Recently Read: The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure

[ellyssian]

The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure by Storm Constantine

I was really worried when I started reading this. It had been so long since I had read the first Wraeththu stories, would I have a clue what was going on?

No worries.

You could probably read this without the preceding volume - actually a trilogy, which I read as a single bound edition - but I think it might be best read as I had.

After going through the first book - or books - you keep your eyes open for a follow up, but find none. Desert winds blow, and sands cover up bits and pieces, until you're not even sure it ever really existed... and then you find hints that it's not a thing of the past, but rather of the present.

I think this volume is actually more coherent - understandable, considering Storm's had many years between the last words of the earlier work and the first words here.

I've seen this filed under "Horror" and it really isn't - it's fantasy. Maybe even urban - or, more accurately, post-urban - fantasy. Sure, the Wraeththu seem a bit like vampires when they are first introduced - especially through the eyes of those who haven't been incepted. The story and its world is more of a fantasy. It's a bit of a genre-bender, but horror - outside of that which can exist during battle scenes - really isn't one of its components. Maybe even sci fi would be more appropriate, in the sense that there are biological changes and thus scientific reasons that explain some of the fantasy elements.

The whole bit about inception as Wraeththu might turn some potential readers away, seeing as how, along with the foodie Liquor series by Poppy Z. Brite, causes some product suggestion systems to consider you a fan of gay lit. If you're closed minded or squeamish about such things, than this might not be a good choice for you. Shame, really, because you'd be missing a damn fine story.

That really takes a backseat to a more important development - which includes one of the first births of the brand new race, and what happens to this child as they grow - and it quickly becomes apparent that she is not quite the same as her fathers...

Comments

[jenjiyana.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review. I read the trilogy (also as a single book) many years ago but hadnt gotten to this. I'll add it to my ever growing list. She has another series that's also very good which I dont have access to atm since im at work :/ I have yet to read Book 3 of that one though.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Truth to tell, I think it was only ever released as a trilogy-in-one volume.

Kinda-sorta like the six books of The Lord of the Rings being released in three volumes... =)

[jenjiyana.livejournal.com]

haha

i *think* i saw BooK One at a used book store many years ago. I think perhaps they were originally issued as single books but reissued as three in one. Brain has the dumb today.