Review by Booklist Review
Tepper has been writing sf for more than 30 years. The ambitious premise of her latest novel is to draw together 11 of her previous titles into one vastly epic tale of the world's inevitable destruction. Humanity has one more chance to overcome its own ignorance and ensure the rebirth of a new world, if it indeed deserves rebirth at all. The returning characters (who are harbingers of the new earth), Abasio and Xulai, work in concert with Tepper's many other fantastical conceits to make Fish Tails absolutely, inescapably charming, even when it is placed alongside the dark and surreal madness of a doomed world willfully ignoring its fate. Tepper's themes and messages are cutting, but the anger and sorrow embedded in them are delivered by the author's enduringly optimistic humanism. This is mastery of sf storytelling that could only be the result of honing over a lifetime.--Francis, Chris Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The waters are rising, and soon the world will be covered in boundless sea. Abasio and Xulai, previously seen in A Plague of Angels and The Waters Rising, wander the slowly drowning land, seeking out those worthy for transformation and preservation. Few indeed seem to deserve salvation; the human population of Earth remains short-sighted, violent, and greedy. Given this portrayal, Earths intelligent animals should rejoice to see humans exterminated, but the other land species of Earth, innocent of any crimes, will be swept away with the humans, a fact not lost on them. In their quest to salvage the worthy of Earth, Xulai and Abasio discover the lost secrets of Earth, encounter emissaries of far-off worlds, and uncover the unknown sources of the waters below. While longtime Tepper fans may welcome old friends and familiar themes, new readers will balk at the gleeful embrace of troublesome elements; although Tepper is careful to stock her world with reprobates whose destruction seems justified, nevertheless many readers may hesitate to embrace the disturbing advocacy for what amounts to omnicide. Adequately written but profoundly misanthropic, the novel cannot be recommended to any but the most steadfast Tepper fan. Agent: Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Abasio and Xulai (last seen in 2012's Rising Waters) are traveling the rough and wild lands of a scarcely recognizable North America, thousands of years in the future. Traveling with their babies, Gailai and Bailai, they are the first of a new hybrid people engineered to live underwater in order to survive the planet's impending flooding. As the couple try to recruit others to make the change, they encounter allies, enemies, and intergalactic travelers who will help them achieve their goal. Verdict This title is fascinating and frustrating by turns. Tepper (author of many works of ecological and feminist sf) has thought out every detail of her postapocalyptic landscape. Unfortunately, it is all on the page, and the wealth of information can make the narrative slow. Abasio and Xulai are characters even those new to the series will enjoy, but the crossover personae from her cult favorite "True Game" series are a treat for older fans. [See Prepub Alert, 2/24/14.]-Megan M. McArdle, San Diego (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Tepper continues a slow procession toward aquatic apocalypse in this follow-up to The Waters Rising (2010). In 200 years, the waters of Earth will drown all the land, and only those capable of living in the sea will survive. Abasio and Xulai and their twin sea-adapted babies, Bailai and Gailai, are traveling across the world, attempting to convince those they meet about the rising waters and the necessity of sea-adapting their future children. Along the way, the family encounters various people and beings either hostile or sympathetic to their mission, and they eventually discover the cause of the planetary flooding. There's actually not much of a coherent or well-paced story here until about the last quarter of the book; it's simply a chain of connected traveling episodes. Worse, many motifs have already been exhaustively explored in several other Tepper novelsin particular, that environmental wastefulness and damage have offended the world spirit and brutal misogyny, xenophobia and stupidly obstinate closed-mindedness persist yet can be deliberately bred out of humanity. Talking animals, whimsical galactic investigators and often groaningly awful wordplay have also featured in her other works. Characters from a decades-old (and mainly out of print) series make a cameo, but anyone who appreciates their reappearance is also more likely to recognize just how much Tepper is repeating herself here. A sad patchwork of plot scraps from Tepper's previous, and superior, works. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
