Customer Reviews

The Caterpillar's Question

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As an adolescent I got this book from the library many times. I loved it! And now as a teacher I seek to have this book in my classroom. The imagery in the story is fantastic. The narration is extremely descriptive; you get the feeling you're there with them. While reading this book, one of my favorite elements was the relationship that develops between Tappy and Jack. I think that the problem that the reviewers had with this book is that they are not reading it through the eyes of the audience for which it is intended. I did, and loved it. I loved it enough to read it four or five times while in middle school.

I am not a prude, but I don't go for grown men sleeping with thirteen year old girls and rationalizing it to themselves. Between this book and Muse of Art I've developed a distaste for Anthony and his growing taste for stories about sex between prepubscent nymphos and adult men.

The story itself was not very exciting. It has twists and turns, but it all falls rather flat. It wanders around, and creates a story without any grip or drive.

In this inter-dimensional fantasy, Jack, a college-age art student, falls in love with, and eventually has relations with, the thirteen-year-old physically challenged girl he was supposed to deliver to a medical clinic. If that simple fact doesn't send you off book-burning right from the start, then you might find some small entertainment value in this mildly interesting story. People and things are rarely what they seem in this convoluted, but still easy to follow book, starting with the girl, Tappy. Blind,(although doctors say there's nothing wrong with her eyes), and mute, (although she talks in her sleep), and all the while wearing a leg brace, Tappy eventually takes Jack on a hike up a mountain side, walks right into a large rock, and leads him through it into another world. There they encounter a race of primitives (who nonetheless have some useful technologies), as well as some helpful androids, who explain that Tappy is actually the human host for the Imago, a sentient being that promotes empathy for all life. This makes her supremely dangerous to the Gaol, a race of brutal conquerors who rule the galaxy, and who intend to continue ruling it by imprisoning Tappy. Although there are some slow spots in the first half of the book, there are also lots of twists and surprises; but as is often the case with fantasies, the successive shocks become less and less impressive as you go along. Anthony has a good eye for description, and Farmer's sections are quickly discernable by their more scientific rationalizations, so that as a whole the book reads pretty well. Perhaps instead of asking "Who are you?" the Caterpillar should be asking "Who is your target audience?" The sexual content guarantees that this book can't be recommended to young readers, despite the fact that the authors try to assuge Jack's guilt by showing his remorse, Tappy's need, and the effect of the Imago living inside of her. On the other hand, there's little in the way of truly deep philosophical thought or sophisticated scientific speculation to lure the more experienced adult readers. So while this is not in all ways a bad book, the number of people who will really just love it is probably very small.

As an adolescent I got this book from the library many times. I loved it! And now as a teacher I seek to have this book in my classroom. The imagery in the story is fantastic. The narration is extremely descriptive; you get the feeling you're there with them. While reading this book, one of my favorite elements was the relationship that develops between Tappy and Jack. I think that the problem that the reviewers had with this book is that they are not reading it through the eyes of the audience for which it is intended. I did, and loved it. I loved it enough to read it four or five times while in middle school.