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The Visitor
The Barnes & Noble Review
Sheri S. Tepper's The Visitor takes place on Earth centuries after an asteroid has turned the planet into a wasteland. Sure it sounds familiar, it's been done countless times before, but this is so much more than an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel. As usual with all Tepper stories, this is packed with deep, consciousness-raising material. After reading The Visitor, you will never look at religion, spirituality, or prayer the same way again.
Sheri S. Tepper's The Visitor takes place on Earth centuries after an asteroid has turned the planet into a wasteland. Sure it sounds familiar, it's been done countless times before, but this is so much more than an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel. As usual with all Tepper stories, this is packed with deep, consciousness-raising material. After reading The Visitor, you will never look at religion, spirituality, or prayer the same way again.
Before the mysterious asteroid hits Earth, a group of scientists hide in impregnable shelters deep underground and goes into suspended animation. Centuries later, the scientists awaken and try to offer guidance to their descendants in the form of the mythical Guardian Council.
Tepper continues to amaze me with her work. Her writing is so vivid and fluid it's almost poetic, yet at the same time philosophical and thought provoking. And if you enjoy this novel -- which I'm sure you will -- I highly recommend her earlier works Raising the Stones, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and The Family Tree. (Paul Goat Allen)
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
59 people are currently reading
829 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 - 30 of 88 reviews
March 3, 2011
Certainly this book had flaws all along. There are things that don't quite make sense, and a construction Tepper is fond of using at the end of chapters really annoyed me once I noticed it. However, the world-building is rich and the plot interesting, and I was enjoying the book reasonably until the last 100 pages, when she decided to ruin it by throwing every lame and lousy writing tactic available: a sprawling, poorly-written anti-religious diatribe (for those really dense readers who hadn't noticed the anti-religious message in the rest of the book, I guess), sudden introduction of new characters, technologies, and magics not previously hinted at, surprise incest, a dea ex machina, and what's that device called when a "messenger"-type suddenly shows up to give the characters important information they couldn't otherwise have?
But it was still better than the other book of hers I read. And if there were a map it might actually deserve that third star.
But it was still better than the other book of hers I read. And if there were a map it might actually deserve that third star.
November 25, 2014
Oh thank goodness, she remembered how to write a story. Or at least ninety-eight percent of one.
Most of my problems with Tepper stories hasn't had anything to do with the writing or the world-building, both of which seems to be her strengths, but her tendency to ram social commentary down our throats like paramedics in a race to see who can intubate the fastest. When that side of her writing personality comes to the fore, you tend to get characters who exist merely to make certain points and scenarios geared to tell us exactly what is wrong with our society and what can be done to fix it, or at least how she would fix it. You can't deny the passion or the sincerity but sometimes it's less thought provoking than the cranky professor in the front of the room lecturing the captive audience on how everything would be different if they ran the world.
Here, she mostly gets out of her own way and lets the plot do things that stories are supposed to do. We come upon an America several hundred years in the future after it has been hit with a great catastrophe that seems to rhyme with "meteor". The country has become fragmented and forgotten how things like "science" used to work, cobbling together mythologies based on scraps and unsurprisingly letting a authoritarian ruling class oppress the heck out of everyone it comes into contact with. Oh, and did I mention the ruling class is based around religious ideals and uses doctrine and dogma to enforce its bizarre rules? Hey, we're still in a Tepper novel.
But for once it's not eye-rolling. We follow the story of Disme, who would love to have a better family than she currently has, or at least the one she has after her rather unpleasant step-sister takes care of things. She lives in a city ruled by the Regime, who craft rules from the Dicta. The countryside is surrounded by demons, who help create "bottles" that people are stored in when they die or when people stop liking them. When people really stop liking you but don't want to kill you, you're assumed to have "The Disease" and are put into a Chair, which is not at all an enjoyable experience.
As odd as this all sounds, the strangeness works in the story's favor, giving it an otherworldly feel that seems appropriate for a country that had to reconstruct itself from fragments several hundred years down the line. Disme attempts to navigate this world, staying out of her sister's way while in the background various demonic type forces seem to be getting ready to go to war. There's a dream-like ambiance to the proceedings, in that we should be in a SF type of setting (future dystopia) but instead we're gone into a fantasy world, where the rules are a bit more ambiguous and magic seems to be possible, except when science says it isn't. But science doesn't even know what science is saying.
