Als der Seelenmeister starb

Not as fun as the other books in this series imo, but we do finally get a badass bisexual character from Butler who survives. So, major points. (I wish we had spent more time on that!!!!! Butler spends so much time interrogating and imagining sexual and romantic dynamics between men and women. Imagine if she had spent more time on queer women?!)

The patternmaster series is interesting in that the books are really only tangentially related, the first two more than the last. Wild Seed was probably the best one. Patternmaster had to spend way more time on the world building; Clay's Ark had an absolutely bleak and almost gratuitously gorey ending. At least Patternmaster ends on a high note.

Reading the conclusion and understanding the publication order of the series makes a lot of things clearer. The strange transformation of Anyanwu into Emma, the vague reference to Doro here, the unspecified nature of the Clayarks. I think the effect is still somewhat diminished, nevertheless; the series feels like it moves in the wrong direction. Wild Seed is an epic generational tale, Patternmaster instead is merely a vignette into the conflict and society that we expect to have been built up. It is fun to see how the powers shape the society but nevertheless seems somehow disappointing after all of the build-up. There is a balance between theme and worldbuilding, and the latter felt a little lacking.