They seek to answer riddles that have no answer. They are bound on a quest that has no end. Thewston of the Lion Courts; Leona, Queen of the Beasts; Medlo, outlawed Prince; Jasmine the Dancer; Terascouos the Singer. And young Jaer, whose like has never been seen: Jaer, the greatest riddle of all They are the Revenants. This is their story.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite Tepper novels,
By
This review is from: The Revenants (Paperback)
Out of all of Sheri S. Tepper's books that I've read, this and _The Gate to Women's Country_ remain my favorites. While the writing in _The Revenants_ may not be as confident nor as polished as in her later works (e.g. _The Gate to Women's Country_, _Grass_, _Sideshow_, _A Plague of Angels_, _Six Moon Dance_, etc.) I find it friendlier, less bitter, and warmer. I *liked* most of the characters in this book. I enjoyed hearing them talk, watching their struggles, and empathized with their pain. In some of Tepper's other books, I found the characters boring or annoying.The world of _The Revenants_ hurtles towards the ultimate in Separation: myth from reality, race from race, nation from nation, village from village, everyone forced into vanishingly smaller pigeonholes, until they are altogether Separated into extinction. Black-robed Keepers speed the process by exacting a harvest of young men and women. A few individuals struggle to remain free. Jaer is at the heart of this struggle: Jaer embraces male and female, myth and reality, and by the end, all of humanity, the living opposite of Separation. Jaer is on a Quest, and so are Jaer's companions. Tepper gives us an interesting "behind the scenes" look at Quests, fairy tales, and prophecies. Jaer's Quest is a garbled mish-mash partially made up in jest by the two old men who were Jaer's foster parents. They die before explaining it to Jaer. Prince Medlo's Quest is a politically motivated, veiled assassination attempt. Jasmine's Quest was also engineered to get her out of the way. Thewson's Quest is fueled by a young man's ambition to be King. Leona's Quest is a mission to save the life of an ailing friend. All the quests are rendered meaningless by Separation and the murderous, destructive Keepers; yet they are also fulfilled, though the nature of the Quest changes as the protagonists become wiser and more knowledgable. It's all a fairy tale, as one of the characters observes, but fairy tales do not reach happy endings on their own, as this book shows us. Someone has to make them work. The prophecies were made to come true --- doesn't that impy some sort of time travel? The characters must answer this question in the end. As usual, Tepper throws in more ideas than she has time to fully develop, but this time, I didn't mind. The book worked as a whole, and the hinted-at ideas gave me the sense of a big, wide world with a real past. This book foreshadows some of the ideas Tepper works with in _Beauty_ and _A Plague of Angels_ (for example, being set in the far future after much of humankind has left the earth for the stars), but I liked _The Revenants_ better. Like many books in the fantasy genre, there is an Evil with an Army of Darkness threatening to take over the world, but in this case the Evil is unusual, and we pity the Army of Darkness after we see who they are, and how they suffer. I liked the twisted way the Keepers fit their philosophy of Separation: faceless, sexless, and blind to the mythical. All that, and there's even a sweet little love story in there, too. I love this book. Too bad it's out of print, but I'm not selling my copy. :-)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely Early Tepper,
By LadyLeaf (Santa Maria CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Revenants (Paperback)
I suppose I'm going to be breaking several of the Reviewing Rules because I'm writing this one on the spur of the moment years after my last read of The Revenants. Yes, I read it many times as the years passed and I enjoyed most of Tepper's creative efforts, but today I couldn't give you a plot summary. What I do recall is my love of this novel.
Today I did a Sheri Tepper search since it has been a while since I checked out what she's been up to, saw a reference to this early masterpiece, and stopped cold so I could write something to encourage people to buy and enjoy this book. If you're already a Tepper fan yet aren't familiar with The Revenants, you may be surprised she wrote one of her very best so early. If you're thinking of reading one of Sheri's books for the first time, you should begin here. Absolutely creative fantasy; original plotting, characters, culture: in other words she wrote something NOT a LOTR knock-off, nor do I recall it as being trite in any way, no rehashing of old story lines, etc. Fresh and new; definitely fantasy in the best sense of the word. I noticed Tepper has written quite a number of books in the past few years which I missed. Several years ago I had thought she'd started preaching her values (most of which I agree with) much too obviously at the cost of plot, character and atmosphere. She'd lost her ability to write a darned good story which happened to be subtly enhanced by her values about our beautiful Earth, women and feminine strengths, etc. Noticing the high ratings her more current books have received I'm hoping she's again using her talents for strong, original, gripping plots peopled by women and men we've never met or dreamed of before in places absolutely beyond our wildest dreams. I am looking forward to catching up on what I've missed and hope I again find the excellent author of The Revenants. By Tepper, I most strongly recommend Grass and Beauty. Others: Ursula LeGuin, Lois McMaster Bujold (particularly The Hallowed Hunt), Philip Pullman. Must Read: Memory, Sorrow, Thorn by Tad Williams.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Story Stays With You,
By Discord (Zion) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Revenants (Paperback)
I bought this book at a UBS in the 80's. I don't know what made me do it, it wasn't the cover nor the write up at the back.
Since then I must have read that book 5 times and I still have it. The story was original, unlike many Fantasy books today. Somehow authors in the 80's managed to get alot done plot and character wise in half the number of pages of today's fantasy books. The main character Jaer is an original. Switching gender throughtout the book both physically and mentally. The other characters are equally interesting. The book's ending is open to interperation. It haunts you. Sadly this book is out of print, but well worth the trouble of tracking down. It is one of those books that dig beneath the surface. ----------------------- Back cover.. They seek to answer riddles that have no answer: They are bound on a quest that has no end. Thewson of the Lion Courts. Leona, Queen of the Beasts. Medlo, outlawed Prince. Jasmine the Dancer. Terascouros the Singer. And young Jaer, whose like has never been seen: Jaer, the greatest riddle of all... They are the Revenants. This is their story.
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