Storm Constantine

Storm Constantine (12 October 1956 – 14 January 2021) was a British science fiction and fantasy author, primarily known for her Wraeththu series, which began as one trilogy but has spawned many subsequent works.

Beginning in the 1980s, Constantine's short stories appeared in dozens of genre fiction magazines and anthologies. She authored over 30 published novels and non-fiction books (often examining issues of sex and gender), and numerous other publications, including grimoires. Her debut novel, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Subsequent work was nominated for the BSFA Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Locus Award and the Otherwise Award.

In addition to her work as a writer, Constantine headed Immanion Press, an independent publishing company she founded in 2003 to publish her own back catalogue and works by other niche writers.

Early life

Constantine was born on 12 October 1956 in Stafford, Staffordshire. She began creating stories and art at an early age, devising make-believe worlds and writing sequels to Greek and Roman myths. In a 2017 interview, she said, "Before I learned to write as a young child, I made stories up in my head [...] I embellished reality always and often got into trouble for it. I simply had a natural impulse to make things up and it's been part of me all my life."

Education and early career

Constantine attended Stafford Girls' High School, then attended Stafford Art College from 1971 to 1972, though she left before completing her degree, frustrated with the institution's disdain for figurative art.

In the early 1980s, she joined the Goth subculture in and around Birmingham, eventually developing friendships with several bands and eventually managing a few. She later cited her years in this scene as a strong influence for her Wraeththu series, explaining to an interviewer that the people around her "were all very androgynous" and to her "seemed like fantasy creatures".

Her primary day job was at Stafford's public library.

Writing

Wraeththu

Constantine began her serious writing career by writing a novel which became the Wraeththu Chronicles and included The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, and The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire. Working as a librarian at the time, she decided to focus on writing when she came to the following realization: "This is it for the rest of my life. I've got to do something about it." Constantine had been working with the concept and characters of Wraeththu since the late 1970s.

By the late 1980s, Constantine had a synopsis and outline of the trilogy completed. One day, she was at the Andromeda bookshop in Birmingham (operated by Rog Peyton) when she had a chance encounter with a representative from MacDonald Futura (which was absorbed by Little, Brown Book Group in 1992). The representative subsequently picked up the novels, which were published between 1987 and 1989.

The first book of the series, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, was a finalist for the 1991 Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

In 1993, Tor released the trilogy in omnibus format in the United States. The trilogy developed a cult following, particularly in the Goth subculture and among those interested in fiction tackling alternative sexuality.

Beginning with the initial trilogy, and continuing on to subsequent novels, novellas, and short stories, the Wraeththu stories follow the rise of a race of hermaphrodites / androgynes transformed from humans. This new race takes possession of a world decline, a slow apocalypse, and then rebuilds the world into something better. Members of the new species are referred to as hara. The world of Wraeththu includes representations of real-life Earth continents and cultures, but all have been renamed and reworked. Constantine described the setting as an "alternate reality".

Constantine framed the Wraeththu as follows:

Humanity is in decline, ravaged by insanity, natural disasters, conflict, disease and infertility. A mysterious new race has risen from the ghettos and ruins of the decaying, dying cities. The young are evolving into a new species, which is stronger, sharper and more beautiful than their forerunners. Androgynous beings, they transcend gender and race. They possess skin psychic abilities and the means, through a process called inception, to transform humans into creatures like themselves. But they are wild in their rebirth and must strive to overcome all that is human within them in order to create society anew. They are the Wraeththu.

The structure and plot of the Wraeththu Chronicles revolves around three characters: Pellaz ("Pell"), Swift, and Calanthe ("Cal"), who are (in that order) the first-person narrators. Their intertwining stories begin with Cal meeting Pell and whisking him away to a town where he is incepted and becomes har. Eventually the couple, deeply in love, encounter Swift, a Wraeththu child living in the home of a high-ranking tribal leader. Shortly after their visit, Pell is killed. All is not as it seems, however, and Pell is "reborn" and becomes the Tigron of Immanion, ruler the Gelaming tribe. Swift's narrative, a coming-of-age story, tells the tale of what happened after Pell and Cal left, and then what happened when Cal returned, devastated by the loss of Pell. In the third book, set a couple of decades later, Cal pieces together the shattered memories of his life and embarks on a quest to reunite with Pell, who, as he has learned, is alive. At the end of the book, Cal arrives in Immanion and claims Pell once again as his own. Pell has already bonded with another har and sired. And although the other har is angry, by the finale, the three hara become joint rulers of the Gelaming and by extension the Wraeththu race.