38:100 Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler

Patternmaster - Seed to Harvest #2

Doro has been trying to create a master race for thousands of years and with this newest child, Mary, he sees a great deal of potential in her but also a lot of anger and emotions that could cause him to have to destroy her.  The most dangerous part will be her transition when her powers awaken but before she has any control.  Emma (Anyanwu from Wild Seed) could help but Mary will not accept it which means she is alone with the one who has been chosen for her to mate with and while he is powerful, he can't stop her when her transition causes her to take over his mind and forge a link with him that neither of them can understand, control, or break.  And he is not the only one.  Her power reached out and forged links with a handful of other people at the same time, no one near her, no one she knew, but they are now on their way to where she is under a compulsion they can't deny.

Doro isn't sure if he is thrilled by this or if it's a threat to his plans but his curiosity is aroused as it has not been in ages.  Mary has a power he has never seen or even imagined so he allows her to live and to see how these forged links work under his supervision.  But Doro is not part of the pattern and there are things that he cannot know about it.

This book was written second in the series, after Patternmaster, and is second in world chronological order and that is interesting to note since I'm reading in world chronological order which places this after Wild Seed which is Doro and Anyanwu's story (seriously wish Anyanwu had kep that name and played a more prominent part of this story since I really enjoyed her in Wild Seed).  Doro does not come across nearly as evil and understanding of human nature as he did in Wild Seed which makes him a less interesting antagonist this time around.  I'm not sure if he would have seemed stronger if I had not read Wild Seed first where he was so powerfully attuned to everything.  I found the concept of the pattern intriguing and the characters well developed but the writing definitely wasn't as rich as Wild Seed and was sort of jarring in that respect although still good.

Page count: 224p/9,893p ytd/320,778p lifetime