They appear sickly yet possess unnatural strength, torn between the dangerous compulsion to infect others or to hold on to their own humanity. In an isolated desert compound, the family encounter a collective of people suffering from an unknown and deadly disease. In an alternate America marked by volatile class warfare, he and his twin daughters are taken captive by armed men demanding urgent medical care.

Clay’s Ark (1984) – Blake Maslin is a doctor.

As she comes of age, Mary must harness her newfound abilities to challenge the ruthless man who controls her – and fight to free her people once and for all. What he doesn’t suspect is that Mary is beginning to learn just how much power she wields. Doro knows he must handle Mary carefully or risk her ending like his previous experiments – dead, either by her own hand or his. His finest creation is Mary, a young black woman who grows up on the rough outskirts of Los Angeles.

Mind of My Mind (1977) – For thousands of years, Doro has pursued perfection, experimenting with humanity and seeking out rare – and powerful – talents.

Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. She is a shape-shifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. 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 survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him.

Wild Seed (1980) – For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection.Octavia Butler Books in Order: The Patternist series in chronological order She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010, a mountain on Charon (a moon of Pluto) was named after her in 2018, the landing site of the Perseverance rover was also named after her in 2021 by NASA, and she was inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame the same year. She also wrote the Xenogenesis trilogy (during the 1980s), and The Parable series (during the 1990s).

Patternmaster was the first (and last chronologically) installment in the Patternist series, more followed. She sold her first short stories in 1971 and her first novel, Patternmaster, was published in 1975. Octavia Butler (1947–2006) was an award-winning best-selling African-American science fiction author who started writing as a teenager. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.Īll of Octavia Butler’s Books? Who is Octavia Butler?

Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler