Wednesday 31 December 2014

Fish Tails - Sheri S. Tepper

In FISH TAILS, two of Tepper's beloved characters - Abasio and Xulai (A PLAGUE OF ANGELS and THE WATERS RISING) - and their children travel from village to village scattered across the sparsely populated land of Tingawa. They are searching for others who might be interested in adopting their sea-dwelling lifestyle.

Along their journey they encounter strange visitors from the far-off world of Lom, characters from Tepper's nine-book True Game series of novels - Mavin Manyshaped, Jinian Star-eye, and Silkhands the Healer - all of whom have been gathered up by an interfering, time-traveling, rule-breaking do-gooder to do one last good dead on earth before its metamorphosis is complete. For the waters are rising and will soon engulf the entire planet, transforming it utterly and irrevocably. 

My thoughts:
This is a strange book, a weird book. A very well-written book. A analytical book. A philosophical book. A book about the environment, social order, and just about the stupidity of men. We really are a stupid race.

The book had so many lovely quotes, I'd love to write down all of them but that would be one long review. So here are some.

They were talking about old religions

"I am not joking. While millions of children were starving at various places on the earth, some religions were still insisting that it was sinful to prevent excess births. I am fascinated by the religions of that time. Without exception they simply denied reality. They were completely myth-driven. Self-inflicting pain was a common religious practice..."

"If a man seeks to make his faith a law, this action alone disproves his faith, for the law cannot define kindness."

"If a man seeks to kill others who believe otherwise, this action alone disproves his faith, for those who kill are not kind."


It was a long time since I went quote crazy, but she just tells it so well, so cleverly. About every subject too.

This is a sci-fi book. It takes place in the future where we have killed the earth, then we invented machines that went on killing us. Those left live in a strange medieval world mixed with some tech at times. And people are still stupid and do stupid things. But some are trying to save the human race as the waters are rising and soon we will all drown.

I would not recommend this book without having read earlier books. Sure it is strange, so for that reason I am sure you could jump right in and still understand, but to really grasp it you really must start at book 1.

The main characters of Abasio and Xulai, Needly and her grandma, are all fascinating. And truth be told, I can't really tell you much. Because as I have said before, Tepper writes strange books. You have to be in the zone. To read about them discuss monkey-brain willy-waggers, the future of the earth and how men became men and forgot the earth. To see them meet new people and strange things man have created. There is a lot of talking going on, and I found myself nodding my head and agreeing.

Conclusion:
I do recommend this series, just, take your time with it. 

Cover
I like the woman


Pages, 720
Published December 26th 2014 by Gollancz
Plague of Angels #3
Sci-fi
For review

19 comments:

  1. It does sound like a strange book but I love books that have something to say.

    Great review!

    Karen @ For What It's Worth

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  2. So glad you enjoyed this one! It's always nice to find a book that makes your hand cramp writing down all the quotes you want to be sure to remember:)

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  3. We are a dumb race. Truly.
    Great review! Sounds like something that I would to read, but it fuel my cynicism. LOL

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    Replies
    1. Eh, cynicism will always be there. Read it and fuel it

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  4. It really does sound like a weird one :)

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  5. Oh this appeals to me. I do wonder how the human race survives every time I hear something so stupid you wonder how they get up in the morning. LOL

    Happy New Year!

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    Replies
    1. LOL, true and sad. Here they have managed to kill each other almost to extinction, and it's a good idea cos they do not learn

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  6. Whoa, this is a huge book. 720 pages! I have not checked out this series yet, seems like it'll be a big time investment, and may be too weird for me.


    ~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum

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    Replies
    1. They are all big ;) Maybe one every 6 months ;)

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  7. An interesting book - I would like to read it for sure! Today I simply abhor human race. Happy New Year.

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    Replies
    1. I am sure you would enjoy it. I can recommend it for once ;)

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  8. I love the social implications of this book - though a genre that I typically don't partake in.

    Great review!

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    Replies
    1. I am not big on sci-fi either, all that tech and ships but here, well it's throwback sci-fi, not a lot of tech

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  9. This does sound strange, but thought-provoking! I love the quotes you shared. I'm definitely interested in checking this out, but I'll start with book one.

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