eBook Steal Across the Sky epub

I love the writings of Nancy Kress, those I have read, at least. I did just read that one reviewer said that this was not the book the reviewer expected and was disappointed for that reason. Having read several of Nancy Kress' works and having loved all of them my only expectation was that NK would be taking me on an adventure I never could have imagined myself and I was open to liking or not liking it.
I loved it. This is brilliant writing, very imaginative and, given the many theories floating around these days regarding the possible visits to earth by extraterrestrials in the very early days of the emergence of homo sapiens, and the suggestion that said ETs may have intervened in the evolution for various and sundry reasons, the plot is not new but is an extremely creative take on that basic plot. I have to say that "Steal Across the Sky" may be the best version of the basic plot since Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinel" which morphed into "2001: A Space Odyssey", and is considered one of the classics of modern science fiction.
Kress' take on the plot is begun by the sudden appearance of extra-terrestrials who call themselves "The Atoners." They confess that they had interfered on Earth at a critical stage, had kidnapped a number of humans and altered the genes of half of them and had placed them on planets in binary configurations, that is, two planets orbiting the same sun and being held by gravity in opposition to one another. One planet got the unaltered humans, the other got the humans who had been altered by the Atoners. They had done this not only with humans but with many other beings early in their evolution. They came to earth to confess and to somehow "atone" for what they now considered to have been grievously unconscionable experiments.
However, there is a catch. They want to send "witnesses" to each planet and ask them to observe and, if they could, figure out what the Atoners had done, that is, they were to "witness" the behavior on each planet and figure out what the Atoners had done so long ago.
I found myself utterly fascinated by the two civilizations that are the focus of the story. The witnesses figure out what was done and come back to the Atoners' moon base and report what they had observed and deduced. I will give this much of a key aspect of the plot away. The Atoners had removed certain genes from half of their subjects and watched how the two groups developed on their chosen planets.
The plot involves evidence that the unaltered humans had developed an ability to perceive and converse with the "soul" of anyone who has died. They are said to be "on the second road." To some, this was seen as proof of an afterlife.
The Atoners had also decided that humans on earth would only continue to evolve without that genetic strand.
It is not as cut and dry as one would think. When the "witnesses" return to Earth, they have different interpretations of what they witnessed on the planets with the unaltered humans. The repercussions for the human race on Earth are staggering. Each witness chooses their own distinct path based on their interpretation of what they had seen and how they wanted to live with what they understood.
What shines out in this book for me is how full, well-developed and complex Kress' characters are. As with her other books, this reviewer found these people believable and easy to come to care about. Every action taken by the characters is believable within the givens of the story. This is, after all, a science fiction novel.
The ending of the book may be gratifying to some and frustrating to others. Some believe the "Atoners" have not ever atoned for their sins, others know different. Myself, I loved how NK ended this book. I will say that this book begs for a sequel, something Kress has done in the past. I hope she does return us to the "post-Atoners" earth in a future volume. I loved this book, loved the manner in which Kress delivered her story and recommend this highly, especially to those who like to be challenged to ponder a moral conundrum. There is action, but this is a book that will live in the reader's head for some time after it is finished.

Nancy Kress is really good at writing hard-core science fiction, and for that alone I applaud her. To do that in such a male-dominated field is brilliant; to do it repeatedly is amazing. Unfortunately, where this book excels in world-building and uniqueness, it falls short in the area of characters with whom one can really relate and who have deep emotional progression.

It could have been better or even worse.

Better would have been easier. How? Cut out all the unnecessary bits, the song lyrics, the crossword puzzle and the other nonsense that was inserted though out the book. Except for the section listing the names and short bios for each of the witnesses. That should have been moved to the front of the book for easy reference.

When I started reading the book, I was under the assumption that I was reading a science fiction book since it was advertised and sold as science fiction. In my opinion, it fails miserable as a science fiction book but when I started to look at it as a mystery with science fiction elements it made more sense.

Dialogue wasn't bad, neither were the descriptions, no funny lines for the sake of being funny but on the other hand, nothing memorable.

Chemistry between characters was lukewarm at best. The action scenes lacked spark (something was missing) and whenever the book did start moving, the author threw in another page of nonsense, which broke the flow over and over again.

Will I ever read another book by the author? Honestly? Probably not.

A weak premis and unsympathetic illogical characters make this book an unrewarding slog.

Nancy Kress has once again written a piece of fascinating science fiction. "What if?" is one of my favorite questions, and it's the question this book asks. It's a questions she's asked before, and once again she's drawn us in as she considers it. I won't disclose the second half of the "What if....." question, since I hate spoilers, but it's a good one and could use further exploration.

Now my quibble. The book falls into two halves. One deals with humans dropped into alien cultures. The second deals with aftermath back on Earth. I loved the first half. Kress has a gift for alien culture building and the ethical issues visited upon terran observers. I totally love the naive Earthlings trying to figure out what's going on. It tickles my brain in the right way and both entertains and provides a puzzle. Good stuff.

Back on earth, though, it all fell flat. Not totally, abysmally, unreadably flat, but flat compared with how engaged I was in the first half. I dunno. Maybe she just doesn't like Earth as much as Elsewhere. I don't blame her. And I didn't put the book down; I wanted to find out how the little twisty bit left over from the first half would play out. It played out satisfactorally for now and in such a way that I suspect we may in future be reading more of the story. If this turns into a series like the Sleepless books, you'd hear no objection from me. It reminds me of them in some ways which would be obvious to all but those who haven't read it yet.

I'm going to keep reading Kress. OK, this one's a bit uneven, but she's still good. Very good. Enjoy!

Nancy Kress knows how to set up a gripping mystery, but fails to take care of loose ends, leaving this reader deeply unsatisfied.

***SPOILER ALERT:***

Most glaring to me was the question of why the James-Soledad storyline developed as it did. There is absolutely no motivation given for his involvement with Soledad, nor of his subsequent actions.

The central idea of this book was interesting and original - after reading a good amount of sci-fi I think it becomes common to spend the vast majority of your reading time entertained and delighted by variations of ideas that you have already been exposed to. There are certainly sci-fi books I would recommend before this, but this book gets 5 stars for actually having (to me) an original idea - priceless.