Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Clay's Ark
Book Review: A missing link revealed
Summary: 4 Stars
If you've read her excellent _Mind of My Mind_ and _Patternmaster_, you might wonder about how the world changed so much between these two novels and what exactly these Clayarks are. Well, this book clarifies much of this. While it's probably a notch below the other two in the series, it's well worth reading and essential if you want a complete understanding of the Patternmaster seriesBook Review: Bleak Doomsday Tale
Summary: 3 Stars
Having read several of Butler's books, I must say that I found this one far less readable than Dawn or the Patternist novels. Not only is it tedious and depressing, but it offers less food for thought than Wildseed or Dawn. Whereas those books describe the creation of unique and idealistic societies, the community described in Clay's Ark is a besieged group of pariahs staving off inevitable doom.Furthermore, I read novels mostly for escape and enjoyment. Reading end-to-end accounts of bruality and human misery just isn't my idea of an escape.
Finally, the story abruptly ends, with no real sequel apparently in the works, right where an interesting sociological experiment could have been invisioned: the unleashing of the Clay's Ark virus upon humanity. A real bummer for an Octavia E. Butler novel...
Book Review: Can it really happen?
Summary: 4 Stars
Being the Octavia Butler fan I am, I must say (without bias) that I found this book interesting. When I read any of her books, I don't do so with any preconceived notions or expectations. . . Just crack the cover and get going.If you're used to her style you know it's about us on earth and a being or beings from another world. The most interesting thing here is that you can take any of the present-day medical situations and insert it here.
Since this was one of her first books I read, I was truly eager to reach the end. This is a must if you want to complete the Patternists series, as well as a creativity motivator. Enjoy.
Book Review: Change happens
Summary: 3 Stars
The last novel in her Patternist series to be published, it shares a lot more in common with her Xenogenesis trilogy in tone and subject material. Of the Patternist novels that I have read, that group seems more oriented towards questions of power and dominance--basically, who is stronger, and what are the responsibilities of that role. The series actually begins with Wild Seed, which explains the character of Doro, who then sees a success in his human breeding program in Mind of My Mind. Clay's Ark is next in the timeline, but it only refers obliquely to the existence of a psionic pattern (late in the novel, it explains the macguffin for the faster than light drive used by the spaceship that returns to Earth), but it mainly concerns the alien organism that creates the Clayarks. The next book, Patternmaster, shows these two groups--the Patternists and the Clayarks--millennia later, both almost unrecognizable as human.It is this evolution away from humanity that becomes the main theme of Xenogenesis, but it is in the forefront of Clay's Ark. The difference, however, is that this evolution is almost entirely negative here, whereas in Xenogenesis there's an ambiguity to it that makes it much more complex than just a good/bad issue. Change happens (to quote Butler's more recent work). Why is it negative here in Clay's Ark? Because of the mindlessness of the extraterrestrial interaction. As humans, thinking and feeling humans, we see ourselves as ratiocentric--that is, we value the power of logic and rational thought and discount the so-called "animal" urges of instinct and biological compulsion. This dichotomy makes up the conflict between the two groups in Patternmaster: the Patternists are pure thought, ruled by the power of the mind, whereas the Clayarks are all biological urges, roaming free, living life in the here and now. The human race has bifurcated, and although a "mute" semblance remains, humans are portrayed as beings where both mind and body are weak and dull. In Xenogenesis, Butler changes this, and the organism that is entirely mutable is portrayed as the strongest.
Because it contains a lot of adventure--there's kidnapping and close escapes and gunfire and more violence than a Fox Saturday night-- Clay's Ark hides a lot of this underlying thought. Only the struggle that Eli continues to endure breaks this action-orientation; the rest of the characters are driven either by the disease or their human nature to respond to the events. While not as hopeful or thoughtful as her later work, I liked this one tremendously.
Book Review: Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have come across this book, it probably means that you are a fan of Octavia Butler's. This book is good and its worth reading. I have found out that its not necessary to read all of the PaternMaster books (4) in their order. It truly makes no difference because the books are so well written; each story stands on its own. My only complaint is that I wish there were more books written by her!