This is connected with her Raising the Stones novel about the Hobb gods, and also late on features a character from 'Grass', both of which I've read earlier.

Sadly, about halfway through, she piles too many impossible things on top of each other and the book collapses for me. ( )

[Sideshow] is the last of the Arbai trilogy. It opens with one of those leading statements that reveals the destination, and then the story leads the reader to that point before moving beyond: "Humanity was saved from certain destruction when, on their wedding night, Lek Korsyzczy informed his wife that their first child was to be a son." This starting point and the book's title derive from the conjoined (Siamese) fraternal twins Nela and Bertran and their career on Old Earth before being catapulted through time and space via a newly materialized Arbai gate.

From their origin story, the narrative moves to the origin of Elsewhere, a remote planet colonized by humans fleeing the perceived enslavement of the Hobbs Land Gods introduced in [Raising the Stones]. This colony is a living manifestation of the amoral paradox of tolerance (indeed, the capitol is called Tolerance), the population divided into 1003 individual provinces governed by a noninterference pact--each province could do whatever the hell it wants with its people who cannot leave, and thus the planet becomes a millenium-long museum exhibit of human cultural/religious/governance diversity: authoritarian society based on extensive child sacrifice (Molock) or racial enslavement (Derbeck), extreme misogynist patriarchy dedicated to female enslavement and suffering (Thrasis), across the river from extreme misandrist matriarchy in which dependent men can only travel with their "mothers" (Beanfields), extreme caste differences (Enarae), military autocracy (Frick), extreme bureaucracy (New Athens), legal system based on mutilation and death penalties (Sandylwaith), society based on musical contributions (Choire), cyborg "dinks" created from deconstructed human parts to pursue either a life of the mind or of simplified bodily sensations (City Fifteen), and on and on. You see how many of these reflect extremism?

Elsewhere's founders were university professors from Brannigan Galaxity, and the premise for the colony's arrangement is a literal living lab to manifest the answer to the existential question "What is the ultimate destiny of man?" Tolerance is built atop the mysterious Core, where puzzling and scary manifestations are happening. Dragons have been reported in the mysterious and unexplored center of the continent. The Provost of Tolerance keeps receiving the message "The people of Elsewhere are respectfully requested to rethink their position with respect to the rest of the universe" in various increasingly improbably ways. So many interlinked mysteries! And thus a quest gets underway, traveling through the provinces and seeking the source. What is the nature of God? What is freedom/free will? What is the ultimate destiny of humanity? What is good/moral/just? Will our heroes survive? And how do the Arbai fit into all this?

I haven't even mentioned the other main characters: Council Enforcers Zasper Ertigon, Danivon Luze, Fringe Owldark, and Curvis; Provost Boarmus of the Council Advisory; Jory, Asner, and Great Dragon, plus an assortment of minor characters who help carry the plot forward. It's an interesting story generally well told. I just didn't love it. And once again, I am sympathetic with many of Tepper's points and appreciated her storytelling, but I don't agree with her final conclusions. I also noticed a bit of a gendered double standard. Whereas Sam in [Raising the Stones] is recklessly and foolishly yearning for heroic greatness and something beyond the quotidian, Fringe Owldark's similar seeking for something more is shows her exceptionalism and leads to transcendence. Hmmm. In the end, I am ambivalent about these stories and unsure whether I want to keep the trilogy. ( )

This is one of the best closing books for a trilogy that i've ever read ( )

I jumped directly from "Grass" to this novel for some odd reason, but I was able to pick up the characters from the previous book.

The world-building and anthropological details in Tepper's novels continue to astound me. They are not easy reads, but are works of speculative genius. ( )

This book is an excellent example of how science fiction can examine diversity, (non)intervention, and transcendence. Asking questions about when to intervene and when to respect cultural differences on imaginary worlds offers the reader more perspectives than asking these questions in a realistic setting--the mind is not limited to known worlds, but is free to explore new paths. Also, having a female main character (one of a strong ensemble) who is not interested in marriage and love is important for female readers; women are far more than their romantic relationships, and literature should reflect this. That being said, Tepper does have a couple passages that beautifully describe an experience of love. And there were wonderful connections to her previous novel, Grass.

Elsewhere, lit by one middle-sized yellow sun and accompanied by a scattered handful of heavy little planets and moons. Elsewhere, which had been set up--so said Council Supervisory--as the last refuge of humanity from enslavement by the Hobbs Land Gods, that botanical plague that had swept across the galaxy over a millennia before, bringing, so it was said, slavish conformity in its wake.
Some of the urgency had seeped out of that claim over the centuries, during which time Elsewhere had remained so inviolate that one might question whether the Hobbs Land Gods knew or cared it was there. Considering that Elsewhere had been set up and populated in secret, this was not astonishing. Still, Elsewhere had indisputably been designed as a refuge, and from the moment the first fleeing groups arrived to settle provinces of their own, each one was guaranteed the uninterrupted continuance of its own language and religion and customs and dress and anything else it considered important. Elsewhere, managed by Council Supervisory, was designed to insure the immemorial diversity of man.
Council Supervisory had made the rules to start with, and they had not changed since.
No province would be allowed to cross its own borders to infringe upon another or to make common cause with another to infringe upon a third; evangelism across borders was forbidden along with treaties and alliances; travel and trade were allowed, within limits; and any and all groups would be welcome so long as they let one another alone!

I suspected that I had read "Sideshow" before and I was right, as I recognised Elsewhere straightaway although I had forgotten the plot entirely. The first time I read the books of the Arbai Trilogy, I read them out of order and far enough apart that I didn't realise they were part of the same loosely linked series, and "Grass" was the only one I remembered well.

Elsewhere is an interesting world, with the enforcers maintaining the status quo, and only outsiders like the twins seeming to recognise the contradiction of championing diversity while forbidding change. Unfortunately I never really like the protagonists of Sheri Tepper's books, who are always flawed in ways that irritate me, especially in their approach to relationships. I liked the story but the ending was too much of a deus ex machina so be satisfying. ( )

Book 3 of the Grass trilogy... This is my least favorite of the three. Good solid fantasy but the main ideas a bit repetitive from the first 2 books. ( )

This books is a heartbreakingly beautiful story that is also a hugely stupid straw man argument. Classic Tepper. ( )

I enjoyed Grass and Raising the Stones, but the last book in this loose trilogy was disappointing. It starts off promising enough but it didn't work for me, I am still not sure what happened in the end. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. ( )

Honestly...I hate this one. Sometimes Tepper has a golden pen, inking out precious jewelry of social commentary, and sometimes all of her hate and anger come spewing out in revolting torrents. This is one of the latter books. I just barely managed to make it through the violence, mysogeny (inadvertent, but vile), and general hate to get to a somewhat satisfying but not truly worthwhile end. It's too bad that a loose trilogy with so much potential missed so many possibilities. ( )

This is a sequel to Raising the Stones. I have no memory of the plot or characters. I only remember being hit over the head again and again with the theme and thinking that this was the last Tepper I would ever read. ( )

NIL