Six Moon Dance

20 years ago something in this book really annoyed me. I can't even imagine what it was now. Instead I feel this is [[Sheri Tepper]]'s most mature work, deliberate, sly, full of great 1 liners sprinkled into lessons and conversations. It is mythic fantasy dressed up in SF rig, as a quite motley cast is assembled over years in a quest to save the world. Tepper's brutal clubs and alien interventions are used more subtly and rather charmingly.

Yet another of Tepper's books that left me wistful at it having had to come to an end. And another that (like The Companions and Singer From the Sea) initially gave me a slight worry that she was heading off the deep end to beat me about the head with some sociological ax-to-grind - which (as also with the others) turned out to happily be not at all the case.

Tepper has such a talent for conceiving of non-human sentient life, in ways that are completely relate-able to the humans reading along. Her notions of non-human life, motivations, intentions, actions are alien-enough to really give you pause, but without being so alien as to make empathy impossible as often is the case with alien chars.

Tepper's notions and storylines of non-human show more life would/could be interesting and engaging enough all by themselves - but then she weaves it all in and through with human-relevant social/sociological what-ifs and speculation that never turn out to be as clear-cut or obvious in their eventual resolution (or non-resolution) as you think they'll be.

And the persona/character of the Questioner - I loved her. As brilliant, cold and calculating as you could conceive of AI being, but yet fallible and human and capable of mis-perception and mistakes.

Brilliant book. show less

Awesome characters. I couldn't help really liking and sympathizing with Marool (until a certain point). For me, the book ended up going just a little too far into the "save the universe" realm near the end, but other than that, it's superb. Her writing is so clear, so luscious. If you're a budding writer, read Tepper.

Anyone familiar with Ms. Tepper's works is familiar with her feminist slant and commentaries on society and religion. This book is set on a world where there's twice as many men as women, but the women hold the upper hand with a certain set of rules that for the most part keep things in order.

Then you have people from off-planet, including one that will determine the fate of Newholme and its unique matriarchal system (men are veiled instead of women) while the planet of Newholme has its own inhabitants and a geological catastrophe that will destroy them unless they all work together. It's hard to explain without going in too much detail, but if you like Ms. Tepper's work, you should like this one. And if you find yourself irritated with show more the deus ex machinas that Tepper often employs, I am happy to report that this book doesn't have so much of one and is more like 'The Fresco' in that aspect, thank goodness. show less

2020 reread - no change to my previous opinions.
----------------------------
Complex matriarchal society with surprising twists and nuances revealed by the visit of an off-world official. The role of experience in coloring our observations is well done, along with challenges to sexual stereotypes.

Tepper created a really interesting world in Newholme, colonized by humans. The culture of Newholme is one where women have all the power, and I found reading it right now to be very interesting. Men have to be veiled, otherwise women might be tempted and corrupted by the sight of a male face. The planet has been going through a series of ever more violent volcanic eruptions, and for this reason mainly, the Questioner, from the Council of Worlds, has decided to visit the planet. Recommended!

One of Tepper's better books, I think. And it even had a major male character without any major, horrible flaws to his humanity!
I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I hadn't read it directly after reading The Companions, however - it shares a lot of the same elements/themes (especially the concept of a sentient world-organism with separable, seemingly-independent parts that are actually part of the whole.)

Upon second reading:

In Six Moon Dance, Tepper introduces her readers to the world of Newholme - a colony world that has developed a unique way of dealing with the challenges that a new world has given them. In this strict society, where there are more men than women, with few exceptions, women are required to marry and bear show more children - but they are also socially powerful, and considered to be entitled to "compensatory joys" in the form of trained male courtesans. Unlike many feminist renditions of alternate societies, this one is very interesting, because its not simply a reverse situation, and its neither a utopia nor a dystopia - simply a different society with its own pros and cons.
On Newholme, we meet Mouche - a young man who is sold to a Consort training house due to his family's poverty, but who learns quickly to adapt and embrace his new situation.
Meanwhile, however, Newholme has come to the atttention of the Questioner - a bionic construct which exists to travel to different planets and ensure that they are adhering to certain ethical strictures. Together with a team that includes, strangely, two young ballet dancers, she sets off to inspect the situation on Newholme. But will it be the strict gender rules of their society that come under her surveillance - or have the people of Newholme been hiding something more shameful, and more strange?
The latter, of course, is the case, and the revelations that come are imaginative and interesting - but, at, times, I felt like the plot was getting a bit too complex, piling twists on top of twists, and packing too many different issues into a single book. It also gets a bit too unrealistically grotesque toward the end, with Nightbreed-like creatures who have been deformed in far-too-obviously-metaphorical ways. I enjoyed the novel, but I feel that it would have been a better book, structurally, if it stuck to the first plotline that was brought up - the society of Newholme, and the Questioner, without bringing in the multiple plot strands that appear later. show less