Wild Seed
Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex--or design. He fears no one--until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu has also died many times. She can absorb bullets and make medicine with a kiss, give birth to tribes, nurture and heal, and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one--until she meets Doro. From African jungles to the colonies of America, Doro and Anyanwu weave together a pattern of destiny that not even immortals can imagine.
Where Wild Seed keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
What you might want to know about Wild Seed
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a small Igbo village in seventeenth-century West Africa, the body-jumping mind Doro finds a three-hundred-year-old shapeshifter and healer named Anyanwu and offers her a deal.
Yes. It is part of Octavia Butler's Patternist series. Reading order is debated; many readers start with Wild Seed despite it being published later in the series.
Amazon Studios acquired the rights in 2020 with Viola Davis attached as a producer and star. As of 2026 the project remains in development.
Wild Seed was written by Octavia E. Butler, published in 1980 by Grand Central Publishing.
Wild Seed is 279 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Wild Seed takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Wild Seed is a standalone novel by Octavia E. Butler, not part of a series.
Wild Seed is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
