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Brother Termite
First Cousin Brother Reen, chief of staff, is not happy about the rioters outside, or the graffiti by the West Wing stairs, or his secretary's brightly colored new blouse. Humans are chaotic. So many crises now, and so little time left. Germany plans to invade China, but President Womack is more interested in attending seances and ordering pizza. Cousins have been kidnapped, but all the FBI and CIA do is accuse each other. Tali and even the Sleep Master are furious with Reen. His beloved Marian still cannot forgive him for ruining her life. But Angela - Angela is Reen's greatest worry. For what world awaits her, their Cousin-human daughter, when both Cousins and humans are no more? Patricia Anthony mixes Washington politics and the numbing horror of mind control to tell a tale, at once comical and dark, of treachery, guilt, and self-sacrificing love.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 28, 2023
THEY ARE AMONG US.
In this 1993 book, the aliens are here on Earth--and it's definitely not a secret.
Reen is a "Gray," a small gray-skinned alien having a huge head with big black eyes--and he is the White House chief of staff. This is an alien invasion story crossed with a political thriller- and it works as an exciting narrative as well as being thought-provoking science fiction.
We follow Reen as he plays his political power games with the FBI and the CIA. And, increasingly, he's playing politics with others of his alien species. As the alien plan unfolds, we see that their biggest problem is--becoming too human.
Reen is certainly one of the most interesting aliens since Mr.Spock...
In this 1993 book, the aliens are here on Earth--and it's definitely not a secret.
Reen is a "Gray," a small gray-skinned alien having a huge head with big black eyes--and he is the White House chief of staff. This is an alien invasion story crossed with a political thriller- and it works as an exciting narrative as well as being thought-provoking science fiction.
We follow Reen as he plays his political power games with the FBI and the CIA. And, increasingly, he's playing politics with others of his alien species. As the alien plan unfolds, we see that their biggest problem is--becoming too human.
Reen is certainly one of the most interesting aliens since Mr.Spock...
January 18, 2013
It's simply one of those science-fiction novels that are too complex and passionate for certain sci-fi fans, and too science-fictional for more sophisticated readers (or better, those readers who believe they're too sophisticated for sci-fi, and don't know s--t about science-fiction). Unluckily. It's one of the best American novels I've ever read, and it says so much, maybe too much, about how much men (I mean males) owe women, about what role women really play in your life, and teaches truths most men (I mean males) are too stupid to understand (and don't think for a moment that I'm a woman; I'm not).
A real masterpiece, and I may bet my 20 euros, maybe even 30, that the day comes when this will be taught in colleges and be part of the American lit canon. The prophet has spoken.
A real masterpiece, and I may bet my 20 euros, maybe even 30, that the day comes when this will be taught in colleges and be part of the American lit canon. The prophet has spoken.
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November 2, 2015A gem that deserves far more consideration. The West Wing with grey aliens, if you'd like. Dwells between speaking to the human condition & the sentient condition through the lens of alienation, & an alien nation. Plus, sinister baby food! --MK
May 29, 2021
This book was so strange and unique and wonderful. Set in an alternate timeline where aliens (called Cousins) have made contact and inserted themselves into world politics, the book centers around an alien named Reen. Reen acts as White House chief of staff, serving alongside President Womack (who is going into his fifty-first year as president) and a host of Cousins pulling the strings behind the scenes. Miss Anthony did a fantastic job of fleshing this otherworldly race out; they're as foreign and strange as aliens would be, but after years among the humans they've managed to pick up some of our...less than ideal attributes.
At its heart, this novel is a political thriller-cum-science fiction. The characters (including the Cousins) are flawed, mired by emotion, mistakes, and greed. The aliens FEEL alien. The relationship between Cousins and humans and the uneasy truce built up through the years is, I believe, rather accurate of how the world would take such news. Overall, I loved this book despite some serious strangeness that sometimes threw me off a little. It is science fiction, yes, but more in a speculative way than in a scientific way. Pick it up if you don't mind a weird read and want something unlike anything you might have read before.
