#patternmaster

[buckmink]

Patternmaster (1976) Octavia E. Butler

Heartsong (2019) T.J. Klune

Amber and Kelly bi and ace solidarity experience

[r-rook-studio]

Rosevile Beach Reads Octavia Butler

So on r-rook.studio, I’ve been building an Appendix N for Moonlight on Roseville Beach by looking at what genre paperbacks might show up in the town’s Paperback Exchange in 1979.

This time, I'm looking at Octavia Butler's exploration of a psionically powered far future that has its roots in very personal stories of people blessed and cursed by psi phenomena in the 20th century: The Patternist Series.

[chthonic-cassandra]

For recs: could you list favourite fantasy novels published more than 15 years ago?

Was curious to see what happened if I limited this to stand-alone novels, so here's that list first:

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Pamela Dean, Tam Lin

Jane Candas Dorsey, Black Wine

Greer Gilman, Cloud & Ashes

Angélica Gorodischer, Kalpa Imperial

Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer

Tanith Lee, Vivia

Tanith Lee, Volkhavaar

Vonda McIntyre, Dreamsnake

Patricia A. McKillip, The Tower at Stony Wood (a different McKillip might actually better belong here, but give me some time to reread some more of them. Her quality is really quite consistent, though)

Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide

Then series with all existing volumes published more than 15 years ago:

Lloyd Alexander, The Chronicles of Prydain

Octavia Butler, Patternmaster

Samuel R. Delaney, Return to Nevérÿon

Rosemary Kirstein, The Steerswoman

Tanith Lee, Tales from the Flat Earth

Tamora Pierce, The Circle of Magic

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

[arodrwho]

octavia butler GOOD

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

what’s your favorite book by Octavia Butler?.

i’m asking because honestly my white homeschooled sheltered ass had never heard of her until your blog but now that i have i’m really interested in her work! and i figure the favorite of who i learned about her from would be a good starting place.

ooooh that's so hard, I love most of Butler's books!

Kindred I think is an absolute standalone masterpiece and a great intro to her work and themes. Fledgling is also a standalone is one of my personal favorites for its unique take on vampires, and delving deep into Butler's interest in exploring erotic power dynamics. Wild Seed, which is the chronological first book in the Patternmaster series (the order in which the series was released is not the same order in which the events take place; I recommend reading them chronologically rather than in release order) absolutely knocked me out and one of the sequels, Survivor, was REALLY fun even though Butler disowned the work and it's very hard to get ahold of of a copy (I read a printed PDF lmao), really great old school Would That Be Fucked Up Or What? sci-fi. and her short story collection, Bloodchild, is of course iconic.

[ceausescue]

scifi authors where my favorite book is not the one people know:

- ian banks (against a dark background)

- orson scott card (the worthing saga)

- octavia butler (the patternmaster)

scifi authors where everyone is basically right:

- frank herbert (dune)

if you find another scifi author please let me know im intrigued by the possibilities of this new genre

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex or design. He fears no one until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kiss and savage anyone who threatens her. She fears no one until she meets Doro. Together they weave a pattern of destiny (from Africa to the New World) unimaginable to mortals.

[nicogayngelo]

spent some time with the women of the national portrait gallery

(the white parasol by robert reid // summer by frank w. benson // patternmaster by bisa butler // woman with red hair by albert herter // angel by abbott handerson thayer // michelle lavaughn robinson obama by amy sherald // stevenson memorial by abbott handerson thayer // the mirror by robert reid)

[bigbiguniverse]

reading list summer 24

slaughterhouse 5 the collected schizophrenias the great derangement: climate change and the unthinkable giovanni's room patternmaster alchemy & mysticism house of leaves

short bc i am a slow reader and 2 of these books are 700+ pages upon reflection this is a very ambitious reading list but i am excited to try it!!

[tyrograph]

Patternmaster (2023) by African American textile artist, Bisa Butler (born in 1973)

Fabric portrait of multiple award-winning African American science fiction author, Octavia Estelle Butler (1947-2006) (no relation).

Cotton, silk, velvet, vinyl, lace tulle, glass beads and rhinestones, quilted and appliquéd. (Bational Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC)

In Bisa Butler’s bright quilt rendering, Patternmaster, the author, whose dystopian fictions chillingly mirror much of our world today, looks skyward, glitter accents her hair, and a flying saucer adorns her blouse. The New York Times originally commissioned the artwork in 2022 for a cover story.

Butler is known for complex world-building while incorporating themes such as racial injustice, gender inequality, environmental degradation, genetic engineering, and human (and sometimes alien) evolution.

