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Summary
Summary
Atop a twisting, canyon-climbing road, a witch lurks in a fortress built strong to keep out dragons and ogres. In another part of the countryside, a young orphan is maturing into a beautiful woman in the enchanted village that is her home. Somewhere nearby, a young man is seeking adventure after running away from his family's small farm. Suddenly a strange and terrible prophecy sets off a chain of events that will bring these three together in the heroic, romantic, and thrilling tale of an age-old battle.
Author Notes
Sheri S. Tepper was born Shirley Stewart Douglas on July 16, 1929 near Littleton, Colorado. She held numerous jobs before becoming a full-time author including working at Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood from 1962 to 1986, eventually becoming the executive director.
In the early 1960s, she wrote poems and children's stories under the name Sheri S. Eberhart. In the 1980s, she became a feminist and science fiction/fantasy writer. Her books include The Revenants, After Long Silence, The Gate to Women's Country, Grass, Shadow's End, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, The Family Tree, Six Moon Dance, Singer from the Sea, The Fresco, The Visitor, The Companions, and The Margarets. She received the Locus Award for Beauty and a World Fantasy life achievement award in 2015. She also wrote horror under the name E. E. Horlak and mysteries under the names A. J. Orde and B. J. Oliphant. She died on October 22, 2016 at the age of 87.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
YA-A thought-provoking story with lots of action. ``Orphan'' has a destiny, as does Abasio Cermit. Somehow, these two destinies are intertwined. Abasio leaves his farm for the gang-filled, drug-infested city of a far-off future. Orphan leaves home also. The story of how these two come together to save a crime-ridden, overpopulated, plague-filled world is the basis of Tepper's novel. It is a mixture of myth, science fiction, and apocalyptic prophecy. A Plague of Angels has the same themes as those found in Tepper's previous novels, but it is a little easier to understand. The ending is not very effective (a series of deus ex machinas come in and, with the help of Orphan and Abasio and numerous other human and mythical characters, save humanity from itself), but the story is well worth reading.-Susan McFaden, Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Tepper ( Sideshow ) cleverly adopts elements of both fantasy and science fiction in this portrait of a world on the verge of chaos. Looking to space for a better world, most of Artemesia's inhabitants have deserted their land for the stars, leaving behind crumbling gang-infested cities, fortified suburbs protected by dwindling technology and a half-wild, half-rural land where renascent mythical beasts and fairy tale ``archetypes'' now live. There Abasio, a farmboy who is being pursued by vengeful gang members, meets Orphan, who is herself being pursued by the minions of Witch. Witch is convinced that in accordance with a delphic prophecy, Orphan can provide the ``guidance system'' for her space shuttle and thus allow her to settle the moon. Abasio, Orphan and their few allies are called to fulfill their destiny and defend the battered Earth from Witch's mad scheme for world domination. If the fantasy and SF elements don't always merge seamlessly, the setting is well-realized and Witch's psychosis is lurid and frightening. Tepper's prose is colorful and, while occasionally strident, tempered with wry wit and astute observations about human nature. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Another hypercomplicated, problematic amalgam of fantasy, science fiction, and Message, from the author of Sideshow, Beauty, etc. Long after most of humankind has left for the stars, or so tradition has it, ``manland'' consists of isolated farms whose sons soon run off to the ``cities''--in reality, slums ruled by barbaric gangs. In Artemisia, a new order of society is developing: numerous co-operatives cherish the land and strive to restore its vanished ecosystems. Misfits congregate in the archetypal villages, home to Princesses, Oracles, Orphans, Bastards, Huntsmen, etc. Technological civilization persists in the Edges, but their barriers are impenetrable. And the remnants of ancient aristocratic families dwell in the Place of Power, which boasts a nuclear reactor and three huge, mysterious thrones. Thus, farmboy Abasio duly runs off to the city, joins a gang, and becomes involved with Olly, an ex-Orphan fleeing from an archetypal village, now in search of a prophecy's fulfillment. Meanwhile, the megalomaniac Quince Ellel of the Place of Power sends forth horrid android ``walkers'' to capture Olly, whom she needs to pilot a space shuttle to retrieve ancient weapons. The Artemisians become involved, as do the ancient creatures occupying the thrones, not to mention a talking Coyote and a Bear.... All this is but the merest hint of what's going on here. Despite Tepper's manifest imagination and literary talents, she has never learned how to focus her efforts, or discriminate among competing strands of material: it all goes in regardless. So the upshot, while panoramic and often absorbing, is full of distractions, and so preoccupied with worthy Messages that you can almost hear the halos being polished.
Booklist Review
Cyberpunk, science fiction, fantasy, mythology, feminism, and ecological warning commingle comfortably in the latest complex tale by the author of the very different Gate to Women's Country (1988), Grass (1989), and Beauty (1991). In the far future, humans live in gang-controlled cities in which drugs and AIDS are rampant, healthy babies are at a premium, and women are bought and sold; or in scattered rural areas, where life is simple; or in the Dome of the Founding Families, where intrigue reigns; or in the mysterious Edges, the only source of technology; or in an Archetypical Village, each of which is filled with archetypical characters--Orphan, Bastard, Oracle, Hero, etc. It's said that most of humankind has long fled the battered Earth in search of a better world; now the power-hungry leader of one of the Founding Families plots to gain control of orbiting weaponry--and of the Earth. However, there's a prophecy that pushes not only a young woman and a young man, whose destinies seem inextricably linked, but also a host of others, including talking animals and mythological creatures, toward the battle to save Earth. The coarseness and horror that are essential to the plot are tempered by flashes of humor and a touch of romance. The pastiche of elements works well in this page turner, and the setting is created realistically enough to be foreboding. Another winner from a skillful genre writer. (Reviewed Aug. 1993)0553095137Sally Estes