Customer Reviews

Gibbon's Decline and Fall

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Like other Tepper books I've read, this one is excellent for provocative thoughts and insights, but only fair in terms of characterization and storytelling.

This book, for example, involves a group of original and well-detailed characters, but they are typically dealt with in obvious series or sequence. i.e. First her life, then hers, then hers, now hers, and finally hers. This may be a stylistic choice, but it can feel forced.

While Tepper's style does not seem to emphasize lush description or detailed scene-setting, sharing ideas is always central and handled well. In fact, during "Decline and Fall" I could not help thinking that Tepper wanted to write a book of non-fiction -- thoughts on male supremacy, feminist history, multiculturalism, anthropology -- but couched it in a millennial storybook for reasons unknown.

The best thing about Tepper is that you can LEARN from her books. You come away from them with ideas and new perspectives. Despite the fact that her books aren't going to provide a "wild ride" (i.e. for those who prefer David Eddings, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Jordan), they are going to be entertaining and thought-provoking.

Most importantly... In the middle of "Decline and Fall" I had that familiar rush: I didn't want the book to end.

In "Gibbon's Decline and Fall" (the joke reveals itself as the book progresses) Sheri Tepper presents her usual dark view of the future of mankind. Set in the year 2000, if it were going to happen, this particular future would be upon us by now, of course. And perhaps, in a way, it is?

The book concerns itself with the perennial battle of the sexes but on a scale far greater than in any of Tepper's other books and with an atmosphere of such immediacy that it is far more discomforting and terrifying than in any of her other stories. And yet while the war is global, she portrays the battles as intimate, personal affairs, as indeed life usual is. As usual for Tepper, the book is peppered with the author's perspicacious observations of the way the world works, as well as countless instances of her wry and acerbic humour. It is nice to see Tepper for once giving us a greater insight into what drives her main protagonists than we usually get, though: a nice touch.

All of the classic Tepper hallmarks are there, of course. This tale is as potent and as gripping as anything she's ever written. Indeed it tightens its grip relentlessly right up to the very last moment. And it's amazing just how many things one doesn't see coming, even though she's left them out in plain view throughout. Great stuff - unless you're even the slightest bit depressed!

i was really disappointed with this one, especially after 'the gate to women's country'. three main things were wrong with it:

1st, the numerous factual inconsistencies. i noticed them in virtually every chapter. while some can be explained away since the book technically takes place in the future (4 years from when it was written, and rapidly diminishing each day), in other places, the writer just screwed up. examples? vassar college is no longer a women's college, its been coed since 1969 (the book mentions that fact that it was bombed because it is a women's college three times), lawyers are legally prohibited from prosecuting their sister-in-laws (its called a conflict of interest, yet the fact that one of the bad guys did this is fairly important background material in the novel). The author apparently had only rudimentary knowledge of the catholic position on women and total ignorance of how various arab states stand on women's issues (not all are like saudi arabia, the gulf states, and iran (which is also not an arab country). in fact, two of the countries who are solidly portrayed as backers of the anti-women plot are considered to be relatively progressive in the arab world, libya and iraq (read 'in search of islamic feminism' to read more)--both of which are solidly anti-fundamentalist as well. i'm not saying that these places are feminist paradises either, its just that an iran/iraq/saudi alliance to put down women is so implausible given their history and politics that it made the novel seem ignorant and unbelievable.)

which leads me to my 2nd point: the plot was unbelievable. okay, reading the above, it looks like i've already covered that one above.

3rd: i didn't really mind the hints of tepper's neo-eugenics philosophy when i read "women's country". maybe because it was presented in the context of the far future, and in a very different culture than our own. but it bothered me more in this one because it really was supposed to take place in the real world.

not too say that it was a total loss. it was an entertaining read, if frustrating at times. it just could have been so much better...

I was so dissapointed by this book. I had heard so many good things about Sherri Tepper, but this makes me wonder why she is so highly rated.The politics are unsubtle, the characters unengaging, the plot devices either poorly-thought out or frankly ridiculous, and the writing is at best patchy and reminiscent of the worst of Danielle Steele and the like. There are some brilliant feminist sci-fi and fantasy writers out there (Ursula Le Guin, Pat Cadigan, Marion Zimmer Bradley), but, at least on the basis of this book, Sherri Tepper is not one of them. And I had so wanted to like this book...