In that same world-building vein, Bisa Butler used various materials to build this stunning portrait of Octavia Butler. Her layering of fabric and materials mimic the layering of human emotion, speculative fiction, and fantastical scenarios that make Octavia Butler's writing so engaging. Talk about the portrait matching the person. This is it.

Source: attucksadams com

[buckmink]

Me reading Mind of my Mind despite knowing how dystopian and hierarchical Patternist society turns into in Patternmaster just because Doro is that despicable:

[jeanmoreaux]

*✧ — april wrap up

all you need to know is that i still have not reread tsc. emotionally and mentally it's my top priority AND YET. had to get some other stuff out of the way first, but now i might finally find some time to pick it up again. very excited for that.

2024 goal: 70/100 books

as alway, feel free to drop book recs, questions, or opinions in my inbox; i am always happy to talk to you about books!

* –> newly added to my favorites shelf

follow my goodreads | follow my storygraph  | previous wrap ups

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie | 2.5★ | review

Imago by Octavia E. Butler | 4.5★

Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler | 4.5★

Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler | 3★

Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler | 4.5★

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic | 5★ | comment

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark | 3.75★

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee (transl. Anton Hur) | 2★

As You Like It by William Shakespeare | 4★

The Will of the Many by James Islington | 4★

Ace by Angela Chen | 5★

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

rereads

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic | 5★ | review

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler | 4.5★

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic | 5★ | review

The King’s Men by Nora Sakavic | 5★ | review

[cotecoyotegrrrl]

Author Octavia E. Butler Author (1947–2006)

Known for blending science fiction with African-American spiritualism. Her novels include Patternmaster, Kindred, Dawn and Parable of the Sower.

Writer Octavia Estelle Butler was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947, later breaking new ground as a woman and an African American in the realm of science fiction. Butler thrived in a genre typically dominated by white males. She lost her father at a young age and was raised by her mother. To support the family, her mother worked as a maid.

As a child, Octavia E. Butler was known for her shyness and her impressive height. She was dyslexic, but she didn't let this challenge deter her from developing a love of books. Butler started creating her own stories early on, and she decided to make writing her life's work around the age of 10. She later earned an associate degree from Pasadena City College. Butler also studied her craft with Harlan Ellison at the Clarion Fiction Writers Workshop.

To make ends meet, Butler took all sorts of jobs while maintaining a strict writing schedule. She was known to work for several hours very early in the morning each day. In 1976, Butler published her first novel, Patternmaster. This book would ultimately become part of an ongoing storyline about a group of people with telepathic powers called Patternists. The other related titles are Mind of My Mind (1977), Wild Seed (1980) and Clay's Ark (1984). (Butler's publishing house would later group the works as the Patternist series, presenting them in a different reading order from when they were chronologically published.)

In 1979, Butler had a career breakthrough with Kindred. The novel tells the story of an African-American woman who travels back in time to save a white slave owner—her own ancestor. In part, Butler drew some inspiration from her mother's work. "I didn't like seeing her go through back doors," she once said, according to The New York Times. "If my mother hadn't put up with all those humiliations, I wouldn't have eaten very well or lived very comfortably. So I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure."

For some writers, science fiction serves as means to delve into fantasy. But for Butler, it largely served as a vehicle to address issues facing humanity. It was this passionate interest in the human experience that imbued her work with a certain depth and complexity. In the mid-1980s, Butler began to receive critical recognition for her work. She won the 1984 Best Short Story Hugo Award for "Speech Sounds." That same year, the novelette "Bloodchild" won a Nebula Award and later a Hugo as well.

In the late 1980s, Butler published her Xenogenesis trilogy—Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988) and Imago (1989). This series of books explores issues of genetics and race. To insure their mutual survival, humans reproduce with aliens known as the Oankali. Butler received much praise for this trilogy. She went on to write the two-installment Parable series—Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998).

In 1995, Butler received a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation—becoming the first science-fiction writer to do so—which allowed her to buy a house for her mother and herself.

[vitos-ordination-song]

It’s so crazy that Octavia Butler’s first novel was Patternmaster and she got the idea for it as a kid. Chapter one alone has:

Incest marriage

Psychic dominance chain

Violent sphinx people

Explosions!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

finished Patternmaster 👍

not that I need to be giving myself side quests on a day when I'm already busy flying home, but I could potentially finish up to 3 books today depending on my time management and I think that would be so so sexy of me

[artechouse]

Octavia Butler, Patternmaster (1976)