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 — 113 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
- Map Location
- 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
A story that has left elements stuck like flypaper in my head for many, many years. On re-read, I find it just as compelling--perhaps my only complaint is that the ending is a little under-written, as if the publisher was trying to keep her within a certain page length. Knowing Tepper and the books she has put out since, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Which is too bad, really, because when you read this book, you will be wanting more, more, more.
Unusual in the Mavin series, it's largely show more from the perspective of Beedie Bridger ("Sausage-Girl" to Mavin), and her adventures with Mavin evolving into a rite of passage for Beedie. Mavin has come to the Rift exploring, searching for her long-lost sister Handbright. Beadle is a member of a community living within a giant chasm, and it's another one of the small populations inside the Game-world, a fascinating sub-culture coping with environmental extremes. (Incidentally, whoever writes the back cover synopsis to this series ought to be sent back to sixth grade for book report practice). It's also a clever device that keeps Mavin from problem-solving in strictly shape-shifter ways, as she doesn't want to give away her identity to anyone more than Beedie. It allows a fascinating twist to the narrative as well, as Beedie is clearly the product of a loving family in a somewhat insulated society, and both Mavin and the reader have many moments where they are two or three jumps ahead of innocent Beedie.
In order to free Handbright from the politically disastrous situation she is in, Mavin and Beedie undertake a quest to climb to the bottom of the chasm and investigate what has been eating the tree roots that form the physical structure of the rift-dwellers' community. With them come Roges, a member of the provider Maintainer caste, and Mercald, the Birder-priest who has gotten Handbright into the messy situation. The journey gives Mavin a chance to reflect on her problem-solving skills in the past, and the chance to learn more of what Mavin has been doing since [b:The Song of Mavin Manyshaped|89590|The Song of Mavin Manyshaped (Mavin Manyshaped, #1)|Sheri S. Tepper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1274533799s/89590.jpg|86467] is welcome.
Tepper's favorite themes worm their way in here, including the lecherous male figures and the underhanded power struggle between factions, but I don't feel it was overbearing. Including Mercald as a representative of religion on the journey gives Tepper an opportunity to gently muse on implications of religion and belief. Perhaps a little incongruous but fascinating was when the group encounters the Thinker, clearly Tepper thumbing her nose at philosophers who intellectual problem-solve without experimentation.
The multiple threads of the plot are woven well, but the solution to the mystery is almost anti-climactic--until they encounter a complicated and somewhat horrific second mystery.
Kudos for the creepiest flypaper ever. show less
Unusual in the Mavin series, it's largely show more from the perspective of Beedie Bridger ("Sausage-Girl" to Mavin), and her adventures with Mavin evolving into a rite of passage for Beedie. Mavin has come to the Rift exploring, searching for her long-lost sister Handbright. Beadle is a member of a community living within a giant chasm, and it's another one of the small populations inside the Game-world, a fascinating sub-culture coping with environmental extremes. (Incidentally, whoever writes the back cover synopsis to this series ought to be sent back to sixth grade for book report practice). It's also a clever device that keeps Mavin from problem-solving in strictly shape-shifter ways, as she doesn't want to give away her identity to anyone more than Beedie. It allows a fascinating twist to the narrative as well, as Beedie is clearly the product of a loving family in a somewhat insulated society, and both Mavin and the reader have many moments where they are two or three jumps ahead of innocent Beedie.
In order to free Handbright from the politically disastrous situation she is in, Mavin and Beedie undertake a quest to climb to the bottom of the chasm and investigate what has been eating the tree roots that form the physical structure of the rift-dwellers' community. With them come Roges, a member of the provider Maintainer caste, and Mercald, the Birder-priest who has gotten Handbright into the messy situation. The journey gives Mavin a chance to reflect on her problem-solving skills in the past, and the chance to learn more of what Mavin has been doing since [b:The Song of Mavin Manyshaped|89590|The Song of Mavin Manyshaped (Mavin Manyshaped, #1)|Sheri S. Tepper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1274533799s/89590.jpg|86467] is welcome.
Tepper's favorite themes worm their way in here, including the lecherous male figures and the underhanded power struggle between factions, but I don't feel it was overbearing. Including Mercald as a representative of religion on the journey gives Tepper an opportunity to gently muse on implications of religion and belief. Perhaps a little incongruous but fascinating was when the group encounters the Thinker, clearly Tepper thumbing her nose at philosophers who intellectual problem-solve without experimentation.
The multiple threads of the plot are woven well, but the solution to the mystery is almost anti-climactic--until they encounter a complicated and somewhat horrific second mystery.
