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Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler

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Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler                 And so it all ends. And it was so damn good! Okay, let me slow down and start with the beginning of this book. The Clay’s Ark disease is running rampant. The only people who exist now are those with the disease, those who hold the pattern and the mutes being controlled. The Clayarks and Patternist are basically at war. Teray is a son of the Patternmaster, Rayal, who is dying from the Clay’s Ark disease. Coransee is also a son of Rayal and now sees Teray as his biggest threat to obtaining the pattern once Rayal finally succumbs to the disease.                 There you have it. That is the backdrop for the final book in this series. I’m not going to try and go into the details of this book because they are too vast and I won’t be able to put into words everything going on, within the limits I want this post to be. What I will say is that this was a satisfying finale. This story spreads over hundreds of years. Many of the c

Clay’s Ark by Octavia E. Butler

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Clay’s Ark by Octavia E. Butler                  Blake thought he would be safe with his daughters in their armored truck, even as they traveled out of their safe enclave. But when a man ripped open his locked door and threatened to kill his family everything changed. Blake knew these people were different. They were reading his body language, like they were reading his mind. They knew Keira was sick even if the strangers couldn’t deduce what was wrong. The strangers forced them to go to the ranch, kidnapping Rane, Blake’s other daughter and threatening them all if they didn’t follow. Eli, the leader of the ranch, made it clear that they couldn’t leave. That they would be infected like him, and everyone else at the ranch. The extraterrestrial organisms inhabiting Eli’s body would infect him too. Shockingly, the only way to keep any one at the ranch, and the world safe, would be for Blake and his family to stay. By then they were already infected.                 I have absol

Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler

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Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler                 Centuries have passed since Dora and Anyanwu have met and chose to live harmoniously. A truce between the two of them to exist together even though they may disagree. Doro is close to getting what he always wanted. His descendants are growing in number and now there is Mary. He knew from the moment Mary was born that she would be different. An exceptionally strong telepath, something completely different than he had seen before. She would be the prize he was looking for, if she survived transition. What Doro wasn’t expecting was for her to form a pattern with some of his other telepaths after she transitioned. That those telepaths would be connected to her and that she would be able to control them in a way that even he could not. And that he would begin to see her as a threat.                 The Patternist series is just incredible. There is no other way around it. What Octavia E. Butler created with this series is a

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

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Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler                  This is a story of power, unbelievable power and unexplainable beings. Doro has roamed the Earth for over three millennia, taking bodies as necessary and finding others with some form of power to breed and build colonies of people, his people, obedient, subservient, useful and different. Many would call them witches. Anyanwu was special. She had power the likes of which Doro had never seen before, able to not only control her shape and appearance but to heal. Alive for more than three hundred years Anyanwu had many husbands and bore many children but none with a power to rival her own. Two extremely powerful beings with motives that would never mix and one content to keep the other a slave.                 I don’t want to spoil anything but what follows is an intense power struggle, one based on morals and the concept of what it means to truly live and to truly love. Anyanwu is willing to sacrifice her freedom for the people

Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

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Here and Gone by Haylen Beck                 Audra was just trying to get away from her ex-husband and his controlling mother. It took her years to finally get over her addiction, develop a relationship with her kids, and finally leave. But he still controlled their lives. He was constantly trying to take the children away from her and she needed a break. Four days they had been on the road, making their way cross country when everything changed. The sheriff pulled her over, her kids were taken from her and now the sheriff claims they were never with her. She knows the truth and yet no one believes her. Except for Danny, the man who this has happened to be before, and who has been hunting for the people responsible.                 Here and Gone has a really interesting premise and started off strong. The sequence with the children being taken happened in the beginning stages of the novel and readers weren’t aware of how far into addiction Audra was and for what reasons

The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser with M. Bridget Cook

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The Witness Wore Red: The 19 th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser with M. Bridget Cook                      Rebecca Wall has been a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) her entire life. Her mother was a second wife and had 14 children. Her father had three wives and 24 children in all. Rebecca never doubted the sanctity of plural marriage. She questioned those outside of the FLDS and the evil lurking in wait to harm her and her family. The Prophet, Rulon Jeffs, was a tool of God and she would eventually be his bride. But as she got older and became a wife she was privy to more and more disturbing details. Were marriages really ordained by God or negotiations of the men in power? Was abuse something women and children should take without question? Eventually the questions and fear of Warren Jeffs, the son of Rulon, who took power after his death were enough to convince Rebecca it was time to escape.