- Paperback: 460 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; Advance Copy edition (19 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006511872
- ISBN-13: 978-0006511878
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 488,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Six Moon Dance
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The three-brained android inquisitor known as the Questioner is due at the colony world of Newholme, and everyone is planning to lie to her. Given her record of sterilising worlds she disapproves of, whether for their social systems, or the way they treat aliens, who can blame them? The first colonists, male supremacist skinheads, simply disappeared; half the girl babies born die; a social structure of generous dowries and male concubines reflects the power this has given the ruling Hags; little people no-one will admit to seeing do most of the housework; the earthquakes are getting worse than ever. And why has the Questioner felt obliged to bring two choreographers with her? Sheri Tepper's tale of ideas, sexism and high adventure poses endless mysteries, and we read in the delighted confidence that she will give us the solution to all of them. The book is full of fascinating characters--the virtuous boy Mouche, trained in all the male sexual arts, Ornery, the girl who ran away to sea and the sinister Miss Marool with her death goddess and her sinister erotic machines. The puzzles of this elegant plot work through as inexorably as justice--Tepper's grim certainties are wonderfully intelligent. --Roz Kaveney
Review
On The Family Tree:
Locus:
‘Tepper has produced another work as witty, charming, deep-down serious and inventive as her classic Beauty, in this fable with an extra edge to it: a thorough-going relevance to our future.’
Science Fiction Age:
‘She is a compelling storyteller… wonderful characters, a compelling mystery and superb worldbuilding.’
Kirkus Reviews:
‘Beautifully realized, full of delightful surprises and sparkling wit, this out-and-out charmer is unquestionably Tepper’s best work so far.’
Realms of Fantasy:
‘A perfectly marvellous book. It’s a pearl.’
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
"It's all right," Mouche's mother said. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
"It's all right," Mouche's mother said. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There are those who say that Sheri Tepper has only one story to tell and that she tells it over and over again in her books. There is a degree of truth to that statement. Certainly, in "Six Moon Dance", Tepper spins her usual futuristic speculative yarn of mankind threatening a wider planetary intelligence through ignorance and greed, in a world run by a matriarchal society rigorously controlled through the creation and manipulation of religious taboos. As usual, her tale is supercharged with gender issues and cultural curiosities, as she holds up her giant mirror for us all to gaze upon. No doubt many readers of her works will feel they've heard it all before...
With writing this good, though, I for one will forgive Tepper her constant recycling of ideas (and it has to be admitted that she draws on a good many ideas from her earlier books here). Indeed, I consider this to be her best book to date, featuring an involved and complex plot, crafted with Ms. Tepper's impeccable eye for detail, as well as her uniquely wry sense of humour and wit - to say nothing of her sense of the bizarre! All of the book's many strands fall beautifully into place, constantly luring the reader on, whilst continually keeping one guessing.
As always, there is the deep, dark secret - alluded to throughout but kept carefully concealed until the end. And naturally, there are the usual shocks and jolts for the reader along the way, too. Indeed, she manages to keep the surprises coming right through to the very last page, this time.
This book may make you mad, or it may make you weep, and even at times laugh, but ultimately its true worth is like that of the special pool it features: impossible to pass through without being altered forever. Highly recommended, whether you're an established Tepper fan or just looking for a cracking read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ms Tepper's books are always complex stories in many layers. "Six Moon Dance" is no exeption. What initially seems like a simple story, proceeds to unfold, and unfold, as you turn the pages. What is even more exiting is that it continues to disturb the mind after you finished the last page. Ms Tepper makes you aware of things, ways, and customs that you take for granted, and shows that the universe of the human mind is not so fixed as we want to beleive.
"Six Moon Dance" looks into the way societies are built, and focuses on the gender question in a topsy turvy way. For a woman it is quite hilarious to read about a world where all the arguments used on Earth to keep women in their places are applied consistently on the men! But, importantly, also the arguments about male behaviour applied to women, which makes this book an interesting mirror for both sexes.
On the surface, the book is about a young boy, Mouche, who has the opportunity to save the world, a colonized planet, as he knows it. But as he grows up, he also grows in maturity and insight, and the world might not be exactly as he was led to beleive... And will he accept all the changes, sometimes rather radical, that he will need to subject himself to? Mouche will also have to consider what is human, and what is intelligence, and can alien life be understood and communicated with?
To put it succinctly, whithout going in to the elements of the story, which Ms Tepper herself does so expertly, the book is higly interesting, intriguing, and intelligent. And, not to forget, imaginative. It is a delight for the adult reader, who can recognize traces of some of Earth's most powerful myths, and if you allow it, it might change you, at least a little bit. Beware!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is my first Sherri S. Tepper, and I am impressed. This book does it all for me - strange aliens, different societies, complex and engaging story line, and social commentary (about the different roles and men and women adopt).
This book is very complex, with multiple story lines. We have:
* Mouche, the supernumerary boy who is sold off to a Consort house
* Ornery Bastable, the girl who runs away to be a sailor
* The Questioner, the ruthless implementer of "Haraldson's edicts"
* Ellin, the dancer clone
* the inscrutable Quaggi, about whom very little is known
* 3 angry men - Ashes, Mooly and Machinist
* Marool Mantleby, the sex maniac
* the native Newholmians (who aren't supposed to be there)
* the hags - D'Jevier and Onsofruct
All these characters have a part to play, they all have their own motivations and needs - and all these have to be explained before the story lines can start to come together. This has the effect of making the book difficult to follow for at least the first half. Having said that, all the story lines and characters and fascinating and Sherri Tepper is full of original ideas - which kept me completely hooked.
If I had a criticism at all it is that the complexity of story line meant that the author had to spend a lot of time introducing the characters and filling their background to give them colour and depth. To my mind, this was at the expense of pace and it also detracted from the social commentary - so that the end felt, not rushed exactly, but the pieces fell together a bit too neatly.
Overall a great read - and yes, I DID enjoy it as much as Iain M Banks' sci-fi.
This book is very complex, with multiple story lines. We have:
* Mouche, the supernumerary boy who is sold off to a Consort house
* Ornery Bastable, the girl who runs away to be a sailor
* The Questioner, the ruthless implementer of "Haraldson's edicts"
* Ellin, the dancer clone
* the inscrutable Quaggi, about whom very little is known
* 3 angry men - Ashes, Mooly and Machinist
* Marool Mantleby, the sex maniac
* the native Newholmians (who aren't supposed to be there)
* the hags - D'Jevier and Onsofruct
All these characters have a part to play, they all have their own motivations and needs - and all these have to be explained before the story lines can start to come together. This has the effect of making the book difficult to follow for at least the first half. Having said that, all the story lines and characters and fascinating and Sherri Tepper is full of original ideas - which kept me completely hooked.
If I had a criticism at all it is that the complexity of story line meant that the author had to spend a lot of time introducing the characters and filling their background to give them colour and depth. To my mind, this was at the expense of pace and it also detracted from the social commentary - so that the end felt, not rushed exactly, but the pieces fell together a bit too neatly.
Overall a great read - and yes, I DID enjoy it as much as Iain M Banks' sci-fi.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
