'Wraeththu' of Storm Constantine reviewed by Simon Dessloch, I haven't read it yet, but seen it in some gay book stores. Maybe I should read it now, this review makes it sound more interesting than the first chapter seems to promise. [Sam]

'Wraeththu' of Storm Constantine 1987 / 93

Orb

800 pages

ISBN 0-312-89000-1

Imagine a world where an adolescent virgin approaches their father and says:

'Daddy, I want your mistress to be the one who pops my cherry. You do

understand, don't you?', and daddy replies: 'Of course I understand, child.

I'll arrange it.'

That's the world of 'Wraeththu'

I've never had so much fun reading any 800 pages, and I've never read 800

pages so quickly. A bit like Babylon 5 at its best, the characters from

'Wraeththu' took over my life and my imagination for the time it took to

read, even when I wasn't reading, which does not happen often, except with

my most favourite books.

Even now, three years later, rarely does a day go by when I don't at least

think once about Calanthe - the ultimate Wraeththu: dark and cynical, he has

a passion for taking it, but is also the deflowerer of virgins

Pellaz - whose thirst for knowledge and wisdom leads him into political

darkness and vanity

Terzian and Cobweb - who play out an ancient male / female game of savage

warlord and conquered progenitor

Lianvis - sorcerous child-killer one moment, seductive sex kitten the next

'Wraeththu' consists of three books, originally released independently: 'The

Enchantments Of Flesh And Spirit'; 'The Bewitchments Of Love And Hate'; 'The

Fulfilments Of Fate And Desire'.

In this world, similar to our present, humanity as we know it is under

threat from a hybrid offshoot: Wraeththu, a hermaphrodite species,

biologically related to humanity, culturally connected to gay men and trans.

Wraeththu combine male and female 'by favouring the male'. Basically

Wraeththu appear male, ranging from the tall masculine type via the

beautiful boyish to the downright androgynous feminine.

But they take a few things from women: pussy, or something like it [I never

quite worked that one out], the ability to bear young, and the style, grace,

elegance, extravagant clothes and big hair.

If I were god and had the opportunity to redesign humanity according to my

own specifications, I would have created something very like Wraeththu.

Constantine wastes relatively little time on the war / conflict between

Wraeththu and humans - neither does she bore us with endless evocations on

how much better than humans Wraeththu are, morally and ethically, though she

does thrill us with Wraeththu's superior beauty and fancy clothing,

beautiful male bodies, and almost inconceivably good sex.

Sex and more sex - Wraeththu's superior spiritual and medical and paranormal

abilities are all closely linked to the sexual. Wizards and sorcerers all do

sex magic, easily brushing aside human opposition. When Wraeththu use their

powers, humans drop like flies. But Constantine quickly leads us into the

conflicts that exist within and between Wraeththu. Almost as soon as

Wraehthu come to be, they divide into different tribes with different

lifestyles, cultures and politics.

- the utopian, egalitarian Saltrock Wraeththu, who live peacefully and

openly with humans

- the desert-dwelling Kakkahaar, who cultivate their psychic gifts and

talents, for both good and evil, killing humans through sex, for fun

- The Varrs - war-like as the name implies, they dedicate themselves to

wiping out what's left of humanity and breeding Wraeththu, reviving

human-style gender divisions

- The Gelaming - sanctimonious, patronizing know-it-alls, who think they are

the leading minds of Wraeththu

- The Uigenna - agents of chaos

One might want to dismiss 'Wraeththu' as an internal male story, that

Wraeththu are male hermaphrodites, male androgynes. I am no longer what one

might call entirely female. Sometimes I think that'll do, by way of

definitions. Wraeththu favours the male. Only bio-boys that have not yet

grown to adulthood can become Wraeththu. Yet Storm Constantine is female. So

what dose it mean? Wraeththu is fiction. Wraeththu is fantasy. How literally

are things to be represented? How literally are they to be read? Does a

thing have to be entirely female to avoid being entirely male? Or vice

versa?

SFX condemned a more recent novel by Constantine, not because it was gay,

but because it was homophobic. Is it possible to be both? Is male rape

homosexual or homophobic? Is a rapist by definition het? Rape, by

definition, a het act? Queers, by definition, victims? Victims, by

definition, good?

If these questions fascinate you, if you do not accept the prefab,

queer-approved, politically correct answers to them, then you are bound to

enjoy 'Wraeththu'.

'Wraeththu' is a bio-girl dream of what humanity could be:

- not love and peace

- not social justice and equality

- not goodness and kindness and gentleness, that's the bio-boy dream

- but the supremacy of the Id over the Ego

- of beauty and violence and passion and intimacy

- of magic and pleasure and life of the senses

- of spiritual enlightenment through darkness

- of experience over scholarliness

- of emotion and sensation, the private and personal

- the supremacy of quality over morality

There are those who think that sensual pleasures are easy, easier than being

good, that sex is easy, that it weakens the spirit and the soul instead of

strengthening it, that there is nobility in asceticism.

Bio-boys have certain advantages: biologically they are already

hermaphrodite:

- equally well suited to giving and taking during sex, and deriving pleasure

from it

- during fucking which gives unrivalled intimacy

- They have the T

- They have the dick

- but they seem inadequate when it comes to recognizing and appreciating

their hermaphrodite nature / potential

- so while they are beautiful and sexy and strong and full of potential,

they seem eternally mentally and emotionally deficient

I don't usually go down this road, but perhaps there is something here the

lesbigaytrans can learn from 'Wraeththu':

- The war we fight is not against patriarchy and consumerism, it's against

each other - dykes against fags, ftms against feminists, bis against

lesgays - and we must fight it, because from that new ideas will come.

- We cannot unite, to fight a common and greater evil. There is no greater,

common evil. Unless we are it, to paraphrase that dark 10 year old boy I

named myself after, [though I'm also a bit of a Jack Merridew, all too ready

to hunt and kill].

- Let's do it. Enlightenment through darkness. What more do you want? A

quiet life? Fuck Off!