The Awakeners: Northshore & Southshore (1994) - Plot & Excerpts
I really thought that I had not read this before, so I was quite surprised as the story unfolded how much came back to me. In some ways this is because this is a classic Tepper and so many of the familiar themes are there for those who know her work. In others it is simply why I enjoy rereading books so much, as while I forget, the remembering is so much fun.As usual Tepper challenges us with environmental issues, and here to a lesser extent feminist. Unusually she touches on race, but familiar topics are hierarchy, capacity, and the evil which is culpability in the smallness of the human condition and fundamental stupidity in being refusing to face difficult decisions or change for the better. There is a lot going on here, and while Tepper is less forceful in her message than in some of her books, she is far less subtle than she is in others and she has a broad spectrum of issues to deal with here.Unfortunately, I found none of the characters really very likable. Even the best were weak, enablers, lacking in any real spark with which to see the problems change and wrapped up in their own foolish problems. Resolution did not depend upon them, and seemed to be inevitable without the players, a given, sooner or later. So in the end, I felt it hard to really care about any of the characters or even really the fate of the world of the River.I think while this has a lot of thought to offer, I have seen them presented better by Tepper elsewhere and this is really the start of some of her poorer works. That is not to say that that anything written after this point was not good, which is not the case, but in reading this I am struck with a foreshadowing of where she starts to go wrong. A great world, some really interesting ideas... and then what?
Two early novels in one volume. As with most of Tepper's novels, the plot concerns social issues, religion and class structure. Cover blurb: "Come to a world distant in time and space, a world where the pace of life is counted by tides of the great River, but where, as in the river itself, there are swift dark currents flowing under a placid surface. -- Meet Pamra Don, a young woman scarred by her mother's death, lured to a priesthood where the truth must be hidden from the faithful. And meet Thrasne, a young boatman who trades from town to town, free from the iron control of the Towers of the Awakeners, and the priests of the world of the River -- free, that is, as long as he never speaks his mind. These two, by design and accident both, are about to discover many truths. -- And on the Northshore of the River, the truth can kill you."As indicated above, the story takes place on an unnamed world circled by The Great River which separates two landmasses. The northern landmass, Northshore, is populated by humans and Thraish, an avian species. The two species, especially their leadership, have a somewhat parasitic relationship with each other -- the Thraish provide a life-extending elixir for the elite priesthood, and the priesthood provides food for the Thraish. But all is not well on Northshore. An underground resistance movement is disrupting the food supply; and a young priestess has discovered the truth about her religion. Both of these have far reaching consequences which change life on Northshore forever.Engaging characters, some very nice imagery. Recommended.
What do You think about The Awakeners: Northshore & Southshore (1994)?
The important thing to remember is that this was written waaaaay before zombies were cool.
—kyknoord
‘Despertar’ es una novela de ciencia ficción escrita en clave de fantasía que transcurre en un planeta lejano, en un tiempo también lejano, en el que conviven humanos, que han olvidado la gloria de tiempos pasados y viven como en el medievo, y thraish, una especie voladora inteligente. Tras miles de años, ambas especies han llegado a un estado de tregua, en la que los humanos deben suministrar alimento a los voladores, consistente en los humanos muertos, a cambio de cierto elixir que alarga la vida, que cómo no, recae en manos de los dirigentes. Pero esto es sólo la base de la historia, complicada de resumir por otra parte. Tenemos extraños ritos religiosos, un fascinante y sorprendente ecosistema, intrigas palaciegas, fanáticos, y demás misterios que es mejor ir descubriendo en el transcurso de la lectura. Esta es la tercera novela de Sheri S. Tepper que leo, y me sigue fascinando su particular sentido de la maravilla.
—Oscar
This is a very imaginative story. On a distant world, mankind - now without any of the technology which first brought their human ancestors there - must wrestle for power, and even survival, with a predatory native species. The writing is inspired, the various plotlines intertwine marvelously, and the world-building is superb. Mainly, the characters are interesting: the boatman whose realistic sculpture of his dream woman is replaced by an actual drowned and blighted woman, and then replaced again by the woman's living daughter; the queen's daughter who is sent to seek an empty continent her people might flee to; the slow-moving baby who is part alien (or something).But other characters are mere stereotypes, of the exact type this author seems to employ all the time: the narrow-minded and very unintelligent prude; the equally unintelligent military general who fights for baseless causes; the sadistic misogynist; the powerful old geezers who gladly sacrifice the lives of others in exchange for a worthless immortality; the irresponsible creatures who disrespect their females and then outbreed thier food supply. And so on. Too bad. Here is a talented author whose writing is full of surprise and irony, but who falls prey herself to the most unsurprising irony of all - that of having a sharp eye for the biases of others while being blind to one's own.I am reluctantly giving this four stars.
—Diane
