The Hencha Queen, by J. Scott Coatsworth

The Hencha Queen by J. Scott Coatsworth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Welcome to Tharassas, a planet light-years from Earth and the home of a 400-year-old human colony, a colony now in peril. The spore mother awaits the progenitor. “News of the world flowed into [her] through her children, the forerunners …” The world she finds herself on, needs to be changed; it is “far too cold and dry to sustain her progeny outside the mountain walls” (6). And changed it will be, as she begins to prepare for the progenitor, his kind. Soon, she will release seeds, and the world will never be the same.

But Silya, the new Hencha Queen, knows trouble is coming. How she save her people, even with the aid of the semi-sentient Hencha plants? Is there enough room in the caves to provide sanctuary for so many? Can she convince those who just want to wait and see? What about the old technology found in the caves? Will it help? Those who want to wait are proven wrong as refugees pour in, their homes destroyed, their farms ruined, the land devastated.

Silya does have help. Raven arrives on the back of flying verents. Raven, a verent rider, and no longer a thief, seems to have found himself. Kerrick, the guard, will fight with her, even as they discover each other’s hearts.

But where is Aik, Raven’s soul mate? Burdened by the mysterious gauntlet, is desperately seeking Raven. His quest leads him to Anghar Mor—or is this the will of the gauntlet, which seems to have its own agenda, and Aik is but its tool. Can Aik survive? Can Raven find him in time? Will Spin, the AI from old Earth, be able to help?

Time is running out.

This third installment of J. Scott Coatsworth’s Tharassas Cycle is a worthy continuation of a series I have grown to love. Fast-paced, fraught with peril, this is a real page turner. “Things have [indeed] gotten apocalyptic” (back cover). This is a richly imagined world, with solid details of culture, history, flora and fauna (benign and malevolent). The characters, human and alien, are believable. I find myself hoping for a happy ending, for lovers to reunite.

Highly recommended.



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