History Creator / SheriSTepper

* ''Literature/TheFurtherAdventuresOfBatman'' contribution, "Literature/SomeoneLikeYou"

* AuthorTract: Much of Tepper's work reads as thinly disguised, feminist utopianism, particularly ''The Gate to Women's Country'' and ''The Revenants''. ''Beauty'' paints a rather extreme picture of the human race's 'destruction' of Earth's environment.

Sheri S. Tepper (1929-2016) was an author, born in Colorado, America. She wrote primarily sci-fi and fantasy; and also had a couple of horror and mystery titles, written under various pseudonyms.

Sheri S. Tepper is an author, born in Colorado, America. She writes primarily sci-fi and fantasy; and also has a couple of horror and mystery titles, written under various pseudonyms.

* In ''Beauty'', it turns out the title character's beauty is ''literally'' a curse: [[spoiler: she is fated to be the living repository of the entire concept of human beauty.]] In a more practical sense, her beauty attracts all kinds of unwanted attention, including [[RapeAsDrama a rapist]], [[HandsomeLech a sleazy older man]], [[TheFairFolk the lecherous King of the Fairies]], and [[TheDevil the Devil himself.]]

* ''The True Game'' series
** ''The Books of the True Game: Peter'':
*** ''Kings Blood Four''
*** ''Necromancer Nine''
*** ''Wizard's Eleven''
** ''Mavin Manyshaped'':
*** ''The Song of Mavin Manyshaped''
*** ''The Flight of Mavin Manyshaped''
*** ''The Search of Mavin Manyshaped''
** ''The Books of the True Game: Jinian'':
*** ''Jinian Footseer''
*** ''Dervish Daughter''
*** ''Jinian Star-Eye''

* AntiMagic: The 'muties' in ''The True Game'' series suppress the gifts of all nearby Gamesmen.

* BadPowersBadPeople: In ''The True Game'' series, with lampshade-hanging from a scholar who remarks that in every case he's aware of, the unpleasant powers always go to unpleasant people who actually enjoy having them.

* FunctionalMagic: ''The True Game'' series has not one but two detailed and structured systems of magic. One is described rather better than the other.

* GenderRestrictedAbility: In the world of the True Game, several of the Talents are gender-limited, or at least rare in one or another sex. Healers and Midwives, for example, appear to be mostly female, while Armigers, Sentinels, and possessors of Necromantic Talents appear to be mostly male. Harpies and Queens are of course always female, while Kings and Princes are of course always male. (Though given that many women amongst the Gamesmen are encouraged to hide or deemphasize their talents, it's hard to know how common certain talents really are amongst them.)
* GeniusLoci: In ''The True Game'' series, there are several examples of Genius Loci such as forests, roads, and pools. [[spoiler:It is revealed in the final trilogy that the planet it self also is sentient, and contemplating committing suicide.]]
* {{Glamour}}: The True Game series has certain characters who possess the talent of Beguilement, which makes the wielder seem more attractive and charismatic when it is used. Powerful Beguilers can make themselves seem irresistibly attractive even if their true bodies are deformed or disfigured.

* PlanetaryRomance: In ''The True Game'' series

* ShapeshifterBaggage: In the "Mavin Manyshaped" trilogy shapeshifters can increase their mass by incorporating additional organic material (Mavin uses a sack of grain at one point), but decreasing their mass (beyond discarding the additional material) is not directly addressed.
** There is a conversation between Peter and Maven implying that shifter simply consolidate their neural net when forming smaller shapes, as well as a subsequent scene in which Mavin made soup out of the "discard". But it is the only time this problem and solution is mentioned.

* TongueTied: In ''The True Games'' series a character is unable to speak about certain information, but is able to write it down. Even further, any character who reads this information will then find ''themselves unable'' to speak the same information.

