Customer Reviews

Mind of My Mind

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Will humans ever split into separate species? If so, what will be the cause and how will it happen? Octavia Butler addresses these questions in this fine novel. I was about to say that it was one of her best, but then her books usually divide themselves for me into the excellent and the truly outstanding, and there are more of the latter than the former. The quality of her fiction is better than any scifi writer I have ever read.

Her characters, even inhuman mutants, are entirely believable as they embark on the strangest of journeys into the unknown. And it is so well imagined as to be completely believable. Usually, I have to fight to stop thinking, "OK this is someone just thinking this up." Butler puts you into these fantastic worlds. So the heroine of this novel enters into a struggle with Doro, the vampiric mind-entity that has bred humans with purpose for thousands of years. As the culmination of his efforts - a theme in sci fi from Frankenstein but since then never so freshly done as Butler has - she will either grow beyond him or be destroyed.

Butler understands power so well, not so much from the point of view of those accustomed to wielding it as from those who must submit or die trying to escape it. Outstanding.

This book is great, I have read all of Octavia Butler's stories, and I think this one is my favorite. In this story, which can be considered the second in the series after Wild Seed, all of Doro's tampering finally comes to a head with his daughter Mary. Mary has the unique talent of being able to tie many telepaths together in a pattern. I think that this is one of the best written books I have read. Butler is really able to take you right to the spot, which is difficult to do, especially with science-fiction. Even if you haven't read Wild Seed, this book can easily stand on it's own, but I also recommend reading Wild Seed and the books that come after Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark and Patternmaster.

Doro is immortal, whenever he gets hungry or is killed he eats another persons mind and moves into their body. Telepaths taste better and he has bred them over the years as a hobby and to provide a source of tasty meals.

Now though he has produced a new kind of telepath, Mary, who seems to be a little too much like Doro. Mary links a group of telepaths together in a pattern with her in the centre.

A struggle takes place between Mary and Doro for Doros wild telepaths who Mary wants to save, and have join the pattern, and who Doro would usually eat.

Who will win, 4000 year old Doro, less than 20 year old Mary? Will Doro eat Mary? READ THE BOOK!!!

This is the second in the Patternmaster series which include Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark, and Patternmaster. this one is my favorite.

Excellent followup to Wild Seed, which was great. I recommend all of Butler's books, especially Kindred. Look her up and read her books, many of which are in a series. She is a science fiction writer for all people, who has a lovely personality.

After thousands of years, the immortal Doro's breeding program has finally produced a young female telepath who becomes the cornerstone of a psionic network, a new kind of society called the Pattern. However, Doro and Mary can't see eye to eye, and conflict slowly comes to a head...

Butler sees human nature as paradoxical: people need communities and families to be healthy and sane, but humanity is inherently hierarchical and compelled to compete for power. Human society fosters both love and violence.

Butler is pretty honest about the uglier aspects of the Pattern, a society where mind-control is a regular practice, and non-telepathic "mutes" are well-tended slaves. However, when you compare it to life without the Pattern, thousands of people living in hopeless schizophrenia from uncontrolled telepathy, you can understand their decisions. As in most of Butler's fiction, it's about how people live in imperfect situations. Ask yourself what you would do in their place....

The book is a bit talky in places. The strength of the book is the characterization and dialogue, and Butler's perspective is unique and thought-provoking.

<i>Spoilers</i>
My only real complaint about this book is Anyanwu/Emma's role in the story. "Wild Seed" ends with her winning the war of wills with Doro, retaining her personal autonomy. I thought she would jump at the chance to renegotiate the terms of the society Doro created, but instead she just has a few cameos and sides with Doro to the end. It undermines the strength and integrity of her character as established in "Wild Seed".

This is my favorite Octavia Butler book. My first introduction to Ms. Butler's work was a couple years ago when my book club chose, Kindred, as a selection. I love Kindred, but I do believe I like Mind of my Mind more.