At its heart, this novel is a political thriller-cum-science fiction. The characters (including the Cousins) are flawed, mired by emotion, mistakes, and greed. The aliens FEEL alien. The relationship between Cousins and humans and the uneasy truce built up through the years is, I believe, rather accurate of how the world would take such news. Overall, I loved this book despite some serious strangeness that sometimes threw me off a little. It is science fiction, yes, but more in a speculative way than in a scientific way. Pick it up if you don't mind a weird read and want something unlike anything you might have read before.
March 14, 2016
Hmm. This was odd, for sure. I took way too long to read it, though -- it was in my bathroom so I read it only sporadically, and it took me two and half months. I may have felt differently had I read it at a normal rate.
Anyway. It was an interesting perspective on an "alien invasion," but there were so many weird things going on that never really went anywhere. Like, what was up with the medium? And it felt like she had all these weird biological facts about the aliens, but I didn't think that they all gelled together by the end. Or again, maybe they did but I didn't make the connections myself because I was reading it too slowly, and forgetting things. (That also may have been my problem with the political stuff, as that seemed overly convoluted for no reason as well.)
Anyway. It was an interesting perspective on an "alien invasion," but there were so many weird things going on that never really went anywhere. Like, what was up with the medium? And it felt like she had all these weird biological facts about the aliens, but I didn't think that they all gelled together by the end. Or again, maybe they did but I didn't make the connections myself because I was reading it too slowly, and forgetting things. (That also may have been my problem with the political stuff, as that seemed overly convoluted for no reason as well.)
January 1, 2020
“We should have been more intelligent than to love the thing we were destroying.”
I have conflicted feelings about this book – in fact, I found it profoundly disturbing – and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to give it three or four stars. I couldn’t give it five because the plot is annoyingly muddled and hard to follow. But the book is also very affective, partly because it’s narrated from the aliens’ point of view and the reader can’t help having sympathy for them, so I settled on four stars.
The story is laid in an alternate reality (I think you know that aliens didn’t reallytake over Earth during the Eisenhower Presidency) and those aliens are obviously extrapolated from the Gray Aliens of Roswell fame. These aliens evolved from an extraterrestrial termite-like species, but I doubt the author really studied termites. I’ve made an extensive study of termites and I can’t believe that evolved intelligent termites would be anything like the creatures in this book. Apparently the author was fascinated by the hive-mind concept – the inescapable collective consciousness – which I think might be applicable to various species of ants, but less so to termites. Termites mind their own business and are very peaceable. They have their castes – workers, soldiers, alates (reproductives) – and each caste behaves according to its genetic imperatives. They kill only in self-defense, such as against invading ants, when the less powerful termite soldiers sacrifice themselves to satiate the invaders, thus preventing an invasion of the mound and the destruction of the Queen. And the alates also sacrifice themselves, flying out in great numbers, of which only a very few will successfully breed and form a new colony. The rest end up as food for every other species in the world, including sometimes humans. And my opinion is that if such a species developed intelligence and individuality, that would lead to an inner moral sense that is not so different from the human imperative.
There are many characteristics displayed by the aliens in this book that I take exception to. They can’t touch each other because that plunges them back into the collective consciousness and they lose their individuality. Now, terrestrial termites are very tactile – since they are all deaf and only the alates have eyes, they rely on touch, as well as pheromones, for communication. Pheromones aren’t even mentioned. These aliens have both hearing and sight, and they seem to be all male (except for the breeding female), so perhaps they evolved from Kings. (They also seem to have only four limbs and an upright walking stance, and they also breathe and talk like humans, through the mouth. Insects breathe through spiracles on their abdomen.)
But then there are the “Loving Helpers” – an ironic name for very small, non-intelligent entities who must have evolved from workers and perhaps also from soldiers. They constantly inhabit the collective consciousness and can’t live apart from one another, and it seems that anything they touch is destroyed. They absolutely terrify humans. I can’t imagine any real termite workers (or soldiers) evolving like that.
As I was reading this book, I kept thinking that if termite-like creatures evolved in this manner, it must have taken a really long evolutionary period like 10s of millions of years. And lo and behold, near the end of the book it’s stated that these “people” (I don’t recall if a name is ever given to the species) first came above ground 30 million years ago. So they could have evolved this way, I guess, but I certainly don’t like the results.
