Clay’s Ark Notes

Third Patternist novel chronologically, fourth written

Characters

• Blake Maslin – Widowed father, physician, prisoner. Stand in for the liberal humanist point-of-view in the novel. Run over by truck. Ends up being responsible for spreading the Clayark virus to the rest of the world.
• Keira Maslin – Leukemia patient. Only one of the Maslins to live through the novel. Eventually cured of cancer.
• Rane Maslin – Tough, older sister. Dies at the end.
• Eli – Astronaut on Clay’s Ark who returns from Proxima with the virus that causes the plague of Mutants in Patternmaster.

Themes

• The persistence of technological optimism. Despite living in a bleak and violent world in which much of “civilization” has been reduced to roving gangs of marauding savages (much of this book is ripped off from the Mad Max movies), all of the characters still insist that technological progress and the other forces that have shaped their world are for the better good. They still claim to live in an advanced and civilized world, despite all of the evidence we see, as readers. Good commentary on globalization and technology contra some of the Utopian thinkers of technology.

Plot

The Maslin family get carjacked in Arizona by a group of separatists who carry an alien virus that causes them to give birth to mutated humans, while also giving them super-strength and such things (natch). Eventually, the Maslin family escape (despite being drawn to their captors and being infected themselves). Eventually the Maslins die, but not without spreading the plague to the rest of the world, bringing about the world seen in Patternmaster. Overall, this is one of Butler’s lesser works.