Wild Seed
- 279
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Wild Seed” is a deeply unsettling, original novel about two immortals who cannot do without each other. Doro, who survives by taking other people’s bodies, breeds humans for special powers; Anyanwu, a woman intent on keeping her humanity, becomes his uneasy ally and opponent. Readers often find it disturbing, and some read it as an allegory of slavery, patriarchy and racism. Published fourth in the Patternist series, it comes first in that world’s chronology.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Wild Seed is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler. Although published in 1980 as the fourth book of the Patternist series, it is the earliest book in the chronology of the Patternist world. The other books in the series are, in order within the Patternist chronology: Mind of My Mind (1977), Clay's Ark (1984), Survivor (1978), and Patternmaster (1976).
Reading order · Patternist series
Full order & progress →- PatternmasterStart here
7.67.6 / 10 - Mind of My Mind
7.97.9 / 10 - Survivor
–Not ranked yet - Wild SeedThis book
8.08.0 / 10 - Clay's Ark
7.67.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 171 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 54% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.1 | 11 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 160 | 94% |
Frequently asked
How long is Wild Seed?
It has 279 pages — shorter than 82% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 8.0, the closest to this book.
