New Scientist recommends Sheri S. Tepper’s science fiction novel Grass

I have a thing for old sci-fi with trashy covers so terrible they’re awesome. My dream is for someone to make a wallpaper out of it so I can use it to wallpaper my downstairs bathroom.

Meanwhile, I recently came across a book in a charity shop that I ended up loving: Sheri S. Tepper’s Grass. This was published in 1989; the edition I found (pictured above) is from the 1990s and has a pleasantly odd dust jacket.

It also turned out to be a great read, of the dense, “message” genre of 1980s science fiction. The story is set in a distant future in which humanity has colonized many planets. An epidemic could wipe them out, unless they discover why the inhabitants of a world called Grass, covered in multicolored meadows, are immune.

The Grassians are insular and strangely obsessed with hunting the planet’s alien “foxes”. The secrets of the hunt are pleasantly unsettling and Tepper’s world-building is superb. I’ll be tracking down his other works – especially those with notable covers.