≡ PDF The Fresco Gollancz Sheri S Tepper 9780575072886 Books

The Fresco Gollancz Sheri S Tepper 9780575072886 Books

Download As PDF : The Fresco Gollancz Sheri S Tepper 9780575072886 Books

The Fresco Gollancz Sheri S Tepper 9780575072886 Books

I hate it when I do this: read a book, finish before I'm sleepy, start a new book and nearly forget to write my review of the last book! Boo! Me! And this book deserves reviews!!!

My friend, Kay, gave such a marvelous review that I knew I had to read it. I highly recommend it!

It has everything. Aliens, other planets, other points of view. The main character is female, Benita, who finds herself in a bad, abusive marriage. She is looking to get out and not be found.

What finds her is new opportunities the likes no one would expect to happen. That is all I can give you without feeling I'm spoiling it for you.

Needless to say, there is adventures and space travel, and meeting alien beings. Like all good sci-fi, this has a lot of philosophical, political, social, and spiritual commentary. Much of it tongue-in-cheek humor that may cause snorting of the hot tea if not careful.

If you get the chance to read this, you should. I'm sorry that it isn't loanable. Seems many Benitas out there might not be able to afford it but would benefit from the read. Benitas need humor, escapism, and ideas. In fact, I think everyone could learn something and enjoy this story.


Tags : The Fresco (Gollancz) [Sheri S. Tepper] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Benita Alvarez, a downtrodden Hispanic woman, is chosen by alien envoys to be the Intermediary in their bid to get humankind to join an interstellar federation of peaceable races who practise Neighbourliness and strive to live ethical and moral lives. But other alien races have their own plans for the verdant,Sheri S. Tepper,The Fresco (Gollancz),Orion Pub Co,0575072881,Science fiction

The Fresco Gollancz Sheri S Tepper 9780575072886 Books Reviews

There seems to be much comment in reviews posted here about this book and all the men in the book being evil. First I want to say that this is a well written book, it keeps you entertained, on the edge waiting for more, and makes you think. The story starts out with Benita a woman in her late thirties, married young to an unsuccesful artist who has become an alcholic with two children. (Gee this has happened many times). She is met by aliens and she becomes an important link between the aliens and our government (some of who are not nice men - which has happened many times).
There are also other "bad men" in the novel, but there are also good ones, Chad, the FBI Agent, the President., etc. Instead of looking at this book as a book written by a feminist about feminism, everyone should look at it as an entertaining sci-fi novel with interesting ideas pointing out some very realistic problems in our society (drinking, guns, rape, etc) and how one alien culture helps us to change these problems.
I give this book 4 stars, yes there are some plot holes, but it is well written,imaginative, and a bit like a Robert A. Heinlein novel from a woman's view. The social commentary is similair to what Heinlein did in some of his novels. Who cares if this is a book with a liberal, feminist point of view, in this day and age it should not be an issue. Is it really written from a feminist point of view or is there too much reality in it to make some people comfortable? Read it and judge it for yourself. Teplper did a great job on this!
However, if you are contemplating this as the first book you've ever read by her, I would suggest that you start with the loosely knit "Grass" trilogy (Grass, Raising the Stones, Side Show). (I love that trilogy - have gone through several copies of each of the books -- they are very poignant and redeeming)
In The Fresco, Benita is a wonderful, sympathetic character, an "everywoman" who sees her way clear to becoming her own person. She is a heroine to root for. I loved the protagonist aliens, as they altered their appearances to be more "friendly" looking.
As always, I enjoyed the philosophy and theology which is present in all of the books that I have read by Ms. Tepper. It is thought provoking to think what would happen if someone or something came along and completely disproved our various holy books (bible, koran, rig veda etc.). Would we patch them back together and do what we could, or would we take the best of them, and approach the violent, ugly, "evil" parts with a grain of salt? Or would that someone/thing that disproved them, help us regain our sense of self?
Even if you are agnostic, or atheistic, you will enjoy the religious/philosophical commentaries woven into Ms. Tepper's books.
I have been a fan of Tepper's since reading "Grass" years ago, but in some ways this book was a disappointment. The fresco of the title is a key piece of the culture of the aliens who contact Earth. Eventually we learn that there is ambiguity in the meaning and details of the original fresco. It turns out to be Tepper's main point, I think. There are many ways to look at the significance of this turn in the plot and you will need to make up your own mind about the ultimate message from the author.

Along the way Tepper delivers many rather blunt critiques of the ways of humanity, as seen through the eyes of the aliens. They choose a single woman as their go-between with the U.S. Government, and this becomes one of the plot threads, as enemies of the president try to locate her to discredit the administration. To complicate matters other groups of aliens try to make a separate deal with the president's enemies to get the right to hunt humans as exotic food. The story moves along pretty well, but Tepper's heavy-handed commentary intrudes like annoying sound bites, reminding us of our shortcomings and hypocrisies, as if we needed to be reminded. The alien's mission is to help us become worthy of Confederation membership, but their methods of saving us from our own faults seemed too 'magic-wand'-ish. It felt too easy, even though we may all have wished for magical ways to solve some of mankind's worst flaws. How is humanity supposed to prove its worthiness if they cannot commit the crimes that would disqualify them? Being prevented from doing wrong is a lot different than actually deciding not to do wrong things, isn't it?
I hate it when I do this read a book, finish before I'm sleepy, start a new book and nearly forget to write my review of the last book! Boo! Me! And this book deserves reviews!!!

My friend, Kay, gave such a marvelous review that I knew I had to read it. I highly recommend it!

It has everything. Aliens, other planets, other points of view. The main character is female, Benita, who finds herself in a bad, abusive marriage. She is looking to get out and not be found.

What finds her is new opportunities the likes no one would expect to happen. That is all I can give you without feeling I'm spoiling it for you.

Needless to say, there is adventures and space travel, and meeting alien beings. Like all good sci-fi, this has a lot of philosophical, political, social, and spiritual commentary. Much of it tongue-in-cheek humor that may cause snorting of the hot tea if not careful.

If you get the chance to read this, you should. I'm sorry that it isn't loanable. Seems many Benitas out there might not be able to afford it but would benefit from the read. Benitas need humor, escapism, and ideas. In fact, I think everyone could learn something and enjoy this story.