Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016)
Author of Grass
About the Author
Sheri S. Tepper was born Shirley Stewart Douglas on July 16, 1929 near Littleton, Colorado. She held numerous jobs before becoming a full-time author including working at Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood from 1962 to 1986, eventually becoming the executive director. In the early 1960s, she wrote show more poems and children's stories under the name Sheri S. Eberhart. In the 1980s, she became a feminist and science fiction/fantasy writer. Her books include The Revenants, After Long Silence, The Gate to Women's Country, Grass, Shadow's End, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, The Family Tree, Six Moon Dance, Singer from the Sea, The Fresco, The Visitor, The Companions, and The Margarets. She received the Locus Award for Beauty and a World Fantasy life achievement award in 2015. She also wrote horror under the name E. E. Horlak and mysteries under the names A. J. Orde and B. J. Oliphant. She died on October 22, 2016 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Sheri S. Tepper
The End of the Game: Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter, Jinian Star-Eye (1986) 106 copies, 3 reviews
Someone Like You 1 copy
The Gardener 1 copy
Trawa (ARTEFAKTY) 1 copy
Raccoon Music {short story} 1 copy
Death And The Dogwalker 1 copy
True Game Saga - 3 Trilogies 1 copy
Choices 1 copy
Associated Works
Gateways: A Feast of Great New Science Fiction Honoring Grand Master Frederik Pohl (2010) — Contributor — 111 copies, 2 reviews
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1990, Vol. 79, No. 4 (1990) — Contributor — 20 copies, 1 review
Voyager: A Science Fiction and Fantasy eBook Sampler From Harper Voyager US (2014) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Tepper, Sheri Stewart
- Other names
- Oliphant, B. J.
Horlak, E. E.
Orde, A. J.
Eberhart, Sheri S.
Stewart, Sheri J. (birth)
Tepper, S. - Birthdate
- 1929-07-16
- Date of death
- 2016-10-22
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- executive director (Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood)
novelist - Awards and honors
- John W. Campbell Award Nomination (1984)
NYT Notable Book citation (1990)
World Fantasy Award (Life Achievement, 2015) - Agent
- Howard Morhaim
- Short biography
- Sheri S. Tepper, née Shirley Stewart Douglas, also wrote under several pseudonyms, including A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart. She was born near Littleton, in rural Colorado, and loved reading science fiction books as a child. For most of her career (1962-1986), she worked for and guided the growth of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, where she eventually was named Executive Director. She was married to Eugene X. Tepper and had two children. After her retirement, she and her husband moved to a ranch near Castle Rock, Colorado, and later to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she launched her second career as a writer. Over the next three decades, she became a prolific author of acclaimed science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery novels; she was particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an eco-feminist slant.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Littleton, Colorado, USA
- Places of residence
- Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Denver, Colorado, USA
Castle Rock, Colorado, USA - Place of death
- Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Colorado, USA
Members
Discussions
Mismatched vision in Good Show Sir! — bad science fiction and fantasy covers (August 2025)
Frolic of the Festive Furries in Good Show Sir! — bad science fiction and fantasy covers (December 2024)
Sheri S. Tepper 1929-2016 in Science Fiction Fans (November 2016)
2 Scifi books: alien horses and human pets in Name that Book (December 2011)
Reviews
Song of Mavin contains the kernels of everything I love about Tepper's work. There's the character herself; a little dreamy but becoming determined and practical, coming into her strength by developing self-reliance and thinking far outside tradition. The threads of horror running through it, and the struggles of sexism, of being assigned by birth to baby-making with only limited freedoms. The convoluted and slow punishment of wanton destruction--very few authors could develop a wicker show more basket into an instrument of torture. It has her focus on chosen family, empowerment, greed and harmony, but so subtly done compared to her later work.
Where it really differs from later Tepper is the love of words and playfulness in the writing--I felt in the first few pages like I was reading "The Jabberwoky" put into prose form--lots of alliteration and wordplay. "Through the p'natti the shifters of all the Xhindi clans came each year at Assembly time, processions of them, stiff selves marching into the outer avenues only to melt into liquid serpentines which poured through the holes in the slything walls; into tall wands of flesh sliding through the narrowing doors; into pneumatic billows bounding over the platforms and up onto the heights all in a flurry of wings, feathers, hides, scales, conceits and frenzies which dazzled the eyes and the senses so that the children became hysterical with it..." By the time I was finished, I started imagining how it would sound aloud, deciding that it would make a lovely bedtime story read.
Since few other reviews have a synopsis, let me just say briefly that there is a young shape-shifter girl named Mavin who comes into her shape-shifting Talent, and discovers it includes obligations that anyone would fear. She encourages her older sister, Handbright, to follow her dream, and then flees the keep with her brother, five year-old Mertyn. They travel, meet the entourage of a Seer and a Wizard, and journey to their first city. Mertyn becomes deathly ill and Mavin sets off seeking a cure, meeting the legendary Shadowpeople and encountering a Ghoul.
Alas that it feels so short, and the development of their new selves so truncated; the pacing is a tad uneven, and perhaps not enough on how Mavin's inner journey progresses once outside the keep she grew up in. Alas as well for the short acid-dream passage near the end. But for that, it would be a five star book for me. It's also notable for being a young adult book with a very strong message on sexual inequality and dysfunction, unfortunately just as pertinent now as thirty years ago.
And kudos for the most innovative characterization of a sloth ever.
