Subject: MINIREVIEW: Sideshow / Tepper

From: [email-masked] (David Wong Shee)
Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:32:46 +1000

AUTHOR: Sheri S. Tepper

TITLE: SIDESHOW

PUBLISHED BY: Bantam Spectra Books

FIRST PUBLISHED: May 1992 

ISBN: 0-553-56098-0 

SYNOPSIS: In a future it is believed that the answer to the Great Question
i.e. "What is the Destiny of Man?" will arise from the human diversity.
Unfortunately the mysterious Hobbs Land gods have wiped out diversity among
humanity throughout the rest of the galaxy.  

In a last desperate attempt to answer the Great Question the last remnants of
humanity uncontaminated by these Gods have been transported to the planet
Elsewhere.  They represent humanity's last hope of answering the Great
Question.  

While awaiting the advent of the answer members of the Great Question
Committee, consisting of the most eminent academics of mankind, are
disembodied and their identities mapped into an indestructible computer Core
on Elsewhere.

A party consisting of: Fringe Owldark, Danivon Luze, Curvis (Enforcers);
Bertran and Nela Zy-Czorsky (a pair of non-identical siamese twins); 
Jory (Prophetess emeritus) and Asner (Myth-eater); travel to the province 
of Panubi to investigate the possible arrival of the Hobbs Land gods on
Elsewhere.

COMMENTS: Sideshow extends the exploration of themes touched on in the novel
Grass (Tepper, 1989).  Questions raised include:  

*    What is the potential role of religion in human affairs as a vehicle for
     evil?  

*    Are there ethical principles which transcend cultural differences?
     Under what circumstances (if any) is it legitimate to intervene in
     another society?  Are there such things as "universal human rights"
     and "crimes against humanity"?

*    What is the nature of free will and choice for individuals born into
     societies with long traditions of inequality and oppression?

*    Is it the fate of humanity to constantly repeat the atrocities of the
     past with successively greater technological amplification?  To create
     Gods which then turn and threaten to destroy us?

     The book successfully combines satire, horror and irony while neither
succumbing to excessive cynicism, nor, in the end, despairing of the
possibility that humanity can redeem itself from the sins of the past.

     "To all those who ride the great dragon Wonder" Tepper.

-- 
 * David Wong Shee * [email-masked] * LONG LIVE THE NET! *
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