This technically polished novel ingeniously combines elements from traditional quests, fables, and novels. A seemingly rhetorical question is posed in chapter 1: Why did sociable, smart Dora Henry marry cold, controlling Jared Gerber? But that question is the key to the book and to the parallel stories told by Sheri Tepper. The sets of characters unravel their separate puzzles until all become different aspects of the same web of events, shaking the reader's, and Dora's, perceptions to the core. Tepper's linguistic sleight-of-hand with metaphor and image is breathtaking; her storytelling is deft and funny; her characters are memorable and sympathetic. Topical, mythical, archetypal, and provocative, this is a book no fantasy or science fiction reader should miss.


From Library Journal
While investigating the separate murders of three geneticists, police sergeant Dora Henry stumbles upon talking animals from the future who have come 3000 years into their past to prevent the extinction of their species before a plague destroys most humans. Overnight, sentient weeds and trees begins taking over the suburbs and carrying off babies from families with more than two children. Tying together the Earth Goddess Kore and ecological scare tactics leaves this morality tale a little too preachy and strident. A disappointment from the author of the Hugo Award nominee Grass (LJ 9/15/89); recommended for larger fantasy collections only.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
In Tepper's latest consciousness-raising venture (the splendid Gibbon's Decline and Fall, 1996, etc.), cop Dora Henry investigates three supposedly unrelated and apparently motiveless murders whose victims were all leading geneticists. Dora's husband, Jared, takes no sexual or other interest in her--viewing her as merely a live-in housekeeper. One day a strange weed springs up outside their house. Jared, who loathes disorder, tries to uproot it, but the weed resists and stings him nearly to death. In a matter of days, the weed multiplies into a forest blanketing the suburbs--and Dora finds she can talk with the trees! Encouraged, she leaves Jared and teams up with biologist Abilene McCord. Meanwhile, 3,000 years in the future, a peaceful, low-tech, multi-tribal civilization writhes in turmoil when a dreadful prophecy warns that all intelligent life faces extinction. So a diverse group of travelers--among them magician-polymath Prince Izakar, arrogant Prince Sahir, and harem slave and part-time narrator Nassif--seek the remote Hospice of St. Weel, where, according to the prophecy, some way of averting the catastrophe might be found. The intricate yet exquisitely controlled plot, impossible to summarize but involving time travel, plague, genetic experiments on animals, sorcery, a secret society, and the astonishing identity of the travelers themselves, reveals how, why, and what happens after Nassif and the princes materialize in Dora's newly forested backyard. Beautifully realized, full of delightful surprises and sparkling wit, this out-and-out charmer is unquestionably Tepper's best work so far. (First printing of 30,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Midwest Book Review
Quasi-science fiction is this novel revolving around a bored married woman's final realization of her marriage's limitations and the intrusion of the plant world into the affairs of men. Dora's separation from her husband isn't the only thing rapidly changing her world; for fast-growing foliage is on a sudden rampage, bringing her town to a standstill - and she's the only one able to communicate with it.



"I discovered magic in the pages of this ingenious,fascinating tale."



"[Tepper] takes the mental risks that are the lifebloodof science fiction and all imaginative narrative.


Book Description
THE ONCE FERTILE EARTH OF DORA HENRY'S CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN UNDERVALUED AND OVERDEVELOPED. NOW NATURE, APPARENTLY, HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK. Police officer Dora Henry is investigating the bizarre murders of three geneticists. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere she turns. Weeds are becoming trees; trees are becoming forests. Overnight, a city is being transformed into a wild and verdant place. And, strangest of all, Dora can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora. A potential civilization-ending catastrophe is in the making. The bearer Dora gets to a murderer--and to the truth--the more seemingly disparate events begin to entwine. And the answers she seeks today to the salvation of humankind may lie in afar distant future. . .one which is suddenly much closer than anyone imagines. An exhilarating and enchanting novel that deftly combines fantastic invention with insight and a social conscience, from one of the most lyrical and important voices in contemporary speculative fiction.THE ONCE FERTILE EARTH OF DORA HENRYS CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN UNDERVALUED AND OVERDEVELOPED. NOW NATURE, APPARENTLY, HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK.

Police officer Dora Henry is investigating the bizarre murders of three geneticists. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere she turns. Weeds are becoming trees; trees are becoming forests. Overnight, a city is being transformed into a wild and verdant place.

And, strangest of all, Dora can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora.

A potential civilization-ending catastrophe is in the making. The bearer Dora gets to a murderer--and to the truth--the more seemingly disparate events begin to entwine. And the answers she seeks today to the salvation of humankind may lie in afar distant future. . .one which is suddenly much closer than anyone imagines.

An exhilarating and enchanting novel that deftly combines fantastic invention with insight and a social conscience, from one of the most lyrical and important voices in contemporary speculative fiction.


About the Author
Sheri S. Tepper is the author of several resoundingly acclaimed novels, including The Fresco, Singer from the Sea, Six Moon Dance, The Family Tree, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Shadow's End, A Plague of Angels, Sideshow and Beauty, which was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by the readers of Locus magazine. Ms. Tepper lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

As a police officer, Dora must investigate the bizarre, seemingly unrelated murders of three geneticists. In the course of her inquiry, however, it becomes clear that the scientists were killed by the same person, for reasons that are frustratingly obscure. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere Dora turns: weeds are becoming trees, trees becoming forests, a city is transformed almost overnight into a wild and verdant place inhospitable to what humankind has become. Within days, Dora's hometown has come to a veritable standstill as the thoroughfares are choked by foliage, and its citizens are forced to employ bygone means of transport and communication - walking and talking. But stranger still, Dora discovers that she herself can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora - and is, therefore, perhaps the only person presently living who holds the key to averting an unthinkable catastrophe to human life. As Dora tracks the elusive murderer, the mystery of the trees begins to unravel as well. For the two seemingly disparate events are intertwined, much like the branches of an oak. And, as Dora gets closer to the truth, she comes to realize that the answer she seeks today may lie in the future - a future which is much closer than anyone dares think.

FROM THE CRITICS

Elizabeth Willey

Tepper's linguistic sleight-of-hand withmetaphor and image is breathtaking;her storytelling is deft and funny;her characters are memorable and sympathetic.Topical, mythical, archetypical, and provocative,this is a book no fantasy or science fiction readershould miss.

Garry Kilworth

I discovered magic in the pages of this ingenious,fascinating tale.

Ursula K. Le Guin

[Tepper] takes the mental risks that are the lifeblood of science fiction and all imaginative narrative. —Los Angeles Times

Oklahoma City Oklahoman

Tepper excels at surprises.Characters familiar for several chapters are notwhat they seem. Time does not flow as we think.The plots merge unexpectedly... Afterward thereare lasting images. A reader may never lookcomfortably at a weed again.

Contra Costa Newspapers