The Visitor (Gollancz S.F.) [Paperback]

Tepper really has a flair for interesting characters. The story of Disme is almost heart-wrenching at times, as we see her go through despair after despair at the hands of her stepsister, Rashel. Tepper portrays her vividly, making the reader care deeply about her. From the very first pages, when she goes out alone at night to get away from her family and to think about things, she is seen as an innocent who seems fated to feel nothing but despair. It seems that every time she is shown to love or treasure something, Rashel is there to take it away. As the story progresses and Disme grows into what she will become, you are overjoyed with the way she starts to handle things. The book follows her from a very rough childhood to when she becomes a woman who can look after herself, and the transformation is remarkable. She is a wonderful main character.

The villains in the novel are also well-portrayed. Rashel, of course, is thoroughly evil, but Tepper provides enough backstory to show not only why she is, but also makes you almost pity her instead of hating her. Her mother saved her life once by making a dreadful bargain, a bargain that Rashel must live with for the rest of her life. It feeds on her natural selfishness, but you still feel a little bit sorry for her even as you're rooting for her to get her comeuppance. She is a completely three-dimensional character. I didn't like the fate Tepper gave her, however, as it seemed a bit pointless and unfinished. I'm sure Tepper was making a point with it, but I couldn't fathom what it is. It just seemed a bit lazy, and I was beginning to wonder if she was going to finish Rashel's character arc. She does, but in a perfunctory fashion.

I have heard from other readers that Tepper has a tendency to make her male characters evil, following from her feminist tendencies. I'm glad to say that this time, she generally avoids that. Of course, there are only a couple of them to worry about, but Doctor Ladislav is a very good man. He's dedicated to his craft, his patients, and to the eventual downfall of the despotic regime that has a hold of Bastion. He's very kind, and he becomes very protective of Disme. He is a great help to her on her quest, and he has a fine mixture of warmth, intelligence, and humour to help things along.

What can I say about the plot? I loved the way Tepper balanced things, telling the story from many different angles before having them all come together in what is almost an explosion of tension. At first, you have trouble deciphering what all of these disparate plot elements have to do with each other, but Tepper really handles it well. She uses Nell's Latimer's journal to give a bit of history about this world and what happened to it up until the time the asteroid hit. She then uses effective exposition to inform about what happened afterward, but avoids the massive infodumps that some authors use to explain this. Instead, you get snippets that you have to put together. I found the world Tepper created to be very interesting.

Unfortunately, the book has to end. The Visitor, after chugging along so wonderfully, just completely collapses at the end. I will avoid giving any spoilers about the ending, but I can tell you that, after the exciting story that has been told so far, and after avoiding all of the political, social, environmental, and feminist dogma that she is supposedly famous for, Tepper all of a sudden spends three whole pages lecturing the reader on almost every one of her pet causes. The book slams to a halt, losing all sense of momentum that it had reaching this point. When Tepper explains what the book has been about, when our heroes finally meet their destiny, we find that destiny to be one of fulfilling all of these social dreams that Tepper apparently has for making our current world a better place. As I was reading this book, I found myself saying "It looks like she's avoided everything bad I've heard about her." And then I get to the end and I almost screamed. It completely destroys almost everything I liked about the book. What a complete waste. I felt betrayed.

I find I have to give the book a marginal recommendation, because the evocative world that Tepper has created, and the sheer wonderfulness of the storytelling up to that point. If you like science fiction, you will love everything about this book. Until the ending. Of course, if you like being preached to, then you won't mind the ending and you will really love the book. Keep the ending in mind, be ready for it, and maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did.

It's sad, really.

Disme knows she must hide this book from Rashel who would turn her and her book in to the authorities to further her own career. The youth begins to learn the ancient magic. If the government finds out what she is doing, they would "bottle" her away and her relative would gladly turn her in. However, THE VISITOR who caused the pandemic destruction in the long ago twenty-first century is apparently returning. The world needs a hero, but could that person be a so young, too frightened, and clearly all alone female hiding her activities from her guardian?

THE VISITOR is science fiction at its bleakest best as Sheri S. Tepper paints a dark panorama of a distant future filled with repression and gloom. The story line is as complex and furnished with intelligent concepts as much as any genre novel contains yet THE VISITOR is also loaded with action and deeply drawn charcaters. As Zager and Evans break into song, readers will agree that Ms. Tepper has written a tale that will be on everyone's short list as a candidate for the genre's book of the year.

Harriet Klausner

A book to answer the questions of what happens to us in the very near future after the Earth is struck by an asteriod, it leaps eons to raise issues of science, magic and science as magic. Its underpinnings are futuristic and fantastic, but its story is an emotionally honest tale of the herione's life, disasters, and future consorting with "gods."

The characters in this book are wonderfully broad and deep, providing true warp and weft to a fantastic story. Tepper reaches into each of them, pulls out their loves, dreams and fears, and lays them bare for reweaving into a solid story. The imagery of the book's unbelievable violence is tempered by the delicate empathy in its touching humanity. Strong, warm, bloody, icy: you care about the people in this book.

Strongly recommended, I wish it had never come to an end.