While I enjoyed this fantasy, the book didn't live up to my expectations based upon Tepper's later books. ( )

While I enjoyed this fantasy, the book didn't live up to my expectations based upon Tepper's later books. ( )

An imaginative adventure, beautifully written with a subtle use of the magical aspects. Although some plot twists were unsurprising, the story followed the theme and didn't create a flat-lined narrative. The final sentence very cleverly invokes a cliff-hanger, both alluring and insidious. Sheri Tepper is a new-to-me author and didn't disappoint. ( )

I've been re-reading this book since it first came out, once I even recorded it for a blind co-worker, who made it into an entirely different book for me, even better. This time I read it for a challenge on barrier/wall and it became a book about barriers. It is subtle, and supple, charming and terrifying, and by the way, moves right along. The cover, regrettably features a chimera, which at least does get through the wall into the story and is delightful.
2024:
This reread emphasized how deeply the imagery and ideas of this book have become part of how I evaluate other books, particularly F&SF. It is about the struggle for identity and tripping over imperfect knowledge of oneself and others. It is about the value and flaws of building internal protections. ( )

I think this is one of my favorite of Shari Tepper's books. It doesn't seem to have the feminism angle that so much of her work does, although her protagonist is a woman and several other women feature prominently in the trilogy. There's not the humans are wrecking the earth and men are to blame kind of theme that pervades some of the other works, some of which I also loved. Also, the Marianne novels have one of the few religions written by Tepper that is benign and useful and helpful - although it could be argued that the religion is only as benign as those who practice it. The dream like quality of the alternate worlds Marianne and her companions travel to is just beautiful, and the touch of sadness that Marianne is not as good a person at the end of the first book as she was at the beginning - though a happier one with a better life - is interesting. ( )