Kudos for the creepiest flypaper ever. 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
Sherri S. Tepper wrote three delightful little interconnected fantasy trilogies with a science fiction core back in the 1980s. These books are now rather obscure and quite difficult to find. The first trilogy features the eponymous Mavin Many-Shaped; the second, her son Peter; and the third, his sweetheart Jinian. I stumbled over the series bass-ackwards during my peripatetic youth. I spent a few years traveling between seasonal jobs and habitually browsed used bookstores to pick up cheap, show more interesting paperbacks, then discarded them at the next stop (I went through a lot of Dick Francis novels that way).
Thus I found Jinian Footseer. It was an imaginative fantasy novel featuring an intrepid young heroine confronting the challenges of adolescence as much as her magical quest, and very much a palate cleanser after the many derivative works I’d ingested by that point. About ten years ago, after I settled down, I visited a local bookstore and found The True Game omnibus edition of the Peter stories alongside The End of the Game omnibus of the Jinian stories. Although I typically do not purchase hardcover fiction, I did not hesitate to acquire these two volumes. I finally got to read Jinian’s entire story and the complementary Peter storyline. They were very much worth the wait.
I lacked only the Mavin books. Over the years, I patiently scoured used bookstores everywhere. I search online as well without success. But last year, finally, the local Half-Price Books had the entire trilogy in excellent condition—clearly someone had liquidated their inventory to my benefit. The broad parameters of the Mavin books were no surprise, given that I was already familiar with later events that built upon the earlier stories, but that did not hinder the joy of discovery. These books are all keepers, and I am glad that I can finally stop searching.
The series addresses fundamental social issues. The Mavin books feature strong feminist themes, while the Peter books (King's Blood Four, Necromancer Nine, and Wizard's Eleven) concentrate on class differences and more general social justice. Finally, the Jinian books (Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter, and Jinian Star-eye) take all of these and combine them with spiritual and environmental concerns on par with Aldo Leopold’s land ethic in something of a science fiction context of first contact.
The stories take place primarily in the Land of the True Game, where Gamesmen have various magical talents, such as teleporting (Elators), mindreading (Demons), telekinesis (Tragamors), flying (Sentinels), beguiling (Kings, Queens, etc.), and changing shape (Shifters). Their frequently short, interesting lives generally consist of exercising their talents in various Games, which range from one-on-one duels to large-scale wars. Caught up in these Games as well are the untalented lower-class pawns who actually keep civilization going as farmers, merchants, servants, etc. And a third class of people are the Immutables who not only are immune to the talents of Gamesmen, but also effectively neutralize their talents, thus creating a safe zone bordering the Land of the True Game.
Being a biology geek, I love the mix of familiar and strange: horses and zellers, rabbits and bunwits. Tepper creates a delightful alien world with its own ecology and logic. From the arboreal towns that straddle giant tree limbs crossing the depths of an enormous chasm in The Flight of Mavin Many-Shaped to the self-aware Chimmerdong Forest in Jinian Footseer, Tepper explores how nature and culture might commingle in new and interesting ways. Also, I particularly enjoyed the scathing satire of academia reduced to absurdity in Necromancer Nine.
In The Song of Mavin Many-Shaped, Mavin grows into her shifterish talent secretly at the onset of puberty so that she can flee her abusive home with her younger brother and free her older sister, the sole adult woman remaining in the family compound, who has been systematically raped and beaten by the family elders. As Mavin (along with her brother) hides from pursuers, she meets the Shadowpeople and the young man who becomes the Wizard Himaggery and falls into adventure.
The largest deficit in this series is the lack of diversity. In effect, we have an entire human colony filled with only white people as far as I can tell. And all of the characters are straight and able-bodied and so on. The characters are not particularly deep or complex, not surprising in plot-driven novels that average less than two hundred pages each. And they follow the standard fantasy formula of good triumphing over evil, with characters readily falling in one camp or the other. This is not to say that poignancy is lacking. Each trilogy has a bittersweet ending that encompasses profound loss as part of the cost of success, all part of the heroic formula, I suppose, along the lines of sacrifice for the greater good. And depending on your politics, you may object to the underlying political/ethical/moral messages in these stories. Personally, the Shadowpeople’s traditional greeting resonates: lolly duro balta lus lom (walk well upon the lovely land). show less
Thus I found Jinian Footseer. It was an imaginative fantasy novel featuring an intrepid young heroine confronting the challenges of adolescence as much as her magical quest, and very much a palate cleanser after the many derivative works I’d ingested by that point. About ten years ago, after I settled down, I visited a local bookstore and found The True Game omnibus edition of the Peter stories alongside The End of the Game omnibus of the Jinian stories. Although I typically do not purchase hardcover fiction, I did not hesitate to acquire these two volumes. I finally got to read Jinian’s entire story and the complementary Peter storyline. They were very much worth the wait.
