Classic fantasy from the amazing Sheri S. Tepper. Women rule in Women's Country. Women live apart from men, sheltering the remains of civilization. They have cut themselves off with walls and by ordinance from marauding males. Waging war is all men are good for. Men are allowed to fight their barbaric battles amongst themselves, garrison against garrison. For the sake of his pride, each boy child ritualistically rejects his mother when he comes of age to be a warrior. But all the secrets of civilization are strictly the possession of women. Naturally, there are men who want to know what the women know! And when Stavia meets Chernon, the battle of the sexes begins all over again. Foolishly, she provides books for Chernon to read. Before long, Chernon is hatching a plan of revenge against women!
**
From Publishers Weekly
Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning. The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council. As in Tepper's Awakeners series books, the rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text. A rewarding and challenging novel that is to be valued for its provoc ative ideas. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
'Poignant and profound! I'm deeply moved' Stephen Donaldson 'Lively, thought-provoking! the plot is ingenious, packing a wallop of a surprise' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Shocking and entertaining! a wonderful fantasy which explores the role of the sexes' Fear 'It's grand! one of the most involving, serious and deeply felt studies of the relations between the sexes that I have ever read' Marion Zimmer Bradley 'Tepper not only keeps us reading, she provokes a new look at the old issues' Washington Post 'Remember reading? Really reading, I mean -- for knowledge, transformation, survival -- that's how I found myself reading Sheri S. Tepper' Village Voice
Description:
Classic fantasy from the amazing Sheri S. Tepper. Women rule in Women's Country. Women live apart from men, sheltering the remains of civilization. They have cut themselves off with walls and by ordinance from marauding males. Waging war is all men are good for. Men are allowed to fight their barbaric battles amongst themselves, garrison against garrison. For the sake of his pride, each boy child ritualistically rejects his mother when he comes of age to be a warrior. But all the secrets of civilization are strictly the possession of women. Naturally, there are men who want to know what the women know! And when Stavia meets Chernon, the battle of the sexes begins all over again. Foolishly, she provides books for Chernon to read. Before long, Chernon is hatching a plan of revenge against women!
**
From Publishers Weekly
Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning. The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council. As in Tepper's Awakeners series books, the rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text. A rewarding and challenging novel that is to be valued for its provoc ative ideas. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
'Poignant and profound! I'm deeply moved' Stephen Donaldson 'Lively, thought-provoking! the plot is ingenious, packing a wallop of a surprise' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Shocking and entertaining! a wonderful fantasy which explores the role of the sexes' Fear 'It's grand! one of the most involving, serious and deeply felt studies of the relations between the sexes that I have ever read' Marion Zimmer Bradley 'Tepper not only keeps us reading, she provokes a new look at the old issues' Washington Post 'Remember reading? Really reading, I mean -- for knowledge, transformation, survival -- that's how I found myself reading Sheri S. Tepper' Village Voice