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Arbai #3
Sideshow
Barbaric customs and bizarre human cults are prserved on the planet Elsewhere. The rest of the universe has been taken over by the Hobbs Land Gods, which means that everyone alive, with the exception of the people on Elsewhere, lives in perfect harmony with nature and with each other. But Elsewhere is ruled by computer-encrypted professors who have been dead for a thousand years. The professors were dedicated to maintaining human diversity. Their ancient analogs are dedicated to something far more sinister. The time has come to consider whether enslavement by the Hobbs Land Gods is not preferable to the depravity being cultivated on Elsewhere. The time has come to ask the Big Question: what is the Destiny of Man? And answer it . . .
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
50 people are currently reading
1038 people want to read
About the author
Sheri S. Tepper
74 books1,081 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
December 12, 2014
I'm either getting very contrary in my old age or I just have no idea what it is I actually like. I completely expected to hate this one based on the mixed reviews from people who were fans already, especially since I find a number of the fan-favorites . . . we'll be polite and say "somewhat grating." But once it got going it . . . wasn't bad. That's not going so far as to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, but there were very few moments where I felt a need to get a mouthguard before I gritted my teeth down to the roots or tape to keep my eyeballs facing front instead of seeking the innards of my skull. Which is progress, in a sense.
This one forms a loose trilogy with "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" and although the link to "Grass" won't be apparent until pretty late in the book, it pretty much continues the general story that was started in "Raising the Stones" . . . that is, the spread of the Hobbs Land gods from planet to planet, bringing a sense of peace and love and togetherness everywhere it touches, much like the release of a new romantic comedy.
But interestingly, and perhaps realizing that a book where everything is going swell may not be the most exciting plot ever hoisted on an audience, Tepper takes a different tactic and shifts the perspective to a system centered around the planet Elsewhere. Aware of how the Hobbs gods are making everyone the same with their good time vibes, they perceive that as a stifling conformity and do their best to keep it at bay while allowing the worlds in their systems to maintain their own individual belief systems. Which is great, except that a good number of those belief systems believe in things that not only Tepper finds disagreeable but most reasonable people in general would (let's go down the list: child sacrifice, slavery, women as third class citizens, etc), but thanks to the magic of "let's respect everyone's beliefs" it all goes on, with Enforcers making sure things don't get too out of hand and deviate from the normal horrible practices, because it's best to maintain oppression on an even keel.
This is an interesting issue to explore, even if she didn't do it in her usual blunt mallet fashion and make it fairly easy for the reader to figure out which side he or she is on, because while the Hobbs gods are making everything swinging and groovy there's something to be said for wanting to be your own person. To that end, she gives us a bunch of characters who are trying to be their own people, with not one but two orphans (although for different reasons), a retired Enforcer and a set of conjoined twins of different genders from the present day who wind up getting catapulted into the future. If that sounds to you like something that would require quite a bit of exposition, it does, and after a number of pages detailing the religious beliefs of the twins' parents (mostly the father) when it's clearly not something we're supposed to admire, it would be a safe question to ask exactly where she was going with all this. The twins themselves are interesting enough and while she positions them as something shocking in their habits, most of the "shocking" things happen early on and are treated matter of factly. Just when it seems that they're going to become Heinleinian style mouthpieces for her views, they pull a Marty McFly and wind up being just as out of their depth as we are. Or maybe more than us, at least we've read SF novels.
Once the actual plot kicks in it's still not clear what the point of all this is as the characters travel about seemingly randomly from world to world, picking up two really old people (Jory and Asner) in the process. It's these characters that link us to the other novels, with the former soon enough revealing herself in mannerisms as someone we've met before (a sign of how Tepper wrote that character, it was a shame we didn't see more stuff in between then and here). The latter doesn't seem to act at all like his first appearance, at least not in recognizable fashion but everyone is soon too caught up in plot digressions for it to matter much. We bounce from world to world, while occasionally taking a glance back as computer generated old people act like maniacs and promise terrible things. And while in other hands this might seem like a mess, here it winds up being a beautiful thing because Tepper is so insistent on showing us all these different places and keeping track of all the various interpersonal threads that she has no time to indulge in her usual tendencies of explaining to us how everything is the fault of men or people who don't like trees. And stripped of that inclination to preach and lecture, it becomes something that few of her novels ever are: a fairly normal SF novel. Which means it can be enjoyed without feeling as if the author personally dislikes you if you disagree with her.
The funny thing is, this focus on plot, scattershot as it is, doesn't take away from any of her usual gifts with prose. There seems to be a little less flair this time out, but it's dependable as always and it makes it easier to enjoy her skill at pure writing. There are some passages that stand out as some of her better ones (the reaction of two people turned into robot constructs conveys just the right amount of body horror and a later decapitation falls just on the right side away from "incoherent"). All of the main characters can more or less stand together for once, whether male or female, with some like Zasper or Jory standing out even further (Jory edges toward the lecturing style we've come to know and love but fortunately the book is nearly over by that point and earlier instances are few and far between).
Where it falls short is, and I can't believe I'm even saying this, it lacks the fire that characterizes her other works. Misplaced as it might seem to be sometimes, there's a singular focus that drives her other novels whereas here she seems to be merely coasting on her considerable skills as a writer. It means that despite a lot of things going on, it never seems to cohere with any kind of urgency and coupled with characters that sometimes come across as colorless that makes for a fairly even reading experience (it's telling that even with major deaths being handled offhandedly, I really didn't feel anything other than "Wow, she really went there, eh?"). What's worse, and this isn't unique to this novel, the nominal villains have no real edge or menace, they talk like B-level monsters so that it's hard to take them seriously. Not that we're insisting for strict realism here but acting like generic lunatics isn't how you catapult yourself into the ranks of the big boys. Indeed, it makes it all feel sort of weightless, like it's all happening for reasons that have very little to do with anything the characters do.
It probably says more about me than it does about the author that by the time the deus ex machina rolls around to magically bring the story to its conclusion I wasn't even that surprised. It's not unexpected by this point but it thankfully appears just as the story threatens to lose coherence entirely, striving toward attaining some kind of poetry while mostly striving to get to the finish line intact.
Yet it ends on a slightly poetic note regardless, an untethered look forward that doesn't forget the past. It doesn't quite attain the emotional resonance she's hoping for but gets at least within the city limits and even if it never quite becomes the pressure cooker of issues it would desperately like to be (in light of this, the publisher's insistence that it's "her most controversial novel yet" clearly didn't anticipate the one where it's okay for trees to steal children from parents who don't know how to use birth control) but it does show what kind of work we could expect from her if the book weren't completely strapped to one particular issue with an insistence of riding that horse straight to the bottom of the nearest ocean. It's not enough to say she should abandon that approach entirely (as they say, she's gotta be her) but it does show that a moderation of that approach could work and that a balance is possible perhaps under the right circumstances. Even if she's not successful here, the fact that it even exists is a kind of minor success, and if any celebration of that is minor as well, that's just fine.
This one forms a loose trilogy with "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" and although the link to "Grass" won't be apparent until pretty late in the book, it pretty much continues the general story that was started in "Raising the Stones" . . . that is, the spread of the Hobbs Land gods from planet to planet, bringing a sense of peace and love and togetherness everywhere it touches, much like the release of a new romantic comedy.
But interestingly, and perhaps realizing that a book where everything is going swell may not be the most exciting plot ever hoisted on an audience, Tepper takes a different tactic and shifts the perspective to a system centered around the planet Elsewhere. Aware of how the Hobbs gods are making everyone the same with their good time vibes, they perceive that as a stifling conformity and do their best to keep it at bay while allowing the worlds in their systems to maintain their own individual belief systems. Which is great, except that a good number of those belief systems believe in things that not only Tepper finds disagreeable but most reasonable people in general would (let's go down the list: child sacrifice, slavery, women as third class citizens, etc), but thanks to the magic of "let's respect everyone's beliefs" it all goes on, with Enforcers making sure things don't get too out of hand and deviate from the normal horrible practices, because it's best to maintain oppression on an even keel.
This is an interesting issue to explore, even if she didn't do it in her usual blunt mallet fashion and make it fairly easy for the reader to figure out which side he or she is on, because while the Hobbs gods are making everything swinging and groovy there's something to be said for wanting to be your own person. To that end, she gives us a bunch of characters who are trying to be their own people, with not one but two orphans (although for different reasons), a retired Enforcer and a set of conjoined twins of different genders from the present day who wind up getting catapulted into the future. If that sounds to you like something that would require quite a bit of exposition, it does, and after a number of pages detailing the religious beliefs of the twins' parents (mostly the father) when it's clearly not something we're supposed to admire, it would be a safe question to ask exactly where she was going with all this. The twins themselves are interesting enough and while she positions them as something shocking in their habits, most of the "shocking" things happen early on and are treated matter of factly. Just when it seems that they're going to become Heinleinian style mouthpieces for her views, they pull a Marty McFly and wind up being just as out of their depth as we are. Or maybe more than us, at least we've read SF novels.
