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Steal Across the Sky

by Nancy Kress (Goodreads Author)

3.37 of 5 stars 3.37 · rating details · 602 ratings · 141 reviews

Aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the internet. The Atoners claim to have wronged humanity ten thousand years before, and request 21 volunteers to visit seven planets and Witness for us. At first, everyone thought it was a joke. Three of those volunteers tell what they found on Kular A and Kular B.

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published February 17th 2009 by Tor

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Jul 15, 2011 Ron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Steal Across the Sky is not an alien story nor about life after death, though both those figure in it. Rather it is about the nature of truth and preconceived notions of what is—or can be—real. Nancy Kress explores these with great imagination and honesty. Her characters are realistic precisely because they are so blind—sometimes infuriatingly so—to their own faults.

So why only three stars (and that a gift)? Because Kress’ writing is so poor. She’s mastered creative writing; she needs Writing 10...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Liviu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009_release_read, genre-sf, read_2009, review_fbc

Mysterious aliens come, set up base on Moon, put a Web ad: "need 21 humans to send as Witnesses/Observers in groups of 3, 1 on each of a twin planet, 1 to coordinate from orbit; we kidnapped humans 10k years ago and set up colonies on those worlds but also we committed a grievous wrong against humanity; safety and return passage guaranteed; they will know what is to Observe when they see it"

Millions apply and they select 21 young people but otherwise on a random - at least to us - basis regardin...more

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Apr 03, 2013 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, science-fiction

This is ....... Cute. Hopefully, that doesn't mean you thrust this aside as not important or interesting enough. But it is very cutely humorous, in the manner of a mild movie romance satire starring Hugh Grant. It is similar to a farcical romance with a cute meeting, confusion, dislike, chase scenes and accidental follow-up meetings, attractions, misunderstandings, satirized cultural commentary on family, in-laws, women and men, plus wedding stresses, but I must stress now this is not a movie lo...more This is ....... Cute. Hopefully, that doesn't mean you thrust this aside as not important or interesting enough. But it is very cutely humorous, in the manner of a mild movie romance satire starring Hugh Grant. It is similar to a farcical romance with a cute meeting, confusion, dislike, chase scenes and accidental follow-up meetings, attractions, misunderstandings, satirized cultural commentary on family, in-laws, women and men, plus wedding stresses, but I must stress now this is not a movie love affair before I go too far in misleading you. It's actually a science fiction novel structured like a comedy romance but with space aliens, bloody deaths and traumatic discoveries. Being that it also has murderous assassinations, terrorist Christian groups, government spies, a flamboyant reality star, broken hearts and compromised hook-ups, everything is not cleared up happily at the end. (view spoiler) It's a First Contact light comedy.

The single biggest flaw about the book is Nancy Kress held back. I think she should have gone in much stronger with humorous gags and digs about the inconsistencies, fallacies and mistakes people make in competing for their interests when they don't quite have all of the information they need to proceed. Fateful decisions are made and plans are worked out as if they were completely correct in their assumptions, but unfortunately only some of it is partially right. Ironic outcomes are played out. Roll the credits. Everyone leaves the theatre a little blissed out. Sigh. Kress was very very close in having a grand story, in my opinion. However, the laughs were undercut by tepid follow-throughs on great set-ups.

This novel has a great idea for a story. Space aliens with Pinch-Me tech arrive on the moon. They refuse to show themselves, but they make humanity an offer. They place an ad on the Internet seeking interviews with candidates for a space trip, bypassing government interference. They call themselves 'The Atoners' because they say they committed a great wrong against humankind. The aliens kidnapped a bunch of people and transported them to other planets millennia ago, and now they want to safely transport qualified volunteers to 'witness' these new human settlements. This somehow will help the aliens atone for the wrong. Millions apply, but the Atoners pick 21 high school graduates and a bit more educated people who have no or little science. All are young. Governments knash their teeth, but have to accept it since they can't stop it. As the novel quickly breezes through the ensuing discoveries and shocks, we are entertained by the characters of Lucca Maduro, rich Italian, Camilla O'Kane, high school graduate waitress from Nebraska, Frank Olenik, Catholic ex-policeman, and sensible college graduate Soledad Arellano. These folks have a lot of personal baggage which provides somewhat summer stock stage acting-out, but nonetheless it's interesting and entertaining.

I don't want to go much deeper than that, not that there is a deep plot, because it would wreck the surprises. But I will say that despite the fun, this book did not live up to its promise.

