Intervention

by Kelly Robson, Robin Miles (Narrator)

Jules, from child-hating Luna, loves children and has been doing crèche work for fifty years. With her final crèche graduating, she has to decide where to go next and whether it’s time to take her skills home.

Audiobook

About the author

Like you, I'm a passionate reader. I spent most of my teenage years either hanging out at the drugstore waiting for new issues of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, or when I was in the city, lurking in the SF and Fantasy section of the bookstore. This was pre-Internet and since there were no bookstores in my town and the library was pretty bare, good books -- the kind that made my heart sing -- were precious treasures.

To this day, nothing is more important to me than reading, nothing is more delicious than a great novel, and few people are as important as my favorite writers.

My writing life has been pretty diverse. I've edited science books, and from 2008 to 2012 I had the great good luck to write a monthly wine column for Chatelaine, the largest women's magazine in Canada.

I've published short fiction at Tor.com, Asimov's Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and a number of anthologies. Several of my stories have been chosen for "year's best" anthologies, and in the past two years I've been a finalist for several high-profile awards.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world of this story was really interesting involving several planets and moons. It was futuristic, bleak, and pretty well unrecognizable as our society. I truly had no idea where the story was leading and I was surprised by the sweet and heartwarming ending.

I listened to the Serial Box audio and the narration was very good. The main character sounded appropriately aged and the story was perfect for audio. I didn't notice any sound effects or music which I've come to expect from Serial Box which made this ore of a standard audiobook. I honestly didn't even think about it until the end when I wondered if I was so engrossed that I just didn't notice, but I'm pretty sure there weren't any extra effects in this one.

[Snail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Kelly Robson's depiction of Jules, badass granny in SPACE who just wants to raise kids. Fight that Luna colony stigma, Jules! This is the kind of plot I'm always wishing for when some sci fi movie trailer pops up on the theater screen (remember theaters? It's been awhile) - but those movies, nearly without fail, always seem to dissolve into dramatic depictions of death, violence, and drama - war, going crazy in space, aliens and how to blow them up, whatever. If there were a movie or animated film depiction of Jules and co, I'd watch it in a heartbeat. And I'd totally love to read more stories about her adventures with the kids or on Luna!

(First read in Neil Clarke's 2019 best science fiction of the year anthology, volume 4.)

[Paul Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome story with great worldbuilding and terrific characters, characters that you like warts and all. Robson continuing her terrific work.

[Jonathan Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok read. Read from The Best Science Fiction Volumes 4. There were some ideas that I really liked, such as being able to read vital signs as biomes.

[David Blaylock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story of a possible sad future.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great world-building, hopeful story set in a bleak future