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Title: Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0-380-79198-6 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.62 (29 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Tepper does it again!
Comment: SIX MOON DANCE shows off Tepper's wonderful flair for creating unusual cultures and fascinating aliens. Some gender roles on Newholme are reversed, but it is NOT simply a mirror image society. She acknowledges two things: the roots of gender issues are biological, and both men and women are capable of both good and evil. This is a blessed departure from the man-bashing in some of her earlier books; one very evil character is female, some charming characters are male and others are, well, gender-benders for lack of a better term.
The aliens also show the author's imagination: we have totally different forms of life that are not only non-anthropomorphic but evolved through an entirely different process. None is what it initially seemed, either to the reader or the characters (a Tepper trademark.)
Some have accused this book of having no plot, but while plot does sometimes take a backseat to the sociology, it is still strong, if not as brilliant as THE FAMILY TREE, which took some bizarre turns. I kept thinking I had second-guessed Tepper, and she still managed to throw in some surprises at the end. The overall tone, moreover, is not total pessimism. This book's interstellar civilization sounds a lot nicer than some others thanks to being based on a radical philosophy. Even if you hated books like GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL, try this one - it will get you back to reading Tepper!
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting ideas, but did not engage...
Comment: I found this book, which I picked up mainly on the basis on the interesting gender reversal idea alluded to in other books, to be oddly disappointing. Why? Well, for one, there are so many characters who are not always well-developed. It is hard to get involved with a story, when the myriads of half-developed characters get in the way. I was constantly referring to the introductory list of characters to identify who is what.
Having said that, I have to agree that there were some fantastic ideas and themes in this story, especially the concept of the invisible people, who are not quite what they seem - even at the beginning.
The sociology of the planet is extremely interesting, and I could wish that I had seen a "normal" family (normal for Newholme, that is) at work. We have references to the unusual families of Mouche and Calvy (two of the many interesting male characters) but those families are hardly typical, or are they?
Personally, I felt that there was so much going on in this novel that the author would have done better by expanding this novel into a group of books based on Newholme. I was not worried by the use of many familiar stock characters and plot devices in science fiction; after all, what really matters is what a good author does with the standard plot.
In conclusion, this is a good novel, and an enjoyable read on Sunday afternoon. It is not however a keeper, and I changed my mind about buying it (after having borrowed it from the library).
Rating: 3
Summary: Too much Tepper?
Comment: Perhaps I have read too many of Tepper's books now. I found "Six Moons Dance" just a bit too formulaic, a bit too much like everything else she has written in the last ten years, without the usual spark of inventiveness that normally lifts Tepper's books above the run of the mill.
I just didn't get that spark from this book. All the usual Tepper elements were there: the suitably bleak distant future setting, the bad guys complete with physical deformities and sexual deviances, the topsy-turvey gender system - and a couple of political issues thrown in to make better citizens of us. But there wasn't much else, and as a veteran of some ten or so Tepper novels, I found that wasn't enough to keep me enthusiastic.
My advice: Buy it if you're a collector or if you can't get it from a library. Otherwise, spend your money on one of Tepper's better books. Beauty, for example.
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Title: Singer from the Sea by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0380791994 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0380791978 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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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: A Plague of Angels by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0553568736 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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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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