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The End of the Game #2
Dervish Daughter
Jinian journeys with her forbidden love Peter to the location of the deadly crystals--and into a terrifying secret
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 15, 1986
8 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Sheri S. Tepper
74 books1,083 followersSheri Stewart Tepper was a prolific American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she was particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an ecofeminist slant.
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gene Tepper. She operated a guest ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She wrote under several pseudonyms, including A.J. Orde, E.E. Horlak, and B.J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart.
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gene Tepper. She operated a guest ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She wrote under several pseudonyms, including A.J. Orde, E.E. Horlak, and B.J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 10, 2021
I loved
Jinian Footseer
, even if I didn't love the ending where Jinian's seemingly-random meandering came down to three pages of dramatic summary that included the introduction of several characters and important plot points.
The super-speed wrap up was necessary to bring those of us who hadn't read it up to speed on what happened in the original True Game series. It wouldn't make sense to continue that into Dervish Daughter, so I assumed everything would work itself out.
And while I was right that we no longer get plot-points through a fire hose, one problem persists: Dervish Daughter expects us to care about these characters and plot points as if they were carefully introduced.
The biggest problem here is Jinian's new traveling companions: Peter, Chance, and Queynt. They take up substantial space and affect Jinian, yet they never get the proper "new character" treatment.
For Queynt and Chance, this meant that they are somewhat blank: cardboard cut-outs that ride along on Jinian's adventure and take up space between those moments where they rub up against the plot. Chance especially. He's a non-person for me, even at the end of the book.
For Peter, it's a little more damning. His most prominent character trait is that he wants to have sex with Jinian. As Jinian has sworn an oath of celibacy for three years in exchange for being a wize-ard, this leads to tension. No, worse. This leads to Peter pressuring Jinian for sex.
Pressuring someone for sex is terrible no matter what. As I've said before, I believe in enthusiastic consent as the basis for sex. But what seems extra stupid here is that Peter knows that Jinian desperately wants to have sex with him but can't due to her oath. All Peter has to do is wait a few more months and Jinian will hop into his bed with wild abandon. Instead, he guilts, teases, and lashes out at her for remaining strictly chaste.
It's an assumption that I'd feel more generous about these characters if I had some history with them, but it's one I'm willing to make, at least for Queynt and Peter. Suppose I already had reason to like Peter. In that case, I'd be able to view his pressuring of Jinian as a problem that he might outgrow based on his qualities that I previously appreciated. And Queynt, the most characterized of these secondary characters, would probably read as a fully-conceived person.
The plot also becomes more direct and takes a harder tone: Deadly dream crystals are killing people by the dozens, and Jinian wants to know where they come from. She suspects Dream Miner, which is convenient: they're headed toward Dream Miner to figure out what his deal is.
I was underwhelmed for most of the first 100 pages. Part of this is the problem of true love; after Jinian Footseer, the less-awesomeness of Dervish Daughter was compounded by how bummed I was that it wasn't as awesome, making it feel even more less-awesome than it really was.
I still liked Jinian, but with the weight of lackluster companions weighing her down, she didn't shine quite as brightly as she once had. About halfway through the novel, though, Jinian ends up mostly on her own. Now she can pop off on a whim and do stupid yet brave things that need doing. It was like flipping a switch. I went from reading a max of 5ish pages a sitting to struggling to put the book down and make sure dinner wasn't burning. Jinian was back!
Maybe not all the way back. There are no more random encounters with old gods or friendly critters. The old dams are far from the story. Jinian doesn't go this way and that based on circumstance, flight of fancy, or strength of will. Things still aren't charming and whimsical like the first book, but this is a series. I expected things would build to a proper plot at some point.
I'm glad I kept reading the series and will happily tuck into Jinian Star Eye even if I'm still side-eyeing Peter. That said, I definitely think quality, cohesion, and tone took a bit of a hit with Dervish Daughter. Which is fine. Jinian Footseer started the bar pretty damn high and things don't have to be perfect to have value.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
The super-speed wrap up was necessary to bring those of us who hadn't read it up to speed on what happened in the original True Game series. It wouldn't make sense to continue that into Dervish Daughter, so I assumed everything would work itself out.
And while I was right that we no longer get plot-points through a fire hose, one problem persists: Dervish Daughter expects us to care about these characters and plot points as if they were carefully introduced.
