After two library sales, I have amassed
quite a collection of novels by Sheri S Tepper. I thoroughly enjoyed Six Moon Dance, so I am looking forward to trying some of her other works.
All descriptions from Goodreads.
Beauty
With the
publication of The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper came to be
recognized as a major science fiction writer. Now the author of Raising the
Stones and Grass -- a New York Times Notable Book and Hugo Award finalist --
turns to Beauty, a fantasy with a story that is more, much more than fable.
Drawing on
the wellspring of much-loved, well-remembered fairy tales, Tepper delivers a
thought-provoking and finely crafted novel that thoroughly involves the reader
in the life of one of the most captivating heroines in modern fantasy --
Beauty. On her sixteenth birthday Beauty is seemingly able to sidestep her
aunt's curse. Instead she is transported to the future. Here begin her
adventures as she travels magically back and forth in time to visit places both
imaginary and real. Finally she comes to understand what has been her special
gift to humanity all along.
For in Beauty, there is beauty. And in
beauty, magic. Without our enchanted places, humanity is no more than an
upstart ape. And this, we realize, is why Beauty must be saved, both in the
fantastical world of Tepper's novel and in the actual world in which we live.
After Long Silence
Gigantic crystal formations tower over
the landscape of the planet Jubal, inspiring awe in the Tripsingers and
Explorers who have made these "Presences" their lives' work and
hatred in the corporations who seek their destruction. Against a backdrop of
startling alien beauty, Tepper tells a story of human perseverance for truth in
the face of bureaucratic blindness and religious fanaticism.
Northshore (The Awakeners #1)
Come to the
world of the River. A world distant in time and space, a world where the pace
of life is counted by the tides of the great River; but where, is in the river
itself, there are swift dark currents flowing under a placid surface.
Meet Pamra
Don - a young woman scarred by her mother's death, lured to a priesthood where
the truth must be hidden from the faithful. And Thrasne, a young boatman who
trees from town to town, free from the iron control of the Towers of the
Awakeners . . . as long as he never speaks his mind. These two, by design and
accident both, are about to discover many truths.
And on Northshore, the truth can kill
you.
Southshore (The Awakeners #2)
A world far
distant in place and time, where the pace of life is counted by the tides of
the great River...a world where the human colony has lived for millenia in
uneasy peace with the native race - the Thraish, whose savage god has promised
them a world of willing prey.
Pamra Don has learned much on the River
and has become the visionary leader of great pilgrimage, carryiing the discontent
of Northshore to lay at the feet of the Protector of Man. But the Thraish have
at last taken note of Pamra Don and her crusade...and their vengeance will be
swift.
Sideshow (Arbai #3)
On the planet of Elsewhere, the Council
had always enforced the governing of each province in the
manner the people had chosen, so long as each respected its
neighbors' local customs--and so long as the people remained within
their homelands. Generations later, inhabitants have begun to
question this tradition. The Council has
received mysterious messages and reports of strange
manifestations across the planet. Now, Enforcer Fringe Owldark
has been sent with a small crew of seven, each possessing
an unusual talent, to investigate their worst fear--the arrival of
the Hobbs Land gods. Free will and the reality of God are just too
of the timeless issues this courageous band of humans
must confront as they strive to decide if complete
tolerance and leaving others alone is evil. . .and what
they should do if it is. Vividly imagined and exquisitely
rendered, Sideshow is Sheri S. Tepper's most controversial novel
yet.
The Fresco
The bizarre
events that have been occuring across the United States -- unexplained
"oddities" tracked by Air Defense, mysterious disappearances,
shocking deaths -- seem to have no bearing on Benita Alvarez-Shipton's life.
That is, until the soft-spoken thirty-six-year-old bookstore manager is
approached by a pair of aliens asking her to transmit their message of peace to
the powers in Washington. An abused Albuquerque wife with low self-esteem,
Benita has been chosen to act as the sole liaison between the human race and
the Pistach, who have offered their human hosts a spectacular opportunity for
knowledge and enrichment.
