Fish Tails
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In her 35th novel, science fiction master Sheri S. Tepper boldly weaves together the storylines of eleven of her previous works—from King’s Blood Four (1983) to The Waters Rising (2010).
In Fish Tails, two of Sheri S. 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 deed on earth before its metamorphosis is complete. For the waters are rising and will soon engulf the entire planet, transforming it utterly and irrevocably.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The waters are rising, and soon the world will be covered in boundless sea. Abasio and Xulai, previously seen in A Plague of Angels and The Waters Rising, wander the slowly drowning land, seeking out those worthy for transformation and preservation. Few indeed seem to deserve salvation; the human population of Earth remains short-sighted, violent, and greedy. Given this portrayal, Earth's intelligent animals should rejoice to see humans exterminated, but the other land species of Earth, innocent of any crimes, will be swept away with the humans, a fact not lost on them. In their quest to salvage the worthy of Earth, Xulai and Abasio discover the lost secrets of Earth, encounter emissaries of far-off worlds, and uncover the unknown sources of the waters below. While longtime Tepper fans may welcome old friends and familiar themes, new readers will balk at the gleeful embrace of troublesome elements; although Tepper is careful to stock her world with reprobates whose destruction seems justified, nevertheless many readers may hesitate to embrace the disturbing advocacy for what amounts to omnicide. Adequately written but profoundly misanthropic, the novel cannot be recommended to any but the most steadfast Tepper fan.