The biggest problem here is Jinian's new traveling companions: Peter, Chance, and Queynt. They take up substantial space and affect Jinian, yet they never get the proper "new character" treatment.
For Queynt and Chance, this meant that they are somewhat blank: cardboard cut-outs that ride along on Jinian's adventure and take up space between those moments where they rub up against the plot. Chance especially. He's a non-person for me, even at the end of the book.
For Peter, it's a little more damning. His most prominent character trait is that he wants to have sex with Jinian. As Jinian has sworn an oath of celibacy for three years in exchange for being a wize-ard, this leads to tension. No, worse. This leads to Peter pressuring Jinian for sex.
Pressuring someone for sex is terrible no matter what. As I've said before, I believe in enthusiastic consent as the basis for sex. But what seems extra stupid here is that Peter knows that Jinian desperately wants to have sex with him but can't due to her oath. All Peter has to do is wait a few more months and Jinian will hop into his bed with wild abandon. Instead, he guilts, teases, and lashes out at her for remaining strictly chaste.
It's an assumption that I'd feel more generous about these characters if I had some history with them, but it's one I'm willing to make, at least for Queynt and Peter. Suppose I already had reason to like Peter. In that case, I'd be able to view his pressuring of Jinian as a problem that he might outgrow based on his qualities that I previously appreciated. And Queynt, the most characterized of these secondary characters, would probably read as a fully-conceived person.
The plot also becomes more direct and takes a harder tone: Deadly dream crystals are killing people by the dozens, and Jinian wants to know where they come from. She suspects Dream Miner, which is convenient: they're headed toward Dream Miner to figure out what his deal is.
I was underwhelmed for most of the first 100 pages. Part of this is the problem of true love; after Jinian Footseer, the less-awesomeness of Dervish Daughter was compounded by how bummed I was that it wasn't as awesome, making it feel even more less-awesome than it really was.
I still liked Jinian, but with the weight of lackluster companions weighing her down, she didn't shine quite as brightly as she once had. About halfway through the novel, though, Jinian ends up mostly on her own. Now she can pop off on a whim and do stupid yet brave things that need doing. It was like flipping a switch. I went from reading a max of 5ish pages a sitting to struggling to put the book down and make sure dinner wasn't burning. Jinian was back!
Maybe not all the way back. There are no more random encounters with old gods or friendly critters. The old dams are far from the story. Jinian doesn't go this way and that based on circumstance, flight of fancy, or strength of will. Things still aren't charming and whimsical like the first book, but this is a series. I expected things would build to a proper plot at some point.
I'm glad I kept reading the series and will happily tuck into Jinian Star Eye even if I'm still side-eyeing Peter. That said, I definitely think quality, cohesion, and tone took a bit of a hit with Dervish Daughter. Which is fine. Jinian Footseer started the bar pretty damn high and things don't have to be perfect to have value.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
July 15, 2020
Read 20 odd years ago,found on bookshelf
February 21, 2014
Upon re-reading this book, I had to knock it down to three stars. Out of the whole series, this one is dull and lifeless. The creativity and imagination are still there, but they fall flat against Jinian's character. The emotions are missing despite this being the book where the emotions should be the most strongly felt. The best part of this book was the last chapter, and that gives me hope for the final book of the series.
January 17, 2024
I am called Jinian Footseer by some. By some, Jinian Star-Eye. And by some, the Wizard Jinian. One or two call me Dervish Daughter.
On thinking it over, I decided I had been right all along. Everything I had told Peter was true. All the evidence pointed in one way and one way only. I felt as I had felt so long ago, travelling toward Bleer with Peter, when he put the clues to a mystery in my hands and asked me to make sense of it. Now, as then, all the pieces were in my hands, or my head.
The great flitchhawk who had granted me a boon in Chimmerdong, and the d’bor wife, and the gobblemole. The story of Lite Star and the Daylight Bell. The Oracle. The Eesties. Yellow crystals and blue, separated by a thousand years of time. My illness in Chimmerdong, the diagnoses of Bartelmy of the Ban, the Dervish, my mother. All these. No matter how I turned them, there was no other explanation.
Could anything be done?
On thinking it over, I decided I had been right all along. Everything I had told Peter was true. All the evidence pointed in one way and one way only. I felt as I had felt so long ago, travelling toward Bleer with Peter, when he put the clues to a mystery in my hands and asked me to make sense of it. Now, as then, all the pieces were in my hands, or my head.
