by SheriS.Tepper (Author)
Earth is in crisis, virtually destroyed by overpopulation, and mankind is teethering on the edge. ISTO - the Interstellar Trade Organization - had demanded man's extinction, for a living planet is more important than any race upon it, and was about to start 'reducing' mankind when Earthgov agreed its demands, to sell 90 per cent of Earth's inhabitants into bondage to alien races. When Margaret is six, she imagines herself as a spy, a healer, a queen, a warrior, even a boy, to amuse herself; when she is nine, and 12, and 20, at crisis points in her life, she feels like parts of her have split off - like the Margaret who decided to follow her lover to Tercis and the Margaret who said no. So now, as well as Margaret, she is Wilvia, learning to be a queen on B'yurngrad, and Ongamar, a spy on Cantardene, and Gretamara, a healer on Chottem, and even Naumi, a boy on Thairy, and she is many other Margarets besides. And all these Margarets hold the key to mankind's survival, if only they can survive and come together again as one Margaret, with all their different powers intact ...
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 17 Jan 2008
ISBN 10: 0575080469
ISBN 13: 9780575080461
Book Overview: Sheri Tepper is one of the world's finest sf and fantasy writers One of the few authors to feature in both the Fantasy and the Science Fiction Masterworks List BEAUTY was voted best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of LOCUS magazine. 'Updating the edgy, dystopian vibe of the 1960s new-wave SF, [THE MARGARETS] is a sprawling, widescreen eco-parable that's also, thanks to veteran US novelist Teppers's keen eye for character, intimate and genuinely moving. Just extraordinary' FOCUS 'Sheri Tepper takes the mental risks that are the lifeblood of science fiction and all imaginative fiction' Ursula Le Guin 'All Tepper's books are thought-provoking and unputdownable' SFX 'Her character, human and alien, are exceptionally well-drawn' TIME OUT 'Combining an insight and understanding of human nature with an incisive yet eloquent wit that's worthy of Kurt Vonnegut' STARBURST 'Sheri Tepper weaves science fiction and fantasy superbly' THE TIMES