One thing I do like is the impressive descriptive style. The “Cousins” (as they are known throughout the book) have a great sense of order and anything chaotic unsettles them. The author uses colors, smells, and configurations (the Cousins especially like fractals) to set up scenes and define emotions and attitudes. This is done very skillfully and it’s one of the reasons I settled on four stars.
I notice that the Goodreads description mentions that the book is occasionally comical, but I didn’t find one single bit of humor in this whole book. I recommend Brother Termite only with a warning – prepare to become deeply involved and profoundly unsettled as you read it.
I have conflicted feelings about this book – in fact, I found it profoundly disturbing – and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to give it three or four stars. I couldn’t give it five because the plot is annoyingly muddled and hard to follow. But the book is also very affective, partly because it’s narrated from the aliens’ point of view and the reader can’t help having sympathy for them, so I settled on four stars.
The story is laid in an alternate reality (I think you know that aliens didn’t reallytake over Earth during the Eisenhower Presidency) and those aliens are obviously extrapolated from the Gray Aliens of Roswell fame. These aliens evolved from an extraterrestrial termite-like species, but I doubt the author really studied termites. I’ve made an extensive study of termites and I can’t believe that evolved intelligent termites would be anything like the creatures in this book. Apparently the author was fascinated by the hive-mind concept – the inescapable collective consciousness – which I think might be applicable to various species of ants, but less so to termites. Termites mind their own business and are very peaceable. They have their castes – workers, soldiers, alates (reproductives) – and each caste behaves according to its genetic imperatives. They kill only in self-defense, such as against invading ants, when the less powerful termite soldiers sacrifice themselves to satiate the invaders, thus preventing an invasion of the mound and the destruction of the Queen. And the alates also sacrifice themselves, flying out in great numbers, of which only a very few will successfully breed and form a new colony. The rest end up as food for every other species in the world, including sometimes humans. And my opinion is that if such a species developed intelligence and individuality, that would lead to an inner moral sense that is not so different from the human imperative.
There are many characteristics displayed by the aliens in this book that I take exception to. They can’t touch each other because that plunges them back into the collective consciousness and they lose their individuality. Now, terrestrial termites are very tactile – since they are all deaf and only the alates have eyes, they rely on touch, as well as pheromones, for communication. Pheromones aren’t even mentioned. These aliens have both hearing and sight, and they seem to be all male (except for the breeding female), so perhaps they evolved from Kings. (They also seem to have only four limbs and an upright walking stance, and they also breathe and talk like humans, through the mouth. Insects breathe through spiracles on their abdomen.)
But then there are the “Loving Helpers” – an ironic name for very small, non-intelligent entities who must have evolved from workers and perhaps also from soldiers. They constantly inhabit the collective consciousness and can’t live apart from one another, and it seems that anything they touch is destroyed. They absolutely terrify humans. I can’t imagine any real termite workers (or soldiers) evolving like that.
As I was reading this book, I kept thinking that if termite-like creatures evolved in this manner, it must have taken a really long evolutionary period like 10s of millions of years. And lo and behold, near the end of the book it’s stated that these “people” (I don’t recall if a name is ever given to the species) first came above ground 30 million years ago. So they could have evolved this way, I guess, but I certainly don’t like the results.
One thing I do like is the impressive descriptive style. The “Cousins” (as they are known throughout the book) have a great sense of order and anything chaotic unsettles them. The author uses colors, smells, and configurations (the Cousins especially like fractals) to set up scenes and define emotions and attitudes. This is done very skillfully and it’s one of the reasons I settled on four stars.
I notice that the Goodreads description mentions that the book is occasionally comical, but I didn’t find one single bit of humor in this whole book. I recommend Brother Termite only with a warning – prepare to become deeply involved and profoundly unsettled as you read it.
November 10, 2019
Brother Termite is a genetic grafting of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Philip K. Dick's paranoia, and the X-Files. There is literally no science fiction like it on this planet and even if there were none would be so daring as to tell it from the alien's perspective and to do it so well.
December 25, 2007
In its own quiet little way, this is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.
September 26, 2025
Bon livre avec un concept qui commence comme assez commun mais qui se développe d'une façon plutôt originale vers la fin. Le développement est assez lent mais n'en reste pas moins que c'est un bon livre.
May 30, 2013
So very odd. So very good.
October 6, 2018
More interesting than good.
