- Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Spectra Books; Reprint edition (Dec 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553573268
- ISBN-13: 978-0553573268
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,002,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In this novel, the full wrath and glory of behemoth are unleashed against humanity as our species spreads its deadly rule over a vast stellar empire. Only one person - a disabled child - can attempt to uncover the force behind the disappearance of millions of humans.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
On Alliance Central, the world once called Earth, nothing breathes but man and the wind, and the wind is tamed beneath great domes. From here humanity rules a vast stellar empire.
When colonists in a remote frontier system are abruptly and totally wiped out by an alien visitation, every team sent to investigate vanishes. At last, reluctantly, a lone woman must travel with her disabled young son into this devastating silence. For reasons that become painfully clear, they alone can reach beyond the shadow cast by human civilization.
In this daring novel, full of romance, adventure and spellbinding ideas, Sheri S. Tepper casts new light on our understanding of life and love, good and evil.
“Remember reading? Really 'reading', I mean… the way I read in childhood – for knowledge, for transformation, for survival – that's how I found myself reading Sheri S. Tepper”
CAROL STERNHELL, 'Village Voice'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Science-fiction epic. If you're a fan of Tepper's work, just go ahead and buy it. This is one of her best.
Working within her chosen themes of emancipation, ecological sustainability and family planning, Tepper creates strong and more-then believable characters. Epic in its scale, her work always surprised and Shadow's End is typical of her work. It contains well-formed and communicated worlds without getting bogged down in an excess of description. Chilling at times, heart-rending at others, thought provoking throughout. The characters begin their journeys so separately, as is typical of Tepper, that at first you wonder when and how they will tie together but as the book progresses she ties up each individual thread towards a conclusion that leaves you breathless.
Working within her chosen themes of emancipation, ecological sustainability and family planning, Tepper creates strong and more-then believable characters. Epic in its scale, her work always surprised and Shadow's End is typical of her work. It contains well-formed and communicated worlds without getting bogged down in an excess of description. Chilling at times, heart-rending at others, thought provoking throughout. The characters begin their journeys so separately, as is typical of Tepper, that at first you wonder when and how they will tie together but as the book progresses she ties up each individual thread towards a conclusion that leaves you breathless.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
One lone voice crying, "I loved it"
4 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback
I think I'm the only one I know who loves this book--so I have to stick up for it. OK, I would have given it 4 1/2 stars, if that had been an option, because I don't think Tepper has ever quite come back up to the standard she set in "Grass," "Raising the Stones," "After a Long Silence," and "Gate to Women's Country" (although "Fresco" comes close, and "Gate" has had trouble holding up over time).
The theme of "Shadows End" is invisibility. What (and whom) do we see and not see in our worlds? What stops us from recognizing what's there? Tepper returns to this question in a myriad of ways, both directly and obliquely (visibly and in shadows). It spoke to me deeply. And in such remarkably lovely, deft prose!
The end of the book (stop here if you don't want a real hint) breaks all the rules of writing--it's exactly what your English teachers told you never to do. It's absurd and a little unbelievable, but it also left me in awe at the author's deliberate violation of all conventions. Wow!
The theme of "Shadows End" is invisibility. What (and whom) do we see and not see in our worlds? What stops us from recognizing what's there? Tepper returns to this question in a myriad of ways, both directly and obliquely (visibly and in shadows). It spoke to me deeply. And in such remarkably lovely, deft prose!
The end of the book (stop here if you don't want a real hint) breaks all the rules of writing--it's exactly what your English teachers told you never to do. It's absurd and a little unbelievable, but it also left me in awe at the author's deliberate violation of all conventions. Wow!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A mixed bag
8 July 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
She did it to me again. Tepper builds a solid, clear and convincing world, creates a compelling and three-dimensional set of characters, sets up an intriguing plot that builds logically and excitingly to a climax and then-- well, I still am not sure exactly what the heck happened. It's like someone else finishes the book for her-- all of that solid logical specific foundation disppears ion metaphysical poetically vagur fog. Perhaps a reader more gifted than I would get that part, but for me it was 9/10ths of a great novel.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful, haunting, at times shocking
6 Dec 1996
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Every time I read a Sheri S. Tepper novel I finish with that
shivery feeling that comes from reading a great story -- one
that is equal parts uplifting and disturbing. "Shadow's End"
is no different; once again, Tepper has taken the archetypes
of speculative fiction and given them new life, making them
her own.
On the surface, this is a quest story; the
quest of a group of people for the salvation of the human
colonial enterprise across the stars. But what they find is
far from what they expected, and in the climax and stunning
denouement, Tepper has incorporated some important commentary
on motherhood, patriarchy, and both individual and communal
responsibility, without once resorting to preachiness or
moralizing. A VERY impressive book.
shivery feeling that comes from reading a great story -- one
that is equal parts uplifting and disturbing. "Shadow's End"
is no different; once again, Tepper has taken the archetypes
of speculative fiction and given them new life, making them
her own.
On the surface, this is a quest story; the
quest of a group of people for the salvation of the human
colonial enterprise across the stars. But what they find is
far from what they expected, and in the climax and stunning
denouement, Tepper has incorporated some important commentary
on motherhood, patriarchy, and both individual and communal
responsibility, without once resorting to preachiness or
moralizing. A VERY impressive book.
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