The Margarets by Sheri Tepper
I love this reviewing job. Every now and then I find a new author with a tempting backlist. Someday I’ll even have the time to do all the reading. Not likely for this author who has been writing scifi for 25 years.
The Margarets is set in the not-too-distant future, like the late 21st century. Earth has been badly over-populated, all animals and plants gone and water is scarce. Other intelligent life forms have found Earth and ‘helping’ with the survival of humanitiy either by assisting humans to set up colonies elsewhere in the galaxy or enslaving the ‘excess’ humans as a workforce to support their own economies. Margaret’s parents are part of a scientific research party working to release the water from the Martian ice caps for use by humans on earth. As a result she grows up as the only human child around. Like many children, she invents secret friends, a queen, a healer, a warrior, etc. Together they provide her with a rich and varied friendship group. Then when Margaret is 12 the research project is closed down and the family is forced to return to Earth.
What follows is an incredibly intricate and involved story where each of the imaginary friends takes form and becomes real and each one moves to a different human colony. Years later the seven Margarets come together and humanity has a new beginning.
I once read a definition of science fiction that said that the best scifi had a very believable world view with one science fact twisted to fiction. In The Margarets the whole idea of subdividing Margaret takes a leap of faith. Tepper guides the reader through this impossibility gently and each Margaret becomes very real. Also this book could easily have become very disjointed, however Tepper’s invention of the ghrym parasite links all the different characters.
Tepper also sticks with known mythical characters in telling her stories. As the reader discovers the identity of Gardener, Mr Weathereye and Lady Badness suddenly the novel makes sense. Regular readers of this column will know how much I like that in speculative fiction writing.