Once the actual plot kicks in it's still not clear what the point of all this is as the characters travel about seemingly randomly from world to world, picking up two really old people (Jory and Asner) in the process. It's these characters that link us to the other novels, with the former soon enough revealing herself in mannerisms as someone we've met before (a sign of how Tepper wrote that character, it was a shame we didn't see more stuff in between then and here). The latter doesn't seem to act at all like his first appearance, at least not in recognizable fashion but everyone is soon too caught up in plot digressions for it to matter much. We bounce from world to world, while occasionally taking a glance back as computer generated old people act like maniacs and promise terrible things. And while in other hands this might seem like a mess, here it winds up being a beautiful thing because Tepper is so insistent on showing us all these different places and keeping track of all the various interpersonal threads that she has no time to indulge in her usual tendencies of explaining to us how everything is the fault of men or people who don't like trees. And stripped of that inclination to preach and lecture, it becomes something that few of her novels ever are: a fairly normal SF novel. Which means it can be enjoyed without feeling as if the author personally dislikes you if you disagree with her.
The funny thing is, this focus on plot, scattershot as it is, doesn't take away from any of her usual gifts with prose. There seems to be a little less flair this time out, but it's dependable as always and it makes it easier to enjoy her skill at pure writing. There are some passages that stand out as some of her better ones (the reaction of two people turned into robot constructs conveys just the right amount of body horror and a later decapitation falls just on the right side away from "incoherent"). All of the main characters can more or less stand together for once, whether male or female, with some like Zasper or Jory standing out even further (Jory edges toward the lecturing style we've come to know and love but fortunately the book is nearly over by that point and earlier instances are few and far between).
Where it falls short is, and I can't believe I'm even saying this, it lacks the fire that characterizes her other works. Misplaced as it might seem to be sometimes, there's a singular focus that drives her other novels whereas here she seems to be merely coasting on her considerable skills as a writer. It means that despite a lot of things going on, it never seems to cohere with any kind of urgency and coupled with characters that sometimes come across as colorless that makes for a fairly even reading experience (it's telling that even with major deaths being handled offhandedly, I really didn't feel anything other than "Wow, she really went there, eh?"). What's worse, and this isn't unique to this novel, the nominal villains have no real edge or menace, they talk like B-level monsters so that it's hard to take them seriously. Not that we're insisting for strict realism here but acting like generic lunatics isn't how you catapult yourself into the ranks of the big boys. Indeed, it makes it all feel sort of weightless, like it's all happening for reasons that have very little to do with anything the characters do.
It probably says more about me than it does about the author that by the time the deus ex machina rolls around to magically bring the story to its conclusion I wasn't even that surprised. It's not unexpected by this point but it thankfully appears just as the story threatens to lose coherence entirely, striving toward attaining some kind of poetry while mostly striving to get to the finish line intact.
Yet it ends on a slightly poetic note regardless, an untethered look forward that doesn't forget the past. It doesn't quite attain the emotional resonance she's hoping for but gets at least within the city limits and even if it never quite becomes the pressure cooker of issues it would desperately like to be (in light of this, the publisher's insistence that it's "her most controversial novel yet" clearly didn't anticipate the one where it's okay for trees to steal children from parents who don't know how to use birth control) but it does show what kind of work we could expect from her if the book weren't completely strapped to one particular issue with an insistence of riding that horse straight to the bottom of the nearest ocean. It's not enough to say she should abandon that approach entirely (as they say, she's gotta be her) but it does show that a moderation of that approach could work and that a balance is possible perhaps under the right circumstances. Even if she's not successful here, the fact that it even exists is a kind of minor success, and if any celebration of that is minor as well, that's just fine.
November 24, 2025
Wow, crazy ride. Will spend some time to write a proper review!
Sheri S. Tepper’s Sideshow provides a brilliant, complex conclusion to the Arbai trilogy, expertly weaving together the disparate threads of Grass and Raising the Stones. The novel shines by bringing back the protagonists of the previous books—including the legendary Marjorie Westriding and the enigmatic Sam —providing a satisfying closure that feels grand in scale yet intimate in its exploration of human destiny.
Tepper’s genius lies in her subversion of her own previous arguments. While Raising the Stones presented the Hobbs Land Gods as a cure for human violence, Sideshow reveals the terrifying cost of that peace. The fungal entities are recontextualized not as saviors, but as an invasive species enforcing a "terminal niceness" that obliterates individuality and evolution. This reversal serves as a scathing critique of imposed religion; Tepper argues that any dogma, even one that brings peace, is a menace if it demands the surrender of free will.
The conflict between the stagnant, enforced diversity of the planet "Elsewhere" and the assimilating harmony of the Gods allows Tepper to champion chaotic liberty over safe conformity. She summarizes the necessity of struggle with the profound observation: "Diversity is the only thing worth fighting for. It is the only thing that guarantees survival."