What works here for me is all the inter-connectivity. For once we're treated to actual characters that don't easily fall into her "women traits good" and "man traits bad" categories, with people of both genders acting like people of different stripes, both good and bad, with the goodness and badness determined more by their actions than what restroom door they walk through. It's refreshing because instead of having to filter out all the usual layers of commentary that often mark her work, I can just enjoy the story and the shifting plot, with various people all conspiring separately, giving the impression of a world with quite a few moving parts, some of which are acting in concert and others in opposition. She even includes journal entries from a scientist that worked to preserve the world before the Big One hits, and it provides a nice contrast to the main action, even connecting later (and when the scientist's husband abandons science for the placid embrace of religion, it's not even as grating as it could be).
I should point out that her actual prose is near a peak here, hardly rivaled by her other novels in terms of richness and descriptiveness, carrying everything along so smoothly you hardly notice that it's a step or two better than her usual standards.
Everything has been going so well that it's hardly even a disappointment when it turns out she's not sure how to wrap it all up. As the book chugs along it begins to get more and more muddled, introducing guardians of the world that may have been made up but seem to be real. Once they start possessing people the book loses a lot of the mysterious intensity that characterized the early chapters and instead it becomes more like a gathering of the socially conscious super-friends, as people move from place to place, someone else is revealed to be super while an army gathers nearby. The idea of advanced science seeming like magic isn't new but it seems like she wants to take that theme and not use science at all (at some points it seems like she read Zelazny's "Lord of Light" and thought "This is great!" while missing the point of it entirely) which means things get quickly incoherent. There's nothing wrong with using magic as a framework for a post-apocalyptic novel, nor does everything have to be explained in a satisfying fashion. But there has to be some sense that everything is operating under some rules or else it just seems like the author is making everything up as she goes along depending on what is convenient for the plot.
So like a camera dropped in the ocean, the book starts to lose its focus entirely, concentrating on aliens and a living meteor and a monster converting people into other monsters and by the time you get to the cyborg people you start to wonder if Tepper has a child or grandchild who took over the plotting for her. Whatever point the book was trying to make becomes lost entirely as everyone plows through as if hoping that a point will appear if they hack away at it long enough. To make things worse, she introduces a . . . we'll say "entity" that gives a long John Galt style speech about how we can improve society that stops the book cold so it can lecture at us. It's as if, having behaved for most of the novel, Tepper can't help herself and while the restraint is welcome, it runs the risk of leaving a bad taste in the mouth of an unsuspecting reader.
It ends up a mess but the first two-thirds to three-quarters of it is so decent and immersive that you want to take all the available copies, mail them back to her and have her do just one more draft to hammer out all the weak spots. If nothing else, it shows that she's capable of introducing social commentary without bludgeoning us to death with it and while she's so assured here for most of it that you can't write it off as an anomaly ("Grass" alone proves this wasn't a fluke) but with the results being so much more successfully you wonder why she doesn't put the effort in to achieve this kind of thing all the time.
Most of my problems with Tepper stories hasn't had anything to do with the writing or the world-building, both of which seems to be her strengths, but her tendency to ram social commentary down our throats like paramedics in a race to see who can intubate the fastest. When that side of her writing personality comes to the fore, you tend to get characters who exist merely to make certain points and scenarios geared to tell us exactly what is wrong with our society and what can be done to fix it, or at least how she would fix it. You can't deny the passion or the sincerity but sometimes it's less thought provoking than the cranky professor in the front of the room lecturing the captive audience on how everything would be different if they ran the world.
Here, she mostly gets out of her own way and lets the plot do things that stories are supposed to do. We come upon an America several hundred years in the future after it has been hit with a great catastrophe that seems to rhyme with "meteor". The country has become fragmented and forgotten how things like "science" used to work, cobbling together mythologies based on scraps and unsurprisingly letting a authoritarian ruling class oppress the heck out of everyone it comes into contact with. Oh, and did I mention the ruling class is based around religious ideals and uses doctrine and dogma to enforce its bizarre rules? Hey, we're still in a Tepper novel.