(view spoiler)[ There are too many loose ends at the end for any reader to be satisfied, yet there never was a sequel written. The revelation that people's spirits hang about, listening and watching after death, never was expanded out enough, but instead it was an oddity mostly off-stage. The author muted its impact in her characters' unfocused or stock footage responses. Cam was the best character, in my opinion, but the others were surprisingly weak, given the farce undertones, which is why the book lost a star in my review. Why weren't more witnesses altered by the revelation? Why did all of them except Cam go back to their normal life as if they had never traveled off planet and explored new worlds and civilizations? Maybe in reality that IS what real people would do, but to make the book more funny or emotionally stronger the author should have turned up the drama/laughs. Cam, my favorite character, was 'off' too, not quite suitable for her maniac role. She should not have been haunted by her actions on the other planet. She was a self-absorbed drama queen, and she would have excused her behavior to herself. So instead the character lost energy because of the remorse that the author gave her, when she should have been a puffed-up balloon of irritatable fluff. Also, while the author appropriately used an Earth child seeing a dead spirit in the last scene for a shock ending, showing that the Atoners had successfully atoned by introducing a breeding program designed to bring back the missing genes they had removed from our genome, it was not a very strong finish, but instead debilitated. My last complaint is about the character of James. His becoming involved with Soledad made absolutely NO sense and should have been either cut or reworked differently as a plot device. As it was, he had no reason to be with Soledad. He had his space wife and was quietly following the Atoners' plans. Why would he be protecting Soledad from the Terrorists when he had much more reason to fear them? However the Christian terrorists discovered him, he increased the exposure of his alien wife by hooking up with Soledad, which is completely loony. I simply couldn't see ANY reason for James to hook up with Soledad. Kress really messed up this part, in my opinion. (hide spoiler)]
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Feb 25, 2009 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: authors_nancy_kress, fiction, science-fiction, read-2009

Kress's new novel will be a Nebula nominee in 2009. The best SF takes a fundamental human basis of viewing reality, challenges it with an alternative premise, and uses this premise to explore human behavior. Like Beggars in Spain, Kress is quite successful with a 'previously unused' concept for SF. Don't buy the idea that SF constantly recycles ideas that were first used decades ago. There are plenty of un-used ideas that keep the genre fresh.

It's very difficult to write more about the novel wit...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 27, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full review at my blog.

A true “what-if” tale Steal Across the Sky introduces a mysterious alien race that commited a great crime against humanity somewhere in the distant past. Now the alien Atoners have set up shop on the moon and are calling for human “witnesses” to travel to distant planets. The exact nature of what they’re supposed to see is unknown only that it will supposedly reveal the exact nature of the crimes the Atoners commited.

The witnesses are divided into groups of three to two pl...more

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Jun 04, 2013 Oni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is the best sci-fi that I have read for this read, so far. It's at the pinnacle of the sci-fi world in asking the "what-if" question.

I am not going to give in any detail on the story, it will be a major spoiler. DO NOT READ any review with spoiler in it, because it will destroy the pleasure of reading and finding out.

In first few pages, it does not look like any different compared to common sci-fi. Several human astronaut, selected by ET that just visited the Earth, on mission to "witness"...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Nan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book, because I highly value Nancy Kress' books on writing--I use them a lot. But based on this novel only (it's the only one of hers I've read) she's showing the "John Gardner" syndrome--when a writer's books about how to create good fiction are, in fact, superior to her fiction.

Here's what dismayed me: in this story set in the nearish future, an alien race of "Atoners" recruits Earthlings to visit various planets on which they, the Atoners, stranded human beings 10,000 y...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Mjhancock rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Kress' Steal Across the Sky can be thought of as a book with two separate parts. In the first part, aliens choose individual humans from earth to travel across the stars to other alien planets, and Witness (capital W) the crime that the aliens performed on humanity. This part of the novel does some culture-building, with Lucca going to a planet with simple, nomadic people, and Cam going to the nearby planet that features a more medieval society that revolves around around skillful manipulation o...more Kress' Steal Across the Sky can be thought of as a book with two separate parts. In the first part, aliens choose individual humans from earth to travel across the stars to other alien planets, and Witness (capital W) the crime that the aliens performed on humanity. This part of the novel does some culture-building, with Lucca going to a planet with simple, nomadic people, and Cam going to the nearby planet that features a more medieval society that revolves around around skillful manipulation of a game similar to chess (think Iain M. Banks' Player of Games). In the second half, we return to Earth, to see human society deal with the fallout of the aliens' revelation: millenia ago, they altered the human race so we lost the ability to see the spirits of the recent dead. The second half follows the lives of four Witnesses post-Witnessing as the people of earth react to the knowledge that life after death is a certainty. Neither of the worlds in the first half are particularly original, and that's probably a deliberate choice on Kress' part. But it's still rather jarring when things return to Earth; thematically, a chapter that started on Earth may have helped with the transition. The plot in the second half also seems to drift somewhat, and the ending fails to answer certain questions, such as: why did the aliens bother to take people to planets with other humans without the ability to see the dead, when that's all they wanted people to learn? Why did they bother to take them there at all, when they could have just told them? It's a little deus ex alien, and even the hint of a sequel (which there isn't, really) doesn't fix that. On the positive side, Kress does a great job depicting the varying perspectives of her characters, and the asides between chapters showing press clippings and ads and other media on earth go a long way to selling the larger human reaction to the news of the aliens. While the book itself isn't great, Kress wrote this well enough that I'd be interested in reading more from her.(less)