On the first reading I was a little disappointed. Maybe because it was written for the near future - now the recent past. Knowing that something didn't turn out that way is distracting, then I realized it didn't matter. Tepper has taken a set of circumstances and woven her tale around them, the message is no less relevant. Fiction that is set in a completely unknown environment may be easier to accept but even with a current setting it is still fiction not a news report, it is the story that matters.

Decline & Fall is darker than many of her other books, and at times somewhat depressing. Nevertheless on rereading,and all Sheri's books are worth revisiting in my opinion, her skill and writing style come through. While it is not the work of delight "Beauty" is, it is thought provoking and engrossing.

I enjoyed reading Sheri S. Tepper's "Grass" and "Raising the Stones," but this one isn't so great. The main antagonist organization is a little over the top. One person like this I can buy, but a whole political party? The book is somewhat depressing as well, and doesn't say much about the future besides "evil, bad, doom." However, I CAN read this book without getting incredibly bored or compulsively throwing it across the room, which is more than I can say about much fiction out there today. I heartily reccomend the aforementioned Tepper books, but I'd avoid this one.

A Powerful story...thought provoking and insightful as to what many women deal with on a daily basis...an earlier review of this novel stated it "was ridiculous " to concieve of an allience between Catholicism and Islam...funny this morning I heard the Pope is planning a trip to Bagdad. Highly recomended

The book lacked the subtlety of "The Gate to Women's Country" but was still a good read. Much of the horrors she described do happen, and not just "elsewhere." I'm sure she saw more than her share of that working at Planned Parenthood.

For those folks lamenting the lack of multi-dimensional male characters, kindly keep in mind that there are thousands of books that have given short-shrift to female characters, but have gotten much acclaim nonetheless. I think we can allow at least a few books to concentrate on female characters to the exclusion of the male. It doesn't mean the story isn't a good one.

As a former Catholic, I have to agree with Ms. Tepper's assessment: namely that it is a boys-only club with unrealistic views about women and life in general. The church heirarchy isn't stupid; they are well aware than there are too many people being born yet they persist in prohibiting birth control. This from a bunch of guys who aren't permitted to have romantic relationships of any kind, be married or to have children. And women - over half of the world's population - are given no real voice at all. Can you say "out of touch with reality" boys and girls? Okay, time for me to get off the soapbox.

Read within the proper context, it has many valuable messages within a rather compelling story. The unanswered question at the end just made it more interesting and thought-provoking. I'm sure almost everyone who read the book has a good idea of what they would choose (or are debating over two choices.) It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I've never heard of a book that was.

God - I'd heard good things about Tepper's work, and this was a *big* disappointment. The characters were one-dimensional, the plot absurd and trivialising (the Catholic Church is in an evil plot with Islam to keep women down! - yeah, right), and the writing clunky. I gave up after 100 pages of this dribble, I have to admit.

Part of the problem with this book is the writing itself: it's repetitive and heavy- handed; I kept wanting Tepper to get to the point; in fact, I got to the point long before the characters did, which was frustrating. Some of the story-telling is very sloppy: characters don't know things that they really ought to know, giving someone else the opportunity to fill in back-story (see for instance the first chapter). There are also some frustrating omissions and red herrings: the cause of the "plague" of libido-loss is never adequately explained; at the end of the book the good guys quietly get rid of some of the bad guys without a shred of worry about whether anyone will find out, or even suspect, what they have done (there's also no particular reason for them to do this, given that they have the evidence to legitimately put these bad guys away); and some details (e.g. widespread use of hibernation tanks in lieu of conventional imprisonment) seem unlikely given that the book is set in the very near future. (There are many more bizarre elements of this book, but these are part of the book's central conceit, so their lack of believability is something you just have to ignore if you're going to read the book at all.)

Part of my dislike stems from my disagreement with Tepper on some basic assumptions about gender: how the sexes differ; how biology and culture interact; what can be done about the oppression of women; how different aspects of the oppression of women are connected. For instance, some of the effects of the "plague" don't make sense to me: cultural institutions don't die out that easily or quickly. Tepper also seems to equate monogamy with lack of libido, which I find sad. Lest there be any confusion, I'm a feminist, and I'm not criticizing Tepper for being "too feminist" or too preachy, or too political; rather, it's the content of her politics that disturbs me. Tepper does seem to embody the stereotype that feminists are anti-sex; believe me, not all of u! s are!