Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Book Review Series Coming: Author Sheri S. Tepper

This is for all you readers out there like me, who occassionally find a new author that you just devour. The one you consider a newly unearthed goldmine who has a whole body of existing work you haven't touched on yet? Oh yes, I love those discoveries and recently I was accidentally introduced to my latest. Sheri S. Tepper.

I first heard about the book, The Gate to Women's Country, on a post-apocalyptic/doomer book list of good reads. Having never heard of it or the author, I looked up reviews and was delighted to find passionate disagreement, outright hatred and over the top adulation. Ahhh...perfect. So I ordered it with my next Amazon Order and delved right in.

Now, I'm not saying it was perfect, nor that any of her books are perfect. Instead I'm saying they are fascinating, completely novel, refreshingly new in their point of view and each has a moral like the old fashioned fairy tales set for our modern literary tastes.

Very quickly I ordered a further six novels and I've finished them in less than 2 weeks. Included are the SciFi masterwork, Grass, The Family Tree, Beauty, Singer From the Sea, The Margarets and The Companions.

Her body of work has a great many more in it and I'm preparing my next order with her works dominating it. As an aside, for anyone thinking of jumping in before I get the reviews, a lot of her books are out as regular paperbacks and Amazon some of them may still be in their 4 for 3 special, but those get rotated so no guarantees.

I'm going to review all her books in an upcoming series of entries, but if you've read any of them already and want to get your two cents in, I'll incorporate your comments as I write the reviews. You can leave them here and I will look. Even if you hate it I'll be sure to include your views!

About the Author:

Sheri Tepper isn't a spring chicken. In fact, had my Grandmother lived to now she would be the peer of Ms. Tepper. And she hasn't been writing all that long, I believe writing her first in 1984. Despite that, her novel Grass is number 48 in the Science Fiction Masterworks list and edition. Pretty amazing considering the scope and company in that group.

And yes, she writes Science Fiction, but not in the way you might think of it. It isn't the hard science of Benford or the smushy romantic pretend SciFi of authors I won't shame to name. It is instead a truly unique and unparalleled ability to build worlds and put our human selves in a new light and with a whole new extension on our history. The way we change, inside and out, and see ourselves.

But I'm about to spoil it so I won't go on. The reviews are being written in draft now and I'll schedule their posting far enough in advance to edit for anything you all write that needs incorporating.

No comments: