Octavia Butler's Mind of My Mind - Whose Mind Is Mine? Yours?
Written: May 16 '01 (Updated Oct 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Character development.
Cons: Short at 217 pages.
The Bottom Line: Octavia Butler transforms our world into the Patternist world in an amazingly believable story.
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| shaithis's Full Review: Mind of My Mind Books |
Thank goodness I picked up this novel at the same time as I picked up Octavia Butler's 'Patternmaster'!
Patternmaster was a shorter length novel (at least compared to what I am used to) that introduced readers to a future on Earth where telepaths ran the world. Those without telepathic ability (people like you and I) are pretty much slaves.
I had thought that Mind Of My Mind would carry on where Teray (a character from the first novel) left off. I thought I would get to see him actually become THE Patternmaster and see what it entails. This is not the case. Instead of just carrying it on, Ms. Butler has shown us how the Earth and this 'pattern' came to be.
Mind Of My Mind is the second released novel in Octavia Butler's 'Patternist' series. However, it is a prequel. It shows how in our world how people have had mental abilities like telepathy for quite some time, but no one knew how to develop them. Mary is just such a person.
An ancient man (or woman) named Doro has had the ability to jump out of his body if it is threatened and take over the nearest one. This essentially kills the initial person, but has given Doro immortality. During his obscenely long lifetime, he began to breed humans much like a horse breeder. His goal is to create a new race of telepaths. He has families all around the world that breed with other families of his. Effectively bringing in a strong telepathic gene.
Doro has had quite a high failure rate with his 'stock'. Most telepaths go crazy and die. After Mary comes along, she begins to change that.
The novel carries on the great character development that I've come to know in Ms. Butler's work. She seems to excel at showing how a person is a nutcase in the beginning of a novel and then develop her into a respectable leader.
A major fun part in reading this novel was seeing the new Earth that Octavia Butler wrote about in 'Patternmaster' develop. At first telepaths are a small group. As the novel progresses, their numbers grow. They learn about their skills and eventually conclude that non-telepaths (Mutes) are so limited that they begin to control them with 'suggestions' in their mind. Eventually you can see where mutes are headed, straight into a slave role to the patternists. You even get to meet the first Patternmaster!
It may have only been the day before when I first read Patternmaster, but it was so good and stuck in my mind that while reading this novel I felt like I was having fun learning history. Subtle references to various things and ideas develop were really interesting to follow through the book. You can feel the world changing and shaping itself from what we know, to the world Octavia Butler knows.
Mind Of My Mind is another phenomenal novel by Octavia Butler. I am already reading her third written book in the series called 'Survivor'.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
shaithis
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Location: Winnipeg, MB
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