From archive Fri Aug 21 13:23:20 MDT 1992 Subject: _The_Gate_to_Womens_Country_ From: lsc%chryse@Sun.COM (Lisa S Chabot) Organization: "Hail, Pex! Pex the unalive!" Date: 28 Aug 89 21:19:23 GMT _The_Gate_to_Women's_Country_ by Sheri S. Tepper Too weak to do anything but lay on the couch this weekend, I finally made a dent in the To Read pile. And found this gem! Brief synopsis: in a world which saw a nuclear war about 300 years ago, we find ourselves in one of the first refounded cities. These cities are loosely tied by commerce and war, and they don't sprawl, since much of the land is not arable and the city walls provide protection from bandits and other marauders. The cities are divided: men live in one half and practice for war; women live in the other half and farm and weave and manufacture. Boys leave their mothers at age 5 to live with the warriors, although, if they choose, they can return to the women's side and cultivate the living arts instead. Men fight with bronze swords; what little steel women make is needed for medicinal uses. And, if that were it, you wouldn't have to read it yourself! I found this book uplifting: full of hope and pain, but much more positive than most post-nuclear science fiction, especially since it gave a glimmer of such hope about the violence we see inherent in us. A weakness is in her sweep-under-the-carpet treatment of homosexuality, but that may be a story path she didn't want to follow. Tepper as usual does not resort to preaching, but tells a compelling and illuminating story. A new favorite book of mine. --------------------------------- --Nay, if we talk of reason Let's shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honor Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughts With this cramm'd reason; reason and respect Make livers pale and lustihood deject. From archive Fri Aug 21 13:23:20 MDT 1992 Subject: THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY by Sheri Tepper From: ecl@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Date: 25 Sep 89 21:06:43 GMT THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY by Sheri S. Tepper Doubleday, 1989, ISBN 0-385-24709-5, $17.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper The premise of this book is that a nuclear war has taken place and civilization has fallen back to a technology somewhere around the 14th Century level (in general--more on that later). There are no guns; wars are fought with bows and arrows or close-contact weapons. Children are raised in the towns (the "women's country" of the title) until they are five years old. Then girls stay within the towns and boys are sent to their warrior fathers in the permanent army camps outside the towns. From age 5 through 15, the sons visit their mothers twice a year, during carnival. In fact, all the soldiers visit the town during carnival. That's when the couplings take place that produce children, because at age 15, the sons must choose whether to stay outside the walls (except for carnival) or return to women's country permanently as "servitors." This option is open to them until age 25, when they become full-fledged warriors and cannot return. Approximately 5% return. Women seem to have no choice other than to join gypsy camps or become prostitutes whom the warriors can visit year-round. Now I claimed, upon hearing a summary of the preceding, that it sounded like the sort of book that promotes the philosophy "Women are all wonderful; men are all horrible brutes (except for the ones who come over to the women's way of thinking)." But it was recommended by so many people that I figured I would give it a try. Well, it does manage to rise above my first impression in parts. Unfortunately, it takes a good three-quarters of the book to even attempt to rationalize its theses (by showing a different post-holocaust society and what IT would be like), and it is not until the very end that many of the motivations become clearer. At that point, much of what the reader may have dismissed as ridiculous begins to make a certain sense, but it may get the reader to that stage too late. It seems less a logical sequence than a magic trick, and magic tricks are notoriously poor things to base societies on. And, along with others who have been less than bowled-over by this book, I find that the book does seem to say "women are good, men are bad." Though it shows some men as good (i.e., peace-loving), it does not show any women as violent or war-mongering. And the book's dismissal of homosexuality as a having been discovered to be a hormonal imbalance in the mother during pregnancy that is "easily corrected," strikes me as a scientifically inaccurate premise, not to mention the "solution" being out of line with the technological level shown in the rest of society. In fact, the plot seems to hinge on some technology being hundreds of years ahead of the average technology, without an industrial infrastructure to support it (or without much clue to the reader before the rabbit is pulled from the hat). This is one of those "study war no more" novels that have been increasingly common of late. While I don't disagree with that philosophy, I think assigning all the blame to men and all the hope to women is too simplistic an approach. As a post-holocaust novel, THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY works; as a philosophical look at the causes of conflict, it does not. If I were to compare it to another author's works, I would say it is most similar to Heinlein's, for two reasons. First, the story is interesting, but the philosophical underpinnings may turn the reader off. And second, the society portrayed works in the novel, and in fact characters point out how well it works, but it works because the author wrote it that way, not because the society really would work that way in real life. Whether you enjoy THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY depends on what you're looking for. Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 10 10:52:09 1992 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!sun-barr!ames!ig!dont-reply-to-paths From: leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Sheri S. Tepper - The Gate To Women's Country Message-ID: Date: 10 Jul 92 06:19:12 GMT Sender: mcb@presto.ig.com Organization: Delft University of Technology Lines: 145 Approved: mcb@presto.ig.