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Jul. 12th, 2011 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsBecause once was not enough: more Sheri S. Tepper nostalgia reading of WTF!
The True Game (it's a trilogy, but I had it in one volume so I think of it as one) follows a teenaged boy named Peter in a world that's structured like a D&D game: when they start to develop powers after leaving school, everyone gets a cool classification like Necromancer or Priestess or Dragon, acquires a nifty new costume to go along with their title, and jaunts around getting involved in highly structured battle sequences according to their +10 power of flight or +5 power of charisma. This is actually a lot of fun to read about, which is probably why I had fond memories of this trilogy!
About halfway through the first book Peter acquires the deus ex machina ability to acquire other people's powers. This, along with his hilarious sulky haplessness and bad habit of trustingly following around sketchy older men, means that for the rest of the book I could not help but picture him like this:
Book 1: In Which Peter BSODs
Our story begins with naive 15-year-old Peter tucked away at a Boy's School For People With Powers. Peter's most notable trait throughout the book is his tendency to blank out and go semi-comatose every time something traumatic happens. It is probably unfair to laugh at him for this, but I can't help it. The first thing that happens is Peter gets betrayed by the sketchy older dude he's been sleeping with!
Peter: Noooooo! *BSOD*
THREE DAYS LATER
PETER: Wait, where are we, where are we going?
PETER'S BFF YARROW: . . . we got kicked out of school by the kindly headmaster and sent on a quest after some kind of MacGuffin and we've been on the road for like half a week.
PETER: . . . . oh. Um, why are you and our school cook with me again?
YARROW: The cook is here because you need a babysitter. I'm here because I'm secretly a lower-class non-powered serf, and I think all of you upper-class powered people are privileged assholes, so honestly I couldn't wait to leave.
PETER: . . . except me, right?
YARROW: It's true, I can't hate you yet, you're too naive and dumb.
PETER: :D!
YARROW: Also some creepy people are chasing us, so we're going to go hang out with The People Who Have the Power of Making Powers Stop Working.
PETER: Oh hey, The People Who Have The Power of Making Powers Stop Working gave us a hot girl as our guide! Awesome!
MYSTERIOUS PURSUERS: *kill the hot girl*
PETER: Nooooooo! *BSOD*
Anyway this allows us the opportunity to meet some new characters. Peter also picks up a couple of mysterious MacGuffin carved game pieces that will come in useful later.
SILKHANDS: I am the cute, babbly and friendly healer who came to heal the unfortunately tragically dead hot girl.
DAZZLE: I am Silkhands' sister! Who was BORN EVIL. You can tell because when I don't have my +10 power of illusion working my FACE looks like a SKULL.
PETER: AHHH! your FACE looks like a SKULL! *BSOD*
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: I am Silkhands' boss and the only person in this world who knows the meaning of the world JUSTICE.
(BECCA: . . .
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: No, literally, we don't have dictionaries, people can't even look it up!)
Wizard Himaggery sends Peter & Co. off to pick up an old friend of his who's being held semi-hostage, Seer Windlow, the only OTHER person in the world who knows the meaning of the word justice. Alas, their mysterious pursuers use their +10 power of telepathy to come after them!
WINDLOW: Quick! Everybody chew some marijuana and BSOD! It's the only way to throw off the telepaths!
But alas, Peter is TOO GOOD at BSODing, so when everybody else meets up at a set time and and escapes, Peter's still sitting there thinking blankly about the pretty clouds and gets captured.
DEMON HULD: I am a man of honor! But alas my nephew, the sketchy older dude who betrayed you, asked me to capture you and bring you here, so what are you gonna do.
SKETCHY PRINCE MANDOR, NOW TRAGICALLY DISFIGURED: Hello, Peter!
PETER: AHHHH! Your FACE looks like a SKULL! Nooooooo! *BSOD!*
And then Peter BSODs for like the next three months while everyone scurries around trying to rescue him. Eventually he comes out of it enough to discover his power: he can shapeshift! And if he shapeshifts into somebody else, he can also use their powers. Convenient! So he shapeshifts himself into a stablehand and keeps BSODing for like another month until Silkhands comes to rescue him, and then they try and escape through the dungeons, which seems doomed to fail, UNTIL:
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Hi, Peter! I'm your shapeshifter mom!
