My life in books

What can I say about Sheri Tepper's Grass?

It's an amazing and complex novel, with so many important themes so seamlessly interwoven, with a riveting plot, with a whole cast full of fully-fleshed and memorable characters, set on a world that is both iconic and unique - I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I like this book a lot.

As with many of Tepper's books, a key theme is the role of women in society and in the family, and how this is influenced by cultural influences such as religion. She also explores religion itself in terms of faith and belief, science and reason, and the interplay between religion and ethics, the questions of action, passivity, responsibility and guilt. And then there's the whole matter of communication, understanding and interaction between alien species – both present and long-vanished.

All of this is woven into the story of a woman and her family sent to the planet Grass to investigate one mystery – why do the citizens of Grass appear to be immune to a plague sweeping though the rest of the human worlds? – who finds on Grass a second mystery – what lies behind the Grassians' tradition of The Hunt, the relationships between humans and the native Hippae, Hounds and Foxen, and the disappearances of young women who take part in the Hunt? Solving these two mysteries takes Tepper's hero, Marjorie Westriding, on journeys of personal challenge, examination and discovery that will also affect the future of both her own species, and the dominant species of the planet Grass.

It’s reminiscent of Herbert's Dune in some ways – the monoculural world, the focus on ecological themes, the examination of the roles of religion in human societies – and of Orson Scott Card's novels, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, in others – the themes of responsibility and guilt, the bio/ecological mystery that must be solved because the alternative is unthinkable.

It's been called a masterpiece by some, and it's certainly one of Tepper's best.