
by SheriS.Tepper (Author)
Benita Alvarez, a downtrodden Hispanic woman, is chosen by the alien envoys Chiddy and Vess to be the Intermediary in their bid to get humankind to join an interstellar federation of peaceable races who practise Neighbourliness and strive to live ethical and moral lives. They have their own ways of showing us where we're going wrong: in short order they disappear Jerusalem until the Middle East learns to live at peace, and visit a plague of ugliness on the women of Afghanistan who are being mistreated and downtrodden by men in the name of Allah. But other alien races have also got plans for the verdant, overpopulated planet and they have chosen their own contact, a down and dirty government Senator. They don't want mankind to join the federation, though: they just want hunting rights on earth: hunting rights on man. The Fresco is Sheri Tepper at her very best: fast-paced, thought-provoking, funny and deeply human science fiction stuffed to the gills with strong characters, both good and bad, exotic aliens and mysterious new worlds.
                        Format:  Hardcover
                         Pages: 416
                        
                        
                        
                        Publisher: Gollancz 
 Published: 15 Mar 2001
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        ISBN 10:  0575071915
 ISBN 13: 9780575071919
                        
                        Book Overview: Sheri S. Tepper takes the mental risks that are the lifeblood of science fiction and all imaginative narrative  Ursula K. Le Guin  [Her novels] are the old-fashioned kind, despite their futuristic settings; the kind that wrap you in their embrace, that take over your life, that make the world disappear  Village Voice Literary Supplement  One of SF's most distinctive voices  Locus   Tepper has lodged firmly on a pinnacle of excellence  Kirkus