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May 05, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

A while back I read an article which mentioned a science fiction novel where aliens contacted humans via a message posted on the Internet. The origins of this article now escape me, but I finally got around to picking up the book, “Steal Across the Sky.” And while it does include the aforementioned plot, it also addresses a number of different issues, including those of culture, ethics, and sociology.

One of the things that I found fascinating about this book was that it presented two alternate v...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Jacey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

When an alien base appears on the Moon, the aliens, who call themselves the Atoners, approach mankind via the power of the internet with a confession that they have done the human race great wrong and now wish to atone for it. Twenty one young applicants are selected as witnesses and sent off to twin planets on which kidnapped humans have developed societies. They are told that they'll know what they are looking for when they find it. Cam, Soledad and Lucca are the team that is sent to witness o...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: wwe-taw-challenge-2013, speculative-fiction

I didn't really intend to read Steal Across the Sky all in one evening, it just sort of happened. It's the first of my books for a challenge which I might or might not fully participate in, the Worlds Without End female writers challenge for 2013. I've meant to read Nancy Kress for ages, and I actually have Beggars in Spain somewhere to read, but on impulse I chose this one.

It's an interesting concept, or bundle of concepts: people are chosen to bear witness to the results of a crime committed b...more

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May 06, 2010 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, book-club, fiction, sci-fi, free-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 26, 2011 Stuart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Steal Across the Sky: I enjoyed this book, the second one in quick succession called a “A Sci-Fi Essential Book”; maybe there’s something in that? The story is of a group of aliens who call themselves the Atoners land on the moon, and declare that they once perpetrated great wrong on humanity. Now they want to “atone”. They do not tell us what the great wrong was, only that they want 21 “witnesses” to go to other planets to witness to it. I was at first a little disappointed, because everything...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-reviews, read-2011

The Atoners--an alien race--has set up a base on Earth's moon and asked for volunteers to "witness" human populations on distant planets. They admit to having committed a wrong against the human race 10,000 years earlier. Having these Earthlings visit settlements is their first step in making atonement. The story is full of mysteries surrounding what the Atoner's crime against humanity actually was, why they've chosen these people and what they are suppose to witness.

The novel opens with three...more

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May 19, 2009 edh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nobody tells stories about technology, genetics, and ethics like Nancy Kress. Set in the near future, Steal Across the Sky features aliens who have landed on the Moon and have sent a message to Earth: we've been here before, and we did something bad to you, so send us some Witnesses and we'll reveal it to them. There are lots of volunteers to Witness for the aliens (who call themselves the Atoners) and a batch is selected. But these Witnesses seem to have nothing in common other than their age;...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Matthew Hunter rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

You don't know for sure what's going on here! There are strange things in the universe!"

Cam O'Kane's right, there are plenty of unknowns in the universe, and I'll add Steal Across the Sky to the list of mysteries. The book disappointed me. Nancy Kress has written books on writing fiction. She's won four Nebulas and a John W. Campbell Memorial Award. No doubt, Kress has serious talent! So what happened here?

My first complaint--constantly shifting points of view. A 320-page book with 78 chapters,...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Marija S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Solid book. The basic idea it is built around (life after death) borders with the occult, mixing it deftly with science fiction, however this one is definitely not for hard-SF fans. If you just scratch beneath the surface of given 'scientific' explanations (and there are so so many unexplained issues), you will find them seriously lacking. Luckily, I'm in it for a whole different ride.

Things I liked?