PETER: . . . I have a mom?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Yes. Also, Wizard Himaggery is your dad and the kindly headmaster from your school is your uncle.
PETER: . . . and why are you doing magic knitting in a dungeon?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Don't ask stupid questions. Anyway, Peter, those gamespieces you have in your pocket are actually stored incarnations of our original powered ancestors that will let you use any power, so you know you have only one choice here -
PETER: I do?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Use the Necromancer piece and raise an army of the dead to destroy the castle, obviously. Bye now! *disappears in a puff of magic knitting*
PETER: ????????????
But he nobly manages to fend off a BSOD for long enough to raise an army of the dead and destroy the castle and go home to his friends.
PETER: Also hey guess what guys, I can shapeshift!
YARROW: A shapeshifter killed my sister! We are no longer friends. >:|
PETER: Oh, I guess this book is ending on a note of sorrow. :(
And since Yarrow is the most likable and sensible person in the book, it is indeed a note of suitable sorrow, highlighted by Peter's musings on skull-faced Mandor and skull-faced Dazzle hanging out being skull-facedand awful together.
(BECCA: So, Sheri S. Tepper, that was actually a pretty good story, except is it like a rule in your universe that evil people suffer traumatic facial disfigurement?
SHERI S. TEPPER: YES! :D
BECCA: That is kind of ablist I think!
SHERI S. TEPPER: Oh, if you think that's bad, just wait until the next book!)
Book 2: In Which OH SHERI TEPPER NO
PETER: So now I'm going to turn into a dragon and go looking for my long-lost mom!
EVERYBODY ELSE: . . . . why a dragon?
PETER: Because DRAGONS ARE COOL OKAY. >:|
But he does get talked out of turning into a dragon and goes to follow the mysterious riddle that his mom left behind. After a series of adventures that includes Baby's First Heterosexual Sex, he comes to . . . wacky shapeshifter land!
WACKY SHAPESHIFTER LAND: Shapeshifters don't need clothes! *recruits an army of angry animals to strip Peter and toss him out in the middle of a hallucinogenic meadow*
BECCA: @___@
And then Peter spends a few months BSODing in Wacky Shapeshifter Land, but since this is the only time he BSODs the entire book we'll forgive him that.
PETER: Well, now I'm kind of a good shapeshifter, but everybody sucks and is annoying in shapeshifter land so I'm off to find my mom again.
MAVIN: What took you so long?
PETER: So, Mom, can we have a talk about how you abandoned me and that time you showed up with crazy magical knitting and -
MAVIN: No time, no time, we have to go investigate those creepy people under the mountain! They have been kidnapping everyone who knows the meaning of the word JUSTICE.
PETER: Wait, I thought that literally was just Dad.
MAVIN: Well, your dad and Window, who have in fact now been kidnapped. But that's only because a bunch of other people were already kidnapped, so now it's time to disguise ourselves as pack animals and sneak in. Keep up, kid!
And now we go to the Land Under the Mountain, aka The Land of Sheri Tepper's Terrifying Id Unleashed
INCESTUOUS CONJOINED TWINS: Hello! We're evil and crazy! Also no Sheri Tepper book would be complete without a set of incestuous conjoined twins, apparently!
MAN WITH NO LEGS: We're all evil and crazy here, and you can tell because all of us have serious birth defects!
MAVIN: Son, you see those clearly evil and crazy people here? They should all have been killed at birth.
BECCA: . . . . . . . OH SHERI TEPPER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
EVIL, INBRED UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: Apparently every Sheri Tepper book needs some of these too? Anyway our job is to pretend to study the evil and crazy monsters! Also, we classify all women as monsters, because we weren't unsubtly stupid enough already.
PETER: I am so confused by this plot. So, so confused.
BECCA: Peter, you are NOT ALONE.
MAVIN: So anyway, now we've had a pause for backstory and confusion, can we just rescue your dad and get out of here?
PETER: Sounds good to me! Oh, can we rescue this hot girl I found too?
MAVIN: Sure, if you want. We can also blow up the whole mountain on the way out too, because remember: all these people should have been killed at birth.
BECCA: SHERI TEPPER STOP IT.
DEMON HULD, ON THE WAY OUT: Ah! Peter! I KILL YOU!
PETER: Wait, what? Wasn't your plot wrapped up in the last book? Why are you even here?
DEMON HULD: My interesting characterization in the last book of being a conflicted man bound by familial affection to an evil one has all disappeared and now I'm just an evil mastermind.
PETER: Oh well, we'll save that problem for the next book. Bye now!
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: So hey Mavin, now that you've rescued me, are we going to get back together?
MAVIN: LOL no.
PETER: So hey Yarrow, now that I've redeemed myself in your eyes by rescuing this hot girl who turned out to be your presumed-dead sister, are we going to get back together?
YARROW: Probably not, but I don't hate you with a fiery passion anymore?
PETER: Semi-happy ending! I'LL TAKE IT.
Book 3: In Which the Master Plan Is Revealed (To Be Ridiculous)
PETER'S MOM AND DAD AND UNCLE: So Peter I guess now you can settle down and enjoy having a family! :D? :D?
PETER: . . . . . . . . I never realized this when I was a tragic orphan, but living with your family? Actually can drive you crazy! Um, I'm off to visit Silkhands at her new job y'all, LATER. Maybe I'll solve the mystery of Legendary Wizard Barish while I'm at it!
THE MYSTERY: So Peter guess what, your deus ex machina convenient superpower game pieces are probably all people who were separated from their bodies by Legendary Wizard Barish, and you can have a chance to bring them back to life! Isn't that awesome?
PETER: But . . . . my superpowers D: D: D: D:
SILKHANDS: Hey Peter, good to see you! Want to help me bring my student Jinian to her arranged marriage on your way to solve the mystery and complete the quest?
PETER: If there's a chance that you and I will hook up on the way? Sure!
DEMON HULD: Meanwhile, up in my secret torture dungeon in the mountains . . .
(BECCA: Wait, why do you have a secret torture dungeon?
DEMON HULD: Because I'm EVIL! Didn't you get the memo?)
JINIAN: So Peter, I've decided, screw this arranged marriage thing, I want to go with you on your quest to bring your deus ex machina gamepieces back to life.
PETER: But . . . my superpowers D: D: D: D:
JINIAN: Well, if you don't, we're probably going to get run over by Huld and his zombie army from the secret torture dungeon. Thirteen superpowered people are better than one, Peter. It's just math.
PETER: >:| >:| >:| FINE.
So then Peter brings all his tiny figures back to life - all of whom, by the way, are much more interesting than most of the modern characters, so yay for that! - and then decides, since there is the spare body of Legendary Wizard Barish hanging around, he might as well bring his other dead friend Windlow (also now a tiny frozen game figurine) back to life too.
WINDLOW: Conveniently and coincidentally, I was Legendary Wizard Barish . . . the whole time!
PETER: . . .
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: My genius plan involved freezing the awesome original superpowered people and turning them into tiny gamepieces, then kidnapping everybody who knew the meaning of the word JUSTICE and freezing them TOO until a day could come when we would make an ethical society!
BECCA: But the people who knew the meaningof the word JUSTICE didn't know about this plan.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: Nope! :D
BECCA: And . . . you were the only one up until now with the power of bringing people back to life.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: Yep! :D
BECCA: I can see some flaws in your plan.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: It's okay though, because NOW we can create the grand revolutionary ideal society of JUSTICE!
PETER: . . . well, you all have fun with that but I think I'm going to take off on an extended honeymoon with my new girlfriend Jinian instead. Ciao!
DEMON HULD: TORTURE DUNGEON REVENGE!
PETER ET AL.: Oh right, I guess we have to defeat you before the book can be over.
(BECCA: Okay, Sheri S. Tepper, I will admit Peter being like LOL JUSTICE WHATEVER and taking off at the end was kind of hilarious, and overall the majority of the first and third books in this series were pretty enjoyable . . . but why, WHY the book in the middle?
SHERI S. TEPPER: Come on, if there were no points of WTF that made you want to tear your hair out, what excuse would you give yourself to recap it at great length?
BECCA: . . . touche, Sheri Tepper.)
The True Game (it's a trilogy, but I had it in one volume so I think of it as one) follows a teenaged boy named Peter in a world that's structured like a D&D game: when they start to develop powers after leaving school, everyone gets a cool classification like Necromancer or Priestess or Dragon, acquires a nifty new costume to go along with their title, and jaunts around getting involved in highly structured battle sequences according to their +10 power of flight or +5 power of charisma. This is actually a lot of fun to read about, which is probably why I had fond memories of this trilogy!
About halfway through the first book Peter acquires the deus ex machina ability to acquire other people's powers. This, along with his hilarious sulky haplessness and bad habit of trustingly following around sketchy older men, means that for the rest of the book I could not help but picture him like this:
Book 1: In Which Peter BSODs
Our story begins with naive 15-year-old Peter tucked away at a Boy's School For People With Powers. Peter's most notable trait throughout the book is his tendency to blank out and go semi-comatose every time something traumatic happens. It is probably unfair to laugh at him for this, but I can't help it. The first thing that happens is Peter gets betrayed by the sketchy older dude he's been sleeping with!
Peter: Noooooo! *BSOD*
THREE DAYS LATER
PETER: Wait, where are we, where are we going?
PETER'S BFF YARROW: . . . we got kicked out of school by the kindly headmaster and sent on a quest after some kind of MacGuffin and we've been on the road for like half a week.
PETER: . . . . oh. Um, why are you and our school cook with me again?
YARROW: The cook is here because you need a babysitter. I'm here because I'm secretly a lower-class non-powered serf, and I think all of you upper-class powered people are privileged assholes, so honestly I couldn't wait to leave.
PETER: . . . except me, right?
YARROW: It's true, I can't hate you yet, you're too naive and dumb.
PETER: :D!
YARROW: Also some creepy people are chasing us, so we're going to go hang out with The People Who Have the Power of Making Powers Stop Working.
PETER: Oh hey, The People Who Have The Power of Making Powers Stop Working gave us a hot girl as our guide! Awesome!
MYSTERIOUS PURSUERS: *kill the hot girl*
PETER: Nooooooo! *BSOD*
Anyway this allows us the opportunity to meet some new characters. Peter also picks up a couple of mysterious MacGuffin carved game pieces that will come in useful later.
SILKHANDS: I am the cute, babbly and friendly healer who came to heal the unfortunately tragically dead hot girl.
DAZZLE: I am Silkhands' sister! Who was BORN EVIL. You can tell because when I don't have my +10 power of illusion working my FACE looks like a SKULL.
PETER: AHHH! your FACE looks like a SKULL! *BSOD*
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: I am Silkhands' boss and the only person in this world who knows the meaning of the world JUSTICE.
(BECCA: . . .
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: No, literally, we don't have dictionaries, people can't even look it up!)
Wizard Himaggery sends Peter & Co. off to pick up an old friend of his who's being held semi-hostage, Seer Windlow, the only OTHER person in the world who knows the meaning of the word justice. Alas, their mysterious pursuers use their +10 power of telepathy to come after them!
WINDLOW: Quick! Everybody chew some marijuana and BSOD! It's the only way to throw off the telepaths!
But alas, Peter is TOO GOOD at BSODing, so when everybody else meets up at a set time and and escapes, Peter's still sitting there thinking blankly about the pretty clouds and gets captured.
DEMON HULD: I am a man of honor! But alas my nephew, the sketchy older dude who betrayed you, asked me to capture you and bring you here, so what are you gonna do.
SKETCHY PRINCE MANDOR, NOW TRAGICALLY DISFIGURED: Hello, Peter!
PETER: AHHHH! Your FACE looks like a SKULL! Nooooooo! *BSOD!*
And then Peter BSODs for like the next three months while everyone scurries around trying to rescue him. Eventually he comes out of it enough to discover his power: he can shapeshift! And if he shapeshifts into somebody else, he can also use their powers. Convenient! So he shapeshifts himself into a stablehand and keeps BSODing for like another month until Silkhands comes to rescue him, and then they try and escape through the dungeons, which seems doomed to fail, UNTIL:
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Hi, Peter! I'm your shapeshifter mom!