November 9, 2025
Where to begin. I rediscovered the existence of this book from the ninties by happenstance of seeing a work in progress clip of James Cameron’s cancelled adaptation of the novel. I’ve always got weired out by the grays since I was a kid and was nervous to try it out when I was in high school. But thirty three years later here we are. I finished this book. I have mixed feelings about this. It was quick read for me, got it done in less than a week. It wasn’t boring, if it were still the ninties and in the middle of the ufo media explosion, I’d say in that context ot would be up ther with the x files. I have confused feelings about both the grays and ths humans. Neither one are exactly what I would call the good guys as the humans were doing thjngs to the grays that arw, let’s just face it crimes against humanity and the graysm who are more subtitle about their own genocidal crimes did it through a slow burn that isn’t so violent. What bothers me the most is there is a child involved from the cloning of a gray and a human that is basically explored twice. The child does come up once in a while as motivation for the gray’s actions but just seems to be a plot device. The human who is the mother is cold and callous towards her child. The humans take on the child of that as of a rape when she was five years old when she was abducted and experimented on was glossed over. This book could have been something special. An examination of traumatic relationships born from violent events. But, what we have instead is a self involved mellow dramatic action movie wannabe that ends with a gun toting gray. There was a point I thought it was going to get really good when Reenm the gray who is the protagonist discovered what was hapoening at Langley. But, that moment was just an excuse to end the narrative. It went all Rambo, and just seems like the author either tired of the idea or felt that the story was going no where. If this story did more than just have an aliens smoke cigars and cuss like a used car salesman feomtexas I think I could have given it a five star rating. But as it stands, theee os the besr I can give it. If yoi arw in vacation this woild be a great book to pass the time withiut it is a fast read. I can recommend it as just a page turner but if you’re looking for insight into the human condition or complicated narratives and character motivations and rich character development, this isn’t it. This book os very much a product of its time, in the nineties UFOs wers everywhere, books, tv specials, everywhere. Now thirty three years later, it doesn’t have the same kind of excitement it would have had if I read it back in the day. I liked it, I just wished it hadn’t ended the way it did and focused on the human sode of dealing with the greys and fhe greys dwaljng with humans. It ended in such a way I felt like I was cheated out of a more in depth story that could have been a classic. I was hard pressed to find even one YouTube review in this book or even much mention of it through a google search, now I see why. It’s just feels like a quick and dirty cash grab off a nineties culture that “wants to beleive”.
September 15, 2024
Patricia Anthony I love you! This was a book that made me quickly fall in love with the author--partially because of being keyed in on her commercial failings in lieu of her critical successes, but also just because she has a reputation of writing depressing stories, and that depressing angle serves to cut through the somewhat stodgy-stilted setting of a Whitehouse-based alien invasion sci-fi story.
Brother Termite is strange, because really it reads more-so like an angsty "Catcher in the Rye" from the perspective of an alien, named Reen, who is panged by a strange cold love for a species (humans) he understands will be driven to extinction by his peoples being; in the way of a strange cold love: there is a malignant eroticism creeping through the narration, where our little termite aliens have (spoiler following)
I super loved it, and it made me fall in love with Patricia Anthony.
Brother Termite is strange, because really it reads more-so like an angsty "Catcher in the Rye" from the perspective of an alien, named Reen, who is panged by a strange cold love for a species (humans) he understands will be driven to extinction by his peoples being; in the way of a strange cold love: there is a malignant eroticism creeping through the narration, where our little termite aliens have (spoiler following)
I super loved it, and it made me fall in love with Patricia Anthony.
December 13, 2025
Tricky book to rate and review.
Rather odd but still enjoyable.
Probably a bit too sophisticated for me. Had trouble keeping up with the characters and their motivations. Basically decided that no-one was trustworthy, which was pretty close in the end.
Rather odd but still enjoyable.
Probably a bit too sophisticated for me. Had trouble keeping up with the characters and their motivations. Basically decided that no-one was trustworthy, which was pretty close in the end.
August 29, 2018
This was a slog -- just did not care about the charactors.
April 21, 2019
I read this book back in the late 80's/early 90's. Very good read! Loved it. Brilliantly written. I highly recommend this book.
July 20, 2021
TF did I just read?
