Sheri S. Tepper

(1929- )

General Information

Sheri S. Tepper was born in 1929. She has two children and one grandchild, and lives with her husband Gene in Colorado.
Though her poems were first published in 1963, her novels did not start appearing until Tepper was in her 50's. She came into a highly creative period, publishing a plethora of novels from the 1980's until the present. Her first novels were fantasy as opposed to science fiction, and her most recent novels still reflect a mix of the two genres.
Tepper's first pure sf novel was The Gate to Women's Country . It is a good representation of her writing style at its best and of the major themes that permeate her work. Tepper writes about the relationships between men and women, mothers and daughters, and humans and the ecosystem. Tepper's stories glide, carrying the reader along. As the entry on her in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction puts it, she is a "born storyteller". Another sf novel that also explores these relationships is Grass. All of Sheri S. Tepper's novels are listed below.
If you cannot already tell, Tepper is one of my favorite authors. Though she is often qualified as a feminist author, I do not like to place any author in a "class" because doing so throws some people off and prevents them from reading what are very good novels. My favorite Tepper novels, in order, are:

Grass
The Gate to Women's Country
Beauty

Works

The Revenants. Berkley Publishing. 1984. (first written novel)
After Long Silence. 1987. (published as The Enigma Score in the U.K.)
The Gate to Women's Country. Doubleday. 1988.
Beauty. Doubleday. 1991.
A Plague of Angels. 1993.
Shadow's End. 1994.
Gibbon's Decline & Fall. New York: Bantam / Spectra,1996.
The Books of the True Game
There are nine books of the True Game series, grouped together in three different trilogies. In terms of the internal chronology, the happenings of the middle trilogy occur first.
The Books of the True Game: Peter
King's Blood Four. Ace Books. 1983. (first published novel)
Necromancer's Nine. Ace Books. 1983.
Wizard's Eleven. Ace Books. 1984.
The Books of the True Game: Mavin Manyshaped
The Song of Mavin Manyshaped. Ace Books. 1985.
The Flight of Mavin Manyshaped. Ace Books. 1985.
The Search for Mavin Manyshaped. Ace Books. 1985.
The Books of the True Game: Jinian
Jinian Star-Eye. Tor Books. 1986.
Dervish Daughter Tor Books. 1986.
Jinian Footseer. Tor Books. 1985.
The following works all take place in a single universe but far apart in time and space, listed in Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as the Marjorie Westriding Trilogy.

Grass. Doubleday. 1989.
Raising the Stones. Doubleday. 1990.
Sideshow. Doubleday. 1992.
The Awakeners: (SST's first novel of SF proper, it was initially released as two books.)
NorthShore. Tor Books. 1987.
SouthShore. Tor Books. 1987.
Marianne Trilogy:
Marianne, the Magus, and the Manticore. Ace Books. 1985.
Marianne, the Madame, and the Momentary Gods. Ace Books. 1988.
Marianne, the Matchbox, and the Malachite Mouse. Ace Books. 1989.
SST broke away from Science Fantasy and Science Fiction to dabble in horror in the following two novels and novella.
Mahlia/Badger
Blood Heritage. Tor Books. 1986.
The Bones. Tor Books. 1987.

"The Gardner" (Vampire novella). Night Visions 6. Released as The Boneyard in mass market.

Pseudonyms:

E.E. Horlak
Still Life (Horror). Bantam. 1988.
B. J. Oliphant Shirley McClintock Series (Mysteries)
Dead in the Scrub. Fawcett. 1990.
The Unexpected Corpse. Fawcett. 1990.
Deservedly Dead. Fawcett. 1992.
Death and the Delinquent. 1993.
Death Served Up Cold. 1994.
Ceremonial Death. 1996.
A. J. Orde (Mysteries)
A Little Neighborhood Murder: A Jason Lynx Novel. Doubleday. 1989.
Death and the Dog Walker: A Jason Lynx Novel. Doubleday. 1990.
Death for Old Time's Sake: A Jason Lynx Novel. Doubleday. 1992.
Looking for the Aardvark, 1993. (also published in paperback as Dead on Sunday, 1994.)
A Long Time Dead. 1995.

Awards & Honors

The Gate to Women's Country - Hugo Award
Grass - 1990 Hugo Nomination, New York Times Notable Book citation
Dead in the Scrub - Edgar nomination (Mystery Writers of America)

References and Sources

The Enclyclopedia of Science Fiction. John Clute and Peter Nicholls, eds. St. Martin's Griffin, NY. 1993. pg.1211-1212

Eliza Sparks, Ph.D. Clemson University. Clemson, SC. Here is a link to Dr. Sparks' Web Page.

Link to Locus Review Site which has fullest author bibliographies of any site on Web.

The Unofficial Sheri S. Tepper Web Page by Laura Quilter Click here.

Created and maintained by Manon Moore. Email: janm@mail.clemson.edu