PETER: . . . I have a mom?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Yes. Also, Wizard Himaggery is your dad and the kindly headmaster from your school is your uncle.
PETER: . . . and why are you doing magic knitting in a dungeon?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Don't ask stupid questions. Anyway, Peter, those gamespieces you have in your pocket are actually stored incarnations of our original powered ancestors that will let you use any power, so you know you have only one choice here -
PETER: I do?
MAVIN MANYSHAPED: Use the Necromancer piece and raise an army of the dead to destroy the castle, obviously. Bye now! *disappears in a puff of magic knitting*
PETER: ????????????
But he nobly manages to fend off a BSOD for long enough to raise an army of the dead and destroy the castle and go home to his friends.
PETER: Also hey guess what guys, I can shapeshift!
YARROW: A shapeshifter killed my sister! We are no longer friends. >:|
PETER: Oh, I guess this book is ending on a note of sorrow. :(
And since Yarrow is the most likable and sensible person in the book, it is indeed a note of suitable sorrow, highlighted by Peter's musings on skull-faced Mandor and skull-faced Dazzle hanging out being skull-facedand awful together.
(BECCA: So, Sheri S. Tepper, that was actually a pretty good story, except is it like a rule in your universe that evil people suffer traumatic facial disfigurement?
SHERI S. TEPPER: YES! :D
BECCA: That is kind of ablist I think!
SHERI S. TEPPER: Oh, if you think that's bad, just wait until the next book!)
Book 2: In Which OH SHERI TEPPER NO
PETER: So now I'm going to turn into a dragon and go looking for my long-lost mom!
EVERYBODY ELSE: . . . . why a dragon?
PETER: Because DRAGONS ARE COOL OKAY. >:|
But he does get talked out of turning into a dragon and goes to follow the mysterious riddle that his mom left behind. After a series of adventures that includes Baby's First Heterosexual Sex, he comes to . . . wacky shapeshifter land!
WACKY SHAPESHIFTER LAND: Shapeshifters don't need clothes! *recruits an army of angry animals to strip Peter and toss him out in the middle of a hallucinogenic meadow*
BECCA: @___@
And then Peter spends a few months BSODing in Wacky Shapeshifter Land, but since this is the only time he BSODs the entire book we'll forgive him that.
PETER: Well, now I'm kind of a good shapeshifter, but everybody sucks and is annoying in shapeshifter land so I'm off to find my mom again.
MAVIN: What took you so long?
PETER: So, Mom, can we have a talk about how you abandoned me and that time you showed up with crazy magical knitting and -
MAVIN: No time, no time, we have to go investigate those creepy people under the mountain! They have been kidnapping everyone who knows the meaning of the word JUSTICE.
PETER: Wait, I thought that literally was just Dad.
MAVIN: Well, your dad and Window, who have in fact now been kidnapped. But that's only because a bunch of other people were already kidnapped, so now it's time to disguise ourselves as pack animals and sneak in. Keep up, kid!
And now we go to the Land Under the Mountain, aka The Land of Sheri Tepper's Terrifying Id Unleashed
INCESTUOUS CONJOINED TWINS: Hello! We're evil and crazy! Also no Sheri Tepper book would be complete without a set of incestuous conjoined twins, apparently!
MAN WITH NO LEGS: We're all evil and crazy here, and you can tell because all of us have serious birth defects!
MAVIN: Son, you see those clearly evil and crazy people here? They should all have been killed at birth.
BECCA: . . . . . . . OH SHERI TEPPER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
EVIL, INBRED UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: Apparently every Sheri Tepper book needs some of these too? Anyway our job is to pretend to study the evil and crazy monsters! Also, we classify all women as monsters, because we weren't unsubtly stupid enough already.
PETER: I am so confused by this plot. So, so confused.
BECCA: Peter, you are NOT ALONE.
MAVIN: So anyway, now we've had a pause for backstory and confusion, can we just rescue your dad and get out of here?
PETER: Sounds good to me! Oh, can we rescue this hot girl I found too?
MAVIN: Sure, if you want. We can also blow up the whole mountain on the way out too, because remember: all these people should have been killed at birth.
BECCA: SHERI TEPPER STOP IT.
