Wild Seed

Wild Seed is the first book chronologically in the Patternist series, although it is the fourth published. The story centers around the main characters of Doro and Anyanwu, two immortals living in Africa. Doro is a spirit who can inhabit other people's bodies but kills them recklessly. He is breeding a race of superhumans, along with his son Issac. Anyanwu is a shapeshifting healer and one of the only beings Doro can't sense when she changes into an animal. Doro is compelled and threatened by her power, but she becomes repulsed by his callous murders. If they can work together, they have the true power to change the world. Butler's novel explores eugenics, the ethics of controlled evolution, and the creation of a black superrace through the same means colonists and enslavers used to promote white supremacy. Butler also portrayed a strong black female protagonist when they were nearly nonexistent in American literature. 

Doubleday published the first edition of Wild Seed in 1980. It has "Stated First Edition" on the copyright page and Code K23 on page 246. The original cover was designed by John Cayea, an artist for Doubleday best known for his iconic cover of Stephen King's The Stand. The illustration on the first edition of Wild Seed portrays Anyanwu, the novel's female shapeshifter protagonist, transforming from an infant into a young adult. 

Doubleday published the first edition of Wild Seed in 1980. It has "Stated First Edition" on the copyright page and Code K23 on page 246. The original cover was designed by John Cayea, an artist for Doubleday best known for his iconic cover of Stephen King's The Stand. The illustration on the first edition of Wild Seed portrays Anyanwu, the novel's female shapeshifter protagonist, transforming from an infant into a young adult.