A little while back, Headline began publishing some of Octavia E. Butler‘s critically-acclaimed backlist in the UK. I haven’t read any of the novels, yet, but I fully intend to do so. In the US, Open Road Media started releasing some of the author’s earlier novels in eBook, and were kind enough to let me run this excerpt from Wild Seed, part of the Patternist Series — which also includes Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster. Here’s the synopsis:
When two immortals meet in the long-ago past, the destiny of mankind is changed forever
For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.
Civilian Reader 