Storm Constantine's Wraeththu Mythos 'terzah's Sons'

Wraeththu

by Victoria Copus, Storm Constantine (Editor), Gabriel Strange (Designed by)

Terzah, a wilful and fiery second generation har from the tribe of Kheops, has accompanied his Gelaming consort, Zen, to a remote area of Megalithica, where the Gelaming have set up a rough settlement for human refugees. Terzah has recently had a harling, and is far from happy with Zen's posting. Terzah despises humans and has nothing but contempt for those around him. However, when tragedy strikes the small community, and a human who Terzah realises was actually a friend to him dies unexpectedly, Terzah is moved to take in the woman's orphaned sons. Not every human agrees with this, as they feel humans should be raised by humans. Terzah finds himself fighting prejudice as keen as his own. Gradually, Terzah realises his attitude to humanity must change, as hara and humans are forced to work together to overcome common threats and dilemmas, so that the settlement will succeed and become a real community. Conflicts within his own family and dark secrets kept by his consort add intrigue and drama to the tale. Terzah's Sons gives a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of hara, far from the courts of the high ranking and mighty. These are hara who get their hands dirty, coping with life's problems as best they can in primitive conditions. Author Victoria Copus has captured the character of Terzah, the customs of the shamanic Kheops and the complexities of intertribal politics with a deft hand. This story is a skilful and insightful addition to the canon of the Wraeththu Mythos.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Romance

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2005

Reviews

[S. Harrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this is another book written within the Wraeththu mythos, by Victoria Copus, edited by Storm Constantine. The storyline of this addition to the canon stands out more than any other, including Storm's, in that it deeply delves into how hara really live day to day, rather than on the drama of their love lives and dark secrets (not that I haven't gotten a lot of inspiration from those). The trilogies tell the stories of primary characters, while this one really hones in on an extremely minor character, it reveals the story of those hara in smaller tribes left to live in the aftermath of the Tigron coming to power, and we see the story of Immanion unfolding in the background of these less political perspectives. Every har narrator I fall in love with, Terzah, no less. He's not likable because of his compassionate nature. Rather, he's very much of the tribes the other books embittered us against, as killers and heartless thugs. Terzah starts out as much, and still retains his warrior nature, but compassion emerges not just in the reader's view of him, but his view of himself. This author really captures the perspective of a parent who retains an emotional detachment from his harlings really well, in that Terzah loves his children, but his warrior spirit prevents him from being caught in their adolescent manipulations. Apart from the fact that he bears a pearl that is natured just like him. Very interesting study of human-hara relations. Where other installments focused on the gender equality and disparity, this one drew on the hara relationship to humans, and the painful fence where young ones choose to become hara, or face a questionable fate as a human. Well done.

[Inara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terzah´s Sons is a novel set in Storm Constantine´s wraeththu world. The main character of this book is the har Terzah from the tribe of Kheops. His consort Zen (a former Varr but now Gelaming) was appointed as an ambassador by the Tigron Pellaz-har-Aralis to a settlement of Megalithica for human refugees. Terzah hates humans and has no scruples about killing a human thief whom he caught stealing in his kafta (the traditional dwelling of the Kheops tribe). This incident sets things in motion Terzahl wouldn´t have dreamed of - involving adopting human children, working together with the humans to defend their community against raiders, being confronted with his consorts dark past and so on.
I just love Terzah. His straight forward manner, his sharp tongue (one of my favorite statements are his first words to Zen when they first met at a party in the Tigron´s palace: "Move it,asshole. You´re standing on my hem." and Zen fell instantly in love with him.). I liked to read how he started to care for the community although he was far from being happy that he and Zen had to move to this settlement and how he tried to be there for his adopted sons.
Maybe, before you read this book you should be at least acquainted with the wraeththu (a new hermaphrodite race on earth) and read Storm´s Wraeththu chronicles and histories. You will either love wraeththu or hate them, it depends on if you can do anything with the concept of hermaphrodites or not. But if you get really into their world like I did you will be fascinated for sure. I´m hooked...

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wellp, the multitudinous typos and grammar errors really impacted the enjoyment of reading the story, which is why I took so long to finish—I was editing the file in Calibre to fix everything because I just... had to @_@

Really nice story; my only real complaint is that a story taking place across ten years should REALLY be longer than a measly 200 pages. The jumping-forward two or three years at a time was very disorienting. I felt like this was more like a series of glimpses rather than a full, thorough story. Plus it kinda drove me crazy that the reader kept having to guess how old the children were. (I think it mentioned Aris's age only once, and Zia's not at all @_@ After that you have to count in your head)

Oh yeah, another thing that squicked me sort of was all the "flirting" adults did with harlings, knowing that they would only have to wait a few years to get them in bed. ...Ew.

[E.S. Wynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn on this book. As a Wraeththu book, I love it, partly because I love the universe/world that Storm Constantine has created, and partly because Victoria Copus does an awesome job of staying true to the series, but I also think this thing must have been rushed into production or something. The editing is atrocious! Honestly, there is practically one or more typographical or grammatical errors on every page. As a stand-alone book, it wouldn't pass muster just because of how unprofessional the editing was. But, the story is interesting, it's very Wraeththu, and the main character is awesome, so as the ninth book in the Wraeththu series I've read cover to cover, I'll put it on the shelf next to the rest.

[Haldoor42 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything in the Wraeththu mythos captures my attention and this is very well written, even if not Storm's own work.