In Six Moon Dance, veteran fantasy and science fiction writer Sheri S. Tepper tells the tale of the strange planet Newholme. An intriguing human society occupies the metal-poor planet, a society with gender values quite different from Earth, resulting from a virus that kills 50 percent of baby girls at birth. Newholmians use the best and the worst of dogma, religion, and "patriarchy" to uphold a society where men manage the money but women hold the keys to power through church, reproductive control, and their own short supply. "Family men" pay exorbitant dowries in order to gain a temporary wife, contracted for wifely duties and reproduction for a number of years. When their marriage contracts are finished, the women, relieved of duty, retire to enjoy the sexual services of male "Consorts."

The plot here involves an official Questioner who visits Newholme to investigate reports of human rights abuses, the strange native inhabitants whose biology may hold the key to human survival on the planet, and a disastrous lunar alignment. Although quite creative, Tepper's plot is simply not as gripping as the sociology and society she invents for Newholme. She uses her feminist instincts and knowledge about the sexes and religion to create a world worth taking a look at. James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award judges should be sure to take a look at Six Moon Dance for its unique take on gender roles. --Bonnie Bouman


From Publishers Weekly
Ambitiously choreographed and executed without a misstep, Tepper's complex new novel follows her acclaimed The Family Tree into a profound ecological and sociological commentary on human individuality. Originally settled by now-vanished immigrants from the testosterone-rich planet of Thor, the matriarchal world of Newholme faces imminent volcanic destruction. To determine whether Newholme's ruling Hags and their society deserve to be saved, the galactic Council of Worlds dispatches a cybernetic super-grandma, the Great Questioner, who collects a brilliantly conceived multispecies team to probe mysteries deep in Newholme's past. Tepper courageously tackles touchy issues like gender dominance with grace and wit. Through handsome charmer Mouche, sold by his parents into Hunk toy-boy training, Tepper unveils the Hag-ridden female will-to-power, just as threatening to individual freedom as that of the horrid male supremacist-schemers she depicts. Tepper deftly conjoins a superb awareness of otherness with penetrating insight into selfhood in this shining, bravura performance. (July) FYI: Tepper's Beauty (1991) was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of Locus magazine.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, heralding the conjunction of Newholme's six moons, serves as a catalyst for a visit by the artificial intelligence known as the Questioner, an entity with the power to save?or destroy?worlds in crisis. As the planet's ruling priestesses strive to conceal their world's questionable dealings with its "invisible" race of indigenous creatures, a small group of social outcasts seeks to bring the truth to light, forcing a choice between transformation or annihilation. Tepper combines a treatise on the politics of gender with a transcendent celebration of love and renewal. Always breaking new ground with her imaginative forays into speculative fiction, the author of The Family Tree (LJ 5/15/97) weaves the individual stories of her characters into an elegant design. Highly recommended.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
By present Earth standards, the planet Newholme is a strange place. Women are uncontrollably libidinous, and men wear veils and strive to be stringently decorous in order not to tempt them. There is even a class of Consorts (popularly, derisively called Hunks)--professional social and erotic male companions to women who can afford their services. Among Newholme's other peculiarities are "invisible people," the planet's native inhabitants who tend young humans but whose existence older children and adults do not acknowledge; six moons that when aligned cause catastrophic earthquakes; self-rule under the female Hagions; and the ultimate oversight of the Questioner, an artificial wisewoman who enforces the Edicts of Equity (guidelines of justice and civility) governing all human-occupied worlds. During the several years' time span of Tepper's crypto-utopia, the fatal lunar alignment and a visit from the Questioner, who is not pleased with Newholme, coincide, and one of the protagonists, whom we meet as a boy newly sold to a Consort training academy, becomes crucial to the planet's survival. That is precious little plot to enliven all the exposition about Newholme, the Questioner, the invisibles, and the other cultural peculiarities that Tepper seems to have found of greater interest as she slapped this overlong, alternately intriguing and tiresome yarn together. As the work of one of the foremost feminist sf writers, though, the book won't be begging for readers. Ray Olson


