With a touch of Canterbury Tales meets the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Tepper draws together talking animals, griffins, aliens, monsters (human and non), and struggles with the best way to deal with a drowning planet and those who refuse to acknowledge the danger. The princess and former pauper who lead the cast on a trek to proselytize the populace struggle with the uneducated and bigoted in their path to changing the course of human existence. The primary mover in this book was the need to convince people of the coming of a flooded earth where normal people would not be able to survive and the only way to preserve humanity was with a genetic change allowing people to live in the water. I am not really clear on why this wasn’t a preface or something more clearly offered to readers before leaping head first into a deep pool of work.

Included at the end of the book was a synopsis of the stories and books involved in this story and while reading the other items first isn’t required reading this can help make sense of some of the plot points and characters. Without fail though she also tells the story of how humanity can save itself.įish Tails draws on several of her previous works. Something else I find is that as dark or hopeless as some populations of humanity can be, she agrees and paints their future in bleak terms. There are things that you can rely on to be present in almost all of her writing: strong female characters, eco-friendly messages, and deep seated worry for the future.

I think the first introduction to Tepper’s work for me was Beauty or the omnibus of The True Game.

Sherri tepper true game book cover