I lacked only the Mavin books. Over the years, I patiently scoured used bookstores everywhere. I search online as well without success. But last year, finally, the local Half-Price Books had the entire trilogy in excellent condition—clearly someone had liquidated their inventory to my benefit. The broad parameters of the Mavin books were no surprise, given that I was already familiar with later events that built upon the earlier stories, but that did not hinder the joy of discovery. These books are all keepers, and I am glad that I can finally stop searching.
The series addresses fundamental social issues. The Mavin books feature strong feminist themes, while the Peter books (King's Blood Four, Necromancer Nine, and Wizard's Eleven) concentrate on class differences and more general social justice. Finally, the Jinian books (Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter, and Jinian Star-eye) take all of these and combine them with spiritual and environmental concerns on par with Aldo Leopold’s land ethic in something of a science fiction context of first contact.
The stories take place primarily in the Land of the True Game, where Gamesmen have various magical talents, such as teleporting (Elators), mindreading (Demons), telekinesis (Tragamors), flying (Sentinels), beguiling (Kings, Queens, etc.), and changing shape (Shifters). Their frequently short, interesting lives generally consist of exercising their talents in various Games, which range from one-on-one duels to large-scale wars. Caught up in these Games as well are the untalented lower-class pawns who actually keep civilization going as farmers, merchants, servants, etc. And a third class of people are the Immutables who not only are immune to the talents of Gamesmen, but also effectively neutralize their talents, thus creating a safe zone bordering the Land of the True Game.
Being a biology geek, I love the mix of familiar and strange: horses and zellers, rabbits and bunwits. Tepper creates a delightful alien world with its own ecology and logic. From the arboreal towns that straddle giant tree limbs crossing the depths of an enormous chasm in The Flight of Mavin Many-Shaped to the self-aware Chimmerdong Forest in Jinian Footseer, Tepper explores how nature and culture might commingle in new and interesting ways. Also, I particularly enjoyed the scathing satire of academia reduced to absurdity in Necromancer Nine.
In The Song of Mavin Many-Shaped, Mavin grows into her shifterish talent secretly at the onset of puberty so that she can flee her abusive home with her younger brother and free her older sister, the sole adult woman remaining in the family compound, who has been systematically raped and beaten by the family elders. As Mavin (along with her brother) hides from pursuers, she meets the Shadowpeople and the young man who becomes the Wizard Himaggery and falls into adventure.
The largest deficit in this series is the lack of diversity. In effect, we have an entire human colony filled with only white people as far as I can tell. And all of the characters are straight and able-bodied and so on. The characters are not particularly deep or complex, not surprising in plot-driven novels that average less than two hundred pages each. And they follow the standard fantasy formula of good triumphing over evil, with characters readily falling in one camp or the other. This is not to say that poignancy is lacking. Each trilogy has a bittersweet ending that encompasses profound loss as part of the cost of success, all part of the heroic formula, I suppose, along the lines of sacrifice for the greater good. And depending on your politics, you may object to the underlying political/ethical/moral messages in these stories. Personally, the Shadowpeople’s traditional greeting resonates: lolly duro balta lus lom (walk well upon the lovely land). show less
I am so glad Jininan was in this book! I don’t think I would have liked it as much otherwise.
I did enjoy Wizard’s Eleven quite a lot - excellent writing, wonderful characters (see above), the world was still interesting, Peter did grow up a bit, and it was a nice blend of fantasy and sci-fi.
But:
- the main villain was a caricature
- all the bad guys were relatively easy to deal with
- the revelations about “the Great Plan” and the ending felt rushed and not really thought through = show more unsatisfying.
I am interested in reading Sheri S. Tepper’s later books, though. Apparently, there are also other books set in the same universe, I might give these a try at some point. show less
I did enjoy Wizard’s Eleven quite a lot - excellent writing, wonderful characters (see above), the world was still interesting, Peter did grow up a bit, and it was a nice blend of fantasy and sci-fi.
But:
- the main villain was a caricature
- all the bad guys were relatively easy to deal with
- the revelations about “the Great Plan” and the ending felt rushed and not really thought through = show more unsatisfying.
I am interested in reading Sheri S. Tepper’s later books, though. Apparently, there are also other books set in the same universe, I might give these a try at some point. show less
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Five star books (1)
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1980s (2)
SF Masterworks (3)
SFFCat 2015 (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 80
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 25,760
- Popularity
- #812
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 457
- ISBNs
- 283
- Languages
- 11
- Favorited
- 140
