"But if Intelligence learned of what you have just told me, hru'hfirh?" It struck Arrhae even as she said it that the question was unnecessary, one with an obvious answer. She was even more right than she guessed.
"Then they could have learned from only one source, and would also learn - from a similarly anonymous source - that my so-trusted hru'hfe is a spy for the Federation, suborned by her late master tr'Lhoell," said H'daen silkily. "Tell me, whom would they believe?" Then he swore and scrambled to his feet with his hands reaching for her shoulders, for Arrhae's face had drained of colour so fast and so completely that he thought she was about to faint. "Powers and Elements, Arrhae, it was a brutal answer to the question, but I didn't mean it!"
The Romulan Way (1987) by husband and wife team Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, is a novel of two distinct parts which is equally fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because I love Duane's Romulans and the thought that went into describing their leaving Vulcan and the subsequent birth of the Rihannsu culture; frustrating because the alternating 'story' and 'history' chapters cause a 'stop/start' narrative which makes it difficult to settle into the story.
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| I feel those small figures at the bottom feature on many movie posters and book covers from the 1980s. |
I honestly do love to read novels by Diane Duane (no experience of Peter Morwood at time of writing), but sometimes I do have to be in the right mood for them. Subsequently, I didn't pick this book back up for nearly three weeks after my surgery. The reason? The structure really bothered me, I really didn't get on with the alternating chapters even though I could see the reason to them. I think they needed to be there to set the ground work for Duane's Romulans - her Rihannsu. In order for her story to make sense and I think at this point to set herself up for sequels with her rogue Romulan Commander 'Ael', she needed to explain her Rihannsu history. Since I doubt the powers that be would allow her to produce an independent non-canon Romulan/Rihannsu history book, the necessary history needed to be slipped into a novel, hence The Romulan Way. The novel in its entirety is really just ground work for further novels, not only is it setting up the Rihannsu past, it is also giving exposition of their culture, their symbolism, language and their 'current' political situation ending with Ael taking away an ancient symbol of her people because she didn't believe they deserved it any longer - they had become too dishonourable.
The 'story' is quite small scale for Duane, which is necessary since she and Morwood, were putting so much history in. The blurb at the back of the book describes The Romulan Way as a 'startlingly different adventure', although it seems to be more referring to the history aspect, the story narrative itself is also quite different. For much of the book the characters are all very small. They aren't larger than life heroes like Kirk or heinous villains - even McCoy is subdued. Instead, the characters are fighting their own mostly inconsequential battles, making small overtures, small actions which in the scheme of things for the most part don't have repercussions. The main character Arrhae or Terise is one such character. She is an extraordinary woman - no doubt - but she is just an intelligence officer who hadn't made a report in two years while undercover as a Romulan. She works as a housekeeper in a minor house, having worked up from the status of a slave. She's been changed so that she looks Romulan, and genetically changed so that she now bleeds green but she is just a Terran human. Arrhae/Terise has been undercover for ten years living a quiet but hard life, but because of her long silence, Intelligence wants to pull her out, fearing that she'd 'gone native' and instigates a plan involving McCoy's capture in order to make contact with her and bring her back to Earth.
For her part, she doesn't want anything to do with it. Her conditioning is so strong she is more Romulan than Human now, but McCoy's peril at the hands of Romulan justice rouses her to continue her work for the Federation. Of course, nothing much actually happens of much import in her sections of the story. Backed up by the history sections, her master's (and her) actions are explained, but Terise (or more commonly Arrhae) herself is mostly concerned with trying to live her everyday life. At times it may as well have been 'day in the life of a house keeper' (although it is much more interesting than The Remains of the Day). As such.... it's somewhat difficult to give a summary of the story without basically telling you what happened blow for blow.
Again what I really liked was Duane/Morwood's transient characters, the ones that fleetingly visit the narrative, and exit on their own business never to be heard of again. This I find a real mark of an accomplished writer since there are rounded characters that the author doesn't feel the need to 'make a main character' just because they've spent time creating them. These fleeting characters are a bit of a theme in The Romulan Way however, punctuated with the final actions of an ensign who was only introduced a few pages previously.
I very much enjoyed the dynamic between Arrhae/Terise and her master H'daen. Much of what you learn about H'daen is through Arrhae's eyes, she is sympathetic to him and despite their differing status' he is fond of her. The end for them is very sweet I feel, and I am very much glad it ended the way it did, although I must admit I expected Arrhae to leave with McCoy since, from my perspective she was up against insurmountable odds.
Something that does bother me is that Arrhae/Terise will be significantly weaker than a Romulan woman (if they retain the strength of their shared Vulcan roots) and she will also be aging faster than the Romulans around her. Romulans don't have the lifespan of Vulcans, but they are still able to live some 80 years longer than humans. Arrhae/Terise notes this a couple of times, so she is aware, but it doesn't seem like a problem she (or anyone else) dwells on.
The Romulan Way is a good story and a great Romulan/Rihannsu history book. It's enjoyable once you get your head around the alternating chapters although perhaps it's possible to read the history characters first and then read the story? Perhaps that would be a more enjoyable way to read it? Either way, if you've liked Diane Duane previously, you'll like this novel too. I'm not sure how much influence Peter Morwood had on this novel, since it reads like Diane's hand throughout. Although I'll need to read the rest of Diane's series of Rihannsu books to be sure, I do think that you need to read this one to make sense of the rest, especially since Ael's actions at the end are sure to have ramifications for future books.
5/5 - You should read this, mnhei'sahe.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention, a glossary is included at the back to help explain those pesky Rihannsu terms which are untranslatable into English!
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