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Sheri S. Tepper The Gate To Women's Country (1988) Corgi Books (UK) ISBN 0 552 13419 8 Finally got around to reading Sheri S. Tepper's "The Gate To Women's Country". The occasional indignant mention this book had gotten here on the net had led me to expect a rabid, 'unfair' piece of militantly feminist propaganda. Or no, let me be frank: what I *really* expected was that my realistic, European sensitivities would be far less likely to be offended by a woman-oriented book than those of my American fellow-netters [gross generalization there -- no offense intended]. And in fact, that is just what happened. "The Gate To Women's Country" is a very interesting, easily readable novel, and if some men are bothered by the book's admittedly less- than-flattering approach to Manhood As We Know It, then I don't want to know how women must be feeling with all those thousands of other books around in which *they* are unflatteringly described, in which broad generalizations about their sex are made, or in which they are not even considered important enough to play a role of any relevance. Tepper does not believe that men are unimportant -- not at all. The story takes place in a post-holocaust setting: humanity has survived, and there are no real radiation problems, but our numbers are small and almost all technical knowledge has been lost, along with most of our fauna and flora. After the War, it so happened that some smart women were the first to take steps towards a rebuilding of civilization, and by the time of the events in this book that has led to an intriguing society: Women's Country. A number of autonomous cities run and populated (mostly) by women, and each protected by a male-only military garrison *outside* the city. These male and female societies have only official contact, they live completely separate otherwise. There are no longer marriages or relationships between male and female: twice a year the men are let inside to help conceive children, and when they are five all little boys are delivered to the garrison to be raised. When the boys reach 15 and again at 25 they have the option of 'coming home' and becoming a 'servitor': males who *do* get to live in Women's Country. Unfortunately, most boys get so indoctrinated into the ridiculously militaristic macho garrison society (always at war in order to 'protect' the women) that few of them actually do return. Against this background "The Gate" tells the story of Stavia, first a young girl, later a Council member in Marthatown. This is typically a novel that is less concerned with telling a ripping yarn then it is with exploring its world and philosophizing about the roles of women and men in society. And I think Sheri Tepper succeeds nicely in that. She has been guilty previously of some horribly sloppy hackwork (most notably the True Game trilogy), but it is obvious that the subject matter of "The Gate" is close to her heart as well, and she pays great attention to detail. The novel is well- structured, well-balanced, and is thankfully *not* pretentious. Neither does it attempt to explain everything, or to pass (too much) judgment. As I said, the male sex is indeed not particularly flatteringly portrayed in this novel. The garrison societies are exaggerated stereotypes: most males there are evil villains and rapists who carry out ridiculous ceremonies with ribbons and honors, who build huge phallic monuments they parade to, who are constantly talking about 'honor' when in fact they will use it as an excuse to indulge in every type of despicable behavior. I could understand people getting mad at such an unfair portrayal, but I really think they have not understood Tepper's intentions correctly. To me, at the end of the novel, it becomes extremely obvious that Tepper's main point is *not* "Men are Evil, Women are Good", but something entirely different: "Maybe women are just as bad as men" -- not a very radical feminist thought, right?. The rest of this review contains some SPOILERS. Sure, Tepper at first strings us along the road of that first thought, but don't forget the story is told through the eyes of a young woman, who mostly accepts what she is told, and who turns out to know not much of what is *really* going on. It is only in the last chapters that we learn some things about Women's Country that make us question how utopic this female-run society really is. It turns out that a small elite of women (the aforementioned Council) are taking actions that the majority of the women are not allowed to know of. Among these actions are the use of extreme violence (in certain cases), the suppression of rebellions (rebellion? In peaceful Women's Country?), and a genetic breeding program involving both the males and the females, including sterilization of 'unsuitable' people and artificial insemination of 'suitable' ones -- without their consent or even knowledge. Add to that some more wholesale lying and deceiving of the masses, and a deliberate policy of keeping the men stupid and keeping them fighting by manufacturing fake war-threats. At the end of the novel it is decided that the *entire* Marthatown garrison has become too rebellious, and a war is concocted with explicit 'instructions' that none of the men are to be allowed to survive. They don't. I don't quite see how anybody who has read the book this far can still conclude that Tepper is advocating Women's Country as the ideal solution to the problem of male competitiveness and dominance. Yes, she does say that a society run by women will not have many of the standard problems that plague male-dominated societies, and yes, the intentions of the Council are honest and not evil in themselves, and even seem to be working out pretty ok. But who gives the Council the right to decide and lie and tamper on such a grand scale? And of course: who watches the watchwomen? These are the questions that I see this novel asking, and I suppose if anyone knew the answer we would all be a lot happier. That Women's Country *isn't* the answer is something that Tepper makes very clear in the next to last paragraph of the book, in which (in the context of a play) Iphigenia describes to Achilles what Hades is like: "What's Hades like? Like dream without waking. Like carrying water in a sieve. Like coming into harbor after storm. Barren harbor where the empty river runs through an endless desert into the sea. Where all the burdens have been taken away. You'll understand when you come there at last, Achilles... Hades is Women's Country." Final Note: As you can tell, I liked the novel, but there were two parts in it that I find troubling, if not downright distasteful. Near the beginning there is a very nasty paragraph about how the disease homosexuality was finally diagnosed as a 'curable' hormonal imbalance. I don't know. This seems to me so in conflict with accepted ideas about the origins of homosexuality (or rather what those origins are *not*), that it has no place in even a science fiction story. Second: I am no expert in biology and evolution theory, but I do think that Tepper's opinions about genetics and 'breeding' humans are very simplistic if not downright ridiculous (the way in which nasty people in this story always get nasty children completely regardless of nurture environment, for instance). It doesn't really matter for the plot, but I see no reason to be scientifically careless about such an important issue. %A Sheri S. Tepper %T The Gate To Women's Country %I Corgi Books %C London %D 1990 (Copyright 1988) %G ISBN 0-552-13419-8 %O paperback, UKL3.99 %P 363pp -- Leo Breebaart (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Aug 13 11:57:34 1992 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!sun-barr!ames!ig!dont-reply-to-paths From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: BEAUTY by Sheri S. Tepper Message-ID: <9208111451.AA05975@presto.ig.com> Date: 11 Aug 92 23:56:16 GMT Sender: mcb@presto.ig.com Lines: 44 Approved: mcb@presto.ig.