Wild Seed
Review
Wild Seed, by , is the first book in the Patternist series, though it was the fourth to be published. It tells the origin story of Doro—a malevolent spirit—and Anyanwu—an immortal woman.
Doro and Anyanwu are almost opposites. Despite his ability to change bodies and her ability to change shape, Doro is male, while Anyanwu is female. He kills for pleasure and survival, whereas she is a healer. Doro collects superhumans to serve his goals, while Anyanwu protects them. Yet their shared immortality keeps pulling them together, even as their conflicting goals and personalities push them apart. Anyanwu is the only one who won’t die and leave Doro alone, and she may be the only one capable of tempering his monstrous nature. In many ways, Wild Seed is their love story.1
’s settings are incredibly sparse, giving the book the feel of a stage play with rough-painted backdrops that are just enough to suggest a location: “a ship”, “a village in New York”, or “a plantation”. Often, her settings aren’t described at all. This is in stark contrast to , whose Culture series I read just before this. He builds richly detailed places, like the ancient city and waterfall in Patternmaster for his stories. The effect is perfect for this story though, as—like a play!—it focuses the attention on the characters and the dialogue.
The story has strong Christian themes, essentially functioning as a Genesis story. Doro, a god-like figure, is creating his own people. His favored son is named Isaac. The section titles directly reference biblical themes:
-
The Covenant: Doro, as god, makes a pact with Anyanwu, agreeing not to harm her children if she joins him.
-
Lot: Like Lot fleeing God’s wrath, Anyanwu escapes Doro. The incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters parallels Doro’s breeding program.
-
Canaan: The promised land for God’s people becomes Anyanwu’s plantation sanctuary in the story.
Wild Seed is also an Atlantic slave trade story. Doro captures Anyanwu in Africa and traffics her across the ocean to his colonies in America. Many of Doro’s people are literal African slaves he purchases for their powers. Regardless of their origin, Doro treats all his people as slaves, controlling them with violence and breeding them to suit his own ends.
’s characters really got into my head. I hated Doro and couldn’t understand what Anyanwu saw in him. But by the end, I felt sorry for Doro as he feared losing Anyanwu forever. I’m eager to see how his character evolves in the next book, Mind of My Mind.