The setting. I treated it as a thought experiment; what would happen if one day a mysterious an...more Solid book. The basic idea it is built around (life after death) borders with the occult, mixing it deftly with science fiction, however this one is definitely not for hard-SF fans. If you just scratch beneath the surface of given 'scientific' explanations (and there are so so many unexplained issues), you will find them seriously lacking. Luckily, I'm in it for a whole different ride.

Things I liked?

The setting. I treated it as a thought experiment; what would happen if one day a mysterious and completely featureless alien presence picked random Earthlings and dispatched them to human-like societies across the universe. I felt a pang of disappointment for this socializing being described just in roughly 1st half of the book, but this is only due to my personal interests in sociology which found the situation amusing beyond the plot line.

The characters. Kress delivered various personality types, however, since the book comprises of chapters written from each individual character's point of view, I feel she could have done a better job coloring each in a specific language, stream of thoughts, etc. Also, I loved this writing style because it allowed me to see the discrepancy between the way characters saw each other and themselves. I like their different lives, backgrounds and reactions to the shared experience and situations that ensued therefor.

The plot. I had no idea what would happen next and where is the author taking me. Now days, I find this to be a trait of the best story tellers.

Things I disliked/found lacking?

The point. When all is said and done, after an absorbing read, I found none. Why? What for? So what? Hmmm. I will have to think about this a bit harder.

The givens. Some things are simply served without explanation and I am not talking about alien technology, their nature, motives or their very existence. Ok, let's keep that a mystery. What bothered me the most were hypothesis that characters made and conclusions they came to, which I thought were completely wild guesses at the time, but turned out to be true, big revelations that actually moved them in the 'right' direction. Also, there were actions characters engaged in which I see no explanation for. I found them far fetched contraptions devised just to serve the plot and felt I had to ignore them in order to continue reading.

The characters. Yeah, diverse as they may be, they didn't strike me as convincing. Maybe if I hadn't had the insight of their inner thoughts due to the writing style Kress used, I would have painted a better picture of them for myself.

The ending. Call me a helpless anti-romantic, but I just do not see the love story between Soledad and Lucca work out. I have seen Kress work hard near the end to make the reader believe in it, have seen it coming, but I just do not buy it. I think this book is good enough without a flimsy happy-ending love story. Also, thee book left us speculating about the main reason it was written - how would existing afterlife affect us. For a speculative fiction, there wasn't too much speculating.

However, due to it's gripping and well-paced narrative, innovative approach to the idea of an after death existence and just pure fun in reading, it deserved 4 stars.(less)

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Sep 08, 2010 Dani Kollin rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of word craft and SF

Recommended to Dani by: Analog SF

I’d been meaning to read Nancy Kress’s, Steal Across the Sky for some time now. Mainly—and to be perfectly honest—because her book was used by a reviewer at Analogsf.com to beat my brother and I about the head. To wit: “Another technique is to introduce a naive observer, such as a traveler from another place or time. As the observer learns, so does the reader. Nancy Kress deftly uses this technique to great effect in Steal Across the Sky, as her Witnesses learn about the worlds upon which they’v...more I’d been meaning to read Nancy Kress’s, Steal Across the Sky for some time now. Mainly—and to be perfectly honest—because her book was used by a reviewer at Analogsf.com to beat my brother and I about the head. To wit: “Another technique is to introduce a naive observer, such as a traveler from another place or time. As the observer learns, so does the reader. Nancy Kress deftly uses this technique to great effect in Steal Across the Sky, as her Witnesses learn about the worlds upon which they’ve landed…In The Unincorporated Man the same technique is awkward and disruptive. Justin Cord is always learning about his new world in long expository passages that don’t fit and serve to slow down the reader.”
And so Nancy’s novel remained a curious itch waiting to be scratched once my “must read” list got whittled down to a reasonable tower.
The Story: Intriguing. Earth gets told they’ve been screwed – by the very alien race that screwed them. How? Well that’s for a bunch of alien-chosen (via interviews) witnesses to discover. Whisked away to strange planets, it’s up to our intrepid explorers to figure out what the Aliens are atoning for.
The Good:
Nancy Kress is a writer’s writer. Here’s a lovely descriptor: “Snow. Cold. Light. She registered sensations in shards, each piercing her mind like a small knife.” The book is loaded with such delights. If you’re like me, you prefer stories that are not only well told but also well written. It’s possible to have both but it’s rare. Avid readers will forgive languid word craft if the story’s intriguing enough. It’s the rare writer that can master both. Ray Bradbury comes to mind both as an inveterate storyteller and as a master wordsmith. Nancy Kress, while not at Ray’s level (really, though – who is?) certainly writes with the insouciant ease of a journeywoman who’s both comfortable and familiar with her craft.
The Bad:
First off, Um…ok. So Mr. Alien, why not just TELL US how you screwed us? Why schlep some of us to another world only to make us figure it out? I’ll suppose an Alien race more powerful than us can do whatever the hell it pleases (as can an author pulling the strings). And yes, I get it, it’s all part of the story but still, it rankled.
So the reveal was actually pretty cool. And even though my initial question never got answered I was willing to put it out of my mind given the potential of where the story seemed to be leading.
The Ugly:
The reveal (i.e. the thing that was stolen) was so rife with potential that I felt supremely let down that its ramifications stayed mainly within the conversations and goings-on of our witness group. Further, that those conversations seemed vapid at best and prejudiced at worst (enter religious fanatics). And yes, the witnesses served up a perfect dish of multi-faceted, multi-cultural jambalaya. But even their cumulative rainbow of colors response (as well as that of the world) felt rather shallow. Here was an opportunity to delve into the rich history of religion, science and even notions of self and individuality. Yet, nothing.
Re: AnalogSF’s review: Their point is well taken. The Unincorporated Man was our first book and as such is loaded with any number of rookie errors – over exposition being one of them. Nancy Kress is terrific writer with enough well-crafted books under her belt to be used by any reviewer as a bludgeoning instrument. I’m actually honored to have been bludgeoned by one of hers.
I gave Steal Across The Sky three stars because in the end it really was a good read. I’d just wanted it to be a great one.

