The Song of Mavin Manyshaped [Mass Market Paperback]

Shape-changer culture is more than a little odd. The ability to be almost anything creates a certain tricksy attitude and a need for a very different set of rules than apply to other gamesmen. In Danderbat, female shape-changers are rare, and their lot is to bear children for the keep before they can find their own freedom. This is not a very pleasant fate, and Mavin's sister Handbright, unable to conceive, has been thoroughly worn down by the pressures of being an available resource. When Mavin's talent finally surfaces, she has no desire to take Handbright's place. Instead, she works her sister's release, and then escapes with Mertyn, her brother.

On her way to another shifters' keep, Mavin falls in with the entourage of the seer Windlow who is gathering students for the school he is starting at High Demesne. A stop at Pfarb Durim on the way exposes Mertyn to ghoul-plague, which has been released by Blourbast. He is a gamesman of extremely indelicate tastes whose demesne is Poffle, called Hell's Maw by most. Blourbast's hunger for the Shadowpeople is the source of the infection. And since Healers refuse to come to Poffle or Pfarb Durim, only the Shadowpeople can undo the infection.

But for them to do that they need the return of a special token, a gift from the Ganver the Eestie. Mavin to the rescue, of course. But not without several unnerving experiences and a great deal of self-discovery. The shape-changer's unorthodox mind defamiliarizes what was already the unpredictable world of the True Game.

Readers of the first six books in this series will find many old friends (and enemies) who appear here (pre-appear here?) for the first time. Prepare for the appearances of Huld and Huldra, Proom, the Wizard Himaggery, Mertyn, Windlow and countless others too numerous to name. The tale's richness comes from its connections to the earlier tales that follow it as well as its own narrative uniqueness. It can almost stand alone, or be read first, but the story relies on some experience of the True Game to make complete sense.

Mavin is the only young female shapeshifter behind the p'natti, the barrier that separates the home of the shifters from a hostile world. If her talent does not manifest itself, she will be exiled and she will be forced to forget her home and her people; but if the talent does manifest itself she will become a sexual target for a number of very unsavoury males. How she meets this challenge is only the beginning of an adventure of escape for herself and her little brother, introduction to the world of the True Game, and ghoul-plague. The world is peopl! ed with humans of manifest talents and personalities, many on a level with those of the shapeshifters, and some people (?!) who predate the human presence on that world and who probably have very mixed feelings about the human presence there now.

The book stands very well as a novel on its own, but to be honest, if you start on it you will really need to read the other two Mavin books, the Jinian books, and the True Game books based around Peter, Mavin's son, just to see what happens to everybody. I believe the Mavin books to be the best of the lot.

It's a shame it is out of print--if it becomes available again, try it! It became a favorite book of mine, read again and again until it was very thoroughly dog-eared.

Incidentally, if you have ever wondered why so many of Sheri Tepper's early books feature small furry creatures with sharp pointy teeth and big ears, who like to sing--I had the opportunity to ask her this once, and she said "Cats on my desk."