Six Moon Dance - Softcover

On The Family Tree: Locus: 'A work where wry humour mingles with the gravest of concerns about ecology and the fate of earth. Tepper has produced another work as witty, charming, deep-down serious and inventive as her classic Beauty, in this fable with an extra edge to it: a thorough-going relevance to our future' Science Fiction Age 'She is a compelling storyteller. Being able to weave in serious concerns and even actual morals, without interrupting the flow of the story, is a rare gift and one Tepper clearly has. The Family Tree continues this pattern, with wonderful characters, a compelling mystery and superb worldbuilding.' Kirkus Reviews: 'Beautifully realized, full of delightful surprises and sparkling wit, this out-and-out charmer is unquestionably Tepper's best work so far' Realms of Fantasy: 'A perfectly marvellous book. It's a pearl'

In Six Moon Dance, Sheri Tepper returns to the distant future familiar from her earlier novels. Earth is a remote ancestral memory, or a theme park exhibit; reality now embraces creatures older and wiser than the entire human race put together ! On behalf of the Council of Worlds an artificial intelligence named the Questioner examines and punishes bad behaviour towards both nonhuman species and ethnic minorities in far flung human settlements. The Questioner's attention is drawn to the small, barely industrialized world of Newholme. This is scary for the people of Newholme, especially the women who run it, who keep very big bad secrets! which will be revealed, though the Questioner is not there to uncover Newholme's crimes. Rather, the Questioner is haunted by a story she heard of an interstellar creature surviving, though mutillated, on one of the six moons of Newholme!