Gibbon's Decline and Fall

Like all of s. Tepper's other works, this shows a lot of insight into issues such as women's rights, reproductive rights, sexism, religion, and the like. Ms. Tepper shows a true talent for exploring these issues and for making convincing characters. I've enjoyed her books for a while now.

But like many of her books, this one is flawed with a deus ex machina that rapidly assembles the ending with strange twists that don't fit the rest of the story. This happened in 'Family Tree', 'The Visitor', and 'Sideshow'. The buildup for this book was great and there were lots of FANTASTIC lines, but when the lizard-people came in, I was like... 'Oh boy, not another Tepper-style deus ex machina...' Ms. Tepper is a good author, and she would be even show more better if she didn't rely on the deus so much in her work, this one ended rather disappointingly for me. show less

This one should be put on one of the absolute classics list. I'm really surprised that it isn't talked about even now, but here we are, almost to the 20 year anniversary from when this first came out and it DESERVES TO BE KNOWN.

Why?

It belongs in the same category of [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1546031886s/38447.jpg|1119185], [b:The Power|29751398|The Power|Naomi Alderman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462814013s/29751398.jpg|50108451], [b:The Book of the Unnamed Midwife|29806086|The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (The Road to Nowhere #1)|Meg Elison|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465976614s/29806086.jpg|41858562], and many others that tackle the big issue of show more what it means to be a woman.

But how does this stack up to the others?

Fantastically.

A group of young women become life-long friends, complaining about the tendency of women everywhere to make a stand and then eventually decline... and fall... the world dragging them down. They vow to hold strong and fast and support each other, meeting every year and being REAL with each other.

Sound good? Well, the writing is better than the premise and more fascinating. The characters are an absolutely gorgeous treat to read.

And if that doesn't convince you, then just wait till things get really messed up all across the world. :)

Do we have a problem with sexism in this world? Set your teeth in this Decline and Fall. One particular note, however. This is NOT a hopeless man-hating novel. It's also not so dire that it becomes a grimdark dystopia. It IS, however, a novel with many very bright facets and a deep exploration of so many different kinds of ideas and viewpoints.

Oh, and it's very bright on some key issues, too, but let's not spoil it, shall we? I happen to wholeheartedly approve of Tepper's stand on women. No one should ever have to live through a Hail Mary, become a breeding machine for misogynists, or be forced to give up the fruits of their labors.

The more horrible stuff is absolutely atrocious and needs no reinforcing.

That being said, I'd LOVE to see a bit more repairing on that medicine bag. :) :)

I'm going to count this novel as one of my absolute favorites of all time. I've always been a fan of Tepper, and while I was kind of put off at the beginning of this particular novel because it wasn't the high-fantasy stuff I'd grown to love, it DEFINITELY made up for it in sheer quality of characters and development and ideas. :) show less

OMG what a great book! It was written in 1996 covering events to come in 2000, and while the extent of fundamentalism and planetary destruction were more extreme than this space-time continuum, it was certainly eye-opening.

The first several chapters paint such realistic pictures of women who could really, actually exist: doctor, lawyer, scientist, and fascist-in-training. Then one returns to the women's meeting in college and how they became such a strong group and why.

Then you move through to the present and find out how their lives have changed, shifted, and been influenced most notably by a mysterious friend in their midst. The descriptions of feminism are central to the book and are basically women have the right to an education, a show more marriage of their choosing, and a career if they so choose." There are still twists to this plot, though, and the hints of what the patriarchy wishes to do are bone chilling.

The ending is a bit contrived, but the first 450 (or so) pages set their own stage; the ending is almost non-essential to this book, if that can be true. It's the story itself that is the strong point to this book." show less

Make sure you like Tepper's brand of feminism before you pick this up, it's about as subtle in this novel as a ton of bricks.

For my part, I was curious. Having heard a lot of "man-hating crap" comments about her The Gate to Women's Country, I read that and thought that it portrayed women as negatively as men and found it a reasonable read.

So, I tried this and found it not really to my taste. She can write well, but her opinions are a bit over the top from my (admittedly male) perspective. As another review I read once said, "It's understandable that women object to being walking wombs. Why, then, should men be walking sperm banks?"

I think I'll try to stick to her "environment-messaging" books and leave the "feminist-messaging" ones in show more the future. show less

A mysterious young woman draws together disparate fellow students to form a band of women that remains close for decades. But insidious forces of misogyny threaten each of them. Now older, less reckless, and without the guidance of their oddly wise friend, can they nevertheless draw together and create a more egalitarian future?

The villains and their plot are cartoonishly evil, but the heroes of the story are well-drawn and interesting. Whole plot threads are abruptly dropped. The dialog is naturalistic, but everything else is a little melodramatic. One's ability to enjoy this novel is probably predicated on one's ability to enjoy 2nd wave feminism crossed with magical lizard creatures.

Sheri S Tepper is probably best labelled as a feminist science fiction author, but she's certainly not in the same league as Ursula K Le Guin, for example. Tepper's feminism - or the feminism she displays in her fiction, anyway - is excessively didactic and black and white. In all her books, there are male characters who have no redeeming features - they hate women with a deep and abiding fury, they kill women, they beat women, they try to create worlds where women are utterly confined and controlled by men. Reading back on that sentence, I'm now undecided - perhaps Tepper is writing realistic feminist prose, and I'm simply too optimistic about the world and men to see it as such. She's not a subtle author, in any case, and I prefer show more subtlety to Tepper's bludgeoning approach. (But is this because I'm too mired in the patriarchy and it makes me feel uncomfortable? Aaah, who knows?)

Gibbon's Decline and Fall is a story that centres around six very different women, who formed a "Decline and Fall" club while in University together. Later in life, one of them disappears, and while mourning her, the remainder of the club are called upon to, essentially, save the world and humankind from an evil force. This is more fantasy than science fiction, and becomes more so as the story continues. It's a decent story, and kept me involved, but I was disappointed by the two dimensional characters, and by what I felt was a rather vague and unsatisfactory way to end the story, not quite in keeping with the arc of the novel as a whole.

A three out of five book, and I'll keep re-reading Tepper in the future - I wouldn't quite classify her as a guilty pleasure, but in some of her novels (including this one) she's leaning perilously close to that precipice. show less

Tepper has two main issues in her sci-fi/fantasy novels: the environment and women's liberation. This is from the latter category (I prefer the former), and, like many of her books, takes things to extremes and takes extreme measures to solve them. In this case, we might be a bit disturbed by the fact that the extreme scenarios are not so far removed from the present sitation. There are places where women's rights even to leave their homes have been taken away. My big question with this is, I suppose, the ending: what did the main character choose? I also wanted to see just a bit more of when they were in college rather than when they were old, but that's probably partially my own age.