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) BEAUTY by Sheri S. Tepper A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper In BEAUTY, Tepper takes all those happy fairy tales and shows us the dark underside (or the dark truth, if you prefer). The title character is not the Beauty of "Beauty and the Beast," but Sleeping Beauty--or rather, would be except for an odd turn of fate in which she escapes the enchatment (well, a novel in which the main character sleeps the whole time wouldn't be very exciting--and yes, I've read "Rip Van Winkle"). After she escapes, Beauty latches on to some time travelers, goes to the future, has some unpleasant adventures, travels back to our present, has even more unpleasant adventures, travels to the Land of Faery, has ... well, you get the idea. Tepper has some good ideas but her execution of them frequently leaves something to be desired. Everything will be flowing along when suddenly she will break into a strident pro-choice speech (or more accurately, an anti- anti-choice speech). She also appears to be claiming that all the graphic violence we see and read about deadens us to it. I don't deny that this view may have some merit, but I think she shoots herself in the foot by using the Holocaust as an example: according to Beauty, people are so determined to prevent another Holocaust that they keep harping on the "first" one until no one cares. But it wasn't the first, and ignoring previous ones didn't do much to prevent or temper this one, so it's not clear that the reminding will or even can make things worse. BEAUTY is full of enough unlikely coincidences and dire happenings, some of them telegraphed to the reader, to read like a latter-day MOLL FLANDERS. But Tepper has not mastered a light touch yet, and her messages get delivered with a resounding thud. For its injection of realism into the realm of fairy tale, BEAUTY is interesting, but it ultimately disappoints. %A Tepper, Sheri S. %T Beauty %I Bantam Spectra %C New York %D 1990 %O paperback, US$5.99 [April 1992] %G ISBN 0-553-29527-6 %P 463pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From archive Fri Aug 21 13:23:20 MDT 1992 From: haste+@andrew.cmu.edu (Dani Zweig) Organization: Carnegie Mellon Subject: Marianne Date: 6 Dec 88 17:15:17 GMT "Marianne, the Madame, and the Momentary Gods" (by Sheri Tepper, Ace 12/88, $2.95) is a sequel to "Marianne, the Magus and the Manticore". Unlike most of the sequels which have come out in the pat month, it isn't significantly worse than its predecessors. It isn't even actively bad (it helps that Tepper knows how to write) but it is disappointing. It had the potential to be excellent. The first part, describing Marianne's second childhood, was wonderful. But short. Unfortunately, half the book, like its predecessor, is taken up by what is functionally a dream sequence. Few authors handle extended dreams well. There are too few apparent restrictions, and the details of the dream are too likely to be unimportant to the book as a whole. What Marianne goes through isn't *precisely* a dream, but it looks like a dream and acts like a dream and has much the same impact on the plot. It does end well -- a happy ending with ominous overtones. If you enjoyed "Marianne, the Magus and the Manticore" you'll probably enjoy this one as well. If you haven't read it, there is limited sense in reading this sequel. ----- Dani Zweig haste+@andrew.cmu.edu From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Sep 28 12:26:34 1992 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: "Sideshow", by Sheri Tepper Message-ID: Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 22:24:00 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Lines: 78 "Sideshow", by Sheri Tepper, is the centuries-later semi-sequel to "Raising the Stones" and, to a lesser extent, to "Grass". "Raising the Stones" focused upon questions of religion. To the mix of religions existing in that milieu -- mostly unattractive parodies of contemporary religious trends -- Tepper added the Hobbs Land Gods -- beings that had all the attributes normally attributable to Gods but one; they were not supernatural. The book left the reader with some interesting questions. Centuries later, in "Sideshow", the human galaxy is under the benign influence of the Hobbs Land Gods. The descendents of those who didn't consider that influence benign -- over a thousand distinct cultures -- now live on the planet Elsewhere. Elsewhere is not a nice place. The cultures which Tepper shows us range from the stunted to the vicious, with the latter predominating. What most of these cultures seem to have been saving from the Hobbs Land Gods was the right of those with power (of one sort or another) to treat those without power badly. Preserving these cultures, in the name of diversity, is a central authority of bureaucrats and enforcers. No custom is so foul that outsiders are allowed to interfere with it. And not only do the enforcers prevent one culture from trying to change another, but they also work -- in the name of diversity -- to prevent change from within. Elsewhere is a sideshow in two major respects. It is a collection of cultural freaks and anachronisms in a galaxy which has outgrown them. And what happens there isn't particularly important from the rest of the galaxy's perspective. (Actually, it's not clear that the rest of the galaxy even knows they exist.) When the power-hunger which motivates so many of Elsewhere's cultures appears in its most malignant form, the resolution is a matter of life and death to the inhabitants, but it is unlikely to have much effect upon humanity in general. "Sideshow" doesn't work as well as "Raising the Stones", partly because it is less