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Title: The Companions : A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0-06-053821-X Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (9 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Poor variation on a theme
Comment: I came to this book hoping for another tight yarn like The Mosaic, but I came away rather dissatisfied. Some authors can keep a sprawling plotline from getting unwieldy, but I don't think that is Tepper's forte. While I greatly enjoyed the many alien races, the last third of the book turned them all into mere caricatures, along with almost all of the characters. I longed for the believable character development of Mosaic, instead of the patchy bits of insight we get into why Jewell was so stunted by Paul's influence her whole life. Jewell remained merely a plot device for me, and she had the golden touch, which is pretty lazy on Tepper's part. The bad guys are irredeemably bad, bad by nature, and stupid besides, and the good guys have no depth either. But I suspect character depth would get in the way of the plot. Yes, there's a strong plot, but it is all rendered moot by the Deus Ex Machina of the Phain and Splendor setting all to rights in the last couple pages. Wish-fulfillment is fun, but it's awfully light fare when untempered by ambiguity. If God gave you three wishes, that wouldn't help you understand the causes for the problems you were fixing with a wave of your hand.
Advice? For a more complete experience, read The Mosaic, or Family Tree, but use The Companions for mere escapism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Thought-provoking, suspenseful, mysterious...but...
Comment: My favorite thing about this book? The way it took me by the shoulders and gave me a quick shake -- regarding dogs. It's hard to take them for granted once you fall into the main character's world. My least favorite thing about this book? The last half. It's zipping right along, then stumbles and becomes difficult to follow and, even given the setting, sort of implausible. I'd say that the content of the book is (perhaps as usual for Tepper?) better than the storytelling. I always find her books worth reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Sheri Tepper returns to "Grass", only this time it's "Moss"
Comment: In a novel reminiscent of her best-selling "Grass", author Tepper creates a complicated exobiology on a world "Moss" that has an abundance of perplexing denizens. At first, the explorers from the "PPI" or Planetary Protection, aren't even sure if what they are observing on Moss is an indigenous species. Rest assured, however, something is living there, and it may not be entirely friendly.
Jewel and her half-brother, the slimy Paul, go off on an expedition to Moss. Jewel is happy to leave Earth, which is overcrowded and being threatened by a draconian leadership with the extinction of the sad remnants of non-Human species which take up too much valuable space.
This novel is ambitious, complicated and darker in tone than "Grass" or "Family Tree" but is similar in ideology (ecological concerns, harmony with nature and all creatures.) The complexity of the system on Moss is like the complex interactions Tepper created in "Six Moon Dance" but with again, a darker tone. If you like imaginative science fiction that is not a re-hash of typical sci-fi generic themes, you will enjoy "The Companions" though it is not perhaps quite as good as "The Fresco", "Singer from the Sea" and "Six Moon Dance."
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Title: The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0380821001 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Awakeners: Northshore & Southshore by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0312890222 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Revenants by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0441718213 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1984 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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Title: The Bones by Sheri Tepper ISBN: 0812526252 Publisher: Tor Books (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1987 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: Blood Heritage by Sheri Tepper ISBN: 0812526236 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1986 List Price(USD): $3.50 |
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