinds of mental coercion from the violently forceful to the insidiously subtle. None of which I necessarily have a problem reading about, but there's something about the casual, matter-of-fact way the characters generally accept all this as just the way things are, even when they're the victims, that gets to me. (The book never spells it out explicitly, but I can only imagine that to some extent they're programmed to accept their place in the grand plan, with all that entails. They may baulk at specific things, but you never see them questioning the basic assumptions.) I felt vaguely unclean while reading it, but the book never develops enough emotional intensity for that disturbed feeling to lead to any kind of catharsis. Unfortunately, this also robs the story of any real sense of investment I might have felt. The only ending that seemed remotely worth caring about or hoping for would be one where the slaves rebel not just against their puppetmaster but against the whole premise of their lives. And that seemed to be almost literally unthinkable.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Part of Butler's Patternist series. Mary, the main character (chapters telling her story are written in first person) is not very likeable. She seems to develop more and more compassion towards fellow human beings as the story develops, but it's still not enough. When reading the book you ultimately find yourself rooting for the lesser evil, with the greater evil being Doro, and the lesser being Mary and her "First Family". There is a chilling savageness about what almost all the characters do, which works in the books favor. Character development is somewhat lacking however. You really don't get to know Mary, Doro, Emma, Karl, Vivian or any of the others. All in all, a somewhat interesting (albeit fast) read mainly because of its chilling nature.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Octavia Butler's work tends to be absolutely gripping, but harsh, gory and sexually explicit (and certainly not romantic). This is the story of a loosely connected groups of psychics, some with astounding powers, founded by one man whose consciousness still lives after centuries. He, and his descendents, are able to leap from body to body. Not all of them are aware of their heritage. Apparently the power resides with the consciousness, not with the body. He, or the bodies he inhabits, have fathered a great many of his descendents.Their powers cause them many psychological problems, and a group of them decide to get together and organize for their own good.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Early Butler with all the themes in place and the strong characters, but with more emphasis on plot than later more mature books. An interesting contrast to the Earthseed books, as both are centered on a woman building a community with religious overtones, seen from both her perspectives and others not so happy with what she's doing. In this earlier book, there's less vision on the main character's part and more happens because of super-powers than because of sheer strength of will. Recommended
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not as good as the first. More emphasis on action, and less on character. Of course that makes it a pretty exciting read. It retains a certain amount of unpredictability, except for the ending. If it the writing gets worse in book #3, I won't be continuing. I'm not a completist.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Octavia Butler's work tends to be absolutely gripping, but harsh, gory and sexually explicit (and certainly not romantic). This is the story of a loosely connected groups of psychics, some with astounding powers, founded by one man whose consciousness still lives after centuries. He, and his descendents, are able to leap from body to body. Not all of them are aware of their heritage. Apparently the power resides with the consciousness, not with the body. He, or the bodies he inhabits, have fathered a great many of his descendents.Their powers cause them many psychological problems, and a group of them decide to get together and organize for their own good.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Book 2 of the Patternist series, though I believe the books were written out of order. Wild Seed told the story of Doro and Emma, two immortals with very different purposes. Doro has been alive for thousands of years, and through a breeding project is trying to create... well it's not clear exactly what he's trying for. But in Mary, his work has culminated. She is a 19 year old powerful telepath, though still latent as the book begins. But early on, she goes through her "transition" and instinctively locates and binds herself to six other active telepaths around the US who are also part of Doro's breeding program. Mary then starts to build her own community of people like her. She binds people to her in "the pattern" and successfully builds toward her dream. But as this happens she becomes a threat to the immortal and apparently invulnerable Doro.Good world-building here, and I'm in for the rest of this series- the books are easy to read and economical. Butler is a worthy read, though not at all my favorite sci-fi writer. I think the story she's forming here cries out for more exploration of the ethical problems of enslaving normal people (or "mutes" as they're called here), but this is apparently not part of the project. I can't get to 4 stars for a rating without some exploration of some of these types of themes- what's left is just a cool story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doro from Wild Seed has created some very powerful telepaths. So powerful that they create a society without him. Mary is the most powerful, she creates a pattern of minds, that can make weak telepaths stronger, can heal physical and mental aches, and by the book’s end kills Doro. Butler’s second novel, published in 1977, this mentions that “mutes” (non-telepaths) are just another way of saying the "n" word. (Butler's books use the actual word where it is warranted.)It also gives a little attention to the slavery of the mutes to the telepaths. There are three more books in this series, the newer ones, I’ll bet, give more attention to this part of the new society.