I’ve never read a Butler I didn’t just 💕 I read this years ago, and as it most definitely fits the theme of Spatial ‘s bookbox I just re-read so I can include it. Someone is in for a treat 😉

Joining Spatial’s Apocalyptic bookbox

I'm taking this from Spatial's Bookbox of the Apocalypse. I've read Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, and Mind of My Mind, and this is book 3. Perfect.

Clay’s Ark is book #3 in Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series, published from 1976 through 1984. I’m in the midst of reading the full series, because it’s covered in Lecture 19, “Octavia Butler and Utopian Hybridity”, from The Great Courses' "Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature". The books were not written in the order of story chronology, and there is some fan controversy as to whether they should be read in publication order or chronology order. The author’s legacy site. gives a third option, and I am following that. It is:
Book #1: Wild Seed, chronology #1, published 1980.
Book #2: Mind of My Mind, chronology #2, published 1977.
Book #3: Clay’s Ark, chronology #3, published 1984.
Book #4: Patternmaster, chronology #5, published 1976.
Book #5, out of print: Survivor, chronology #4, published 1978.

Clay's Ark is tangentially related to the prior Patternist books in the sequence, introducing an entirely new concept – that of a parasitic infection brought back to Earth by returning interstellar astronauts. There are two relatively minor characters from Mind of My Mind who have played pivotal roles during the 40 years of future history between then and this version of 2021 (Eli and Clay). You could probably read it stand-alone. The biological consequences of that infection make little scientific sense, but rather seem crafted to traumatize the characters and the reader. At this point, I don’t know why Butler did so; she usually had some thematic reason for violence in her novels. Perhaps it will become clearer in the conclusion of the series.

I left this in the sitting room in the ground floor.