focused. Tepper is trying to raise too many issues at once to deal with them effectively. There is the problem of whether it is right to impose one culture's standards upon another (eg, in the realm of human rights) just because the first culture finds the second's ways offensive. It's hard to see ourselves in this particular mirror, partly because the ways in question in this the book are *so* offensive to us, and partly because the possibility of change from within is absolutely precluded. There is the problem of overpopulation, and how in one way or another it always seems to express itself in dead children. (Implicitly or explicitly, the central authority must share Tepper's view that over- population is one of the main sources of humanity's woes, because one of its main weapons in service of the status quo is the customized plague.) Every one of Elsewhere's cultures seems to have developed an underclass, but children are the universal underclass. If there is a general issue, it is one of community. Community provides an institutional context in which the strong can gratify their desires at the expense of the weak. Community also restrains the self-styled strong. Machievelli made the point that the great majority will accept any society which will protect them from being despoiled. The least acceptable thing, to most people, is to live in a society in which they may arbitrarily become victims. Even in its most selfish manifestation, the basic human right becomes "people like me shouldn't be victimized." If the definition of "people like me" expands to include other races, other religions, the opposite sex, children, other countries, then that protection must also be expanded. What Elsewhere's cultures have in common is their refusal to accept the idea that "people like me" means everybody. If Tepper fails, it is by making the choices too simplistic. The abuses of power are present, but the factors which mitigate or oppose such abuses are not. Elsewhere protects each culture from the interference of outsiders. It also protects each culture from the actions of internal reformers. It doesn't even permit its cultures to evolve in the directions mandated by their own cultural goals. And technological progress, which may be able to mitigate or undermine many abuses, is also restricted. It is hard to accept this as an honest metaphor for our own world. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." -- W.B. Yeats From /tmp/sf.1110 Fri Jul 23 13:47:03 1993 Xref: lysator.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:132 rec.arts.books:18279 alt.books.reviews:486 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uknet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!bnrgate!nott!torn!utnut!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!udel!news.intercon.com!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: SIDESHOW by Sheri S. Tepper Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9306171358.AA28343@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 18 Jun 93 00:43:40 GMT Lines: 46 SIDESHOW by Sheri S. Tepper A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper SIDESHOW is set in the same universe as Tepper's GRASS and RAISING THE STONES, but thought it contains references to events in those books, it is not necessary for you to have read them to read SIDESHOW. (For example, I have read GRASS, but not RAISING THE STONES.) SIDESHOW is set on a far- future Elsewhere, a planet dedicated to diversity. Each society on Elsewhere is free to chart its own path and make its own rules, so long as it does not interfere with any of its neighbors. This is similar to the arrangement in Mike Resnick's "Kirinyaga" stories, but with one major difference--no one can change to another society. If you are born in a society which has child sacrifice or which keeps women as slaves, you're stuck there. I found the various societies a bit too obvious for my tastes: Molock has child sacrifice, Haifah keeps women as slaves, Enarae was established by Guntoter and concentrates on weapons and a rigid caste system with its own version of yuppies, and so on. All this is overseen by the city of Tolerance and its Enforcers, who "Attend to the Situation" when necessary. All this is prefaced, in a manner of speaking, by a sequence on near- future Earth in which a pair of joined twins are born whose destiny is to save humanity. They eventually end up on Elsewhere, where the inhabitants- -who are all that remains of humanity after the rest were taken over by the Hobbs Land Gods--are being threatened by an unknown adversary. However, I found their story during their time on Earth more interesting than that of the threat to humanity and the digs at various groups on the near-future Earth more convincing than those directed at the societies on Elsewhere. When one sets up a fictional society for the purpose of satire, it's too easy to leave the reader feeling the deck has been stacked. For me, SIDESHOW suffers from this and from the same flaw I saw in GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY AND GRASS: a tendency to preach. I can't say this is a bad book, but I can't recommend it either. %T Sideshow %A Sheri S. Tepper %C New York %D March 1993 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$5.99 [1992] %G ISBN 0-553-56098-0 %P 482pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 04:01:27 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Sheri S. Tepper: A Plague of Angels Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Message-ID: Date: 23 Oct 93 01:21:50 GMT Lines: 63 About a century and a half ago, all but a handful of people left Earth for the stars. (Or so it's said: Since people started burning books over fifty years old, history has become oral and unreliable.) There remain a few high-tech enclaves, a few festering cities, some farms and small villages, a few non-traditional societies. (These remnants, and the relations among them, don't make much historical or economic sense, at first glance.) The main protagonists are Abasio and Orphan. Abasio leaves the farm, as many do, for the city, where he joins a gang: There aren't many roles left in the city. You can be in a gang or you can sell to gangs and pay protection, if you're male. If you're female, you can be a slave (concubine, technically) or you can be a prostitute or you can be too old. If you're a child, you're a rarity: Endemic immune- deficiency viruses and other ills have led to low fertility rates. Orphan is a child growing up in an archetypal village -- a village of Suffering Artists and Ingenues and Misers and Wise Crones and Heroes and similar archetypes. (The Oracle who helps raise her has her hands full: Orphan