The great flitchhawk who had granted me a boon in Chimmerdong, and the d’bor wife, and the gobblemole. The story of Lite Star and the Daylight Bell. The Oracle. The Eesties. Yellow crystals and blue, separated by a thousand years of time. My illness in Chimmerdong, the diagnoses of Bartelmy of the Ban, the Dervish, my mother. All these. No matter how I turned them, there was no other explanation.
Could anything be done?
November 15, 2021
Another episode in the chronicles of Jinian Footseer on the planet Lom. Jinian is a Wize-ard, and the daughter of a Dervish, and is able to talk to animals. She and her companions are on a quest tyo seek the source of a evil spreading across the land.
An excellent fantasy book by one of the great female fantasy writers.
An excellent fantasy book by one of the great female fantasy writers.
October 25, 2021
The second of the trilogy - and you find out a major plot point of the whole trilogy on about page 203 of this one! Again, twisty turny and surprises, and a few pointed satirical scenes, which make Tepper's work more enjoyable than your average "fantasy" novel.
January 8, 2018
The Lands of the True Game have thoroughly grabbed me, i need answers to all the riddles and questions! hopefully the next book will provide...
November 18, 2019
Not as good as the first in the series.
January 21, 2021
My fave True Game series.
September 28, 2021
can't wait for the last book.
November 1, 2016
The True Game is told from Peter's point of view and overlaps with the the first book in this trilogy, Jinian Footseer.
Somebody had sent people to kill Jinian. Seers had told them that Jinian was going to be a thorn in their side. After the battle on the wastes of Bleer, Jinian, Peter, Chance and Queynt head north. Along the way they see many dead bodies with yellow crystals. Now their mission is to track the source of these which probably involves they people who put the hit on Jinian. They finally come to a living town. Bloome has festivals two or three times a week just to use excess cloth. After adventures there, they head to Fangel and find not just the Dream Merchant, but several of their old nemeses. Duke Betand, Valern the Ogress, Hulda the Witch and Dedrina Deadeye. The adventures there include freeing prisoners, and getting out of the city. Jinian head alone to follow the Duke, etc. to the Storm Grower and Dream Miner.
The building of layer upon layer of plot is neatly done. We learn that Huld had the help of the Storm Grower and Dream Miner in the battle of the wastes. I like even better the Jinian and Peter dynamic and the tension that's caused because of Jinian's three year vow of celibacy. Throw Sylbie and her baby into that mix, and Jinian able to reason out what had happened three years ago in Betand and it's more excitement.
The True Game was really good, but I like the stories with Jinian as the main character even better. I'm looking forward to reading Jinian Star-Eye.
Somebody had sent people to kill Jinian. Seers had told them that Jinian was going to be a thorn in their side. After the battle on the wastes of Bleer, Jinian, Peter, Chance and Queynt head north. Along the way they see many dead bodies with yellow crystals. Now their mission is to track the source of these which probably involves they people who put the hit on Jinian. They finally come to a living town. Bloome has festivals two or three times a week just to use excess cloth. After adventures there, they head to Fangel and find not just the Dream Merchant, but several of their old nemeses. Duke Betand, Valern the Ogress, Hulda the Witch and Dedrina Deadeye. The adventures there include freeing prisoners, and getting out of the city. Jinian head alone to follow the Duke, etc. to the Storm Grower and Dream Miner.
The building of layer upon layer of plot is neatly done. We learn that Huld had the help of the Storm Grower and Dream Miner in the battle of the wastes. I like even better the Jinian and Peter dynamic and the tension that's caused because of Jinian's three year vow of celibacy. Throw Sylbie and her baby into that mix, and Jinian able to reason out what had happened three years ago in Betand and it's more excitement.
The True Game was really good, but I like the stories with Jinian as the main character even better. I'm looking forward to reading Jinian Star-Eye.
November 13, 2025
Good. There is a slight middle book aspect to this one, in that it is moving the story on from the first book and setting up the story ready for the third, however it does have enough story of its own to be good. You defiantly need to have read the previous book first.
October 8, 2009
A different kind of fantasy. Fun stories.
March 31, 2011
Jinian Footseer Trilogy in omnibus edition, BAO is key
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews