The Hienama, Student of Kyme, and The Moonshawl, a trilogy by Storm Constantine

Anyone who is familiar with Storm Constantine‘s Wraeththu Chronicles will enjoy these books. The first two are much shorter than the last, which was just released, but together they make a whole picture from three points of view, and tell a story that is more than just a story. These books delve deep not only into the personalities of the main characters, but also into the history of the Wraeththu, or, to put it more accurately, into their future.

The beginning of the Wraeththu as the dominant race on Earth has been accomplished. Now all the various tribes across the globe are working to find their way to their future, and part of that is the friction between former humans who have been incepted into the Wraeththu, and those Wraeththu who are second generation and thus born into the race with not ever having been human or having had a human experience. On top of this is a decent sprinkling of emotion, and difficulties communicating with other people, and finding your own ground in a new world.

This trilogy exemplifies all of that in a beautifully written way. There is the Hienama, a priest of sorts (although the word doesn’t do justice to what a Hienama is capable of), whom, despite his talents and abilities, is still subject to the need to play mind games with people and lead them to places without ever taking responsibility for having done so. There is his student, who falls in love with him (as they often do), but this time Ysobi (the Hienama) decides to try a bond and to make it work. It is something like a difficult marriage with one partner having a wandering eye, but this is Wraeththu and so that’s not correct. (I’m afraid you’ll have to read the first books to get a good feeling for these differences.) Another student shows up, there are ructions, and Ysobi ends up leaving his chesnari (mate) and going to some place completely new, where he manages to find a completion to his story that he didn’t expect and didn’t truly felt like he deserved.

In human terms – powerful person with a less than robust sense of responsibility, love triangle, eventual redemption for all three, with none of the three ending up together. But, it is so much more than that and so much better than that. I love this universe that Storm Constantine has created and I read every bit of literature I can get my hands on. Also, I stalk her on Facebook (ok, not really, but I do read her posts with great interest).