The Teras Tactics by Lucien Burr
Book Two of the Teras Threat Series
I adored the first book of this series. The second is just as good while being a profoundly different reading experience.
Be warned: This book ends on a cliff-hanger, but the story is so good I’m willing to overlook it (this time).
And this blog is going to be spoilery AF, so don’t read until you have immersed yourself in the Teras world.
Asking for more
I think the key thing to understand about this book is that it’s actually Leo’s story, in the sense that the major emotional journey is occurring to him. He is the character that experiences a turning point in which he has to decide what he wants and is prepared to put into the relationship with Cass.
And man does he struggle with it. Personally, I think he is already in love with Cass, there is plenty of subtext to suggest so, although Cass does not see it. This book marks a turning point in the relationship where Cass stops accepting Leo’s deflections, where he begins to push for more, for Leo to let him in. And Leo responds by freaking out. He delivers one of the most brutal take-downs I have ever seen committed to page. You hurt on Cass’s behalf for it. Burr does an amazing job capturing Cass’s heartbreak and self-loathing when despite this rough rejection he still cant help but pull out all the stops to effect a rescue mission on Leo’s behalf.
When we reconnect with Leo, it is to discover that nearly dying has given him an epiphany: what he wants is Cass. That Cass is offering him the very thing he has been searching for since his family died. Leo promises Cass, has made a promise to himself, that he will let Cass in – and then doesn’t. It takes him the rest of the book, several more requests from Cass, and (for the nth time in their relationship) Cass manning up and showing him a vulnerability of his own before Leo manages to fulfill his promise.
And the best part of the whole thing? The conversation and confession are both strictly about Leo’s past and what happened to his family. At no point is the deeper meaning spelled out. What stellar writing.
None of this is as clear as it would have been if we had Leo’s POV but I don’t fault the author for sticking with Cass, I suspect it will prove essential to the trilogy arc to do so. And it reflects the ways in which people outside of us, our loved ones can also drive the direction of our own arcs.
Layered Subtext
This book is a marvellous study of the duality of conversation. My writing teachers are always saying – conversations happen on multiple levels, people rarely say what they mean. We saw this in the whole arc about Leo’s family, but it also shows in the the scene on the church tower at Prittlewell after the battle. There was a heap of subtext there that took me multiple readings to parse out. I loved the way Burr captured what it feels like to be overwhelmed with feelings, especially when you don’t know what’s behind them.
But I get why Cass is overwhelmed. Since the rescue Leo has turned the affection up to 11, but he is still deflecting. This is mixed signal hell, and on top of that Cass tells us in the very first book that he would find it easy to fall in love with Leo if the other man started treating the relationship seriously. He’s falling into a dead end and he knows it. The thing he wants is being flashed at him from behind a pane of glass. And sex is no longer enough to paper over the cracks. This is a sex scene being taken to new levels.
This is also why I say its Leo’s story, because despite the pain of this scene Cass remains steadfast in his goal for the relationship, he waits, and in the end his faith is rewarded.
A bit of an aside: but this book is absolutely filthy. Like there is a lot of sex in the first part, this does ease off as the plot and emotions get more complex, but it did catch me by surprise. Burr has a real skill at hooking the intimate acts into the emotional landscape of his characters. So that even sex that doesn’t shift the dial on the relationship status still feels deep and relevant as a way of showing the status of the relationship or even of these characters relative to secondary characters not actually involved in the relationship (also I’m gonna be low key disappointed if we don’t get a threesome with Don in the last book).
I also find it interesting how different their responses are to love. Cass struggles to accept love from another, it’s the thing that breaks him down. I almost expected a reaction like that from Leo, after being ostracised. But I guess the difference is Leo had a loving family and lost them, it left him desperate not to expose his heart to that hurt again, to wall it away and not love anyone. While Cass didn’t have family love, so he finds receiving it impossible to believe (I hear you Cass). Also, I think it’s that secret that Leo couldn’t bear to tell Cass, not how his family died. Not the way he failed to save his baby brother. But that he couldn’t give Cass his heart. Except that in telling him the story he already has. Unfortunately, the story ends so quickly after the revelation that we don’t get an opportunity to see either’s response, or measure what each feels and understands by it. I hate cliff-hanger endings, but from authors this good I will allow it. Cant wait to get stuck into the third book.
Power and Sex – again
This book builds on a lot of interesting themes.
You might remember from my discussion of the first book, me musing on the power dynamics of sex. This book makes it explicit:
Love is a violent act. Every touch, every fuck, is about power – about taking it or giving it up.
Also, Cass thinks this while they are dissecting a monster – this story really is my kind of macabre.
And yet, it’s a fact of their relationship that Leo might be a bully between the sheets but every time it’s a matter of emotional vulnerability, it’s Cass who does the brave thing, who puts himself on the line.
There is also something to be said in the juxtaposition of Leo and Don. At first Don seems the weaker for his internalised homophobia, but once we understand Leo’s vulnerability they become much more similar, both using physical aggression to avoid their damn issues.
Quick side-note: But I really love how the author captures the attraction of sexual violence and submission. We are never in any doubt how much Cass and Leo enjoy their games. And the many subtle and overt ways they communicate and check in with each other. For example the chocking doesn’t come out of nowhere, in their previous sex Cass responded powerfully to Leo putting his hand around his throat. Obviously Leo noticed and then, as is his wont, takes it up a notch. The way they both laugh together at the end of that scene. I don’t mind reading kink or games or stories with extremely different intimate dynamics than I would want in a relationship, as long as the author makes clear that it is what those characters want.
