Books

by Sheri Tepper

Science Fiction/Fantasy is slowly replacing Romance as one of my favorite novel genres and Sheri Tepper has long been one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed this book, though the language was a bit overblown.

This book was about the life of the human race hundreds of years after an asteroid strikes Earth in the 21st century, which is called “The Happening”. The inhabitable land mass is shrunk by 2/3s and the population is reduced to the hundreds of thousands though it is slowly creeping up into the millions. One group of survivors call themselves The Spared and establish a very repressive society where all dissenters are bottled and those at the pinnacle of power involve themselves with black magic (Ultimate Evil). The society/government is searching for the magic that was lost at the time of The Happening though those in power have every aspect of the search so regulated that the discovery of the magic is unlikely to happen. I was constantly wondering if the magic was real magic or merely lost technology.

There are demons who provide the Spared with limited technology who are actually another group of survivors (scientists) from Chasm who keep themselves separated from the Spared and have formed a symbiotic relationship with another sentient race which makes it appear as if they have horns. I was never sure where the “demons” came from. Possibly they were on the asteroid, but that is never clear…especially considering what else came to Earth on the asteroid.

The main mystery of the book concerns discovering the Guardians and their purpose with the book culminating in a massive battle between Guardians and the Ultimate Evil. The book is well set up for a sequel…ridding the Earth of the Evil was only their first task. Additional tasks would be complicated by the survivors from Chasm who refuse to believe in their powers and purpose and are constantly trying to debunk their powers.