Ultimately, Sideshow asserts that humanity’s messiness is its strength, rejecting divine intervention for the difficult path of self-determination: "We are the sideshow. The main event is us, trying to figure out what the hell we are doing here." Sounds like maybe Thom Yorke read this one when he was thinking about "Creep"?
Sheri S. Tepper’s Sideshow provides a brilliant, complex conclusion to the Arbai trilogy, expertly weaving together the disparate threads of Grass and Raising the Stones. The novel shines by bringing back the protagonists of the previous books—including the legendary Marjorie Westriding and the enigmatic Sam —providing a satisfying closure that feels grand in scale yet intimate in its exploration of human destiny.
Tepper’s genius lies in her subversion of her own previous arguments. While Raising the Stones presented the Hobbs Land Gods as a cure for human violence, Sideshow reveals the terrifying cost of that peace. The fungal entities are recontextualized not as saviors, but as an invasive species enforcing a "terminal niceness" that obliterates individuality and evolution. This reversal serves as a scathing critique of imposed religion; Tepper argues that any dogma, even one that brings peace, is a menace if it demands the surrender of free will.
The conflict between the stagnant, enforced diversity of the planet "Elsewhere" and the assimilating harmony of the Gods allows Tepper to champion chaotic liberty over safe conformity. She summarizes the necessity of struggle with the profound observation: "Diversity is the only thing worth fighting for. It is the only thing that guarantees survival."
Ultimately, Sideshow asserts that humanity’s messiness is its strength, rejecting divine intervention for the difficult path of self-determination: "We are the sideshow. The main event is us, trying to figure out what the hell we are doing here." Sounds like maybe Thom Yorke read this one when he was thinking about "Creep"?
May 20, 2023
I don't know why only gave this a three star on my previous read as I was completely entranced this time around. Sideshow rounds off the Marjorie Westriding sequence of books magnificently. Tepper's idea of humanity escaping the Hobbs Land Gods because they suppressed diversity is fascinating, and the themes of intolerance masked as tolerance and religious extremism masked as human diversity are very apt for the world that we currently live in. And unlike some of the Tepper books that come after, this is done with a light touch.
The ending made me cry as two protagonists from the previous books meet their ends to ensure that the people on Elsewhere are saved by their successor. I do like the finish of the book, and the next great question for Fauna Sapiens (which of course includes cats!!)
The ending made me cry as two protagonists from the previous books meet their ends to ensure that the people on Elsewhere are saved by their successor. I do like the finish of the book, and the next great question for Fauna Sapiens (which of course includes cats!!)
March 29, 2020
Some interesting stuff here about what it means to be free, when unswerving commitment to principles harms more than it helps, and whether or not the human race has a destiny. But usually I think stepper does a better job of creating characters to hang her philosophizing on.
The completist in me was glad to finally finish this trilogy, but this was the weakest of the three, and I think the others could stand alone just fine.
The completist in me was glad to finally finish this trilogy, but this was the weakest of the three, and I think the others could stand alone just fine.
February 7, 2016
This one took a lot of getting into. The first quarter is terribly slow, and it takes a long time to establish who the principal protagonist is. The rest of the book is entertaining, but the conclusion deals with trancendence in a way that felt flat to me.
Also, I found the Celerians irritating, in a Bombadil-esque way.
Also, I found the Celerians irritating, in a Bombadil-esque way.
September 7, 2015
The third part of Tepper's "Arbai" not-really-a-trilogy, and in my opinion the weakest of the three. Whereas the first two books, "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" could easily be read independently of each other (and of this one, too), without the reader losing anything, "Sideshow" presupposes a knowledge of "Raising the Stones," and one of the big reveals is contingent on having read "Grass."
That said, it's not a bad book. Picking up where "Stones" left off, then fast-forwarding several thousand years, the planet Elsewhere is the last refuge of humanity uncontrolled by the inimical Hobbs Land Gods, which the reader (minor spoiler here, but not really) will already know to have contributed mostly to harmony among humanity. I suppose reading "Sideshow" as a standalone might make the whole wait-a-minute-you-mean-they're-not-evil twist a little surprising, but Tepper isn't really trying to hide this. Instead she's doing what she does best: showing how rigid fundamentalism, whether religious, political or just social, always leads to cruelty, violence and destruction.
