chabot@miles.DEC (All God's chillun got guns) (08/30/85)
This month brings two new books from Sherri Tepper: _The_Search_of_Mavin_ Manyshaped_ and _Jinnian_Footseer_. (Interesting to note that the first is from her previous publisher, but JF is from Tor--anybody know anything about this?) I enjoyed both. In TSoMM we are at that time 20 years after the events in _The_Song_of_Mavin_Manyshaped_ when Mavin and Himmagery are supposed to meet. Except he's not there. A message from Windlow is, however, and after meeting with Windlow, Mavin sets out on a search for Himmaggery. The book leaves us at a point sometime before Peter's birth. JF is the story of the Jinnian up to the point where she and Peter are about to go off together. There is a great deal about Jinnian here, she has many unexpected and previously unencountered qualities that help explain why she turned out not to be the pampered, protected young woman we might have expected her to be, considering where she was educated. Her side of the trip and the battle is told (including some explanation about the groles she was nearly eaten by). A most interesting feature of JF is the description of wise-art, and how Jinnian comes to learn wise-art; although there is no explanation of exactly why sevens are only made up of women, I have a feeling this is supposed to be akin to witches--but as to dervishes...er, well, no more spoilers. There was a hint that there might be more books after JF--perhaps a third trilogy? As Peter's stories were in a different voice from the bubbling, bouncing rhythyms in Mavin's, Jinnian too has a different voice. L S Chabot ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot