Wild Seed (1980)

This is the story of two immortal god-like beings who live among humans and both relate to humans in different ways. Doro, the older male god-thing, must kill to continue living, and spends his millenia breeding humans, trying to create a line of people that share powers like his. Aynwanu, the female god-thing, has amazing powers of healing, and nurtures and heals those around her. The book explores their different relationships with normal people, as well as racism, differences between genders, and people's fear of what is different.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book... I found it very engaging, and I read it pretty quickly. However, I never really connected with any of the characters... I never got the point of Doro's big breeding project. Perhaps I would have liked it better if some of the people in the book had been normal humans, and Butler had explored their reactions to these immortals...

[mild spoiler alert] The end seemed rushed and sudden. I didn't quite understand why Aynwanu suddenly reconciled with Doro. [/spoiler] ( )

This book wasn't as good a match for my mood as N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but it didn't suffer for being read immediately after it. It's an interesting concept: a being that might as well be a god, moving from body to body, amoral and utterly self-serving, trying to breed others like him so he won't be alone, and a being who is also immortal, or close to it, nurturing families so she won't be alone. The two of them are entirely different: Anwanyu loves the people she finds and treats them well, no matter what, and she has children and cares for them not as means to an end, but as ends in themselves. Doro is merciless, regarding people only as long as they serve his purpose. We're clearly meant to sympathise with Anwanyu, as she's the closest to what we can understand, but Doro has his moments too, at least for me. His loneliness is something I can understand.

The different abilities, and the difficulty in producing them, in people surviving them, and how many ways they can go wrong, rings true to me. It's discomforting to read about people being bred like cattle, without real dignity, but sometimes you kind of share in Doro's frustration that it isn't turning out the way it should.

Because of the immortal nature of the two characters, they're the only ones that exist throughout the novel, but there are one or two others worth sympathising with, mostly (for me) Isaac and Thomas, despite how short-lived Thomas is.

The style of the writing is deceptively simple, but there's a lot to think about. It isn't mindless brain candy, despite being easy to read.

The most unsatisfying thing about it is the ending. I'm aware this is the first book in its timeline, not the only book, but the end is an uncomfortable compromise that leaves Anwanyu still not quite doing what she feels is right, which is a disappointment. ( )

3.5 stars...this one reads like an extended prologue, so i'm very glad to have the anthology edition that contains 'Mind of my Mind.' i love how Butler's prose always starts out so deceptively simplistic - small words, small sentences with concise, single, uncomplicated ideas. partway through, as the main character knows more and has her illusions broken constantly, and is forced to become more canny and wise, you start to notice the prose has become more complex and multi-layered as well. as the main character becomes more complex, she becomes more intriguing, so the latter half of the book reads much quicker than the first, and has me rushing headlong right into the next book of the series. ( )

Yet another book review that GoodReads ate...

Two immortals with wildly different manifestations of immortality are entwined in a centuries (well, millenia) long relationship/battle which very heavily deals with slavery, freedom, healing, and destruction.

It's very much Butler's beautiful voice, giving strength to these conflicts and dualities while also creating beautifully complex and deep characters

(apologies for the lack of a stellar review, I remember the book, but I can't remember the more detailed review I wrote about it when I read it) ( )

Yet another book review that GoodReads ate...

Two immortals with wildly different manifestations of immortality are entwined in a centuries (well, millenia) long relationship/battle which very heavily deals with slavery, freedom, healing, and destruction.

It's very much Butler's beautiful voice, giving strength to these conflicts and dualities while also creating beautifully complex and deep characters

(apologies for the lack of a stellar review, I remember the book, but I can't remember the more detailed review I wrote about it when I read it) ( )