DEMON HULD, ON THE WAY OUT: Ah! Peter! I KILL YOU!
PETER: Wait, what? Wasn't your plot wrapped up in the last book? Why are you even here?
DEMON HULD: My interesting characterization in the last book of being a conflicted man bound by familial affection to an evil one has all disappeared and now I'm just an evil mastermind.
PETER: Oh well, we'll save that problem for the next book. Bye now!
WIZARD HIMAGGERY: So hey Mavin, now that you've rescued me, are we going to get back together?
MAVIN: LOL no.
PETER: So hey Yarrow, now that I've redeemed myself in your eyes by rescuing this hot girl who turned out to be your presumed-dead sister, are we going to get back together?
YARROW: Probably not, but I don't hate you with a fiery passion anymore?
PETER: Semi-happy ending! I'LL TAKE IT.
Book 3: In Which the Master Plan Is Revealed (To Be Ridiculous)
PETER'S MOM AND DAD AND UNCLE: So Peter I guess now you can settle down and enjoy having a family! :D? :D?
PETER: . . . . . . . . I never realized this when I was a tragic orphan, but living with your family? Actually can drive you crazy! Um, I'm off to visit Silkhands at her new job y'all, LATER. Maybe I'll solve the mystery of Legendary Wizard Barish while I'm at it!
THE MYSTERY: So Peter guess what, your deus ex machina convenient superpower game pieces are probably all people who were separated from their bodies by Legendary Wizard Barish, and you can have a chance to bring them back to life! Isn't that awesome?
PETER: But . . . . my superpowers D: D: D: D:
SILKHANDS: Hey Peter, good to see you! Want to help me bring my student Jinian to her arranged marriage on your way to solve the mystery and complete the quest?
PETER: If there's a chance that you and I will hook up on the way? Sure!
DEMON HULD: Meanwhile, up in my secret torture dungeon in the mountains . . .
(BECCA: Wait, why do you have a secret torture dungeon?
DEMON HULD: Because I'm EVIL! Didn't you get the memo?)
JINIAN: So Peter, I've decided, screw this arranged marriage thing, I want to go with you on your quest to bring your deus ex machina gamepieces back to life.
PETER: But . . . my superpowers D: D: D: D:
JINIAN: Well, if you don't, we're probably going to get run over by Huld and his zombie army from the secret torture dungeon. Thirteen superpowered people are better than one, Peter. It's just math.
PETER: >:| >:| >:| FINE.
So then Peter brings all his tiny figures back to life - all of whom, by the way, are much more interesting than most of the modern characters, so yay for that! - and then decides, since there is the spare body of Legendary Wizard Barish hanging around, he might as well bring his other dead friend Windlow (also now a tiny frozen game figurine) back to life too.
WINDLOW: Conveniently and coincidentally, I was Legendary Wizard Barish . . . the whole time!
PETER: . . .
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: My genius plan involved freezing the awesome original superpowered people and turning them into tiny gamepieces, then kidnapping everybody who knew the meaning of the word JUSTICE and freezing them TOO until a day could come when we would make an ethical society!
BECCA: But the people who knew the meaningof the word JUSTICE didn't know about this plan.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: Nope! :D
BECCA: And . . . you were the only one up until now with the power of bringing people back to life.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: Yep! :D
BECCA: I can see some flaws in your plan.
WINDLOW-NOW-BARISH: It's okay though, because NOW we can create the grand revolutionary ideal society of JUSTICE!
PETER: . . . well, you all have fun with that but I think I'm going to take off on an extended honeymoon with my new girlfriend Jinian instead. Ciao!
DEMON HULD: TORTURE DUNGEON REVENGE!
PETER ET AL.: Oh right, I guess we have to defeat you before the book can be over.
(BECCA: Okay, Sheri S. Tepper, I will admit Peter being like LOL JUSTICE WHATEVER and taking off at the end was kind of hilarious, and overall the majority of the first and third books in this series were pretty enjoyable . . . but why, WHY the book in the middle?
SHERI S. TEPPER: Come on, if there were no points of WTF that made you want to tear your hair out, what excuse would you give yourself to recap it at great length?
BECCA: . . . touche, Sheri Tepper.)
