Recommendation: Wraeththu by Storm Constantine

Caesium recommends…

Wraeththu by Storm Constantine
Book

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.


Posted by on November 13th, 2010 at 08:00 am

Category: books, recommendations 6 comments »

6 Responses to “Recommendation: Wraeththu by Storm Constantine”

  1. Meike

    This sounds absolutely fascinating! Now, if only I could find them in Germany, preferably in English… *runs off to check*

    [Reply]

    tigr replied:

    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… ^^

    [Reply]

  2. Marissa

    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!

    [Reply]

  3. Jay

    Oooh! This sounds absurdly interesting.

    [Reply]

  4. Jas

    Ooh~! I read Crown of Silence and loved it to death. I’ll have to go find this.

    [Reply]

  5. Bohemian

    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.

    [Reply]


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