Note the heavy use of ellipses in the reproduction of the New York Times review. And even so, it hardly seems like a raving review, does it? Before buying this book (or even investing your time in reading it), I highly recommend that you go back and read the full text of the Times review. In light of Tepper's past literary accomplishments, the review of this book was particularly harsh, which could be distilled into a few words: poorly-crafted, badly-plotted, overbearing polemical tract