Pattern Master

Book 4 of the Patternist series

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I didn’t like this. The entire story revolved around two men sizing each other up.

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It was all, “I’m stronger than you”, “You're not powerful enough”, “I’ll kill you later”, etcetera etcetera. The struggle of two men over power is very boring and not something I’m interested in reading about.

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They rode for several minutes in silence. Finally, without speaking, he opened, reached out to her. Linking was like clasping hands— and did not require even that much effort. Now her alarm, her fear, almost any strong emotion of hers, would alert him. And his emotions would alert her. But beyond that, as he had feared, he was too much aware of the link— aware of a strong, ongoing sense of oneness with her.

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Normally, a link, once established, became part of the mental background, not to be noticed again until one of the linked people did whatever the link was sensitized to respond to.        

Also, the two storylines came together in this book, yes, but what happened? Did the humans kill all the Clayarks or not? We don’t know. So the main storyline of this entire series of four books is left unresolved at the end!

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Summing up the Patternist Series then [Spoilers!], the super advanced children made by an immortal healer and an immortal spirit evolve into a race who abuse their power causally, subjugate their women, and in each generation, wage a deadly battle for who will wield absolute power.

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Jackman waited just outside the door to Coransee’s private quarters. He was a tall, bony man with straw-colored hair and mental strength so slight that he could easily have been a teacher at the school. Teachers, even more than muteherds, dealt with mentally defenseless people, and were required to be relatively harmless themselves.

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Jackman was harmless enough. He could not quite hide his shock when he met Teray and, through the Pattern, recognized Teray’s greater strength.        

What a disappointment considering all the abilities these folks had. It’s so patriarchal. I’m surprised Octavia Butler wrote this, actually.

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Hard pass.

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