The Margarets
category: fantasy, author:Sheri S. Tepper
original copyright 2007,read in April 2011
Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10
According to the cover blurb, "Sheri Tepper weaves science fiction and fantasy superbly". Don't believe it. This is pure fantasy...Okay, the story is set on Earth of the future. With other planets also involved. Characters -- such as all the Margarets -- travel from one planet to another. Sorry, this does not make "science fiction".
The setting may be futuristic. The story is fantasy. Not that there's anything wrong with that. As long as you know.
One girl is split into seven separate people. How is this done? Possibly by cloning, then by a few years in an alternate reality. Or some other possibility... Yes, that's the depth of the explanation provided. How did they share memories to the point of splitting? How did they have a feeling of having been split if they were, in fact, cloned before birth? No explanation.
The Margarets are nice people, living different lives. When the time is right, they just know what to do to set the world to rights. Oh, of course, here's a million-year-old prophecy which tells them what to do. It just needs to be interpreted.
When they meet the prophet -- the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful being who is everywhere in the Universe -- he is as surprised as they are, that the prophecy could be fulfilled at all.
This is fantasy in what I have just decided to call, the Wiccan style. All people have the in-built ability to be good. If we can all just see the light -- or remember the lessons of previous lives, or worship the one truly nice supreme spiritual being -- then all will be well with the world. It's all very positive, really. Even the bad guys are bad only because they lack the light / lessons / worship / whatever.
The Wiccan style also has mystical beings who would help humans, if only we did not refuse to see them. No, these are not magical beings, we are told. They are simply creatures who will help where they can. Such as the whirlwinds which very conveniently pick up all the rubbish by the roadside...
Wiccan style fantasy is fun. It's lightweight. It's romantic fairy tales for the older child or younger woman. It also has a strong environmental message.
The Margarets, in fact, has a very strong environmental message. Earth is over-populated. All other life -- except cockroaches and rats -- has been destroyed. If only we can see the light, we can save the world... And Tepper does provide some food for thought.
Just in case we fail to see the light, how about implementing the "two-three-four laws"...
First live birth for each parent is number one, next is two, then three, four and so on. Adults whose birth numbers are two or three or four may be allowed to breed. Anyone else is... well, in The Margarets, if your birth number is higher than four then you are shipped off to another planet. If you and your partner add up to more than four, you are both shipped off Earth.
How could this be applied without space travel? Forced sterilisation or instant death of higher-than-fours, at birth? Heavy fines for a more-than-four couple who have children? No easy options... so there are no answers, in this Wiccan style fantasy.
The issues may be raised. The readers will not be upset by discussion of real-life solutions.
This is a fun fairy tale with a happy ending. Difficult issues are raised but practical solutions are not.
It's a good book but not great. It is a book to be enjoyed. The book raises dfficult problems. It is not a treatise for solution of the world's very real problems.
For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com. |
No comments:
Post a Comment