But for once it's not eye-rolling. We follow the story of Disme, who would love to have a better family than she currently has, or at least the one she has after her rather unpleasant step-sister takes care of things. She lives in a city ruled by the Regime, who craft rules from the Dicta. The countryside is surrounded by demons, who help create "bottles" that people are stored in when they die or when people stop liking them. When people really stop liking you but don't want to kill you, you're assumed to have "The Disease" and are put into a Chair, which is not at all an enjoyable experience.
As odd as this all sounds, the strangeness works in the story's favor, giving it an otherworldly feel that seems appropriate for a country that had to reconstruct itself from fragments several hundred years down the line. Disme attempts to navigate this world, staying out of her sister's way while in the background various demonic type forces seem to be getting ready to go to war. There's a dream-like ambiance to the proceedings, in that we should be in a SF type of setting (future dystopia) but instead we're gone into a fantasy world, where the rules are a bit more ambiguous and magic seems to be possible, except when science says it isn't. But science doesn't even know what science is saying.
What works here for me is all the inter-connectivity. For once we're treated to actual characters that don't easily fall into her "women traits good" and "man traits bad" categories, with people of both genders acting like people of different stripes, both good and bad, with the goodness and badness determined more by their actions than what restroom door they walk through. It's refreshing because instead of having to filter out all the usual layers of commentary that often mark her work, I can just enjoy the story and the shifting plot, with various people all conspiring separately, giving the impression of a world with quite a few moving parts, some of which are acting in concert and others in opposition. She even includes journal entries from a scientist that worked to preserve the world before the Big One hits, and it provides a nice contrast to the main action, even connecting later (and when the scientist's husband abandons science for the placid embrace of religion, it's not even as grating as it could be).
I should point out that her actual prose is near a peak here, hardly rivaled by her other novels in terms of richness and descriptiveness, carrying everything along so smoothly you hardly notice that it's a step or two better than her usual standards.
Everything has been going so well that it's hardly even a disappointment when it turns out she's not sure how to wrap it all up. As the book chugs along it begins to get more and more muddled, introducing guardians of the world that may have been made up but seem to be real. Once they start possessing people the book loses a lot of the mysterious intensity that characterized the early chapters and instead it becomes more like a gathering of the socially conscious super-friends, as people move from place to place, someone else is revealed to be super while an army gathers nearby. The idea of advanced science seeming like magic isn't new but it seems like she wants to take that theme and not use science at all (at some points it seems like she read Zelazny's "Lord of Light" and thought "This is great!" while missing the point of it entirely) which means things get quickly incoherent. There's nothing wrong with using magic as a framework for a post-apocalyptic novel, nor does everything have to be explained in a satisfying fashion. But there has to be some sense that everything is operating under some rules or else it just seems like the author is making everything up as she goes along depending on what is convenient for the plot.
So like a camera dropped in the ocean, the book starts to lose its focus entirely, concentrating on aliens and a living meteor and a monster converting people into other monsters and by the time you get to the cyborg people you start to wonder if Tepper has a child or grandchild who took over the plotting for her. Whatever point the book was trying to make becomes lost entirely as everyone plows through as if hoping that a point will appear if they hack away at it long enough. To make things worse, she introduces a . . . we'll say "entity" that gives a long John Galt style speech about how we can improve society that stops the book cold so it can lecture at us. It's as if, having behaved for most of the novel, Tepper can't help herself and while the restraint is welcome, it runs the risk of leaving a bad taste in the mouth of an unsuspecting reader.
It ends up a mess but the first two-thirds to three-quarters of it is so decent and immersive that you want to take all the available copies, mail them back to her and have her do just one more draft to hammer out all the weak spots. If nothing else, it shows that she's capable of introducing social commentary without bludgeoning us to death with it and while she's so assured here for most of it that you can't write it off as an anomaly ("Grass" alone proves this wasn't a fluke) but with the results being so much more successfully you wonder why she doesn't put the effort in to achieve this kind of thing all the time.
March 7, 2013
Throughout most of this book, I thought it was great.
The milieu is an innovative and effective blend of post-apocalypse, straight-out horror, and science fiction. It's a complicated world, and Tepper does an amazing job of showing-not-telling, revealing elements of the situation she's created gradually...
The protagonist, Disme, is shown to progress from her repressed situation where she is terrorized by her stepmother and her even-worse stepsister, gradually finding the ability to express her identity and to seek out the truth about her society...
