Clay's Ark [Hardcover]

Octavia E. Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1984

In a violent near-future, Asa Elias Doyle and her companions encounter an alien life form so heinous and destructive, they exile themselves in the desert so as not to contaminate other humans. To resist the compulsion to infect others is mental agony, nut to succumb is to relinquish humanity and free will. Desperate, they kidnap a doctor and his two daughters as they cross the wasteland--and endanger the world.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Octavia E. Butler was the first black woman to come to international prominence as a science fiction writer. Incorporating powerful, spare language and rich, well-developed characters, her work tackled race, gender, religion, poverty, power, politics, and science in a way that touched readers of all backgrounds. Butler was a towering figure in life and in her art and the world noticed; highly acclaimed by reviewers, she received numerous awards, including a MacArthur "genius" grant, both the Hugo and Nebula awards, the Langston Hughes Medal, as well as a PEN Lifetime Achievement award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 201 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (June 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312143214
• ISBN-13: 978-0312143213
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,326,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was the author of many novels, including Dawn, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Award and a Nebula Award, and she twice won the Hugo Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Change happens, August 21, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clay's Ark (Mass Market Paperback)

The last novel in her Patternist series to be published, it shares a lot more in common with her Xenogenesis trilogy in tone and subject material. Of the Patternist novels that I have read, that group seems more oriented towards questions of power and dominance--basically, who is stronger, and what are the responsibilities of that role. The series actually begins with Wild Seed, which explains the character of Doro, who then sees a success in his human breeding program in Mind of My Mind. Clay's Ark is next in the timeline, but it only refers obliquely to the existence of a psionic pattern (late in the novel, it explains the macguffin for the faster than light drive used by the spaceship that returns to Earth), but it mainly concerns the alien organism that creates the Clayarks. The next book, Patternmaster, shows these two groups--the Patternists and the Clayarks--millennia later, both almost unrecognizable as human.

It is this evolution away from humanity that becomes the main theme of Xenogenesis, but it is in the forefront of Clay's Ark. The difference, however, is that this evolution is almost entirely negative here, whereas in Xenogenesis there's an ambiguity to it that makes it much more complex than just a good/bad issue. Change happens (to quote Butler's more recent work). Why is it negative here in Clay's Ark? Because of the mindlessness of the extraterrestrial interaction. As humans, thinking and feeling humans, we see ourselves as ratiocentric--that is, we value the power of logic and rational thought and discount the so-called "animal" urges of instinct and biological compulsion. This dichotomy makes up the conflict between the two groups in Patternmaster: the Patternists are pure thought, ruled by the power of the mind, whereas the Clayarks are all biological urges, roaming free, living life in the here and now. The human race has bifurcated, and although a "mute" semblance remains, humans are portrayed as beings where both mind and body are weak and dull. In Xenogenesis, Butler changes this, and the organism that is entirely mutable is portrayed as the strongest.

Because it contains a lot of adventure--there's kidnapping and close escapes and gunfire and more violence than a Fox Saturday night-- Clay's Ark hides a lot of this underlying thought. Only the struggle that Eli continues to endure breaks this action-orientation; the rest of the characters are driven either by the disease or their human nature to respond to the events. While not as hopeful or thoughtful as her later work, I liked this one tremendously.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A missing link revealed, January 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Clay's Ark (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read her excellent _Mind of My Mind_ and _Patternmaster_, you might wonder about how the world changed so much between these two novels and what exactly these Clayarks are. Well, this book clarifies much of this. While it's probably a notch below the other two in the series, it's well worth reading and essential if you want a complete understanding of the Patternmaster series

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an exceptional story by an exceptional writer., October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Clay's Ark (Mass Market Paperback)

Clay's Ark is a wonderful taut, gripping and suspenseful tale. Butler really forces the reader to analyze his or her perceptions of what it really means to be human by delving deeply in to human behavior and ethical issues. Ethical issues such as: gang violence, racism, suicide, artificial insemination, AIDS, etc. I highly recommend the text. It should be required reading in literature classes for students to discuss and write about "big questions" and problems that affect our world. Further, Ms. Butler's use of metaphor, simile and foreshadowing is outstanding. The images she creates with words are vivid and concise. Any reader can visualize this story.

I wish that whoever wrote the synopsis of the book for the web page knew that Asa Elias Doyle is a male, not a female!