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The author of Raising the Stones tackles timeless issues on the planet of Tolerance, where the people of each province had been free to rule themselves however they chose, until some customs began to cause strife between countries. 20,000 first printing.

Loosely related to her earlier books Grass and Raising the Stones, Tepper's newest big novel questions the desirability of further evolution. A sentient fungus has infested most of the galaxy, reworking the life forms it inhabits to enhance their physical and spiritual comfort. The people of the planet Elsewhere, however, see the fungus's contented hosts as slaves; to preserve free will on Elsewhere, the rulers have imposed absolute cultural relativity within which pleasant and unsavory societies coexist, their integrity rigidly maintained by Enforcers. But powers have arisen to challenge the status quo: creatures resembling dragons are reported in unexplored regions, and evil entities in the computer network are manifesting themselves in a deadly way. The planetary provost, Boarmus, sends a crew of three Enforcers with an assortment of misfits to investigate the dragons, while he tries to thwart the net-beings. The pointlessly complicated plot veers off into long digressions that add only pages to the main story, and though Tepper tries to raise the stakes with debates over current issues such as isolationism and sexism, she fails to grapple with the complex implications of these concerns. After her last book, Beauty , this one is a disappointment.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bulging, indistinct sociological fantasy, the third part of a cycle that includes Grass (1989) and Raising the Stones (1990). In a vastly overcomplicated scenario, planet Tolerance is the last human world free of (supposed) enslavement by the Hobbs Land Gods. Founded a millennium ago by academics, the Brannigans, the planet is dedicated to preserving hundreds of diverse social systems, all secure against interference by its neighbors, thanks to the Enforcers employed by the ruling Council. But the various societies are growing steadily more bloodthirsty, sadistic, and intolerant: Reports indicate that malign godlike beings are manifesting themselves to influence human affairs. So old Boarmus, the Council president, sends his Enforcers to investigate: wise old Zasper, strong young Dannivon, and beautiful but damaged Fringe are soon joined by a mysterious, ancient woman, Jory, who knows more than she's telling. Eventually, after a thousand convolutions, it emerges that the Brannigans had their mentalities preserved in an impregnable underground vault; they have gone mad and, able to project godlike selves into the outside world via billions of tiny machines, desire only to degrade and torment humans. Possibly they can be stopped by the Hobbs Land Gods--actually an alien Arbai multi-component empathy machine. Jory turns out to be a once-human manifestation of the Arbai device. And, tagging along for no discernible reason, are Nela and Bertran, Siamese twins from Earth who stumble through an Arbai Gate and end up, thousands of years later, on Tolerance. An often astonishing work of bold imagination and sharp if rather conspicuous satire, marred by a recondite discursiveness that frequently degenerates into sheer flab. The workaday prose and dialogue don't help. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The world of Tolerance, where each province governs itself without interference from its neighbors, suffers from a sickness at its core, and only a small group of misfits and alien travelers can find the key to the world's survival. This final volume in the triptych that includes Grass ( LJ 9/15/89) and Raising the Stones ( LJ 8/90) begins slowly, as the author painstakingly introduces her characters to the complexity of the plot, but ultimately Tepper's imaginative vision holds forth and delivers one of her most challenging works to date. Libraries interested in acquiring significant sf should consider this rewarding but difficult title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.