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43rd out of 186 books
—
54 voters
Gibbon's Decline and Fall
A wave of fundamentalism is sweeping across the globe as the millennium approaches, and a power-hungry presidential candidate sees his ticket to success in making an example out of a teenage girl who abandoned her infant in a Dumpster. Taking the girl's case is Carolyn Crespin, a former attorney, who left her job for a quiet family life. Now she must call upon five friends...more
Paperback, 480 pages
Published
June 2nd 1997
by Spectra
(first published January 1st 1996)
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Possibly it deserves more stars, because it stuck with me for years between reads, but the flaws (IANAL, but I don't think trials work like that; some extrapolations of the year 2000 would have been far-fetched even in 1995; the bad guys seemed a little cartoony - I think most misogynists of that kind think they're not woman-haters but decent guys who make a realistic valuation of women; more seriously, she's not very good at intersectionality) jumped out at me more this time round. On the other...more
Feb 21, 2011
Audrey
added it
Another book by my favorite author about life in the year 2000- fundamentalism run rampant,women threatened,abused killed by power hungry men like prosecutor Jake Jagger. A dead baby is found in a dumpster and he intends to see the mother,fifteen year old Lolly Ashaler, punished for it.
Retired lawyer,Caroline Crespin,one of a group of women who met at college is her defender.Caroline and her friends have made a pact not to decline and fall and meet each year to support each other and share. One...more
Retired lawyer,Caroline Crespin,one of a group of women who met at college is her defender.Caroline and her friends have made a pact not to decline and fall and meet each year to support each other and share. One...more
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', an...more
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', an...more
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This is a smart, near-future sci-fi (at least, it was near-future at the time; now it's ten years behind us) that really brought something home to me.
A smart woman can write a book for other smart women about the sacred feminine, and a small number of readers will enjoy it.
A man can write a thriller for a wider demographic about the sacred feminine, and it will become so pervasive, so widely read, that for some people it will be the only novel they have read in their adult lives.
Gibbon's Decline...more
A smart woman can write a book for other smart women about the sacred feminine, and a small number of readers will enjoy it.
A man can write a thriller for a wider demographic about the sacred feminine, and it will become so pervasive, so widely read, that for some people it will be the only novel they have read in their adult lives.
Gibbon's Decline...more
My husband calls this my 'feminist rage' book. And it is, at least a little. But it's also about what it means to be a woman in this modern world, and all the myriad ways women (and people) are.
The first Sherri Tepper book that I read... great story.. great heroines...I loved it.
If you only read 1 book by Sheri Tepper, read this one!
In our society, it would be very easy for a woman to feel there's some kind of conspiracy against women, aimed at oppressing and repressing. This book is reassuring (?) in that it makes the conspiracy real.
Strongly feminist (but *not* anti-male), fast paced, and beautifully written, I found myself racing through this book to find out what happens next. There were a few parts where Ms. Tepper seemed to want to pontificate through her characters, but also plenty of places where she makes her point...more
Strongly feminist (but *not* anti-male), fast paced, and beautifully written, I found myself racing through this book to find out what happens next. There were a few parts where Ms. Tepper seemed to want to pontificate through her characters, but also plenty of places where she makes her point...more
Several books came to mind as I read this. If I were pitching this as high concept it would be The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets American Gods meets Ayn Rand.
The story starts when 7 young women meet in college and become lifelong friends. This is a tough opening for me. I don't do well when an author throws too many new characters at me too quickly. It always takes me forever to get them sorted out in my head. Given the way the story is structured, I'm not sure how else it could have b...more
The story starts when 7 young women meet in college and become lifelong friends. This is a tough opening for me. I don't do well when an author throws too many new characters at me too quickly. It always takes me forever to get them sorted out in my head. Given the way the story is structured, I'm not sure how else it could have b...more
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The depressing thing about this terrific story with its eerily accurate depiction of just how much fundamentalist Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims have in common when it comes to women... is not the accuracy.
No, the depressing thing is how many people won't read amazing speculative fiction because Ms. Tepper is a "woman's writer." The people who most need to read stories that perfectly capture the struggle of trying to flourish as a woman in a culture that hates women are never, ever going to...more
No, the depressing thing is how many people won't read amazing speculative fiction because Ms. Tepper is a "woman's writer." The people who most need to read stories that perfectly capture the struggle of trying to flourish as a woman in a culture that hates women are never, ever going to...more
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I tried. I did. This book has been on my to-read shelf since I was in high school (I went through a major Sheri Tepper phase for a while), and I was really looking forward to revisiting an author I'd really enjoyed in the past.
Unfortunately, I cannot get into this book to save my life. Several months' hard slogging brought me about halfway through, and I still can't bring myself to care much about the characters one way or another. It's militantly, didactically "feminist" in the way that kind o...more
Unfortunately, I cannot get into this book to save my life. Several months' hard slogging brought me about halfway through, and I still can't bring myself to care much about the characters one way or another. It's militantly, didactically "feminist" in the way that kind o...more
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The first book I read by Sheri Tepper was "Grass," and I loved it. I liked several after that, too.
Her latest books, in particular this one, have been too preachy for me. I am into women's rights, but I don't want them shoved down my throat in a story. I don't care for characters that are all black or all white. I don't like predictable plotting. "Gibbon's Decline" is all that. Her soapbox has become more than the story, rather than part of it.
Her latest books, in particular this one, have been too preachy for me. I am into women's rights, but I don't want them shoved down my throat in a story. I don't care for characters that are all black or all white. I don't like predictable plotting. "Gibbon's Decline" is all that. Her soapbox has become more than the story, rather than part of it.
This is one of my comfort-reading books. I have lost count of how many times I've read it because I love it. The women in it have strong characters. It's a feminist story, using sci-fi as a vehicle to show how society is so easily distorted by power-hungry men who subjugate women.
I feel empowered after reading this, and it's a ripping yarn that keeps you turning!
I feel empowered after reading this, and it's a ripping yarn that keeps you turning!
I only read about 2/5ths of the way through. Tepper deals with some complicated and serious issues about relationships, including abusive ones, here. Important to do, but I grew exhausted and felt beaten down, and put it aside.
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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 natu...more
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 natu...more
1 like · like · see review
If you liked The Handmaid's Tale, read this book. If you liked "The Lady or the Tiger", read this book.
I don't know why but this book is a once a year read. It takes me places that probably have something to do with my generation. It resonates every time I read it.
An outstanding book by an outstanding author. I read it when it first was published in 1996 band wanted to see if the passing years had changed my perception.
A solid Tepper novel, where the good guys are great and the bad guys are really evil. Not one of my faves, but still entertaining and thought-provoking. I could unfortunately see a lot of parallels between the uber-misogynist fictional society and American/global culture today...
This is a book that every single male should read. It completely shattered my perspective of gender.
Sep 15, 2008
rr
added it
I read this book recently because I'm interested in how women writers of speculative fiction use Classics in their work. And Tepper does some interesting things with Classics here--from her various invocations of Gibbon's Decline and Fall throughout the novel to her refashioning of the Pygmalion myth. (The latter may be especially interesting since in Tepper's version the Pygmalion figure is female, which seems rare in renditions of this myth.) But there's a preachy, didactic tone throughout tha...more
Everything Sherri Tepper writes is great!
Very good read. Feminist, not sure men would like it.
Took a little bit to get into it; worth it
Immensely satisfying and eerily prescient.
a touch heavy handed on feminist dogma
Flawed, so flawed, but captivating all the way to the end; though I was irritated by the TOKEN stamp embossed on the foreheads of some of the characters, the ambiguity of the end (when clearly, logically, according to the dictates of the story, there is ONE. RIGHT. CHOICE. and only one!), the clumsiness of the speculative/sf elements, and the breeziness with which, despite having been built up throughout the book, the bad guy is dispatched, I still really liked it and blew through it in a few ho...more
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Sheri Stewart Tepper is a prolific American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she is particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an ecofeminist slant.
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gen...more
More about Sheri S. Tepper...
Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gen...more
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Mar 19, 2012 04:55pm