just won't look pale and wan and walk around begrimed with ashes.) Such a village may be the only place on Earth where she could grow up safely, because there are beings -- Walkers -- looking for someone who matches her description. Seeking her -- seeking *them*, once their paths cross -- is the Witch, an insane leader of a high-tech enclave, who has reason to believe that Orphan is her key to world domination. They flee through a world going mythic -- a world in which monsters have reappeared and some animals talk and the remains of the old high-tech civilization are being eradicated. The final explanation comes as something of a shock. (I'm not sure whether Tepper played 'fair'. On the one hand, the key question turns out to have an answer strongly supported by common sense and mathematics. On the other hand, this answer contradicts what the reader reasonably accepted as a basic starting premise for the story.) We learn what the humanity of bygone generations did, and what's being done about it. In feel, this book resembles nothing so much as Tepper's "Beauty". It lacks the deliberate play on specific fairy tales, but it is similar in its juxtaposition of fiction and fantasy, in its strong ecological messages, and in the unexpectedly unsentimental working out of the plot. On balance, I think "A Plague of Angels" to be one of Tepper's weaker books. It's ambitious, but disappointing. The conclusion is clever, but too arbitrary. And Tepper flaunts her myth-making; it's too obvious. Tepper's weaker books can still be worth reading, but I wouldn't rush. %A Tepper, Sheri S. %T A Plague of Angels %D October, 1993 %I Bantam Spectra %G ISBN 0-553-09513-7 %O $21.95 U.S/$26.95 CDN %P 423 pages ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 04:11:18 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: C_Douglas_BAKER@umail.umd.edu Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: __The Gate to Women's Country__ by Sheri Tepper Book Review Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9308031813.AA20946@umailsrv0.UMD.EDU> Date: 04 Aug 93 01:56:40 GMT Lines: 78 THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY by Sheri S. Tepper Book Review by C. Douglas Baker [Spoilers] Tepper's __The Gate to Women's Country__ has been a lightening rod of criticism for its frank, some would say, unfair treatment of males. Having read and heard many negative comments about the feminist agenda pursued by Tepper's _Gate_, I fully expected a diatribe against males and a utopian society ran by women to the be the centerpiece of the story. Little did I expect the unfavorable assessment of both sexes found here. Males are depicted as being violent but easily manipulated by symbolism and perceived threats to of their "manhood". Women are depicted as weak-willed and inclined toward poor judgement. __The Gate to Women's Country__ is not "hard science" fiction, nor is there much action or plot to engage the reader's interest. Nevertheless, it is a compelling work that explores, sometimes stereotypically, male and female behavior. __The Gate to Women's Country__ is set in a post-holocaust Earth, segments of which have been settled and ruled by women. Inside walled enclaves women have established a system whereby males are forced to live outside the society of women in armed encampments unless, at specified ages, they expressly desire to live in "Women's Country" and abide by the rules established therein. The rigid military caste set up by males on the outside, however, puts an unrelenting amount of pressure on males to reject Women's Country and remain warriors. A cabal of women, through a variety of measures, including espionage and violence, effectively subjugate the male population or warrior caste. The socio-political nature of Women's Country vis a vis its male subjects is intricately woven into the plot. The story centers around Stavia who grows up accepting the social institutions around her but questioning their utility. She falls in love with a young warrior, Chernon, who is depicted as the typical male. Tepper uses their relationship, especially once free from Women's Country, as an especially poignant commentary on the relationship between males and females generally. Tepper paints a dismal future for both relationships. Tepper is equally scornful to women as to men in __Gate__. Women's Country is an undemocratic society ruled by a self- selected group of councilwomen. These councilwomen are secretive and deceitful toward the remaining population of Women's Country. They feel this necessary because women take foolish actions based on "infatuation" (with particular males of course) and cannot be trusted with the secrets of Women's Country. The council looks, with some disdain, upon the rest of the women, who are easily manipulated using the same symbolic rhetoric and gestures used to control and manipulate the male population. Indeed, the women seem very compliant and unquestioning of the prerogative of the council to rule. The compliant nature of the women and the cyclical revolts of the men are implicit comments on the basic nature of the sexes. The society set up by Tepper is really a "negative utopia" along the lines of George Orwell's __1984__ or Adolus Huxley's ___A Brave New World__. Stavia's eventual acquiescence in the methods used by the council in Women's Country to maintain its dominance over males and its own female subjects is defeatist. Through Stavia's eyes the reader realizes the emotionally barren and socially dysfunctional result of the rift between males and females. Through this example, one can see parallels to our own society. %T The Gate to Women's Country %A Sheri S. Tepper %C New York %D 1988 %I Foundation Books, Doubleday %G ISBN 0-385-24709-5 (hbk) %P 278 C. DOUGLAS BAKER Email: cb52@umail.umd.edu From new Thu Jun 16 19:03:02 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.written:64088 rec.arts.books:88428 Path: liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!msuinfo!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!zikzak.apana.org.au!not-for-mail From: david@zikzak.apana.org.au (David Wong Shee) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books Subject: MINIREVIEW: Sideshow / Tepper Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:32:46 +1000 Organization: Zikzak public access UNIX, Melbourne Australia Lines: 62 Message-ID: <2t4a9c$2q8@zikzak.apana.org.