Mind of My Mind is so representative of everything Octavia Butler. It's a powerhouse of a book packed into a couple hundred pages. The writing is brilliant, it's wildly imaginative and a truly enjoyable read. I couldn't put it down.

The maniacal Dora in this desire to create greatness has mated individuals with supernatural traits or powers. At last creating Mary a telepath with the ability to draw other telepath to her, creating a pattern. With Mary, Doro has gotten more than he bargained for. He may have created a force more powerful than himself.

"Mind of My Mind" is the story of Mary, a psychic approaching her "transition" at which point she will find out what abilities she really has. She was bred for the purpose by a body-changing being named Doro.

While this may sound like just another sci-fi book, it's not. All the characters are well-drawn, and within the first 100 pages you have eleven developed characters. Almost everyone acts in a realistic fashion, even given the bizarre circumstances. At times I even found myself asking why this book hadn't been made into a movie yet. I could pick out certain high-profile actors who would have been perfect for the parts, and by simply copying the book word-for-word they would have produced an Oscar winner. Virtually every line of dialogue rings of human emotion that would satisfy any critic, while also giving the masses something enjoyable.

The second half of the book is a bit less drama and more science fiction than the first, but events are taking place that change the rules applying to the psychics, so the rules have to be redrawn for the reader. The story remains great.

The only problem I have is the POV changes. The story is told from numerous POVs in 3rd person, but in a scene about Mary it is told from first person. I found this a little distracting, but it's still a great read.

When I began reading this book I didn't know it would be the catalyst of the patternmaster series. Actually, after having read several Butler books and figuring out there were series, I would just read the books according to publications dates.

Mind of My Mind is a good book that explores another realm of human development. This time instead of going into extraterrestrial realms, Butler keeps everything "grounded" so-to-speak. The characters, as always, are intertwined in some weird relationship scheme. (Is there something in her life that has her do these polygamistic type relationships?)

Buy it, read it and expand your mind.

Butler has done it again: created a thought-provoking novel that involves reality and the not-too-distant future. Even though I read out of the series, I still understood the plot and its occurrences. Butler picked Mary to be a special child of Doro to dominate her own type of people (Patternists). Even though telepathy is not apart of everyone's conscious life, Butler explains and demonstrates it easily to the reader. If the reader is not use to science fiction novels and stories, Ms. Butler will easily slide her/him into the world that makes one ask herself/himself, "What if...?" Very seldom (if at all) was this work hard to read. Again, Butler has written a commendable work of science fiction that makes one think and appreciate her creativity.

Octavia E. Butler's books often deal with the issues of race, sex, and class and feature young black women coming into their own. In MIND OF MY MIND, Mary, a young woman raised in tough conditions, realizes that she has extraordinary power, and this both frightens and amazes her. Her predecessor, Doro, is also someone of nearly unlimited power, but he can hardly be categorized as human. Able to take over the body of anyone, he discovered this ability as a child in ancient Africa. Through the ages he learns to control this power and with it embarks on a quest to breed a new species--one that will dominate the world.

However, his experiments are not without cost. Many of the humans that he "created" are wrong. Their abilities may be dormant and often cause mental problems that are uncontrollable. In one truly horrifying scene in the book, readers are presented with a possible outcome when two of these humans come together--a baby's rotting body is discovered among two people that are incapable of functioning because their abilities, in such close proximity, drive them crazy.

Still, there are some that function enough to breed more children. And finally, Doro has what he wants in Mary. But her power may prove greater than his, as he feels that she is what he could have been. He believes, at first, that she will be easy to guide and control because she is a female. Once she fully learns to command her abilities, she also learns to lead others like her, and she and Doro continue a dangerous game of mental chess as they learn what the other is truly capable of.

Though a short novel, it is written from multiple points of view and engages the reader with simple yet extraordinary prose and dialog. Anyone that enjoys science fiction and fantasy should enjoy this book; it is also a great read for anyone that is looking for an engaging story that probes the questions of humanity, evolution, and the responsibilities and pitfalls of power.