But ultimately Benita will be called
upon to do much more than deliver messages -- and may, in fact, be responsible
for saving the Earth. Because the Pistach are not the only space-faring species
currently making their presence known on her unsuspecting planet. And the
others are not so benevolent.
The Family Tree
Dora Henry
is an ordinary woman living in an extraordinary time. Recently separated from
an odd and distant husband, Dora looks back wistfully to when she was a little
girl, to the times when the world was a simpler, greener place. But the
once-fertile Earth of Dora's childhood has been overdeveloped. Now Nature,
apparently, has decided to fight back.
As a police
officer, Dora must investigate the bizarre, seemingly unrelated murders of
three geneticists. In the course of her inquiry, however, it becomes clear that
the scientists were killed by the same person, for reasons that are
frustratingly obscure. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere Dora
turns: weeds are becoming trees, trees becoming forests, a city is transformed
almost overnight into a wild and verdant place inhospitable to what humankind
has become.
Within days,
Dora's hometown has come to a veritable standstill as the thoroughfares are
choked by foliage, and its citizens are forced to employ bygone means of
transport and communication - walking and talking. But stranger still, Dora
discovers that she herself can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora -
and is, therefore, perhaps the only person presently living who holds the key
to averting an unthinkable catastrophe to human life.
As Dora tracks the elusive murderer,
the mystery of the trees begins to unravel as well. For the two seemingly
disparate events are intertwined, much like the branches of an oak. And, as
Dora gets closer to the truth, she comes to realize that the answer she seeks
today may lie I'm the future - a future which is much closer than anyone dares
to think.
Shadow’s End
The
fragrant, sun-checked canyon lands of the planet Dinadh seem to be a peaceful
backwater of the universe...except for one thing. A century ago, a mysterious
force wiped out human life on all surrounding worlds, leaving Dinadh untouched.
Every team sent to investigate vanished. Every attempt to contact survivors met
with a devastating silence. Now the unknown force is back - and this time
humanity's only hope for survival lies on Dinadh...with a woman who'd give
anything not to get involved.
Lutha
Tallstaff is a brilliant linguist, a devoted mother, and a reluctant emissary
to Dinadh. Her mission is to locate the famed adventurer Leelson Famber, who
has disappeared, taking with him what may be the only clue to the nature of the
deadly threat. But for Lutha, finding Famber, who also happens to be her
estranged lover and the father of her child, is the last thing she wants to do.
At Lutha's side on this perilous quest
is her strange and beautiful young son, a boy whose father denies his humanity
but whose bizarre abilities will soon have far-reaching consequences. Reunited
on Dinadh, the threesome find themselves traversing a planet dazzling in its
cool springs and blossoming fruit trees, dangerous in its fountains of fire and
rapacious winged wraiths. Yet only when they approach the planet's holiest
place will Lutha discover the truth about their child, about the strange
Ularians, and about the future of humankind. For she, her lover, and their son
figure in a pattern of cosmic importance that will shake the universe - and
their understanding of life, love, good and evil - to its very foundations.
It seems
ages since I was first introduced to the wonderful world of Read Alongs by
Redhead at the Little Red
Reviewer. Of course, it certainly helped that the title in question was the
highly enjoyable The
Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, which was one of my favorite reads for
last year. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we moved straight on to reading
Book 2 in the Gentleman Bastard Series, Red
Seas Under Red Skies, which was almost as good. At the time that we
finished the second Read Along, Mr Lynch was supposed to be publishing Book 3:
The Republic of Thieves early in 2013, so it was a definite for My
Most Anticipated Titles of 2013 post. But then the publication date was
pushed back a few times and I began to wonder if we would actually see the
title this year. I am pleased to say that not only is it being published in
October, but also that I have received a copy from NetGalley, so I should have
my opinion for you in a week or so when I can fit it into my reading schedule.