* BodyHorror: It's found in spades in Tepper's novels. In ''Shadow's End'', in exchange for humans being permitted to live on the planet Dinadh, [[spoiler: when a woman experiences her first pregnancy she is then gang-raped by a native race called the Kachis. Several Kachis grow in her womb, eating the human foetus for sustenance. When the woman goes into labour, if there isn't a special container to restrain the Kachis when they are born, they will proceed to attack the woman.]] In ''Gibbon's Decline and Fall'' the main villain [[spoiler: envisions a world where women exist in mindless suspended animation, the only part of their body utilised is the womb in order to create more men for his "perfect reality."]] It seems that Tepper's pre-author career working for Planned Parenthood gave her plenty of personal {{Nightmare Fuel}}. See also the novel ''Sideshow'' for dinka-jins.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: In the novel ''Grass'' there is a native breed of animal specifically called the Hippae, but those who live on the planet of Grass commonly refer to them as "mounts" and ride them in their fox hunt. Due to some miscommunication, offplanet equestrians arrive to join in the hunt and encounter what can only be classed as {{Nightmare Fuel}} - the Hippae [[spoiler: are three times as large as horses, their neck is covered in spiny barbs, and with their vicious intelligence they control the hunt and those who ride upon them]]. The Foxen and the Hounds aren't much like foxes or hounds, either. Tepper initially leaves the reader just as much in the dark as to the nature of the Hippae as she does the offplanet tourists.

* AuthorTract

* CallASmeerpARabbit: In the novel ''Grass'' there is a native breed of animal specifically called the Hippae, but those who live on the planet of Grass commonly refer to them as "mounts" and ride them in their fox hunt. Due to some miscommunication, offplanet equestrians arrive to join in the hunt and encounter what can only be classed as {{Nightmare Fuel}} - the Hippae [[spoiler: are three times as large as horses, their neck is covered in spiny barbs, and with their vicious intelligence they control the hunt and those who ride upon them.]] Tepper initially leaves the reader just as much in the dark as to the nature of the Hippae as she does the offplanet tourists.
** Also the "Hounds" and "Foxen" (archaic plural of "fox").

* LadyLand: Is used in ''Six Moon Dance'' and ''TheGateToWomensCountry''.
* MisterSeahorse: Found in Tepper's ''The Fresco''.
* NoWomansLand: For examples just close one's eyes and point at any random Tepper book.

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: Ranges from Level 6 in ''Grass'', to level 9 in ''TheGateToWomensCountry''.
* StarfishAlien: Many, but especially the rather strange life-cycle in ''Grass''. Spoilered, as it's a major plot point. [[spoiler: All three are stages in the Foxen lifecycle which runs from eggs; to unintelligent slug-like Peepers; to Hounds, a semi-intelligent and vicious predator; to intelligent, but malignant, Hippae; to hyper-intelligent, but [[ContemplateOurNavels navel-gazing]], Foxen.]]
** Foxen themselves are bizarre and near-incomprehensible to look at, [[spoiler: even to people who've made friends with them]].
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: In Tepper's ''The Fresco''

* {{Ruritania}}: The micronations of Alpenlicht and Lubovosk, tucked away somewhere where Iran, Turkey, and the Soviet Union get their borders muddled up in the mountains, in the Mariane trilogy.

** This troper remembers a conversation between Peter and Maven implying that shifter simply consolidate their neural net when forming smaller shapes.
** And this troper remembers in a subsequent scene that Mavin made soup out of the "discard". But it is the only time this problem and solution is mentioned.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: In the novel ''Grass'' there is a native breed of animal specifically called the Hippae, but those who live on the planet of Grass commonly refer to them as horses and ride them in their fox hunt. Due to some miscommunication, offplanet equestrians arrive to join in the hunt and encounter what can only be classed as {{Nightmare Fuel}} - the Hippae [[spoiler: are three times as large as horses, their neck is covered in spiny barbs, and with their vicious intelligence they control the hunt and those who ride upon them.]] Tepper initially leaves the reader just as much in the dark as to the nature of the Hippae as she does the offplanet tourists.

* ContemplateOurNavels: In ''Grass'' [[spoiler: the hyper-intelligent Foxen are being killed off by the less intelligent, but more ambitious, Hippae; because they have degenerated into passive navel-gazers.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: Tepper's works are loaded with rather less than subtle commentary on feminist philosophy and religion; particularly ''TheGateToWomensCountry'' and ''The Revenants''.

* ''TheGateToWomensCountry''