Grass

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Summary: The Moral Responsibilities of Aliens
Review: Grass presents a very interesting alien world, one where the entire planet is covered by grasses of various kinds except for small treed areas, with a very original set of aliens. The Hippae and their associated Hounds are the type of thing that can give you nightmares, an enlarged, horrific parody of horses, capable of mentally controlling those around them, with a totally egocentric and blood-thirsty attitude. And the human society that has formed around the Hippae is also intriguing, somewhat modeled on the South American estancias, but with a strong English manor element, as the humans use the Hippae as mounts for the Hunt, a direct parody of the sport of fox hunting, with the object of the Hunt being the Foxen, a creature never really seen in its entirety, but only glimpsed from the corners of the eyes. The ecology and relationships of the various species of the planet form the major scientific underpinnings of this novel, relationships that are somewhat surprising and very interesting.

Into this world come Marjorie Westriding, her husband Rigo, her children Stella and Tony, Rigo's mistress Eugenie, and the family Catholic priests, sent as ambassadors from Sanctity, the controlling religious body on Earth, to investigate why Grass is the only known planet that does not seem to be infected with a fatal plague that is slowly wiping out humanity. The novel's action is driven by the consequences of family learning about the strange social structures and alien life forms of the planet.

While Marjorie, the main character, if fairly well drawn with a fair amount of depth, most of the other characters are very much stick figures that are supporting spear carriers only. This is a pity, as Rigo, Stella, and the dom Sylvan show intimations of being intriguing people, but they are never portrayed in enough depth to make them come alive. The total cast of characters is fairly large, and at later stages in the book it becomes difficult to remember just who each one is due to their limited portrayal.

Grass is at least partially an investigation of religion, faith, and original sin for both humans and for two different alien races. As such, it invites some comparison with other science fiction works that have dealt with these themes - Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz, Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, and the one closest in theme to this, James Blish's A Case of Conscience. Unfortunately, Grass does not meet the high level shown by these other books, as the crisis of faith experienced by Marjorie and the Foxen is dealt with somewhat shallowly. There is little deep explication of the problems, ambiguities, and paradoxes that entail from the concept of original sin applying to an alien race that were so well investigated by Blish's work. Marjorie's own changing concept of God from the traditional Catholic picture to one where humans are mere instruments of God's will, a virus that He unleashed to perform a specific action, where individual humans are not known by name to God, is a better formed and portrayed concept, but still not at the depth and emotional level that Canticle for Leibowitz achieved.

This is an ambitious work, with many sub-themes twined around the main one, each of which is deserving of in-depth portrayal. As written, this book is just too short to do justice to either the sub-themes or the main theme, not to mention the need for greater character development. It probably should have been twice its current length to fully develop all of the richness of ideas that Tepper presents here. Still, a very original work, more focused on anthropology and with difficult thematic material than is common in science fiction, items which make this a worthwhile reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: ***
Review: grass. miles and miles and miles of grass. haunting, and beautiful.
Sheri S. Tepper is one of my favorite science fiction writers and this is definatly my favorite book she has written. it starts out slowly, giving you information and creating characters; by the end she has created a fast pased story with complex charecters, subtalty and romance. she depicts the human race going in a direction that, if there are other planets that are inhabitable by humans and we continue to evolve in the more technicalogical areas after the loss of Patrolium, we could definately go. Grass is a good book that kept me involved and also made me think. she didnt go in the rather cheezy direction that many sci-fi writers these days go in with brightly colored space ships and wars with evil gooy aliens: not that that doesnt have it's own intrigue. she also isn't in the hard, cold, cutting edge brilliant section of sci-fi writers that authors such as Niel Stevenson are in: Grass is softer, but also thought provoking

Rating:
Summary: ***
Review: grass. miles and miles and miles of grass. haunting, beautiful and very intreging.
Sheri S. Tepper is one of my favorite science fiction writers and this is definatly my favorite book she has written. it starts out slowly, giving you information and creating charecters; by the end she has created a fast pased story with complex charecters, subtalty and romance. she depicts the human race going in a direction that they could go and each other race that is key, or even just mentioned in the story is very believable. she shows the flaws of a 'perfect' race with the Arbi. Grass is a good book that kept me involved and also made me think. she didnt go in the rather cheezy direction that many sci-fi writers these days go in with brightly colored space ships and wars with evil gooy aliens.

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Summary: couldn't put it down
Review: I absolutely could not put this book down. It was mesmerizing and totally believable biologically. The characters were very multidimentional and the landscape was so vividly described it became a character of its own.

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Summary: Wonderfully imaginative story.
Review: I consider this book to be Tepper best work. Tepper has created a book that has won me over on vision alone. She is perhaps the best sci-fi author at using imaginative metaphors to bring out the best of her novels.

Most sci-fi authors try to write action novels of some kind to bring out their ideas. Tepper manages to work on a more emotional level. It is hard to come up with very specific ideas about faith that come up in this book (And this book is very much about religon). The story works more throught the mood and imagery that the characters create. Her supporting characters in her books are very often intentally two diminsional. They exist more to protray steotypes or ideas. Tepper managanges this so succesfull that I can belive in her archtype characters more than I can many authors most important characters.

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, well crafted and timely
Review: I discovered this book from a poster to rec.backcountry has a quote from this book in her sig. After seeing the quote several times I went out and bought the book and was glad I did. Sheri Tepper has written a novel which is deep in character and full of imagination. This is a book to savor, enjoyed and pondered. One passage in particular sums up God better than all the religions have in all the thousands of years of religion. But I won't tell you where it is, read for yourself and discover it on your own. It is well worth is.

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Summary: Read and re-read this one
Review: I first read this book years ago as a teenager. I remembered it as being "okay," but nothing special. Still, when I shed most of my other SF books, I kept "Grass" around for some reason. I thought I might want to read it again.

Last year I finally picked it up for the second time and was totally entranced. What my teenaged brain had not been able to fully comprehend was suddenly very compelling to the adult. I was blown away by the intricate plot, the well-drawn characters and the suprising twists to the storyline.

Just yesterday I picked it up again and swallowed it whole in one reading. It is still just as good.

I think my favorite aspect to this novel is the fact that the stereotypical "hero" is introduced at the beginning of the book: Sylvan is just too good to be true. Anyone who's read a romance novel recognizes his type. He is bound to win the lady's heart and save the day. But Ms. Tepper sets that convention on its ear. With that--as with many plot points--she leads you in one, expected direction, and then surprises you with an inspired detour.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of SF and for those who have no interest in science fiction. It is a grand book, in scale, in subject matter, and in philosophical thinking.

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Summary: One of the all time greatest books of Science Fiction
Review: I have read this book so many times I practically have it committed to memory. This is probably the best book ever written by Sheri S. Tepper, and maybe one of the best science fiction books ever written. One of the things I like best about it is her use of horses and the parody of the sport of fox hunting. That is only one small part of this book, though. There are numerous sub plots which could make this a difficult book to read, but Ms. Tepper handles it with such facility that it reads very smoothly. I really recommend this book, especially if you like horses, too!

Rating:
Summary: Hard to get into -- Almost not worth it
Review: I like science fiction. But I found this book quite hard to get started. Information is obviously withheld for later in the book that would make the beginning much easier to understand. It is one of those books with a big secret, and once the big secret is revealed, the book is pretty much over. It is a good time-waster, nothing more.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid, touching, long-lived
Review: I recently had to order another five copies of this book to send to friends; no other book is such an ambassador of science fiction, able to reach people who "hate" sci-fi. Tepper's characters are vivid, her worlds are distinct, and the book carries you so carefully onward and upward that you don't realize how far you've gone into her story until you have to set it down. This book is a gift