Clay's Ark
Ratings23
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings23
Average rating3.6
In a “haunting, apocalyptic, compelling” near future, one man and his daughters must stop an alien virus from becoming a deadly global epidemic (Essence). Blake Maslin and his two daughters are driving to Flagstaff when bandits swarm their car. At gunpoint, the marauders kidnap one of Blake’s children, promising to keep her safe in return for medical care. Warily, the doctor goes with them, not realizing that he has just taken the first step down a terrifying path that will consume his life. The gunmen take him deep into the desert, to a colony of people infected with a gruesome alien disease. It causes weakness, sallow skin, and birth defects so horrible that the children who suffer them cannot rightly be called human. The victims have quarantined themselves in the desert lest their illness spread and doom mankind. But as their willingness to accept isolation falters, Blake becomes the last hope for the survival of an uncontaminated Earth. Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking and award-winning science fiction and dystopian novels have inspired generations of readers all over the world. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Featured Series
4 primary books5 released booksPatternist is a 6-book series with 4 primary works first released in 1976 with contributions by Octavia E. Butler and Octavia E. Butler.
Reviews with the most likes.
I think as compared to [b:Mind of My Mind 116254 Mind of My Mind (Patternmaster, #2) Octavia E. Butler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389676159s/116254.jpg 111957], this novel felt a little out of left field. I think I can see where the series is headed, but to have a nominal sequel feature an entirely new cast and mechanic was jarring. I also felt that the action takes place over a strangely limited time span and area, but then I have always been a sucker for expansiveness. I think what I'm getting at with that last point though, is that the characters in [b:Wild Seed 52318 Wild Seed (Patternmaster, #1) Octavia E. Butler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388462753s/52318.jpg 1330000] and [b:Mind of My Mind 116254 Mind of My Mind (Patternmaster, #2) Octavia E. Butler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389676159s/116254.jpg 111957] change a ton because they are given the time to develop themselves. Here, it feels like in the span of a day or two Rane and Keira go from being naive and shy/foolhardy girls (despite their experience they still grew up walled and Blake says so, with the possible excuse that he would be overprotective) to managing rapid and brutal escapes from their captors. Perhaps this is me just underestimating either female characters or the ability of the alien microbe to rapidly change its hosts. Nevertheless, I think something was missing that prevented me from really getting into this one. Still a great read though, and has its moments.
Read this because I want to finish the whole Patternist series.
It's the worst installment so far and barely related to the series as a whole.
2 stars is a bit harsh for Octavia Butler because her other books are so terrific but this one was a stinker.
I didn't see how this fit into the Patternmaster series much at all until I finished the fourth book, but damn did Octavia Butler know how to write aliens. The invading species hybrid with humanity is eerie and very clearly foreign, yet it assimilates so completely with humans that even the reader ends up on its side some of the time. Some of it. Which is exactly how the kidnapped family feels, I imagine. Making the two daughters bi-racial is a brilliant move too, emphasizing the two worlds the characters already inhabit. This book asks us to look a humanity and what its survival really means.
Contains spoilers
💬: "He wiped everything he had typed and began again on a clean form, “YOU MUST ESCAPE! THERE’S AN EPIDEMIC BREWING HERE! WE MUST GIVE WARNING, GET TREATMENT!” She was shaking her head again.
Butler, Octavia E.. Clay's Ark (The Patternist Series Book 3) (p. 57). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: adult, science fiction, speculative fiction, thriller, dystopian
📚Page Count: 214
🎧Audiobook Length: 07h 22min
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
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TW - <spoiler>Death, Death of parent, Incest, Sexual assault, Gore, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Rape, Cancer, Car accident, and Abandonment</spoiler>
This is my second time reading Clay's Ark by Octavia E Butler but this is my first time writing a review for it. The first time around I gave it 4 stars, I loved the suspense and the thriller elements of this book so much. This time around I'm keeping my rating the same at 4 stars. I'm not giving this 5 stars though because of the gratuitous sexual violence in the book.
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