Cross posted at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-song-of-mavin-manyshaped-by-sheri-... show less
Where it really differs from later Tepper is the love of words and playfulness in the writing--I felt in the first few pages like I was reading "The Jabberwoky" put into prose form--lots of alliteration and wordplay. "Through the p'natti the shifters of all the Xhindi clans came each year at Assembly time, processions of them, stiff selves marching into the outer avenues only to melt into liquid serpentines which poured through the holes in the slything walls; into tall wands of flesh sliding through the narrowing doors; into pneumatic billows bounding over the platforms and up onto the heights all in a flurry of wings, feathers, hides, scales, conceits and frenzies which dazzled the eyes and the senses so that the children became hysterical with it..." By the time I was finished, I started imagining how it would sound aloud, deciding that it would make a lovely bedtime story read.
Since few other reviews have a synopsis, let me just say briefly that there is a young shape-shifter girl named Mavin who comes into her shape-shifting Talent, and discovers it includes obligations that anyone would fear. She encourages her older sister, Handbright, to follow her dream, and then flees the keep with her brother, five year-old Mertyn. They travel, meet the entourage of a Seer and a Wizard, and journey to their first city. Mertyn becomes deathly ill and Mavin sets off seeking a cure, meeting the legendary Shadowpeople and encountering a Ghoul.
Alas that it feels so short, and the development of their new selves so truncated; the pacing is a tad uneven, and perhaps not enough on how Mavin's inner journey progresses once outside the keep she grew up in. Alas as well for the short acid-dream passage near the end. But for that, it would be a five star book for me. It's also notable for being a young adult book with a very strong message on sexual inequality and dysfunction, unfortunately just as pertinent now as thirty years ago.
And kudos for the most innovative characterization of a sloth ever.
Cross posted at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-song-of-mavin-manyshaped-by-sheri-... show less
It's interesting how some people on LibraryThing hate this cover, but I find these antiquated fantasy covers genuinely beautiful, and furthermore I would take this any day over whatever generic AI slop you find on the cover of Booktok's book du jour.
This is a story about a young girl named Mavin who learns to shapeshift, in part to escape the horrifying sexual predations of her uncles in Danderbat Keep. She encounters Ghouls, Wizards, Seers, and strange furred little creatures that grace show more the beautiful cover (I guess I'm going to die on this hill.) It's an odd tale in many ways, there almost feels like there is a touch of LITRPG in this. It's strange but fascinating. Sometimes, I love reading old fantasy, because all the tropes we know and love haven't solidified yet, and you see strange combinations of lore, odd character choices, and weird storytelling tics that actually liven the book up. This isn't your paint by number routine because they were still working out the numbers people liked. This is in it's favour.
I had a good time with these stories: it's a shame they are so hard to track down but there is a lot to like for any devoted fantasy fan. Interesting and unique diversion, short and sweet. show less
This is a story about a young girl named Mavin who learns to shapeshift, in part to escape the horrifying sexual predations of her uncles in Danderbat Keep. She encounters Ghouls, Wizards, Seers, and strange furred little creatures that grace show more the beautiful cover (I guess I'm going to die on this hill.) It's an odd tale in many ways, there almost feels like there is a touch of LITRPG in this. It's strange but fascinating. Sometimes, I love reading old fantasy, because all the tropes we know and love haven't solidified yet, and you see strange combinations of lore, odd character choices, and weird storytelling tics that actually liven the book up. This isn't your paint by number routine because they were still working out the numbers people liked. This is in it's favour.
I had a good time with these stories: it's a shame they are so hard to track down but there is a lot to like for any devoted fantasy fan. Interesting and unique diversion, short and sweet. show less
Time travel and fairy tales, Beauty starts off well embedded in a 14th-century Sleeping Beauty and after lingering there jumps to a barren late 21st and violent 20th. Returning to a plague-struck 14th for a dark Cinderella and exploring imaginary realms and/including Faerie and saving Tam Lin. Well, further episodes include costly revenge, finding lost love, that idiot Snow White, a spell in Hell—one of the most memorable parts of the novel, the epic end of Faerie, and a loquacious Frog show more Prince. A whiff of hope for the return of Beauty is the conclusion, after religions of greed are thoroughly excoriated in Tepper fashion. show less
I read 'Sideshow' before this, and reading this book actually made some of the things in Sideshow easier to understand. This is my favorite book out of the trilogy, though the trilogy overall is good and I recommend all three books. The premise is very interesting, and it's easy to see that the strictly patriarchal religion of Voorstod is a combination of fundamentalist Christian and Islamic teachings. Not surprising since Ms. Tepper has very strong feminist feelings and this shows up a lot show more in her work, though she dies have a lot of pertinent messages to share. One of the things I remember from this book that applies to the real world is that while some people are happy to leave a fundamentalist religion if they are shown/taught something better, there are some people who will absolutely refuse to change and actually WANT to discriminate and hate for the sake of feeling powerful/superior. How true that is when I see some of the people in our world! show less
Lists
Walls (1)
Utopia (1)
Female Author (1)
Five star books (1)
mom (1)
5 Best 5 Years (1)
Faerie Mythology (1)
Best Dystopias (1)
Same Title (1)
Read These Too (1)
1980s (2)
SF Masterworks (3)
SFFCat 2015 (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 80
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 25,709
- Popularity
- #813
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 456
- ISBNs
- 283
- Languages
- 11
- Favorited
- 140