And her current society (strongly influenced by religious fanatics after a disastrous asteroid collision with Earth) is very effectively realized, in a way that reflects upon our world today...
However, as the book progresses, the supernatural elements become more pronounced, in a way that, for me, compromised the internal believability of the story...
And then, at the very end, AAGH! What happened? It was like Tepper suddenly doubted herself, and said, "Wait! I bet my readers won't GET what I've been writing about for the last 400 pages! I'd better spell it all out!" And suddenly we get a long, boring dialogue with god. Yikes. It's an ending that's both pedantic and absurd. Very disappointing - because the first part of the book really is excellent (and disturbing!).
The milieu is an innovative and effective blend of post-apocalypse, straight-out horror, and science fiction. It's a complicated world, and Tepper does an amazing job of showing-not-telling, revealing elements of the situation she's created gradually...
The protagonist, Disme, is shown to progress from her repressed situation where she is terrorized by her stepmother and her even-worse stepsister, gradually finding the ability to express her identity and to seek out the truth about her society...
And her current society (strongly influenced by religious fanatics after a disastrous asteroid collision with Earth) is very effectively realized, in a way that reflects upon our world today...
However, as the book progresses, the supernatural elements become more pronounced, in a way that, for me, compromised the internal believability of the story...
And then, at the very end, AAGH! What happened? It was like Tepper suddenly doubted herself, and said, "Wait! I bet my readers won't GET what I've been writing about for the last 400 pages! I'd better spell it all out!" And suddenly we get a long, boring dialogue with god. Yikes. It's an ending that's both pedantic and absurd. Very disappointing - because the first part of the book really is excellent (and disturbing!).
March 25, 2021
It's not much different from many other dystopia scifi. I liked this book mostly for the theme and the writing part. It felt relatable. Many of the thoughts it shared felt like I was agreeing to what the author had to say. You can try this book. I can't promise that you will like it. But it was worth reading.
March 4, 2023
I love post apocalyptic books but the ending knocked my rating down a star. No spoilers but I really couldn't understand if the main characters were pro religion or not by the end. So confusing.
October 6, 2010
Tepper really is a wonderful writer - her books are intelligent, inventive, superbly plotted and littered with prose that leaves te reader breathless.Her major strain of work is science fiction with the technology in the background and an emphasis on social and personal relationships, a deep concern for people combined with a sharply satirical social analysis. The Visitor begins seeming to be borderline fantasy/sci-fi, but then combines a storyline of apocalyptic fiction - the primary setting is the human civilisation that has survived the impact of an asteroid. The backbone idea is Clarke's Law that "any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic", with the superstitious survivors managing to venerate and fear pre-apocalypse technology, and those who do understand that it is technology faced with a superior, possibly alien, force. Tepper doesn't leave it there; she takes a direction you will never predict. Read it.
July 25, 2016
I've been a long time fan of Sheri Tepper's writing. This was one of my favs. I dogeared pages that are right on for this election cycle, and have quoted her on FB. She brings a great story to our human condition, over and over again. I tried to find her web page to no avail. I wanted to write a fan letter to a woman whose writing I have read for decades. Thank you, Sheri, for all the great books you've written, books with humanistic and feminist backbones, as well as a lot of wisdom for what we live through, then and now. You are one of my sheroes!
September 6, 2011
This is not only my favorite Tepper book but hands down one of my favorite books of all time. I think because the plot actually moves along and I care about the characters and it's just SO INTERESTING. I think it's a great treatise on what could happen after an asteroid hits the earth and destroys life as we know it - the civilizations that arise out of the ashes, and in typical Tepper weirdness, bizarre religions, various magic and space aliens. Win forever. I read this once a year at least.
January 7, 2014
I am a fan of both sci-fi and fantasy novels, but before I read this book I thought I would never be able too have both in a book at the same time. So that's one of the reasons I love this book. It successfully integrates sci-fi and fantasy into a plot and world that is both creative and completely original. A definite must read :)
December 19, 2016
I really loved this. It started off as a fantastic cinderella story, but by the end was Science fiction, fantasy, horror, and full of mind blowing ideas and truths. I loved her writing style, I loved the story, I loved the characters.
