THE PATTERNIST SERIES: PATTERNMASTER, MIND OF MY MIND, SURVIVOR, WILD SEED, CLAY'S ARK 1984

Garden City & New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. / St. Martin's Press, 1984. First Editions. Sharp set of this cornerstone work by by Butler (1947-2006), hailed by many as the "Mother of Afrofuturism." Butler began crafting the Patternist narrative when she first began writing science-fiction at the age of 12; it evolved into a sweeping, intricately-crafted five book series spanning generations, which "establish structures and themes that loom large across her oeuvre - the pliability of the human body, the cruelty of the mind, the endurance of the soul - while highlighting her trademark fascination with power: its seductivity, and its misuse...the Patternists first arose as the unintended consequence of a millennia-long breeding project administered by Doro, an immortal East African vampire, with the periodic assistance of his companion and lover, the shapeshifter Anyanwu (later called Emma). Here, Tate's observation about an African diasporic subject "bred to be superhuman" is rendered disturbingly literal. In the Patternist books a secret competitor to white hegemony is revealed to exist alongside modernity's actually existing history of intergenerational slavery and forced reproduction, an alternate history that is both a deviation from and a nightmarish replication of white supremacy. But despite its status as a competitor, the results of Doro's experiments liberate neither humanity in general nor black pepople in particular; instead, they culminate in an even more totalizing domination by an even more untouchably powerful elite, a state of affairs to which any resistance seems utterly impossible" (Canavan, Gerry. "Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series." Paradoxa, Vol.25 (2013), p.253-254). An extremely influential series which has become exceedingly difficult to complete; for a variety of reasons, Butler disavowed her third novel, Survivor, and did not allow it to be reprinted since 1981. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4-102-104. First Printings. Five octavo volumes (21.5cm); original boards, with titles stamped on spines; dustjackets; [vi],186; xviii,168,[6]; [vi],185,[1]; [viii],248; [vi],201,[1]pp.

1. Patternmaster: Base of spine gently nudged, lower board corners gently tapped (though still sharp); Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $5.95), gently spine-sunned and lightly edgeworn, with two tiny tears and some dustiness to rear panel; Very Good+.

2. Mind Of My Mind: Light crinkling to spine ends, previous owners name neatly rubber-stamped to front pastedown, with a hint of foxing to upper edge of textblock; Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $6.95), with light wear to extremities, and some scattered foxing to rear panel and on verso; Near Fine.

3. Survivor: Fine in a very Near Fine dustjacket, unclipped (priced $6.95), with a hint of sunning to spine.

4. Wild Seed: Base of spine gently tapped, some pinpoint wear to crown, else Near Fine in a Near Fine dustjacket, unclipped (priced $10.00), with some trivial wear to extremities.

5. Clay's Ark: Base of spine gently nudged, else Near Fine in a Near Fine dustjacket, unclipped (priced $12.95), with light wear to extremities, a few tiny tears and creases.