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Wild Seed (Patternist, 1)
In an epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant story of love and hate, two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together -- and changing the destiny of the human race (Viola Davis). Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An ancient spirit with boundless powers, he possesses humans, killing without remorse as he jumps from body to body to sustain his own life. With a lonely eternity ahead of him, Doro breeds supernaturally gifted humans into empires that obey his every desire. He fears no one -- until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is an entity like Doro and yet different. She can heal with a bite and transform her own body, mending injuries and reversing aging. She uses her powers to cure her neighbors and birth entire tribes, surrounding herself with kindred who both fear and respect her. No one poses a true threat to Anyanwu -- until she meets Doro. The moment Doro meets Anyanwu, he covets her; and from the villages of 17th-century Nigeria to 19th-century United States, their courtship becomes a power struggle that echoes through generations, irrevocably changing what it means to be human.
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Community Reviews
This book leaves you feeling dissonant and uncomfortable throughout the read. Octavia Butler brilliantly creates a fictional society that puts her readers into the complex feelings that real women face.
As always, it saddens me that I will never be able to meet the great Octavia Butler. Wild Seed explores slavery, oppression, love, dedication, empathy, jealousy, fear, prejudice, ego, and much more. It is a fabulous piece of fiction that is written in a beautiful and poetic like manner. I loved it. This is not a fast paced action book, but I still found it hard to put down. I love Octavia Butler and loved Anyanwu.
1 will definitely move on to the next book in the Pattermaster Series. Highly recommended. The story starts off in 1690 where Doro, an immortal being and main protagonist of the book, is in Africa taking people from their tribes to build his own, but only taking those who either have traits of powers or are seen as good breeding stock. While in Africa, he comes across Anyanwu, who is also an immortal being, but besides just being immortal she also possesses shape shifting and healing traits.
Doro takes quite an interest from her and takes her from her tribe and trains her to act as an American and use her for breeding. Throughout the story, Doro is her master, along with everyone else's and is seen as the most powerful as he is only a soul and can transfer into any body that he pleases and will kill to keep people in order and their respect high. It doesn't take long until Anyanwu catches on to his sick ways and decides to go against him and escape, beginning her own tribe but after a few hundred years she is caught by him again.
Though this time around, Doro understood how valuable Anyanwu is and does not want her to runaway again so he allows her freedom in the sense of not forcing her hand into marriage and making her have children. It ends with them coming in agreement that it's better for them to have each other and work together than to hate each other and fight, especially being that they are the only two immortal people alive.
Overall this book took me for a loop! It was definitely something that is so different and radical that it makes it very hard to describe, it's just one of those things you have to experience for yourself
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