A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

The colonized planet Jubal is full of Presences: immense and beautiful crystal formations that shatter into deadly shards when people come near them. People can only travel past them when accompanied by Tripsingers, who sing melodies that either calm them down (if you believe the Presences are alive) or resonate at frequencies that prevent shattering (if you believe they're just rocks.)

A bereft Tripsinger whose wife and brother died trying to tame the one Presence that has never been successfully sung goes on a quest to find out what happened, joined by two apprentices and a woman who knows a secret that will change everything. They're pursued by a ridiculous number of assassins, some who are religious fanatics who want people to leave the Presences alone, and some who are sent by a corporation that wants to destroy the Presences so they can make more money off the planet.

There's also the beings native to the planet, the Viggies, who were my favorite characters - a convincingly alien race with its own culture, biology, and factions, sketched out fascinatingly in a relatively small amount of page time.

After Long Silence focuses on what Tepper does best, which is to create a weird, mysterious world and explore it. The plot is kind of wobbly and several plotlines and mysteries are either dropped or given somewhat unsatisfactory explanations, and the human characters are 50-50 between fine, and boring or annoying. The batshit quotient is relatively small and there's no eugenics, though Tepper does shoehorn in her favorite villains, misogynist religious fanatics.

I enjoyed this for the world, the Presences, and the Viggies, but Tepper has written both better books and books which make for better book reviews.

Content notes: rape, misogyny, ableism.