Wild Seed was the last book written in the Patternmaster series, but the first book chronologically, and has prequel problems in that it exists to set up plot, rather than have one of its own.

Anyanwu is a 300 year old shapeshifting Igbo witch. Her happy life at the center of a cluster of villages which understand the proper deference due to her is interrupted by the arrival of Doro. Doro is 3700 years old, a body hopping immortal with even more uncanny powers than Anyanwu. Doro collects her for part of his breeding program. Bodies with psychic abilities taste better, and Doro has collected villages of witches in the New World.

Doro and Anyanwu could be worthy partners for each other, two immortals together forever, but the basic problem is that she's still a person and he's an abusive asshole obsessed with his breeding program. The two of them bounce between partnership and hatred, Anyanwu unable to kill Doro and Doro unwilling to kill her until he's wrung the last bit of potential out of her genes.

The story ambles through the centuries, from 1640 to 1840, against the backdrop of slavery and colonialism without seriously engaging with it. These superhumans are as far beyond imperial politics as imperialism is beyond traditional societies.

As always, Butler is a solid prose stylist, but this book is weaker than its pieces.