The Margarets by Sherri S. Tepper

[vodkafan]

Hi all this is a copy of the review in my reading blog:

The Margarets bySherri S. Tepper.

 

This is one of the SF Gateway classic books I have downloaded. Sherri S. Tepper is a new author to me, but not really very new as she was born in 1929! The first book I have read of hers, the blurb caught my imagination, so I chose this one to start off with.

You know that Gwyneth Paltrow film where an event happens and she splits off into two separate Gwyneths ?.... well this is a Sci Fi version of that if you like. Margaret grows up as the only child on Mars in a colony of adults..as such she is ignored and makes her own amusement by creating for herself different imaginary personalities...or she thinks they are imaginary. Later on she returns to Earth and the true horror of living in the late 21st century on a polluted dying planet under the direction of alien races is revealed to her.

But then starting when she is nine a strange thing happens...the imaginary personalities Margaret created start to split off and become real separate versions of Margaret living in different parts of human occupied space..and collectively the seven Margarets, if and when they meet again are the the only hope to save the human race from extinction.

I enjoyed this book, I am glad that I read the couple of pages of notes and the diagram at the beginning, which helped me remember which alien race was which. I also had to rest at intervals to let bits sink in. There are a lot of unusual concepts and seven different Margarets to get your head around.

The first half of the book was the strongest for me, the splitting off was weird but wonderful as it was not explained, and the setting was quite hard SciFi. The second half seemed to become more Fantasy. The ending seemed a little rushed. One point that interested me much was the author's concept of "gods" was exactly the same as in Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Along the way she also has a dig at why humans are destroying our planet and some interesting points about language, why women are great and men are all nasty, etc etc