This is the second book (both chronologically and published) of the patternist series. I recently read Wild Seed (first chronologically, fourth published) and loved it, and wanted to continue on with the series. At this point, the series focuses on Doro, a thousands-year-old vampire of sorts (though not the traditional blood-sucking vampire), who jumps from body to body as necessary, killing the souls that live in those bodies and feeding on their energy for a time. Doro is attempting to breed a race of people with various psychic powers, hoping one day to breed someone like him. In Mind of my Mind, he succeeds in breeding a new kind of telepath, as similar to himself as he’s ever made, but in doing so, discovers he may no longer have control.

I’m not really a big science fiction reader, but I’ve been impressed with the Patternist series so far. Wild Seed was recommended to me years ago by a friend of mine who is a huge Butler fan, and I really enjoyed it when I finally managed to get my hands on it last month (though I sadly never reviewed it). Mind of my Mind is not quite as well-written as Wild Seed. It definitely feels like an earlier work, the writing less mature, the characters not as fleshed out. Despite that, though, I was immediately sucked into the story, and loved every minute of it. I got a lot of pleasure out of the end, after spending two whole books with Doro (though I won’t spoil what happens!). I’m not sure I’ll read further in the series, though, because after this, it becomes far more traditional sci-fi, with aliens and space travel and other things that might be beyond my realm of enjoyment even if I love Butler’s writing. I do think it’s interesting that the first book published in the series was the last one chronologically, and that all the rest of these are prequels of sorts.