June 24, 2025
I think about it from time to time, even though I read it many years ago. Most books can't do that, but this one can.
November 30, 2025
Clever SF political satire -- until it stops being funny.
I may be (slightly) inflating the grade here -- this isn't perfect, it has its flaws. I was wondering, at the end, exactly what Anthony was trying to say. (Don't trust aliens? OK. Aliens shouldn't trust us? Fair dues .... )
BUT ... Brother Termite is clever and witty. It is, a good deal of the time, horrifying. It makes the reader work for answers, spoonfeeding us nothing. (Small criticism: the occasional modest info-dump would not have done any harm. Anthony sometimes goes through pages of narrative convolutions to establish something that could have been explained in one well-tailored sentence. This can feel like being cute for its own sake, but ah, well, nobody's perfect.) It features alien-aliens that China Mieville or Adrian Tchaikovsky would be proud of, aliens whose all-too human flaws almost make sense.
Anthony's clever twist is that the story is told from the tight perspective of The Bad Guys -- the aliens. That's no spoiler -- very quickly we realise that the Cousins (insectoid, small, grey-skinned and classically Roswell in appearance) are very, very bad guys. Kidnapping children, vivisection, genetic experimentation: that kind of bad. You may think you know your bad aliens: War of the Worlds, "To Serve Man," Independence Day. But buckle in, for a bumpy, disturbing ride.
I may be (slightly) inflating the grade here -- this isn't perfect, it has its flaws. I was wondering, at the end, exactly what Anthony was trying to say. (Don't trust aliens? OK. Aliens shouldn't trust us? Fair dues .... )
BUT ... Brother Termite is clever and witty. It is, a good deal of the time, horrifying. It makes the reader work for answers, spoonfeeding us nothing. (Small criticism: the occasional modest info-dump would not have done any harm. Anthony sometimes goes through pages of narrative convolutions to establish something that could have been explained in one well-tailored sentence. This can feel like being cute for its own sake, but ah, well, nobody's perfect.) It features alien-aliens that China Mieville or Adrian Tchaikovsky would be proud of, aliens whose all-too human flaws almost make sense.
Anthony's clever twist is that the story is told from the tight perspective of The Bad Guys -- the aliens. That's no spoiler -- very quickly we realise that the Cousins (insectoid, small, grey-skinned and classically Roswell in appearance) are very, very bad guys. Kidnapping children, vivisection, genetic experimentation: that kind of bad. You may think you know your bad aliens: War of the Worlds, "To Serve Man," Independence Day. But buckle in, for a bumpy, disturbing ride.
February 18, 2009
Not for me.
I tried but just couldn't get into it. I don't think the set-up/world was explained very well initially. (I am not a huge Sci Fi buff, so maybe that's why I "didn't get it".) But, after all, I just wasn't invested enough to finish the book. I read the first few chapters and the last few then quit.
I tried but just couldn't get into it. I don't think the set-up/world was explained very well initially. (I am not a huge Sci Fi buff, so maybe that's why I "didn't get it".) But, after all, I just wasn't invested enough to finish the book. I read the first few chapters and the last few then quit.
July 8, 2011
Pitch perfect! The first book I ever read by Anthony and I was hooked. Wish she was more well known, an imaginative and gifted writer.
June 2, 2012
It was odd, though probably a good odd.
I really like the concept of loving what you're killing, it does make dilemmas much more poignant, I find.
I really like the concept of loving what you're killing, it does make dilemmas much more poignant, I find.
May 16, 2013
An amazing novel
June 14, 2013
This is a new release from Event Horizon EBooks, an e-book reprint of the original 1993 Harcourt Brace & Company printed edition. Note that the rating is posted by the publisher.
September 10, 2014
Un romanzo decisamente intrigante, ma troppo negativo nell'atteggiamento di fondo. Alcune idee decisamente buone, una scrittura scorrevole, ma la negatività che lo permea lascia la bocca molto amara.
April 2, 2016
A choppy thriller. The main character was interesting and well developed. I enjoyed the world building the author created with her aliens.
October 1, 2016
I read this a while ago, but didn't remember it. A political thriller with aliens that weren't quite believable.
September 28, 2023
I read this book back in the late 90’s. Loved it! It was interesting and thought provoking. I recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews