Tepper, Sheri

• Grass (7)

  • This book is set in the distant future on one of Earth's colony worlds named "Grass" (because it is covered with all types and colors of grass and very little else). The world consists of two societies, the "bons" (an aristocratic but very strange group) and the "commoners" (who run the day-to-day business of the space port) who seldom have meaningful contact. From afar, what few politics there are outside of and affecting Grass (ignored by the bons) are dominated by the church, very similar in many respects to Dan Simmons' Hyperion milieu.

    Rodrigo Yrarier and his family are sent as ambassadors to find out any information they can on a plague that threatens all of humanity but leaves Grass untouched, but when they arrive, they find the bons all but enthralled by a race of fearsome beasts deemed "Hounds" and "Hippae", forced to go on mock hunts to chase and kill "Foxen", powerful and dangerous beasts. Rodrigo's wife, Marjorie, is the central character in this sprawling story, and it is certainly enjoyable watching her try to untangle the strange mess Tepper has set before the reader.

    As the many threads start to converge toward the end, my only minor complaint is that a few developed characters suffer either abrupt ends to their stories or are almost ignored. I was a bit distracted by this, but the final chapter does a passable (if brief) job at explaining the consequences of events in the novel. When all is said and done, I suppose I enjoyed the world Tepper developed a bit more than the story, which was engaging but a little unsatisfying. I look forward to reading more by Tepper.

• Raising the Stones (8)

  • This book is about another distant colony of Earth in the future, a farming colony with some very strange "gods" who influence the colonists' lives. Like "Grass", the exposition is a bit lengthy and takes a little bit of effort to get through, but the last two-thirds of the book is ample reward. The plot here revolves around the mother and son of a man from the "country" of Voorstod on another planet. The mother fled with the son early in life after tiring of living in a society of slavery and religiously-based degradation of women. The son longs to meet again with his father and eventually gets the chance. Though there are at least five different major political groups in this novel, Tepper does a fair job of keeping the intricate plot on an even, fast-paced keel.

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