Review: Patternmaster by Octavia Butler (1976)

The time is millennia in the future. The place is unnamed. (Although the flashy back cover of my copy proclaims ONCE THIS LAND WAS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, it’s not explicit in the book, and I’m more comfortable with the text’s assumption that our current geographic definitions are long gone.

Homo sapiens have evolved into three species: Patternists, mutes, and Clayarks. Patternists are the ruling elite, who possess powerful telepathic abilities and constantly vie for power. Mutes are humans just like you and me, who work hard, express themselves through ritual, and rely on their Patternist masters for protection. Clayarks are savage, gun-wielding mutants who constantly raid Patternist territory. Into this harsh world are united Coransee and Teray, blood brothers and sons of the immensely powerful Patternmaster whose power controls the whole civilized world. As the younger and more naïve brother, Teray must use all his wits to retain his life and his freedom from Coransee, who with all his being craves becoming the next Patternmaster and will stop at nothing to destroy his younger brother if his ambition becomes threatened.

From the very beginning, I appreciate Butler’s ability to have us meet the book on its own terms. Although every fiber of the setting is science fiction, the plot begins on page one and doesn’t stop for lengthy explanations. Yet even the most outlandish concepts were not convoluted enough to send me back to reread previous sections for illumination. This is one of the most important goals when writing speculative fiction, and probably the most difficult to achieve. It takes many skills, especially good pacing and solid, intelligible creative concepts. All the core creative concepts of Patternmaster are contained my short summary above; the rest is detail.

The story is somewhat more tortuous. Again, I don’t normally judge a book by its cover, but the ‘70’s pulp sci-fi cover on my copy screams out in illustration and capital letters that the main conflict will be between Teray and Coransee. They meet as soon as enough exposition has happened, but after some initial squabbling, their feud is left waiting just offstage for many, many pages. This is a nice touch in that it kept me turning pages while also surprising me with the emergence of smaller woes and struggles that befall Teray for more or less the whole book.

Finally, of course, I have a word on the politics. Butler speaks as a black woman in 1970’s California to me as a white man in 2010’s New York about many issues which we bemoan continuing to live with, but which are actually timeless. Consider the political structure of this Southern California: a small, elite class controls a large, less powerful class, and the two live together to protect themselves from a third, alien class. This skeletal archetype, devoid of ideological context, is reflected all throughout human history on many scales, and through Patternmaster Butler presents that it will still be the basis for societal interaction thousands of years hence.

I can’t help but compare Octavia Butler with Ursula K. Le Guin, who was also writing paperback science fiction on the West Coast around the same time, and whom I know much better. To Butler’s credit, she is worthy company to Le Guin. Where a woman writes original science fiction about human nature and society, you’ll find me on board.