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: zikzak.apana.org.au X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] AUTHOR: Sheri S. Tepper TITLE: SIDESHOW PUBLISHED BY: Bantam Spectra Books FIRST PUBLISHED: May 1992 ISBN: 0-553-56098-0 SYNOPSIS: In a future it is believed that the answer to the Great Question i.e. "What is the Destiny of Man?" will arise from the human diversity. Unfortunately the mysterious Hobbs Land gods have wiped out diversity among humanity throughout the rest of the galaxy. In a last desperate attempt to answer the Great Question the last remnants of humanity uncontaminated by these Gods have been transported to the planet Elsewhere. They represent humanity's last hope of answering the Great Question. While awaiting the advent of the answer members of the Great Question Committee, consisting of the most eminent academics of mankind, are disembodied and their identities mapped into an indestructible computer Core on Elsewhere. A party consisting of: Fringe Owldark, Danivon Luze, Curvis (Enforcers); Bertran and Nela Zy-Czorsky (a pair of non-identical siamese twins); Jory (Prophetess emeritus) and Asner (Myth-eater); travel to the province of Panubi to investigate the possible arrival of the Hobbs Land gods on Elsewhere. COMMENTS: Sideshow extends the exploration of themes touched on in the novel Grass (Tepper, 1989). Questions raised include: * What is the potential role of religion in human affairs as a vehicle for evil? * Are there ethical principles which transcend cultural differences? Under what circumstances (if any) is it legitimate to intervene in another society? Are there such things as "universal human rights" and "crimes against humanity"? * What is the nature of free will and choice for individuals born into societies with long traditions of inequality and oppression? * Is it the fate of humanity to constantly repeat the atrocities of the past with successively greater technological amplification? To create Gods which then turn and threaten to destroy us? The book successfully combines satire, horror and irony while neither succumbing to excessive cynicism, nor, in the end, despairing of the possibility that humanity can redeem itself from the sins of the past. "To all those who ride the great dragon Wonder" Tepper. -- * David Wong Shee * david@zikzak.apana.org.au * LONG LIVE THE NET! * -- From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:50:31 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Prograde Reviews--Sheri S. Tepper:Beauty Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <94Mar16.185026-0700.138893@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca> Date: 18 Mar 94 02:22:05 GMT Lines: 85 Sheri S. Tepper:Beauty [some spoilers] I've been a big fan of Sheri S. Tepper's work ever since the True Game trilogies. With her last few novels, she's stepped directly into the upper echelons of SF--and she deserves it, for the likes of The Gates To Women's Country and Raising The Stones. Beauty is the closest thing she's written to fantasy since making the move to SF. It's not entirely untouched by SF, either, but most of the underlying logic of the book rests on fantasy. It starts out simply enough with something we can tend to recognize as Sleeping Beauty, as the notebook of Beauty herself as she nears her 16th birthday and the curse that was due to descend. She manages to escape the curse herself, but only to get snapped up a crew of 21st-century documentarists who don't want to risk a paradox. The 21st-century, in this book, is a hive far, far worse than Asimov's Caves of Steel, where all food production has been taken over by "Fidipur", so that everyone gets the same amount of food. (In theory, at least.) Beauty manages to escape from there to the 20th century, and from there she hops around in time and space, along Earth's time track, to the imaginary world of Chinanga, and to the world of Faery. She is raped, and has a daughter. She is reunited with her own mother, a Queen of Faery. But this is oversimplifying the in-depth examination Tepper puts into the nature of motherhood, daughterhood, and the Faery. She returns periodically to her own century(the 14th and early 15th), and sees several generations of her progeny, who seem destined to carry out others of our traditional fairy tales besides Sleeping Beauty. (Beauty, who's watched Disney in the 20th, picks up on this right away.) Beauty also finds herself getting older, much of her time stolen as she spends it in Faery and other worlds. She returns to the 20th Century and heads a major environmental organization for a while before realizing the futility of her fight, as "Fidipur" is foreordained. (Tepper is taking the view that the timestream is unchangeable in this book, obviously.) She spends some time in Hell, and galvanizes the forces of Faery into a last hopeless fight against Evil. And then she returns once more to her home to re-enact one of mankind's oldest myths. (Which one? That would be telling. I've already told you enough.) There are definite opinions on the current state of mankind and the Earth which I am not sure whether they originate with Beauty or with Tepper herself. (For instance, Beauty roundly condemns writers of horror fiction, while Tepper has written a few books in that genre herself.) There's also the strong environmentalist undercurrent, as well as advocating population control(including a pro-choice stance on abortion)and the like. Again, whether this is merely Beauty's view(having seen both the 14th Century, around the time of the Black Death, and the overstuffed 21st, where mankind eventually dies under its own weight)or whether it is Tepper's, is not clear. In any case, the book's main theme is obviously the loss of beauty--in the span of life on the Earth, in Faery, in Beauty herself as she ages, in her progeny as her genes for beauty are mixed with dross. But Beauty herself carries within her the soul of Beauty, and refuses to let it be lost. A very powerful book, although at times a bit preachy. I wouldn't say it was Tepper's best, but it is still extremely strong. %A Tepper, Sheri S. %T Beauty %I Doubleday Foundation %C New York %D August 1991 %G ISBN 0-385-41940-6 %P 412 pp. %O Trade paperback, US $12, Can $15 -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Yello:One Second Current Read--Charles de Lint:Spiritwalk "curious george swung down the gorge/the ants took him apart" --billbill From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:08:15 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Prograde Reviews--Sheri S. Tepper:Sideshow Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 11 Jun 1994 19:14:33 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 54 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2t68rm$92q@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu Sheri S. Tepper: Sideshow A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey In _Raising The Stones_, Sheri S. Tepper introduced the Hobbs Land Gods. Gods