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Seed to Harvest Paperback – January 5, 2007

by Octavia E. Butler (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,076 ratings
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The complete Patternist series-the acclaimed science fiction epic of a world transformed by a secret race of telepaths and their devastating rise to power.

In the late seventeenth century, two immortals meet in an African forest. Anyanwu is a healer, a three-hundred-year-old woman who uses her wisdom to help those around her. The other is Doro, a malevolent despot who has mastered the power of stealing the bodies of others when his wears out. Together they will change the world.

Over the next three centuries, Doro mounts a colossal selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race of telepaths. He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, splitting the human race down the middle and establishing a new world order dominated by the most manipulative minds on Earth.

In these four novels, award-winning author Octavia E. Butler tells the classic story that began her legendary career: a mythic tale of the transformation of civilization.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    784 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grand Central Publishing
  4. Publication date
    January 5, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.3 x 1.55 x 8.05 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0446698903
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0446698900
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

OCTAVIA E. BUTLERwas a renowned writer who received a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. She was the author of several award-winning novels including Parable of the Sower, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. Sales of her books have increased enormously since her death as the issues she addressed in her Afrofuturistic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant. She passed away on February 24, 2006.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; First Edition (January 5, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 784 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0446698903
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0446698900
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 1.55 x 8.05 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,076 ratings

About the author

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Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler

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OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947–2006) was the renowned author of numerous ground-breaking novels, including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science- fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius Grant’. A pioneer of her genre, Octavia’s dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women’s rights, global warming and political disparity, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
3,076 global ratings
came dented on one side. 10/10 book tho.
4 Stars
came dented on one side. 10/10 book tho.
book is perfect. one star taken off because my book came dented on one corner.
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Top reviews from the United States

RoxAnne Simon
5.0 out of 5 stars Woo! Intense!
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024
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Loved this series. I have read the other books by Octavia E. Butler, have had this one for a while and put off reading this series. Once I started, I could picture the different characters and would lose track of time. Each book flowed into the next so well. It wasn't until the last book that it took a bit to connect it to connect to the rest, there was a switch I didn't expect.
As always, I love this Author!!
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Jmaynard
5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing, intricate scifi epic from Butler
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2016
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The first book I read by Butler was  Fledgling  and I enjoyed it a lot, but it was  Lilith's Brood (Xenogenesis) that truly blew me away and made me a fan. Butler crafts some of the most compelling, and in-depth science fiction I have ever read.

Seed to Harvest includes four related novels in the Patternist series: Wild Seed, Mind of my Ming, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster. First, I have to say I am grateful for this omnibus edition because otherwise I might have read them in published order, whereas this collection is done in chronological order. I think it’s better this way. Patternmaster was the first book Butler published, and it throws readers directly into a very different and strange world than the one we know. The other three books show how we got there and I think it makes for a better reading experience.

WILD SEED is the tale of Anyanwu, an African woman who can heal herself of any injury and is seemingly immortal. She is discovered by Doro, a being who has lived for millennia but at the expense of countless lives. He intends to create a master race of humans through careful breeding. He finds those gifted with psychic abilities and brings them together, and he wants Anyanwu as part of that plan. The two of them are at odds, but also drawn to each other- living embodiments of life and death. Butler’s characters are fully developed and come alive off the pages.

MIND OF MY MIND introduces Mary, who may be the key to creating Doro’s master race. Mary is the first powerful telepath born who is not driven insane by her gift. She uses it to create The Pattern, which binds her people together. Only, Doro may have gotten more than he bargained for when he realizes he’s not part of that master race. I think this is the best book of the four – I read it straight through because it was so creative and the characters so interesting.

CLAY’S ARK is where things get a little…weird. Wild Seed and Mind of my Mind were tightly connected stories, tied together by Anyanwu and Doro. Clay’s Ark introduces brand new characters and a new story-telling structure which swaps between present day and the past. The book appears completely unrelated to the two books that come before it, but is a critical bridge to Patternmaster. A father and his two older teen daughters are accosted on the highway and taken prisoner. Eli calmly informs that that he is carrying a disease that they now have, and will come to accept. Naturally, they don’t want to accept it and try to escape, with global consequences. In the prior two books, Doro hinted that his master race is going to be needed for a purpose. One that is finally revealed in the final book.

PATTERNMASTER opens with a surprise attack on the Rayal, the Patternmaster, by Clayarks. These two species have been at war for decades, and the Clayarks realize killing Rayal is the key to winning. The story then moves to Teray, one of many sons of the Patternmaster His mental abilities are very strong, perhaps even strong enough to allow him hold The Pattern one day. This is something Coransee cannot allow, for he wants the Pattern for himself.

Overall, I didn’t find Seed to Harvest to be quite as good as Lilith’s Brood, mainly because of the conclusion. Lilith’s Brood has more closure while Seed to Harvest is left more or less in a stalemate. It’s almost as if Butler intended there to be another book (and perhaps the long out of print “Survivor” is that book). Still, I thought this was a brilliant, rich saga that pulls a reader in and keeps them long after the final page. Highly recommended.
133 people found this helpful
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Shawn Stewart
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story based science fiction
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2016
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Octavia Butler's Patternist series is a well thought-out and executed science fiction classic. This collection brings together the four stories as they were meant be be enjoyed... leaving you to pace yourself and decide if you want to tackle them all as one or give yourself time between as Ms. Butler did. Some of the themes she returned to again and again are search for place and ownership of others who are your inferiors. She handles both of these topics with gentleness and we can feel the characters dilemmas of conscience and desire for belonging as palpable things.
Treating each book separately, I reviewed as I went...

Wild Seed, the first in this book series, reminds me of all that is good about Octavia Butler's writing. She has meaningful, complex characters and shows how people change rather than just telling. In some ways, the main characters in her story are the compassionate version of Heinlein's long lived family in his future history series. Unlike Heinlen, Butler obviously cares more about people feelings than their intercourse. She has a wonderful grasp of the biology of breeding and the problems that arise in husbandry as you try to encourage only certain traits. In addition, her political leanings are less obviously apparent except in that she seems to see a need for a system of some type rather than Heinlien's much more libertarian bent.

Mind of My Mind was a story that moved the two main characters from Wild Seed on (with some changes) and introduced a new main character, Mary. The desire for a sense of family and belonging are strong themes in this book and make me wonder if Butler lost her parents at a fairly young age. The story and the powers of the individuals made sense and were interesting, but what really made this story memorable was that the ending was at once surprising and exactly how it should have happened.

Clay's Ark was a disturbing novel of an alien invasion. Quite possibly the most insidious alien invasion sorry I have read and with many reminders of Heinlein's Puppetmasters.
Following the family in the story through their changes and interspersed with flashbacks of how the organism first found a foothold on Earth, Butler tells this story in a way that bothered me at first but which, ultimately, was exactly right.

The Patternists, the final novel in the series, seemed in some ways to be the most incomplete and the most different in tone from the others. Like the other novels, The Patternists had a theme of the search for place, in this case the place for a young man wanting to build his own life. In the other novels, however, as the characters changed, they always seemed to want to hold on to the behaviors and moralities that made them human. Not so in this book. From a beginning with a ruler in an incestuous relationship (think the Ptolmecic Dynasty in Egypt), to casually treating humans infected with an alien disease as animals to be slaughtered the issues of humanity in earlier books seem inconsequential in this one.

In the end, I was left wondering if Bulter had intended to write another book to finish the series. However, since she had something like twenty years to do so, I suppose not. This can lead your thoughts in fascinating ways as you have to decide which faction you identify with the most and where you think humanity would go from where she ended.
If you like sci-fi that makes you think... especially about society... This series is more than worth picking up.
38 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Bani Shiva
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting harsh take on life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2023
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This is a beautifully written rollercoaster of a book which explores so many issues (race/gender/colonialism) from a peculiarly unusual perspective. It’s tough and uncompromising in its vision and totally worth a read. She is under-rated really since I have been teaching English for 22 years and never heard of her - give her a try!
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Loretta D. Puckrin
5.0 out of 5 stars Like two different stories
Reviewed in Canada on March 28, 2021
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I could've happily left the series halfway through. The second set of books that starts with clays Ark read like a completely different story. Both stories had value but I think they should've been separated. That being said I still enjoyed both portions
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Ludmila Böse
5.0 out of 5 stars Travels in the Imagination
Reviewed in Germany on July 27, 2022
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Great read, teaches a lot about sensitivity and emotions. Octavia Butler will take on a trip through inner worlds.
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Mrs Joanne E Batkin
5.0 out of 5 stars So much to love
Reviewed in Australia on April 25, 2021
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I found so much to love about this series. It starts in Africa sometime in the 1800s with Anyanwu, a gifted shape-shifting healer living as wise woman and grandmother to her local tribe. Doro, similarly gifted with long life through his ability to switch bodies, seeks her out and convinces her to come with him to America to help 'seed' his dynasty of supernaturally gifted people taken from all over the world. His disregard for the value of individual human life is eventually tempered by her nurturing nature as his breeding program grows and eventually succeeds in producing increasingly gifted telepaths with the gift of coordinating others in 'patterns'. Their descendants harness their powers just in time to be able to stop an alien pathogen from erasing all human life on earth sometime in the future. The scope is incredible, but still so personal in how each character develops and interacts. I found it so engaging, extremely original and creative, and rich in both story and broader themes such as race, what it is to be human, and the importance of compassion. Definitely worth reading.
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Josie Boyce
5.0 out of 5 stars Another amazing series
Reviewed in Canada on March 6, 2018
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Interesting to read these books in the chronological order of the story rather than the order they were written, Wild Seed and Mind of my Mind are my faves if i have to pick, out of this group. But each book is wonderful in it's way. And complete. You could read them in any order and enjoy them on their own, but there is so much more there if you binge them all. Very satisfying stuff.
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