Tepper is new to me. Not only new, but before I read Grass, I had not even heard of Tepper. I had no preconceptions, I had no idea of the plot - completely fresh.The result completely blew me. Grass sets up a complex society involving a main religion, a controlling empire, and a rogue planet detached from the rest of the Universe, and uninterested in its plight. Some would compare it to Dune, but they tackle the subjects from very different approaches. Dune takes a heavy handed approach to the mythology, and attempts to weigh its story with the weight of the mythology and hang the story from there. Grass hangs the story off a singular character, a woman who is on this planet by circumstance, not choice.And that is vastly different to any other science-fiction I have read. The character is there because of the whim of her husband. But it's this character which comes to the fore-front, takes charge and leads the story, not her husband, the original protagonist. The character develops, not just along the lines of the plot, but as an individual person, and breaks out from her husband's shadow.This will probably be regarded as "feminist" writing, but I would disagree. I would simply claim this is good writing, simply with a female character in the lead.A large surprise was the treatment of religion. Most science fiction likes to ridicule religion, to point out the flaws and fallacies of the belief in an ultimate being when man has reached the realm of space. Grass plays religion in two roles. The first role is that of a dominant empire, corrupting in power and running it's own agenda (nothing unusual here). The other plays religion as a genuinely concious voice, and uses it as an integral role to explore aspects of understanding and as a sounding board and moral compass for the protagonist. This is highly unusual in science-fiction, and rather pleasant. It's easy to adopt a point of continual criticism in what appears to be absurd, it's much harder to attempt to appreciate any good which may exist with that.The plot and the development of the plot are excellent. We start with a simple premise, a plague, and a man being sent to investigate a possible cure. What we find is a highly complicated society, with an eco-cycle, which when eventually explained, is significantly more developed and involved than would first appear. The conclusion and the solution is laughably simple, but only with the knowledge acquired from the entire story. There are other books in this series, but Grass can be comfortably read on it's own, there are no direct loose ends to indicate the necessity of a sequel. The plot is meaty (this is no small book), and there is plenty to keep you chewing.This is one of the best books I've read for a while. I wouldn't call it a page-turner, I happily put it down when I was tired. I wanted to read it with fresh eyes and an alert mind.In summary - it's refreshing, the plot is excellent, and the character development are superb. Liking Dune is no guarantee that you will like Grass, but if you like well developed stories about people, you should like Grass.
'tis the season...13 TALES OF TERROR: BOOK 4once upon a time there was a delightful young story named Grass by Sheri S. Tepper. this story seemed to know exactly what i was longing for: Horror in Space! and so she provided it to me. a fascinating planet full of strange multi-colored grass, bizarre fauna, the ruins of an alien civilization. a backdrop based around a particularly esoteric and semi-totalitarian theocracy. an expertly portrayed and atypical heroine who felt alive and real (and who rather reminded me of Deborah Kerr in her various classy roles). a perfect introduction to the planet's aristocrats, well-rendered through the eyes of an uncomfortable young lady on her first foxhunt. a foxhunt that is not a foxhunt, but something else entirely - something inexplicable, something horrible. a feeling of claustrophobia - but, uniquely, a claustrophobia based on an entire planet, one filled with huge living spaces and wide, windy open ranges. an atrocious plague spreading like wildfire from planet to planet. the unsettling sound of beasts stamping out a threatening dance from not-so-distant caverns. my gosh, those bizarre fauna! the various moments portraying them gazing silently and malevolently at characters, up close and even more eerily in the distant grasses... such brilliantly sinister tableaux! and those foxhunts!this story was full of twisted emotions, strained familial relations, ambiguous motivations, intriguing mysteries, and a constant yet subtle sense of increasing dread. how enchanting! wonderful chills ensued from this delightful story. i looked on Grass by Sheri S. Tepper as the child i've never had but always wanted. a sort of Wednesday Adams-Monday. i was filled with pleasure at the sight of her. alas, the child grew up. somewhere around page 200, i think. that winsome feeling of terror just on the horizon, that sweet sense of horror lurking just around the corner, all the subtlety and strange wonder... vanished. it was replaced by confusing xenobiology, a didactic chemistry lecture, a ham-handed coincidence (oops, that extremely important and provocative letter just dropped out of that villain's pocket!), increasingly two-dimensional characters, an extremely lame vision of God, creepy alien sex (and not the good kind), the idea that a rebellious daughter is better off with her mind wiped clean, and repetitious obsessiveness with original sin & what makes a good wife & who is in love with who now and why and why won't they. a precocious child grew into a distinctly tedious adult.but i will try to remember that child! because the first half or so of this book was awesome.
What do You think about Grass (2002)?
I have given Grass 4 stars though I would have given it 4.5 if I could but it just didn't quite make it to my top rating.It is, however, a very good book; thought provoking, entertaining and believable (mostly).The first half of the book has an almost claustrophobic feel to it that put me in mind of a Hitchcock movie. The full picture is deliberately hidden from us (somewhat crudely at the beginning of the book), instead the writing is filled with a sense of building threat from a menance that stays just beyond our knowledge.The main revelation point comes around half way through the book and I worried whether it had peaked too early. However, though the sense of claustrophobia diminishes, the sense of imminent threat and danger persists and the story pace starts picking up; never really relenting until the final conclusion, which sadly I thought was a little too neat and the use of a letter to wrap up the loose ends seemed a little cheap. One of the reasons it didn't get the 5 star rating from me.I find it interesting that Tepper, well known as a feminist writer, has chosen to set her book in a society controlled by religion, both 'Sanctity' and 'Old Catholic' and both of those religions portrayed as pretty fundamentalist in nature and very definitely male dominated. What I found strange is that, despite being written in 1989 by a feminist and being set far in the future, the position of women in society seems to me more akin to the earliest part of the 20th century - maybe the 30s or 40s - and the religious influence even earlier than that; almost medieval. Whilst I didn't have a problem with this it didn't quite sit right with me and I did find the outdated dogma - aristocracy with their own private priests, regular confession to keep your soul clean, etc. - a little annoying and not really necessary. It would have been perfectly reasonable to have had the Green Brothers and explored the idea of original sin without needing to make religion as dominant as it was.All that said, Tepper has come up with fascinating aliens and a plot that moves smoothly from the Hitchcock-like, suspenseful first half to the action packed, fast paced second half, making a great read that leaves you with stuff to think about.
—Mike Franklin
Man, this was a weird one. It was a bit of a ponderous read for me. There was good and bad in Grass, and I think other people might enjoy it more than I did.I said in my last status update for this book that reading it was "like having a vivid, strange nightmare that didn't quite make sense." I think this captures both the good and the bad of Grass. Sheri Tepper's world building is excellent. Her universe is nuanced, vibrant, original and memorable. Unfortunately, that's really where my praise ends.The characters feel like stock characters generated by a machine. They lack a certain multi-faceted aspect that better characters would possess. Her dialogue doesn't seem realistic. When I say "realistic" I'm not referring to something like the aristocratically-toned speech of some of the characters, I'm referring to the actual content of their conversations. They just don't have conversations like real people would. It seems like they're having their conversations simply for the benefit of the story and the reader. The characters always do exactly what you expect they will do. I felt Brother Mainoa was written a little better than the rest of them. I think the characters suffer from a lot of the same problems you typically find in a lot of hard sci-fi novels, particularly authors like Isaac Asimov. However, I think the problem becomes more glaring in Grass because it's more of a fantastic adventure story with surprising catches and less of a wouldn't it be interesting if RANDOM SCI-FI EVENT happened story. (One could argue that Grass is both of these kinds of stories, but I feel that is principally the former.) If I'm reading a fantastic adventure story, I damn well better care about the characters more than say, Nightfall, (view spoiler)[where I just want to see what the hell happens to all the aliens when the suns blink out and they go CRAZY (hide spoiler)]
—Nick
I have a friend who was literally scared off by another of Tepper's books, and I can see why. This book is dark and, yes, scary, in a very human way. It takes on religion and faith (not necessarily the same thing) as essential questions, and answers them in ways that I ended up likely immensely. Which is not to say that I necessarily agree with the conclusions, but they fit the heroine very well.This was my first Sherri Tepper novel and it was very very good. I will be picking up more Sherri Tepper in the future.
—Sam Grace
