The Patternist series (also known as the Patternmaster series) is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that etail a secret history continuing into the future from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future, involving telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague. A profile of Butler in Black Women in America notes that the themes of the series include "racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people."