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May 15, 2012 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I'm giving the book a low rating based on personal preferences and scientific / consistency issues. This is not a critique of its literary attributes.

I voted for this to be BOTM, but would not have if I had been aware of the underlying premise - which seems contrary to hard SF sensibilities. I was not only disturbed by the premise, but also the implausible attempts at scientific justifications. It's one thing to have implausible tech in SF, it's another to keep beating the reader over the head w...more I'm giving the book a low rating based on personal preferences and scientific / consistency issues. This is not a critique of its literary attributes.

I voted for this to be BOTM, but would not have if I had been aware of the underlying premise - which seems contrary to hard SF sensibilities. I was not only disturbed by the premise, but also the implausible attempts at scientific justifications. It's one thing to have implausible tech in SF, it's another to keep beating the reader over the head with silly "explanations" for it.

Below is an analysis of these issues. It requires serious spoilers, so be advised before reading further.

The basic spoiler is: 10,000 years ago aliens deleted a gene from Earth humans. The deletion of the gene took away an ability humans had previously had to see and communicate with those who had died. This is the premise I said conflicts with hard SF sensibilities (although it's never explicitly said whether what remains after the body dies is a spiritual / immaterial being or some other form of material being - such as an "energy being"). The story never touches on the possibility they may be material, and "life after death" is generally considered to be immaterial - so that seems the most reasonable interpretation. In either case, there seem to be problems with the surrounding explanations and/or internal consistency.

In a nutshell: If what continues after the body dies is immaterial, it's harder to justify genes determining physical characteristics could result in perceving the immaterial. If what continues is material, it's harder to justify that the aliens couldn't provide devices that could perceive them - although if the physical body can perceive the immaterial one can still ask why a device can't. It's worth noting we're not only being asked to believe a living body can see and hear the dead, but the living can ask questions to the dead - either the living can send immaterial signals or the dead can receive physical signals.

At one point, we're told the gene has been entirely removed, so restoration isn't possible. That didn't seem reasonable that the same aliens who did the original genetic engineering could not re-engineer it - especially with an additional 10,000 years to improve their skills. It was further implausible after we learn there are planets in other star systems where the aliens have placed humans who still have the gene. With humans who still have the gene available, what would prevent re-engineering the genes of Earth humans? At the end of the book, we are told the aliens have a secret breeding project on Earth where women from the other planets are having babies. The implication appears to be that Earth men are fertilizing these imported women who have the gene. I have my doubts whether a man with a "removed" gene would successfully produce children, especially with the gene. In any case, it didn't make much sense to me that the aliens would let us know they had removed the gene, then tell us the gene was totally gone and couldn't be restored, then forcibly take a DNA sample with the gene from a person who wants to make restoration possible, then have a secret project to restore the gene, and have no suggestion that anything more elaborate was required than someone without the gene having sex with someone who did.
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Jul 10, 2011 Glenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nancy Kress is a great author, but doesn't write the kind of sci-fi that most appeals to me. Nevertheless, this is a great and intriguing story. I can't say why - that would be a spoiler. But the premise is that aliens did something to humans 10,000 years ago that they now wish to atone for. 21 humans are chosen to visit 7 other inhabited systems and be "witness" to the heritage of this crime. The first 1/3 of the book focuses on one team of 3. The remainder follows up on their discovery and the...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, science-fiction

In the near future, a group of aliens arrive and establish a colony on the moon. The aliens, who call themselves the Atoners, tell the world that they've interfered in human development and call for several teams of three to be sent to other worlds to observe and figure out exactly what was done.

