Recommendation: Wraeththu by Storm Constantine
Beautifully written book that addresses gender in some very interesting ways. It’s about a genderless, hermaphroditic race named Wraeththu that evolves from humanity, and is able to alter men into beings like themselves—and don’t worry if the concept seems too sci-fi for your tastes; it’s very character driven and really doesn’t read like sci-fi at all.
You get a full range of characters’ reactions to their upturned gender. Some struggle with it; some embrace their dual nature and blame humanity’s decline on not recognizing that they all contained both masculine and feminine aspects; some groups try to superimpose gender roles onto themselves; and then there’s the glorious moment of a second-generation Wraeththu perplexed by the silly old concept of gender. The really fascinating thing is how much the ideologies and norms range from one group of Wraeththu to another; there’s the warlike Varr who divide themselves into a masculine soldier class and a feminine breeding class, the ultra-egalitarian Gelaming, and plenty of others in between–and of course you get to hear each group’s commentary on how barbaric the others are.
Category: books, recommendations 6 comments »
November 13th, 2010 at 4:13 pm |
This sounds absolutely fascinating! Now, if only I could find them in Germany, preferably in English… *runs off to check*
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tigr replied:
November 13th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Bookshops will get you any book in print if you give them the ISBN number! Pretty much regardless of whether it’s a huge chain store or a small independent shop… And then there’s Amazon of course. I.e., I don’t think you’ll have trouble getting hold of it :)
Mhhh, this way I might finally get some mail again… ^^
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November 13th, 2010 at 5:06 pm |
I love Storm Constantine, and I was always impressed with her open concept of sexuality in her previous books. Thanks for this! Can’t wait to read it!
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November 13th, 2010 at 6:17 pm |
Oooh! This sounds absurdly interesting.
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November 15th, 2010 at 11:25 pm |
Ooh~! I read Crown of Silence and loved it to death. I’ll have to go find this.
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November 29th, 2010 at 5:17 am |
My favourite series- I have recently finished the third book in the trilogy and can’t wait to get my hands on The Wraeththu Histories! Thank goodness for Storm Constantine.
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