This time the lords of Elsewhere aren't necessarily religious, but are descendants in spirit of elite intellectual professors from Brannigan Galaxity, who concluded in their wisdom that the empathic harmony wrought throughout the galaxy by the Hobbs Land Gods was to be feared. The last remnants of uncorrupted humanity set up on Elsewhere, each barbaric tribe or violent sect given its own territory to govern as it sees fit, with an elite cadre of enforcers charged with maintaining "diversity," to the extent that what we would see as violations of human rights and dignity is revered as necessary, because it shows those people are still themselves.
This kind of backward morality is challenged by the arrival of a pair of conjoined twins from the 20th century, who join up with a team of enforcers to explore the reported sighting of dragons (or something analogous to them) in the wild interior of a far continent.
The book, however, moves slowly. I felt Tepper spent a bit too much on the back story of the twins, Nela and Bertran, and their upbringing as outcasts who join a circus before they are spirited into the future. There's also a fair amount of back story to two of the enforcers, Danivon and Fringe, the former of whom seems little more than a walking libido, the latter an overly complicated misfit.
When the book reaches its inevitable climax, it all wraps up a little too neatly, the last mystery is explained, the characters who survive go on to live, if not happily, at least in a manner that's consistent with their upbringing, and we're left with... meh.
"Sideshow" isn't bad, but it's more the book you read because you loved "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" -- both of which are pretty brilliant -- to tie up the loose ends, rather than for its own sake.
That said, it's not a bad book. Picking up where "Stones" left off, then fast-forwarding several thousand years, the planet Elsewhere is the last refuge of humanity uncontrolled by the inimical Hobbs Land Gods, which the reader (minor spoiler here, but not really) will already know to have contributed mostly to harmony among humanity. I suppose reading "Sideshow" as a standalone might make the whole wait-a-minute-you-mean-they're-not-evil twist a little surprising, but Tepper isn't really trying to hide this. Instead she's doing what she does best: showing how rigid fundamentalism, whether religious, political or just social, always leads to cruelty, violence and destruction.
This time the lords of Elsewhere aren't necessarily religious, but are descendants in spirit of elite intellectual professors from Brannigan Galaxity, who concluded in their wisdom that the empathic harmony wrought throughout the galaxy by the Hobbs Land Gods was to be feared. The last remnants of uncorrupted humanity set up on Elsewhere, each barbaric tribe or violent sect given its own territory to govern as it sees fit, with an elite cadre of enforcers charged with maintaining "diversity," to the extent that what we would see as violations of human rights and dignity is revered as necessary, because it shows those people are still themselves.
This kind of backward morality is challenged by the arrival of a pair of conjoined twins from the 20th century, who join up with a team of enforcers to explore the reported sighting of dragons (or something analogous to them) in the wild interior of a far continent.
The book, however, moves slowly. I felt Tepper spent a bit too much on the back story of the twins, Nela and Bertran, and their upbringing as outcasts who join a circus before they are spirited into the future. There's also a fair amount of back story to two of the enforcers, Danivon and Fringe, the former of whom seems little more than a walking libido, the latter an overly complicated misfit.
When the book reaches its inevitable climax, it all wraps up a little too neatly, the last mystery is explained, the characters who survive go on to live, if not happily, at least in a manner that's consistent with their upbringing, and we're left with... meh.
"Sideshow" isn't bad, but it's more the book you read because you loved "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" -- both of which are pretty brilliant -- to tie up the loose ends, rather than for its own sake.
October 7, 2020
third in a series, the second of which was quite good. almost as though written by a different author, a loose outline of a book, with concepts and plot points drifting away in the air. fuzzy and a bit incoherent. I only finished it because I liked the first two in the series. it was had work. thank God it’s over.
January 25, 2011
Wonderful ideas story telling could be better, 5 stars on the idea and social criticism level, 3 stars on the charters who are developed and then neglected in favor of various axes which she grinds quite well
March 27, 2022
Good. But not as good as "Grass".
November 6, 2024
Trilogy finished, and another 5 star book to add <3
I just wish she could write the endings a bit better... 480 pages of which the last 15 only describe the ending like... All this build-up for it to 'just' get solved in the end.
Ah, but the world building is so amazing and the book feels like a little quest. Throughout the book terms and places and beings get named, but only explained like 100 pages later. But there is just enough given away that the first time it's mentioned, it works and it speaks to the reader's imagination of what the being could be. And then only later it is described what it IS but then you as a reader already have developed your own imagery which cannot be replaced by the later description. This space Tepper creates, the freedom of imagination she allows and encourages of the reader is what I loveeeeee
I just wish she could write the endings a bit better... 480 pages of which the last 15 only describe the ending like... All this build-up for it to 'just' get solved in the end.
Ah, but the world building is so amazing and the book feels like a little quest. Throughout the book terms and places and beings get named, but only explained like 100 pages later. But there is just enough given away that the first time it's mentioned, it works and it speaks to the reader's imagination of what the being could be. And then only later it is described what it IS but then you as a reader already have developed your own imagery which cannot be replaced by the later description. This space Tepper creates, the freedom of imagination she allows and encourages of the reader is what I loveeeeee
April 3, 2011
Another excellent piece of work from Ms. Tepper. The characters make some interesting sociological comments which have bearing on today's current events. I found this exchange (slightly edited for brevity) particularly pertinent :
Bertran commented in a dry voice, "...In our world there were a number of smallish countries ruled by unpleasant types, and our country occasionally invaded one of them to set something right..."
"Killing numerous innocent bystanders in the process," snapped Nela.
"...and people took sides as to whether it was morally defensible for us to have done so," Bertran concluded mildly.
"It was not defensible," said Nela definitely. "Because at the same we were invading these bad smallish countries, our politicians were making excuses for our groveling around bad large countries who treated their citizens even worse! I think people should kick out their own despots."
"Killing numerous innocent bystanders in the process," said Bertran dryly.
Although it isn't completely necessary, having read RAISING THE STONES and GRASS will help the reader understand the climax of this novel.
Bertran commented in a dry voice, "...In our world there were a number of smallish countries ruled by unpleasant types, and our country occasionally invaded one of them to set something right..."
"Killing numerous innocent bystanders in the process," snapped Nela.
"...and people took sides as to whether it was morally defensible for us to have done so," Bertran concluded mildly.
"It was not defensible," said Nela definitely. "Because at the same we were invading these bad smallish countries, our politicians were making excuses for our groveling around bad large countries who treated their citizens even worse! I think people should kick out their own despots."
"Killing numerous innocent bystanders in the process," said Bertran dryly.
Although it isn't completely necessary, having read RAISING THE STONES and GRASS will help the reader understand the climax of this novel.
February 25, 2015
This was not one of my favorite books of Sheri S. Tepper. I was confused by the concepts she was discussing, the surgically rendered androgynous conjoined twins from the 21rst century are an interesting psychological study of privacy issues, when you share DNA and a four inch fold, one heart, etc.
The Enforcer culture is definitely sympathetic perception of individuals participating in a police state.
Elsewhere is a planet where diversity is promoted, but in a territorial way. The female conjoined twin, Ella, makes the adroit observation that it is a "people zoo." It is an interesting read compared to her other books where planets are often sentient and host a single culture with outliers. Tepper is very insistent on outliers, a protected class in the Erickson protocols which pervade some of her other novels. This is not an Erickson universe, it is the Brattigan planet, sequested from a 'plague' from the Hobbes Gods. Everyone on Elsewhere is terrified of the Hobbes plague, except a few outliers. I think this is a book I will return to...after I finish with the Erickson novels. My reading spree with Tepper began with one of her more recent works, The Kings Game.
The Enforcer culture is definitely sympathetic perception of individuals participating in a police state.
Elsewhere is a planet where diversity is promoted, but in a territorial way. The female conjoined twin, Ella, makes the adroit observation that it is a "people zoo." It is an interesting read compared to her other books where planets are often sentient and host a single culture with outliers. Tepper is very insistent on outliers, a protected class in the Erickson protocols which pervade some of her other novels. This is not an Erickson universe, it is the Brattigan planet, sequested from a 'plague' from the Hobbes Gods. Everyone on Elsewhere is terrified of the Hobbes plague, except a few outliers. I think this is a book I will return to...after I finish with the Erickson novels. My reading spree with Tepper began with one of her more recent works, The Kings Game.
May 18, 2019
Page 2 - laughed out loud on the toilet - "And they were all the time dragging religion into everything, like God was watching every breath you took! Like your whole life was bugged for holy!"
Like your whole life was bugged for holy.
I love me some good bathroom reading.
Like your whole life was bugged for holy.
I love me some good bathroom reading.
December 3, 2023
On 1990’s Earth Marla and Lek saved the world by having a child. Well twins. Nela and Bertram were conjoined and because of Lek’s religious beliefs neither child could be sacrificed to have one normal child. So they grew up. One of Nela’s teachers told her that god had a purpose for everything.
Meanwhile, or rather a distant future after the dispersion, the world of Elsewhere was colonized such that every province was separate from one another and was not allowed to judge or interfere with other provinces. Enforcers made sure this “diversity” was maintained. An enforcer, Zasper Ertigon, making rounds finds a baby stowaway in his caravan, and rather than immediately returning the baby to Molock (for ritual sacrifice) he determines (totally against the rules) that there is no way to know where the baby came from. Years pass and the foundling, Danivon Luze, becomes an enforcer. Zasper retires to Enarae. He finds a girl child in a dangerous part of town. We follow Fringe's childhood, and she also decides to become an enforcer.
The provost sends Danivon to investigate central Panubi, not because the beings in the core want it, rather it’s to see if he can find some countermeasure to what they are becoming. Danivon, has recruited another enforcer, and the twins. He asks Fringe to accompany them. On their way they stop by some provinces with questionable human rights where we get some plot and flesh out the characters. Meanwhile the dead voices start being able to manifest themselves physically.
We don’t like the diversity on Elsewhere. We don’t like the insane dead people in the core. The mission didn't hook me, the story seemed convoluted with twists thrown in just for its own sake. What I did like was Fringe putting her enforcer training of non interference aside when it came to it. 3.2 stars.
Meanwhile, or rather a distant future after the dispersion, the world of Elsewhere was colonized such that every province was separate from one another and was not allowed to judge or interfere with other provinces. Enforcers made sure this “diversity” was maintained. An enforcer, Zasper Ertigon, making rounds finds a baby stowaway in his caravan, and rather than immediately returning the baby to Molock (for ritual sacrifice) he determines (totally against the rules) that there is no way to know where the baby came from. Years pass and the foundling, Danivon Luze, becomes an enforcer. Zasper retires to Enarae. He finds a girl child in a dangerous part of town. We follow Fringe's childhood, and she also decides to become an enforcer.
The provost sends Danivon to investigate central Panubi, not because the beings in the core want it, rather it’s to see if he can find some countermeasure to what they are becoming. Danivon, has recruited another enforcer, and the twins. He asks Fringe to accompany them. On their way they stop by some provinces with questionable human rights where we get some plot and flesh out the characters. Meanwhile the dead voices start being able to manifest themselves physically.
We don’t like the diversity on Elsewhere. We don’t like the insane dead people in the core. The mission didn't hook me, the story seemed convoluted with twists thrown in just for its own sake. What I did like was Fringe putting her enforcer training of non interference aside when it came to it. 3.2 stars.
February 7, 2018
Sideshow’s was an engaging enough story—it had to be, considering I kept reading despite pausing to roll my eyes every 10 to 15 pages. The writing was not up to the standard I’d expected. Every moment of exposition is miserably expositiony, far too “told,” if you will. The concepts with which Tepper engages are interesting, sure, but the way in which she goes about it feels heavy-handed at times.
The characters almost redeemed the book for me. They’re all interesting, all mostly round with a few flat spots. But the ways in which they think about gender—and they ALL think about gender—were either an undecipherable attempt at social commentary with no follow-through, or just weird.
This book came with a compelling recommendation from my brother, but I’m left with regret at having bumped other titles down on my list to accommodate this one. Would not recommend, unless you just really love sci-fi concepts and you don’t care if you’re occasionally jerked out of the narrative by an unwelcome awareness of the writing.
The characters almost redeemed the book for me. They’re all interesting, all mostly round with a few flat spots. But the ways in which they think about gender—and they ALL think about gender—were either an undecipherable attempt at social commentary with no follow-through, or just weird.
This book came with a compelling recommendation from my brother, but I’m left with regret at having bumped other titles down on my list to accommodate this one. Would not recommend, unless you just really love sci-fi concepts and you don’t care if you’re occasionally jerked out of the narrative by an unwelcome awareness of the writing.
February 24, 2023
I finally found the time and motivation to read the final book in Tepper’s Arbai trilogy, and while it didn’t have quite the same impact on me that the first two books did, without fail Tepper manages to captivate me with her imaginative world-building. This particular world of Elsewhere was dense with customs and cultures that were admittedly often hard to follow, and the plot is not something I could manage to explain to someone without rambling for 20 minutes. After the first two books were entirely standalone with a few minor references to connect them in any meaningful way, it was a real pleasure to see the return of some of my favorite characters from earlier books make an appearance in this final book. That didn’t stop Tepper from writing another essentially standalone book, but it was nice to wrap everything up with a bit more cohesion than expected. While I still prefer Grass to Sideshow, and Sideshow certainly didn’t age quite as well, I’m never let down by Tepper’s books and hopefully that trend continues.
August 15, 2022
Really solid. I liked this as a cap to the quasi Arbai series, and the series in general as fun sci-fi-philosophy. I think the end revelation came a bit quick (the thing that let Fringe figure out what she needed)...and then it turned out she didn't need to do anything because the one sane professor did the thing? That bit was a bit confusing as to what her intent was for what actually happened. It seemed like the the thing Fringe did wound up being ultimately pointless with respect to the "big bads", very confusing.
Endings seem to be a weakness for Tepper - not enough to detract from the story as a whole, but I've found that I usually come across a section or two that I would have appreciated being revised in each of her books' endings.
Endings seem to be a weakness for Tepper - not enough to detract from the story as a whole, but I've found that I usually come across a section or two that I would have appreciated being revised in each of her books' endings.
September 10, 2020
I really loved this series. Enough that I bought it in hardback for myself and paperback copies to send to a friend.
Something about the struggle of intention vs action vs results seems particularly relevant now and the argument that being paralyzed by minute ethical concerns instead of acting to help people makes you somewhat responsible for horrors that you could have prevented or limited by trying to help. Also an overall good play on what is the definition and purpose of humanity.
Something about the struggle of intention vs action vs results seems particularly relevant now and the argument that being paralyzed by minute ethical concerns instead of acting to help people makes you somewhat responsible for horrors that you could have prevented or limited by trying to help. Also an overall good play on what is the definition and purpose of humanity.
May 15, 2021
Wow. When I finish a book by Sheri Tepper, all I can do is open it right back up reread the beginning. Truly an underappreciated master of science fiction.
This particular book belongs in the Weird category, and is a good exponent of a particular late 80s/early 90s oeuvre that also includes Hyperion.
It's a bit confusing at times, making my head spin, but in the end it's a masterpiece. A beautiful masterpiece that could never be made into a movie. Not these days.
This particular book belongs in the Weird category, and is a good exponent of a particular late 80s/early 90s oeuvre that also includes Hyperion.
It's a bit confusing at times, making my head spin, but in the end it's a masterpiece. A beautiful masterpiece that could never be made into a movie. Not these days.
July 19, 2022
This third entry in Tepper's Arbai sort-of-trilogy is the weakest of the three, but this is possibly a reflection of the incredibly high bar she set for herself with Grass.
Sideshow returns to may of the themes of the previous two books, but it all feels a bit more didactic, with less engaging characters and a weaker, more plodding, story.
If you have read Grass and Raising the Stones, then Sideshow wraps things up reasonably well. Otherwise... Tepper has written better books than this.
Sideshow returns to may of the themes of the previous two books, but it all feels a bit more didactic, with less engaging characters and a weaker, more plodding, story.
If you have read Grass and Raising the Stones, then Sideshow wraps things up reasonably well. Otherwise... Tepper has written better books than this.
August 10, 2022
An odd, dense book filled with striking images and characters. This time through my reading was enhanced by a sudden realization that the planet of Elsewhere (strictly partitioned micro-states ruled over by a Core of academics who become monsters because they can't adapt with the times) could well stand in for the United States and its Founding Fathers, with the Core a metaphor for the Constitution.
November 26, 2024
Was freedom/diversity worth protecting at all costs? Should we respect other people's tradition even if it involved cruelty to children/women/men? Should we allow some religion/cult to torture their followers? What was the destiny of mankind? These were some of the topics that were explored in this book. Though her writing was quite blunt and her answers maybe not quite right but it was a very interesting thought experiment still.
August 5, 2025
My least favourite of the very loosely linked Arbai novels. I did enjoy the struggle for humanity that Tepper presents here, the Hobbs Land Gods vs the enforced "diversity" of Elsewhere, but the general brutality in this book is a bit full-on, and I found the ensemble cast in this novel irritated me.
April 24, 2018
A brilliant conclusion to the Arbai trilogy, offering fascinating answers to worldbuilding questions I didn't know I had and featuring some heavy-lifting discussions about the ethics of interference and non-interference in the affairs of others.
September 25, 2018
Well written and excellent end to the trilogy that ties all three books together. Explores the concepts of Godhood, religious freedom, and the conflict of individual, tribal rights vs those of the collective whole.
February 7, 2019
This is the weakest of the 5 novels I've read so far by Sheri Tepper. It's AI gone amok. I would have given it 4 stars expect for the fact that the "villains" are poorly developed and all kind of blended together for me.
July 4, 2024
A sprawling, epic, complex tale, as are all of Tepper's books I have read so far. Such a wonderful meditation what it means to be human. I preferred the first and third books, but the second deepens the story. Great read.
June 30, 2017
c1992: From Fantastic Fiction 'Enforcer Fringe Owldark is sent with a small crew of seven, each possessing an unusual talent, to investigate the arrival of the Hobbs Land gods on Elsewhere.'
November 16, 2017
This is one of the best closing books for a trilogy that i've ever read
July 29, 2018
OK, it gets more confused, but all three books together form a nice, yet loose connection.
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