"Steal Across the Sky" follows one such team to two different worlds and shows the team figuring out exactly what happened. This story takes the first half of the novel, with the second half devoted to t...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Todd rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you've paid any attention to the History Channel lately, you've seen (or have skipped over it puzzling why such a show is on the History Channel) the series Ancient Aliens.

Its premise is that aliens have meddled in humanity's past, influening history, religion, technology and perhaps even DNA. Its the stuff of science fiction.

Nancy Kress's Steal Across the Sky takes up a similar premise. The aliens have come. They have meddled in humanity's past. They have returned and have established a bas...more

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Nov 15, 2009 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Nancy Kress again probes the science, culture, and politics of genetic engineering. An engaging and gripping story of aliens (only visible in one brief scene) who apparently "wronged" humanity, umm, 10,000 years ago. Now they have come back to "atone."

They want volunteers to bear witness to the nature of what they did. How do they select people? Well, like anyone else these days, they put up a web site with application form. Cute. (Reader is left to wonder how they registered the domain name......more

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Mar 03, 2010 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hmm, what to say about Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress. It was, at best, ok. It felt like watching the movie Children of Men, where everyone has dissimilar, yet oddly overlapping, motivations and throughout the entire book you really can’t trust any character you come across that is not the current narrator.

While the existential questions of the book had the potential to be interesting, Kress just did not take the time to develop them to the place where they could be genuinely thought-provo...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Hester rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: brainy-sf-by-ladies, novels, science-fiction, religion

I cannot even begin to write what the book is about without revealing the plot. While the book was not 'fun,' it is absorbing while dealing with heavy issues. This book does not wrap up neatly; there are lots of questions, about the characters and the science, left unanswered.

This book includes a motif that showed up in her "Sleepless" series. Nancy Kress is a brilliant woman; her "Probability Moon" was one of the few books I read thinking 'I am not smart enough to understand this book.' I find...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Elias rated it 3 of 5 stars

Now that I've read two books by Nancy Kress (see: Dogs), I get the feeling that she really likes having a menagerie of characters running around, and I think this might be a bit of a downfall. I really enjoyed the premise of this book, at least the first part, when the completely unprepared Earthlings were roaming around alien planets making horrible anthropology mistakes. Kress creates fascinating alien cultures, but the book as a whole suffers when she's not able to add that kind of depth to t...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Kfinney rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 11, 2010 Nikolai rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-english

It's a good SF book, though it hasn't got any awards. The initial idea is one of the weirdest I've ever heard of: the seemingly omnipotent aliens tell us that they had committed a crime against humanity once and now wish to atone it; hence the Atoners is their name. They choose volunteers to become Witnesses, i.e. to go stellar, visit one of the seven double worlds where the descendants of the kidnapped humans live and see what the unknown crime's essence is. So far, so strange. It gets strangie...more

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Mar 29, 2010 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-sf-fantasy, science-fiction

This was a good sci-fi story with an intriguing premise--some aliens contact Earth via the Internet, saying that they have done humanity a great wrong and want to atone for it. They want human volunteers to travel to distant planets and "witness" their crime.

Humans from various (mostly Western, first-world) societies volunteer to go. The book follows the perspectives of several Witnesses: Cam, a midwestern waitress full of brash gusto; Lucca, a rich, haughty widower; and Soledad, who piloted th...more

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Oct 30, 2012 djcb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

Story about some alien race calling themselves 'The Atoners', who come earth in 2020, to atone for a bit of genetic engineering they did to the human genome 10K years ago. At that same time, they populated a number of planets with humans. Now, they let a number of humans observe these civilizations, and find out what happened back then, 10K years ago. That's about what I can say without giving too much away...

Overall, I liked the story, with intelligent main characters, and the use of e-mails, m...more

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About Nancy Kress

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...more

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Books by Nancy Kress

Beginnings, Middles & Ends (Elements of Fiction Writing)

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints

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“You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.” — 3 people liked it

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