The Patternmaster is all powerful. His every thought can control, heal or destroy.
The only threat to his command are the Clayarks, a society of people born out of terrible disease, who now live enslaved by the ruling Patternists or in the wild.
Coransee, son of the Patternmaster, wants the throne and will stop at nothing to succeed his father, even if it means killing every one of his siblings.
But when one brother - his rival and his equal - takes refuge amongst the Clayarks, a war ensues that will change the world forever.
'A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant' VIOLA DAVIS on Wild Seed
'In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler's novel may be unmatched' NEW YORKER