October 24, 2022
I’m seeing a lot of reviewers complain about deus ex machina in this book , but, dudes, the supposed writer’s convenience you’ve all been complaining about is literally discussed at the very beginning of the book and mentioned repeatedly throughout the story with subtlety . The anti-religious message you’re inferring isn’t overtly anti-religious: the few instances where I felt a little uncomfortably prosthelytized develop nuance when you read further . I think a lot of people have knee-jerk reactions to themes in Tepper’s work because they feel criticized while reading or feel like she is preaching an agenda that goes against the beliefs of the reader - I have even sat with that discomfort while reading certain stories of hers . However , if you manage to keep reading without your own indignation casting projections onto what she has written , you may appreciate the complexities she presents : Tepper’s greatest
strengths are world-building and creating multi-faceted and very human , therefore , very flawed , characters . Morality , nature , and civilization don’t fit comfortably together - they will disagree with one another , and this is a complexity she tackles . Tepper is by no means a utopian writer : she isn’t offering concrete solutions to the questions posed . Rather , she offers worlds and consequences we are given the space to reflect upon . I honestly think that is what people struggle with . People similarly struggle with Gate to Women’s Country , inferring some terf agenda , but that’s defensive reading , and when you read something defensively , it’s easy to miss a lot of storytelling that actually agrees with you but does so with subtlety.
I also don’t think this is the standard dystopian fiction fare people are writing it off to be ?! Having read tons of what I refer to as “pastoral dystopia,” this joins the ranks of those I consider especially interesting . The bottling wall alone is one of those incredibly eerie concepts Tepper is so good at introducing early on with little explanation that haunts you throughout the book. Anyway . This is one of her more frightening books , and it has a little bit of everything .
And (SPOILER) those who are weirded out by the incest , read it in context , for crying out loud , and if you want to be reeeaaaally uncomfortable, try reading Angela Carter!
strengths are world-building and creating multi-faceted and very human , therefore , very flawed , characters . Morality , nature , and civilization don’t fit comfortably together - they will disagree with one another , and this is a complexity she tackles . Tepper is by no means a utopian writer : she isn’t offering concrete solutions to the questions posed . Rather , she offers worlds and consequences we are given the space to reflect upon . I honestly think that is what people struggle with . People similarly struggle with Gate to Women’s Country , inferring some terf agenda , but that’s defensive reading , and when you read something defensively , it’s easy to miss a lot of storytelling that actually agrees with you but does so with subtlety.
I also don’t think this is the standard dystopian fiction fare people are writing it off to be ?! Having read tons of what I refer to as “pastoral dystopia,” this joins the ranks of those I consider especially interesting . The bottling wall alone is one of those incredibly eerie concepts Tepper is so good at introducing early on with little explanation that haunts you throughout the book. Anyway . This is one of her more frightening books , and it has a little bit of everything .
And (SPOILER) those who are weirded out by the incest , read it in context , for crying out loud , and if you want to be reeeaaaally uncomfortable, try reading Angela Carter!
November 25, 2024
This book started out really great, as a post-apocalyptic novel in which humanity is trying to bootstrap itself up from near-oblivion. There are interesting hints of magic, or maybe just old technology that now looks like magic, no wait maybe it's REAL magic. Then there are some really awful characters and truly nasty things that happen, largely brought on by greed, hunger for power, or just plain... evilness.
I kept hoping for the main character, Dismé, to grow into some kind of potential or intelligence, but she just floated through her world and her plot (initially as a protective strategy, then later because... she's a boring person?). But I was still with the book until the last revelatory scene which dissolved all of the primary characters into mouthpieces for an anti-religion philosophy. (It would have been just as annoying if it were a pro-religion philosophy.) It felt like an Ayn Rand move. Also, it felt really hypocritical for the "good" guys to agree to the idea of giving up on someone utterly if they don't have your approach to finding truth. That seems just as bad as the "bad" guys who... did the same thing, in their own way. One character even hesitates over this exact point, then decides it's ok because... basically eugenics (you'll breed new people who have the "right" views). Disappointing. But the first half is pretty good. :)
I kept hoping for the main character, Dismé, to grow into some kind of potential or intelligence, but she just floated through her world and her plot (initially as a protective strategy, then later because... she's a boring person?). But I was still with the book until the last revelatory scene which dissolved all of the primary characters into mouthpieces for an anti-religion philosophy. (It would have been just as annoying if it were a pro-religion philosophy.) It felt like an Ayn Rand move. Also, it felt really hypocritical for the "good" guys to agree to the idea of giving up on someone utterly if they don't have your approach to finding truth. That seems just as bad as the "bad" guys who... did the same thing, in their own way. One character even hesitates over this exact point, then decides it's ok because... basically eugenics (you'll breed new people who have the "right" views). Disappointing. But the first half is pretty good. :)
September 4, 2017
The majority of the late Sheri S. Tepper's novels arrive at pretty much the same destination: a place where the author can ruminate freely on her favorite concern of how ecological disaster walks hand in hand with patriarchal oppression. She was a writer with a set agenda, to which she stuck throughout her entire career.
