The Aliens of Earth

by Nancy Kress, Jane Walker (Illustrator)

For over a decade, Nancy Kress has written a succession of science-fantasy stories in which a depth of imagination is conjoined to an uncommon perception of human nature. Even Kress's most committed partisans, however, were unprepared for the appearance of her two awesomely accomplished nouvelles, "Beggars in Spain, " and "And Wild for to Hold." The former - a Hugo and Nebula recipient - has become an acclaimed novel; the latter - a time-travel adventure involving Anne Boleyn - explores the uneasy interface between technology and humanity as one of the eighteen stories in this outstanding collection: "The Price of Oranges, " "Glass, " "People like Us, " "Cannibals, " "To Scale, " "Touchdown, " "Down behind Cuba Lake, " "In a World like This, " "Philippa's Hands, " "Inertia, " "Phone Repairs, " "The Battle of Long Island, " "Renaissance, " "Spillage, " "The Mountain to Mohammed, " "Craps, " "And Wild for to Hold, " and "In Memoriam."

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

327 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Nancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella Beggars in Spain which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kress is one of my favorite authors. And, as always with her, there's a great variety of themes and styles. But any short story collection is going to have pieces that are much better than others.

I loved the kick that's hidden in the title of "People Like Us." And "Cannibals," "Touchdown," "The Mountain to Mohammed," and "Inertia" are also very good. But I could've done without Down Behind Cuba Lake" and "Philippa's Hands." The first was too confusing and didn't seem to have anything to say, and the second was too disturbing.

[Lindig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see some other reviewer has said this isn't SF at all, more like fantasy, and I can see why he thinks so. However, just because she hasn't written info dumps on the spaceship engine or the latest weapon doesn't mean it isn't SF; it just means that she writes more about the people than the tech. Some of the stories do border on the dark fantasy realm, though.

After I'd read several stories, I began to realize that I didn't like any of the characters at all. So I did what I usually do in that case -- I dip about, read a few paragraphs, and then close the book. Just as in life I don't hang around people I don't like, so it is with fiction.

[Cher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of these stories read like Twilight Zone episodes, but a few of them were so excellent, Inertia for example, it raised the whole thing up.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't do much for me. I'm guessing most of the stories were written during/after a breakup, as all the male characters are either evil, doomed, or both.