Octavia Butler's Patternist Series

 

When originally published in the late 1970s/early '80s, Octavia Butler's Patternest series consisted of five volumes:
1) Patternmaster (1976)
2) Mind of My Mind (1977)
3) Survivor (1978)
4) Wild Seed (1980)
and - 5) Clay's Ark (1984)

Having read the first two, I was faced with a dilemma. Butler would go on to disavow Survivor - calling it her worst novel and referring to it as "my Star Trek novel". She would not permit reprints of the novel. It is not available in any omnibus collection of the series.

Although out of print, Survivor is found in ebook format - Everything lives on in the Internet. My dilemma was, should I follow Butler's wishes and skip over book 3, or should I read Survivor in the order it was originally intended in 1978?

I began reading the book.

I immediately realized my decision was a mistake. The book most definitely does not belong. I could not get beyond the 25% mark.

I'm setting it aside and will continue on with Wild Seed.