made real and concrete, and answering the needs of their worshipers (and vice-versa). In _Sideshow_, Tepper turns to those who fled rather than face the "tyranny" of the Gods. They founded a planet called Elsewhere, and divided it up amongst the various refugee religious groups, assuring each of them mutual tolerance and noninterference, mandated by law. Meanwhile, back in the late twentieth century are born a pair of Siamese twins, joined in such a way as to be inseparable. They eventually get transported to Elsewhere (after centuries in stasis). The book takes a while to get moving, as it has to introduce the various characters--Fringe Owldark, Danivon Luze, Zasper Ertigon, and a few enigmas standing on the sidelines... But then they get called together to investigate reports of dragons in a mysterious province never explored... The suspicion is that these are the horrible Hobbs Land Gods, come at last. However, lurking under Tolerance, Elsewhere's capital, spirits preserved in computer for centuries are getting restless, and decide _they_ want to be gods... This book, like _Raising The Stones_, examines the question of what it means to be a god. It also questions whether we have the right or obligation to interfere if we find another's customs immoral. And a lot of other pointed questions. Although it is dangerous to expect the book to espouse the author's opinions, it may be safe to make a guess at a few of Tepper's from this book. _Sideshow_ is just as good as any of the books Tepper has been turning out in the years since _The Gate To Women's Country_. Highly recommended. %A Tepper, Sheri S. %T Sideshow %I Bantam Spectra %C New York %D May 1992 %G ISBN 0-553-56098-0 %P 482 pp %O Paperback, USD5.99, CAD6.99 -- --Alfvaen (Editor of Communique) Current Album--Kitchens of Distinction:Strange Free World Current Book--Michelle Sagara:Lady of Mercy "It's a one-time thing. It just happens a lot." --Suzanne Vega From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:09:16 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: david@zikzak.apana.org.au (David Wong Shee) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review of SIDESHOW by Sheri S. Tepper Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 20 Jun 1994 19:48:09 GMT Organization: The Internet Lines: 50 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <199406180741.RAA03917@zikzak.apana.org.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu SYNOPSIS: In a future it is believed that the answer to the Great Question i.e. "What is the Destiny of Man?"< will arise from the human diversity. Unfortunately the mysterious Hobbs Land gods have wiped out diversity among humanity throughout the rest of the galaxy. In a last desperate attempt to answer the Great Question the last remnants of humanity uncontaminated by these Gods have been transported to the planet Elsewhere. They represent humanity's last hope of answering the Great Question. While awaiting the advent of the answer members of the Great Question Committee, consisting of the most eminent academics of mankind, are disembodied and their identities mapped into an indestructible computer Core on Elsewhere. A party consisting of: Fringe Owldark, Danivon Luze, Curvis (Enforcers pledged to the preservation of diversity); Bertran and Nela Zy-Czorsky (a pair of non-identical siamese twins); Jory (Prophetess emeritus) and Asner (Myth-eater); travel to the province of Panubi to investigate the possible arrival of the Hobbs Land gods on Elsewhere. COMMENTS: Sideshow extends the exploration of themes touched on in her 1989 novel Grass. Questions pursued include: * What is the potential role of religion in human affairs as a vehicle for evil? * Are there ethical principles which transcend cultural differences? Under what circumstances (if any) is it legitimate to intervene in another society? Are there such things as "universal human rights" and "crimes against humanity"? * What is the nature of free will and choice for individuals born into societies with long traditions of inequality and oppression? * Is it the fate of humanity to constantly repeat the atrocities of the past with successively greater technological amplification? To create Gods which then turn and threaten to destroy us? The book successfully combines satire, horror and irony while neither succumbing to excessive cynicism, nor, in the end, despairing of the possibility that humanity can redeem itself from the sins of the past. "To all those who ride the great dragon Wonder" Tepper. %A Tepper, Sheri S. %T Sideshow %I Bantam Spectra Books %C New York %D May 1992 %G ISBN 0-553-56098-0 %O Paperback, US$21.50 From rec.arts.sf.written Tue Nov 29 10:34:53 1994 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!reuter.cse.ogi.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!provolone!merritt From: merritt@u.washington.edu (Ethan A Merritt) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review: A Plague of Angels (Sheri S Tepper) Date: 29 Nov 1994 04:16:22 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 79 Distribution: world Message-ID: <3be9um$117@news.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: merritt@u.washington.edu (Ethan A Merritt) NNTP-Posting-Host: provolone.bchem.washington.edu Originator: merritt@provolone A Plague of Angels (Sheri S Tepper) review by Ethan A Merritt Sheri S. Tepper's 1993 book, _A Plague of Angels_, is now out in paperback. I'm sad to report that it's not one of her better books, but nevertheless it's a gripping story. It kept me engrossed on a recent cross-country flight, though I doubt I've had made it through in one sitting under other circumstances. _A Plague of Angels_ is full of leftover images and themes from earlier Tepper novels, particularly the Jinian trilogy. Tepper's strongest point is usually her ability to raise hard moral questions in the context of a fast-paced adventure story. In both the Jinian trilogy and in _Plague of Angels_ one such question is whether there is any real solution to the destruction of a world by man's rapaciousness. Tepper's style is to depict the execution an extreme solution to the problem at hand, but she largely refrains from editorializing on the rightness or wrongness of the draconian course chosen. It is up to the reader to work through the moral implications. Sometimes, as in _The Gate to Woman's Country_, this treatment succeeds admirably. Unfortunately neither the story of Jinian nor _Angels_ succeeds that well. Both suffer from a lot of baggage which gets in the way of both the story line and the exposition of the moral dilemma. In the case of the Jinian books the baggage came from having to retain at least some consistency with