Reply #18: "The Gate to Women's Country", "The Fresco", or "Gibbon's Decline and Fall"

[Tesha]

The Gate to Women's Country, The Fresco, or
Gibbon's Decline and Fall, all by Sheri S. Tepper.

They're all nominally sci-fi, but in different very
realms.

Gate describes a post-apocalyptic country where
women have become the leaders and they're setting out
to remake the world along slightly-different lines. It
examines those forces that drive societies to war and
how they might be dealt with.

The Fresco is set in our time and describes
first contact with an alien federation. The aliens are
friendlies, though, and offer some rather-creative
solutions to the problems that have been vexing
humanity in recent decades.

Decline and Fall describes a close-knit circle
of seven women and how they react when one of their
own mysteriously vanishes. Along the way, the group is
challenged by various unethical forces that we here
at DU might lump into the rubric "Neocons", but the
analysis is a bit more subtle than the level we usually
manage.

Tepper has written much more, but these exemplify some
of her best work and Mr. Tesha and I both return to
them often. In every case, Tepper's work includes andd
often centers on the theme of a woman as hero.

Tesha