The pleasures of reading Tepper, however, arise from the many different paths she takes on her multiple treks to that destination. In The Visitor, she creates a compelling post-apocalyptic setting brought to life through some of the most astonishing world-building of her career, replete with villains worth rooting against, realistic moments of human altruism and pettiness both, and moments of sheer lyrical beauty that show off some of the author's best wordsmithing.
Tepper's setup here is epic—perhaps almost too epic, as it requires a small platoon of archetypal heroes with superpowers and a deus ex cometa to overcome its malignant forces. But it's still an exciting outing for fans of Tepper and the larger-than-life stories built around her favorite themes.
The pleasures of reading Tepper, however, arise from the many different paths she takes on her multiple treks to that destination. In The Visitor, she creates a compelling post-apocalyptic setting brought to life through some of the most astonishing world-building of her career, replete with villains worth rooting against, realistic moments of human altruism and pettiness both, and moments of sheer lyrical beauty that show off some of the author's best wordsmithing.
Tepper's setup here is epic—perhaps almost too epic, as it requires a small platoon of archetypal heroes with superpowers and a deus ex cometa to overcome its malignant forces. But it's still an exciting outing for fans of Tepper and the larger-than-life stories built around her favorite themes.
June 24, 2023
New Weird meets Horizon Zero Dawn meets Tepper's Planned Parenthood work. Tepper is incredible at the sort of twist where the reader suddenly understands something about the world-building.
Thematically, this is a book where organized religion and science-without-compassion are the antagonistic forces. Meanwhile spirituality, "do no harm," and a pantheon greater than mortal ken are the heroic forces. I'm realizing these things are repeated Tepper themes. At first, it's surprising and fun when an otherwise skeptical character reveals himself to be a firm believer in a deity that just happens to not be the one he was raised with. That said, the characters lose a lot of personality when they become the mysterious, super-powered pantheon. Dismé doesn't so much have an arc as have a divine revelation and become a completely different person.
Where the first half lets the pleasantly eerie world-building speak for itself, the second is a jarring mix of gory horror and saccharine preaching.
Thematically, this is a book where organized religion and science-without-compassion are the antagonistic forces. Meanwhile spirituality, "do no harm," and a pantheon greater than mortal ken are the heroic forces. I'm realizing these things are repeated Tepper themes. At first, it's surprising and fun when an otherwise skeptical character reveals himself to be a firm believer in a deity that just happens to not be the one he was raised with. That said, the characters lose a lot of personality when they become the mysterious, super-powered pantheon. Dismé doesn't so much have an arc as have a divine revelation and become a completely different person.
Where the first half lets the pleasantly eerie world-building speak for itself, the second is a jarring mix of gory horror and saccharine preaching.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2018
Sheri Tepper has considerably more patience than I did with the characters in this foray into a post-apocalyptic Earth tinged with "magic/miracle/???" None of them engaged me, with Disme being especially disappointing, for the initial 200 pages. The interspersion of sections of Nell Latimer's journal from many hundreds of years previous to the main narrative and my admiration for every other title by this author that I had read were all that prevented me from abandoning this anomalous novel. Suddenly the characters blossom and the narrative picks up the pace, racing toward ... a soapbox?? A cynic might contend that 373 pages is a rather long set up for an extensive, philosophical-theological excursus, however, I found that I didn't mind since I agree with most of the opinions presented - a somewhat flawed reaction but I'm only human. Only 3 stars since I could not completely shake off the doldrums of the first 200 pages.
August 19, 2019
For the first 80-90% of this book, it was shaping up to be one of my favorite books ever. Incredible world building and a great focus on developing the mythology behind the story. Believable characters that you appropriately like or dislike greatly. Enough confusion to make you keep flipping the pages to see what’s coming while not leaving you so much in the dark that it’s hard to follow what’s going on. Overall, a beautifully told story which muses on religion, philosophy, politics and the human state of existence.
Somehow, however, things go totally off the rails at the end, during which Tepper seems to find it necessary to very quickly explain all of the mythology in a way that felt forced and seemed to imply that the reader wasn’t smart enough to figure it out on their own. Until this point, I was forced to really think hard about what was happening and she was trying to say. After this point, it felt heaved upon me a bit too forcefully.
Somehow, however, things go totally off the rails at the end, during which Tepper seems to find it necessary to very quickly explain all of the mythology in a way that felt forced and seemed to imply that the reader wasn’t smart enough to figure it out on their own. Until this point, I was forced to really think hard about what was happening and she was trying to say. After this point, it felt heaved upon me a bit too forcefully.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 19, 2021
I wrote this review in 2003 for this book and Tepper's The Fresco: Sheri Tepper's writing always draws you in and makes you sympathetic to, and interested in, the characters. There are good and bad guys, and I always wish the bad guys weren't there because there's plenty of plot available even without them, but that's how her stories go. These books are about two entirely different sets of alien visitors to Earth, with some earthling and some alien bad guys and good guys both. Both books have a strong feminist message, and each has as a protagonist a mistreated woman who finds her power. Tepper also skewers the things she doesn't like about our culture, which almost always matches how I think. Dramatic, sometimes funny, and always riveting.
May 10, 2022
An asteroid on a collision course with Earth speeds up, slows down, speeds up again. What the Tepper’s going on? All is revealed (eventually) in this labyrinthine post-apocalyptic thriller (yes, it hit) which starts as a Cinderella story and ends up …., well that would be spoiling things. I am reminded of Clarke's Law which postulates that "any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic" as the nature of this future dystopia is revealed. For me, the journey was definitely more satisfying than the destination where the Deus ex machina resolution (quite literally) was quite jaw-dropping. Most of the book was top-notch, but the last fifty pages, less so. Still a worthwhile read though.
December 5, 2018
I was into this book for most of its length - I did wish that the main character was a bit less of a wimp, but it seemed pretty understandable, given her circumstances. There was lots of my favorite post-apocalypse things - world building, weird religious beliefs, multiple societies.
Then, about the last quarter of the book, you find out the Thing We've Been Building To. And it was so stupid I put the book down for several weeks and read other books. And if you can get past the worst preachy bits, it picks up a little. I did manage to finish it. But I don't think I'd recommend it.
Then, about the last quarter of the book, you find out the Thing We've Been Building To. And it was so stupid I put the book down for several weeks and read other books. And if you can get past the worst preachy bits, it picks up a little. I did manage to finish it. But I don't think I'd recommend it.
December 24, 2022
I had never heard of this author, but the book reminded me of the Broken Earth Trilogy. So I guess someone had heard of her. Would read something else by her if I found it in a vacation house but probably wouldn't seek her out. The writing and editing are very different than more contemporary books, and it took me a long time to get into the novel.
March 23, 2024
My third time reading this book, I really enjoy it. So many details woven through. Science and a little magic, an apocalypse, hibernating scientists, evil and monsters, good and bad people. Sure the ending is a bit lecture-y.
March 20, 2018
I have tried twice and I just don't care for this book.
June 28, 2018
Okay again this is a reread but Tepper is one of those authors I can read again and again. This is not one of my faves but the world and the magic are both interesting.
October 10, 2019
Just read everything that she wrote.
November 18, 2019
Didn't click with me very well, but I finished it.
September 22, 2020
Not my favorite Tepper book, but still decently solid post-apocalyptic
May 6, 2021
Really enjoyed up until the end when it got, in my opinion, a little heavier on the religion side.
July 13, 2022
A long slow set of chapters to world build. Sci-fi that slips to fantasy and horror with only the glimmer of better days ahead at the end. Not my favorite Tepper.
November 16, 2023
3.5?
I had read this once before. But then when I got to the last 40 pages it seemed I had never finished it. Not as good as other Tepper books.
I had read this once before. But then when I got to the last 40 pages it seemed I had never finished it. Not as good as other Tepper books.
June 17, 2024
What the hell did I just read?
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