"Brother Termite" is a 1992

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

novel by

Patricia Anthony Patricia Marie Anthony (March 29, 1947 – July 2, 2013) was an American science fiction and slipstream author. Anthony published her first science fiction novel in 1992 with ''Cold Allies'', about the arrival of extraterrestrials in the midst o ...

Synopsis

Decades after Dwight Eisenhower helped the alien "

Cousins Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

" take over the United States, White House Chief of Staff Reen-Ja must deal with domestic unrest, political infighting, international conflict, the kidnapping of several Cousins, and the terrible secret underlying the Cousins' hidden agenda.

Reception

'' Kirkus Reviews'' considered it to be "(c)hilling, memorable work, with splendid characters", as well as "unstoppable narrative momentum" and "an enthralling plot", commending Anthony's portrayal of the aliens as "utterly convincing".BROTHER TERMITE by Patricia Anthony
reviewed at '' Kirkus Reviews''; published July 15, 1993; retrieved November 14, 2017 ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' described it as "occasionally farcical but essentially poignant", "tense, often disturbing", and "a difficult, but rewarding read", and praised the Cousins as "sympathetic characters with a moving plight" (despite their "unjustifiable" actions).Brother Termite
reviewed at ''

''; published October 4, 1993; retrieved November 14, 2017

Adaptation

In the late 1990s,

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post- New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability ...

's production company

Lightstorm Entertainment Lightstorm Entertainment is an American independent production company founded in 1990 by filmmaker James Cameron and producer Lawrence Kasanoff. The majority of its films have been distributed and owned by 20th Century Studios. Its productions ...

was preparing a film adaptation of ''Brother Termite'', with screenplay by

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...

(Anthony later noted that Sayles "added a scene that

he was He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

particularly fond of, which did not occur in the book, but probably should have occurred in the book. It works so well.")Patricia Anthony
interviewed by Jayme Lyn Blaschke; interview originally published in '' Interzone'' #144, July 1999; archived in ''Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak'', by Jame Lyn Blaschke, published 2005 by

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Uni ...

and Steve Norrington as director;A look at BROTHER TERMITE!
at

Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...

, published June 16, 1999; retrieved November 14, 2017 ultimately, the film was not produced, but in 2010, two minutes of test footage from ''Brother Termite'' (featuring early use of

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

) appeared as a bonus feature on the

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

release of Cameron's 2009 film ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

''.Some Surprising And Curious Details Of The Upcoming Avatar Blu-ray Bonuses
by Brendon Connelly; at ''

Bleeding Cool Bleeding Cool is an Internet news site, focusing on comics, television, film, board games, and video games. Owned by Avatar Press, it was launched by Rich Johnston on March 27, 2009. Avatar Press also publishes an associated magazine, ''Bleedin ...

''; published September 15, 2010; retrieved November 14, 2017

References

{{reflist 1992 science fiction novels American science fiction novels