Power and Authority – God on Earth
In this book, we explore more power dynamics, especially with authority figures like the deaconess and the Dean. I mention it here because Cass and the Dean’s relationship is both subtly and categorically likened to sex. In a way that I think provides a commentary on power that is used to abuse and power that is used to please and serve (which you will remember was how I described Leo’s domination before). There are some powerful points made about how the old and powerful cling to their power at the expense of the young. In a way that resonates disturbingly with the world we are currently occupying.
She wants to show her relevance, but she is a relic now.
And we do need to talk about God – I know I hate it too.
As I noted before, the experience of the trials has lead to a crisis of faith in Cass. Although he comes around to regard the whole endeavour in a much more complex and less naive manner than he did before. Finding God again, but acknowledging that he would have to have a different relationship, love him a different way, than he did previously. Along with an acceptance that organised religion is essentially flawed. It is overall a more mature response to God. One that reflects an overall more mature perspective on the world and his life than he had in book one.
Another big change in Cass is the way he has accepted his sexuality. In claiming his power as a hunter and fighter he also claims his power as a gay man, living openly with it and reclaiming other’s attempts to shame him – it’s not a perfect curve though, he still struggles with authority figures, but it’s a vast improvement. Especially in the way he has come to view societal norms and what they mean to him.
When everything else is crumbling away from me , I can choose to whore myself out if I want to.
As well as a sexual energy over Cass the Dean is frequently likened to God in his power over London. Cass says:
If god has abandoned us, at least Drearton never will.
Prophetic since the Dean abandons Cass for the sin of having a loyalty outside the University, it also echoes the opening of book one where Drearton loses it with Thad. I think in the linking of God and this deeply amoral character, who is also the representation of the institution, perhaps the author is linking god, or the fallacy of god, to personal and corporate malfeasance and corruption. Not quite sure how the sexual power plays on this theme or if they should be considered separate.
We also get a bunch of history that contextualises Leo’s hatred for the church. To such an extent that I find myself wondering if his confidence in his sexuality (as in a complete lack of fear of homophobia) is rooted in defiance. In the first book, Silas says that homophobia is more of a problem in London, so at first I though it was just that. But that doesn’t hold. Cass only moved to London at 14 (same age Leo loses his family). And he has been extensively bullied by his family for his preferences and weaknesses before that. Okay, Leo had better family support. But still, I wander if he didn’t actively pursue sex with men, maybe make a habit of seducing men, to give the church and the community that ostracised him the middle finger. Because his confidence and experience when we first meet him far exceeds Cass’s, far exceeds what I might have expected from a boy who lived on the edge of society.
The old team
I do like that we slowly see the old crowd (what’s left of it) reforming. The starts of a reconciliation with Victoria, for all Cass doesn’t see it ‘cos he cant believe he deserves to be forgiven. And Fred.
Man I don’t like Fred.
I feel a bit bad saying that since there is evidence here to suggest she may be trans-coded, but still. She treats Cass in a manner I find spiteful. I would have been just as upset as him, if after pleading for her help and getting my teeth kicked in emotionally, she then turns around and comes running for mine, while still acting like she’s the victim. The amount of blame she throws on him is excessive, given how easily she or anybody else, including Cass, might have died. That scene where she withholds the revolver was the real clencher for me. She has no empathy for anyone else, but plenty of badmouthing and demands of service, especially from Cass, maybe that’s a reasonable reaction to grief, but I can’t condone it.
I wonder if her anger isn’t rooted in jealousy. She was always prepared to do anything to save her brother, but as we see here, she’s not capable of anything outside of that. Like what was stopping her going to Meleti to find the rift herself? Why does she need the others for this mission? I do wonder if getting them was even her idea. But no, she goes running off to get Cass immediately and basically dumps the whole problem in his lap. Which is deeply manipulative. For me I hope she dies in the next book. For Cass I hope they reconcile since that is what he needs, but Maybe Leo can kick her teeth in first?
Society
It’s not a big theme of the book, but we also see Cass beginning to question the societal system that has brought them there and what its truths are. The discussion around racism and classism and how those ideas outlasted the complete collapse of society. As well as how those ideas had been used to shape them into sheep for the University’s slaughter. The way people are taught to keep believing those same ideas.
Fighting for normalcy, to live the life we were promised (spoonfed). Fighting to perpetuate the system.
Again, for too prescient given the current world madness – which has crept even closer to this point than when the author penned it.
There is also this powerful idea of staying soft in a hard, hard world. The struggle we see in the characters between being ‘ruthless’ which becomes their code-word for heartless, and not showing vulnerability. All of them operate on the idea of not showing vulnerability or weakness. Cass states as much, and notes how harmful it is to his ability to feel his emotions. It really resonated with me when he starts pushing back. To ask where is the line between ruthlessness in the face of Teras, and loving and supporting your lovers, friends, community.
Been told again and again what I should feel, how I should feel it, who I should show it to. I feel so much, and yet somehow I don’t feel enough. I don’t allow it to sit long enough, to know it or care for it. I just close my eyes, distract myself and hope it goes away.
Critique
On the critical side, the second half of the book definitely needed a good line edit. And there were continuity errors, in terms of how much time had passed. I also feel like a lot of the injuries get forgotten. Like Cass’s bruised knee. Or the shattered prosthetic.
This last injury really needed more page time. His struggle to accept the disability and the prosthetic was a key part of the first book. Now it has been destroyed, he’s down an arm, and I don’t know what he feels about that. Also there are a few places where the author seems to forget he’s only got the one hand. I know this is action fiction and it’s part of the genre to forget or lessen injuries, and this may be explained by time lags or line edits but it bothered me.
The book ends with a lot of unanswered questions and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.
Also, because of this book I joined Kickstarter for the first time in my life. Purchasing a special hardcover copy of the trilogy so I can have my own physical version as its clear I will be re-reading these often. I am already doing so.
