Mortification Scale: 1 Tomato Face
- 1 TF for SciFi/Fantasy novel
- Amazing, original world that is fully developed with history, flora and fauna, politics, religion, etc.
- Over 10 main characters with individual motivation, and growth over the course of the book
I've read enough Sheri Tepper by now to know not to try to figure out the plot of her books in the first few chapters. With each of her books, I just sit back, relax, and know that eventually, everything will make sense. Sheri drops the reader into a complete new world without the standard long narrative paragraphs to explain what is going on. Rather, the reader and the characters go on a voyage of discovery together. In this world, a literal voyage of discovery.
Humanity landed on this alien planet a thousand years ago. After fighting a long battle with the resident harpy-like alien race, humans and the Vraish settled into an interesting arrangement. The Council, led by the Protector of Man, agreed to let the Vraish eat all of humanity's dead. They would also supply 1-2 live bodies per month from each village, for the elite of the Vraish. In return, the Vraish would leave humans alone and supply the Council with an elixir to extend life. The current Protector of Man is about 500 years old.
To prevent most people from realizing what is happening, all sorts of religious beliefs have been encouraged, the most strict of which is that people could only move west, never east. There is a river that circumnavigates the entire world. The whole thing can be traveled in about 13 years. There is a Northshore that is inhabited and a Southshore that is never seen. There really is a reason behind this, a fairly gory reason at that.
This is an excellent book with a lot of thought-provoking events. This is Tepper from her early years, I think '89? I can see echoes of her main themes, but here she has not developed any sort of formula, yet. I highly recommend this book.
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