From Kirkus Reviews
More challenging feminist science fiction from the author of the brilliant The Family Tree (1997), etc. On planet Newholme, men outnumber women two to one; Men of Business must therefore pay, handsomely, for a woman's reproductive services and for expert-lover Consorts (Hunks) to provide sexual pleasure for their wives. To avoid arousing insatiable female lusts, all men wear veils. ``Invisible'' creatures--actually native tim-tims, aspects of a planetary consciousness--do the routine work, but since they appeared only after the human colony was established, everybody agreed to ignore them. Newholme, however, is threatened by increasingly violent earthquakes and eruptions; a conjunction involving all six of the planet's moons will soon occur and possibly destroy the planet altogether. Worse, the galactic Council of Worlds is sending an ethical arbiter called the Questioner, a half-human, half-computer android, to investigate; and since native life-forms take absolute priority, the colonists have reason to fear the Questioner's judgments. Complicating the picture still further are the Wasters, survivors of the first, all-male, colony ship; these men, insane by most standards, were mutated by the planet itself but still intend to reconquer what they regard as theirs. Key to the developing drama will be young Mouche, a Hunk-in-training with a sensitivity to the tim-tims in general and to the sylphlike Flowing Green in particular. Out of this sensitivity must arise a meeting of the minds between Mouche, the Questioner, Kaorugi the planetary consciousness, and the huge spacegoing alien Quaggima thats embedded itself in the planet's crust, causing the earthquakes. Tepper has tremendous fun with her sex-role reversals, even when her purpose is deadly serious: Despite the clutter, stir in lashings of caustic wit--and the upshot won't just raise your consciousness, it'll blow the top right off. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Locus
"Delightful...at once witty, moving, and exactly right...a marvelously complex book, filled with humanity seen, and felt, at its best and its worst, and set alongside some fascinating alienness as well. Tepper knows how to stir the wit and wisdom of parable into a genuine page turner of a narrative, for male and female readers alike.


Book Description
It was many years ago that humans came and settled the world of Newholme-cruelly bending the planet to their will; setting down roots and raising up cities and farms and a grand temple to their goddess.But now the ground itself is shaking with ever-increasing violence. And the Great Questioner, official arbiter of the Council of Worlds, has come to this isolated orb to investigate rumors of a terrible secret that lies buried deep within Newholme's past--a past that is not dead, not completely. And it will fall to Mouche, a beautiful youth of uncommon cleverness and spirit, to save his imperiled home by dicovering and embracing that which makes him unique among humans. For every living thing on newholme is doomed, unless Mouche can appease something dark and terrible that is coiled within...and surrender to the mysterious ecstatic revelry taht results when the six moons join.


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

It was many, many years ago that humans came and settled the world of Newholme. In the early days, the first wave of pioneers struggled to make a home on the harsh, alien planet. As others from Earth came, the humans learned to bend Newholme to their will, to set down roots and raise up cities and farms and a grand temple to their goddess. But now strange things are happening. The very ground is shaking with volcanic eruptions, and all of Newholme is in peril. And so it is that the great Great Questioner, official arbiter of the Council of Worlds, decides to pay a visit to the isolated planet to find out what is causing the increasingly violent disturbances. It is on Newholme that the Questioner will meet Mouche, a beautiful youth of uncommon cleverness and spirit. It will fall to Mouche to discover and embrace that which makes him unique among humans. For Newholme's past is not dead, not completely. And the survival of an entire world depends upon Mouche appeasing something dark and terrible that's coiled within...and in his total surrender to the mysterious, ecstatic revelry that results when the six moons join.

FROM THE CRITICS

Locus

Delightful...at once witty, moving, and exacly right...a marvelously complex book, filled with humanity seen, and felt, at its bestand its worst, and set alongside some fascinating alienness as well. Tepper knows how to stir the wit and wisdom of parable into agenuine pageturner of a narrative, for male and female readers alike.

Publishers Weekly

Ambitiously choreographed and executed without a misstep, Tepper's complex new novel follows her acclaimed The Family Tree into a profound ecological and sociological commentary on human individuality. Originally settled by now-vanished immigrants from the testosterone-rich planet of Thor, the matriarchal world of Newholme faces imminent volcanic destruction. To determine whether Newholme's ruling Hags and their society deserve to be saved, the galactic Council of Worlds dispatches a cybernetic super-grandma, the Great Questioner, who collects a brilliantly conceived multispecies team to probe mysteries deep in Newholme's past. Tepper courageously tackles touchy issues like gender dominance with grace and wit. Through handsome charmer Mouche, sold by his parents into Hunk toy-boy training, Tepper unveils the Hag-ridden female will-to-power, just as threatening to individual freedom as that of the horrid male supremacist-schemers she depicts. Tepper deftly conjoins a superb awareness of otherness with penetrating insight into selfhood in this shining, bravura performance. (July) FYI: Tepper's Beauty (1991) was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of Locus magazine.

Library Journal

A series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, heralding the conjunction of Newholme's six moons, serves as a catalyst for a visit by the artificial intelligence known as the Questioner, an entity with the power to save--or destroy--worlds in crisis. As the planet's ruling priestesses strive to conceal their world's questionable dealings with its "invisible" race of indigenous creatures, a small group of social outcasts seeks to bring the truth to light, forcing a choice between transformation or annihilation. Tepper combines a treatise on the politics of gender with a transcendent celebration of love and renewal. Always breaking new ground with her imaginative forays into speculative fiction, the author of The Family Tree (LJ 5/15/97) weaves the individual stories of her characters into an elegant design. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

Underground volcanoes are exploding on the planet of Newholme. Could it be that conquering humans have disrupted the order of things? Only award-winning sf author Tepper knows for sure.

Paul Witcover - Event Horizon