the previous six books of the series, which had suffered all the usual weaknesses of a a writer's first efforts. In the case of _A Plague of Angels_ the problem is that Tepper sets the story in a not-too-distant future Western USA. It's hard to tell whether the setting is post-holocaust or just post-draconian-social-manipulation. It's certainly after the introduction of mcuh weidness into the landscape. In any event, apparently the bulk of the population has retreated to the "edges", glittering suburban utopias ringing cities which have utterly decayed both physically and morally. Maybe. The weakest part of the whole book is that although we see two very brief glimpses of inhabitants of the edges, for the most part they are totally ignored in the book. It's as if the bulk of the population has so turned it's back on the world that they might as well not exist. You'd think that given the theme of the book that would make them "part of the problem" rather than "part of the solution", but apparently not. Anyhow, we don't see any of the edgers. What we do see is a social landscape of "archetypal villages" inhabited by stock fairytale bit parts: the Oracle, the Hero, the Faithful Sidekick, the Starving Artist, etc, etc. The villages are scattered amongst more normal farmland filled with rather boring farmers, and less normal wilderness filled with mythological monsters from giants and ogres to griffons and wyverns. Such a settings would normally play to Tepper's strengths. She tends to write rather stereotyped characters anyway, so making them archetypal waifs or farmers would if anything increase their believability. But I kept thinking - wait a minute, this is supposed to be not-too-distant future California? You just couldn't get there from here. To the south is a totally distinct society, a sort of ecotopia run by librarians. And let's see. And have I mentioned yet that there's an enclave made up of refugee scientists trying to rebuild a space shuttle? It seems there are these four "families" called the Berkli, the Mitty, the Ellel (that's Lawrence Livermore for you non-Californians), and the Anders (I didn't catch that reference - anyone else recognize it?) In fact I'll risk a leading hint and mention that virtually _every_ name in the book encodes an archetype or stereotype. Through this mixed up landscape of myth and high tech relics wanders Abasio, a naive farmboy who succumbed to the lure of the illusory good life in the corrupt cities, and a mysterious archetypal Orphan. Abasio is being pursued by a hit squad from the city; the mysterious Orphan is being pursued by even more mysterious nuclear powered androids. The chase is non-stop and certainly carries the plot along nicely. It just doesn't carry much believability along with it. Rating: Good book to take on a cross-continental airplane flight. Make sure your sense of disbelief is very well suspended (pretend it all takes place long ago in a galazy far away). Not as good as _After Long Silence_ or _Gate to Woman's Country_, but better than _Sideshow_. %T A Plague of Angels %A Sheri S. Tepper %I Bantom %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-553-56873-6 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon May 18 21:24:00 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!netnews.com!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: "Michael I. Lichter" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: THE FAMILY TREE by Sheri S. Tepper Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 18 May 1998 10:16:28 -0400 Organization: none Lines: 61 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1907 THE FAMILY TREE by Sheri S. Tepper Avon EOS, May 1998, ISBN 0-380-79197-8, 492pp, US$6.99 Review Copyright 1998 Michael I. Lichter What in the world is happening? Trees are sprouting up everywhere. The suburbs are being swallowed, and the men who try to hold back the burgeoning forest are found mysteriously poisoned, dead or dying. Policewoman Dora Henry, an unhappily married thirty-five year old virgin, welcomes the change of scenery as strongly as her husband Jared [*] detests it. Is there any connection between mother nature's rampage and the handful of strange murders Dora is investigating? They call that a leading question. Of course there is, and I'm not going to tell you. It does have something to do with Jared's childhood involvement with the strange goat-like family living down the block. It does have something to do with Dora's fear that weeds and pigs are talking to her. It does have something to do with a slave girl called Opalears, her princely owner, and the journey they embark upon in an earth very unlike our own. Tepper fans know that she loves to spring disorienting surprises on her readers, and this new novel is full of them. Tepper's biting humor also permeates the book, as does an ongoing war between her optimism and pessimism. Her usual themes, e.g., the corruption of institutionalized religion, the oppression of women by power-hungry men, and the arrogance of humanity towards the natural world, are also all here. In other words, this is a characteristic Tepper novel. THE FAMILY TREE is to humanity's relationship with nature what her novel THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY (recommended) was to human gender relations -- which is to say that she pushes things way past the breaking point and then plays around with the remaining shards. The first 320 pages of FAMILY TREE contain some of the finest material Tepper has ever written. The language is rich, poignant and funny, the storytelling compelling. Unfortunately, once Tepper's hidden agenda surfaces about two-thirds of the way through, she turns preachy (well, *more* preachy) and starts resolving plot threads in a contrived manner. The denouement may leave you wondering whether Tepper might not be tried for Crimes Against Humanity some day, another resemblance to THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY, but it is unlikely to leave you indifferent. If the last third of THE FAMILY TREE was as good as most of the first two-thirds, it would be a classic. As it stands, it is an entertaining read, and recommended to all Tepper-philes and newcomers. Tepper-phobes can safely skip. %A Sheri S. Tepper %T The Family Tree %I Avon EOS %C New York %D May 1998 %G ISBN 0-380-79197-8 %P 492pp. %O paperback, US$6.99 [*] This is the second novel I've read since NBC's "Pretender" debuted on TV which has featured a primary character named Jared; the other is Sharon Shinn's THE ALLELUIA FILES. Removing almost all doubt about a link, one chapter is entitled "The Pretender," which is not to say that Dora's Jared is in any way like the TV character.