[sueVee]

I just finished "the Visitor" by Sheri S. Tepper and it was great! It is one of those books that stay with you after you are done. Now, I have read Tepper in the past and except for her earliest books I got tired of her. In fact I very rarely pick up a book by her because I don't particularly like overbearing books with a cause, but this one is different. It has the elements of both science fiction and fantasy. It is best compared to Neil Gaimon's "American Gods" or maybe a combination of the best of Card's Alvin series mixed with his Ender's Game series. Or maybe Modesitt's book dealing with the early history of Recluce, but better. It is not like Gemmell, Martin, Eddings, or Jordan. There's Good vrs. Evil, Belief vrs. Disbelief, a Council of Gaurdians, magic, science, a little biblical analogy, monsters, meteors....If anyone else has read it let me know what you think of it.

SueV

[Mithfânion]

There's no feminist drumbeat?

[sueVee]

No. It is good vrs. evil, but done in a different style. At the end it is a little preachy, but no more that Card or Modesitt. And I think the style is better than either. This book is writted well and tightly. Like I said before I normally don't pick up her books because they are so stridently feminist. Both male and female characters are treated well in this novel. This book could become a series or it could be a stand alone.

[Ancalagon the Black]

Six Moon Dance wasn't bad, or that preachy (unlike Gibbons Decline and Fall, which was outright militant). The only problem I have with Tepper is that towards the end of al her novels they get a bit... odd. Like people combining into a gigantic hermaphorditic sex beast to satisfy a gigantic alien space creature... I'll have to look for the Visitor next time I go to the library.

[sueVee]

No gigantic sex beast this time.

[Shadowen]

Well, I don't think I'll bother then... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif