Wild seed

Octavia E. Butler

eAudio - 2021

As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past-and mankind's destiny is changed forever. For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a t...yrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.

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Subjects
Genres
Science fiction
Romance fiction
Published
[United States] : Recorded Books, Inc 2021.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Octavia E. Butler (author)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Other Authors
Robin Miles (narrator)
Edition
Unabridged
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
Cover image
Physical Description
1 online resource (1 audio file (11hr., 09 min.)) : digital
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9781980019350
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Butler's ""Patternmaster"" series has been appearing jigsaw-wise rather than in consistent chronological sequence of events; this latest piece fits into the puzzle somewhere before Mind of My Mind (1977). Doro, the mysterious and cruel immortal who has been wandering the earth since the days of the Pharaohs trying to breed up a race with abilities worthy of his own, has succeeded only in erratically (and often dangerously) reinforcing various predispositions to telepathy and telekinesis among his selected human strains. Collecting a shipload of African slaves to take to one of his breeding-colonies in 17th-century America, he chances on a female ""wild seed""--a second though lesser immortal perhaps generated in the wake of some long-ago experiment of his own. But Doro's new discovery proves to have shape-changing abilities which enable her to rebel against his casual creation and destruction of obedient subjects, and a century and a half later to set up her own kinder equivalent of Doro's communities. Butler, a vigorous narrator, has presented herself with an unfortunate dilemma: should everybody speak characterless 20th-century English or some artificial story-book argot? Better the former, which she chooses--but at the cost of divorcing her characters from any real sense of the supposed historical settings. Good story, not quite the right underpinnings. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.