Thumbs up for Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress. Science fiction.
I haven’t yet read as much Kress as I’d like – especially considering she shops at my store; thank God I love her work! From what I have read, she seems to excel at “What if”-type stories. She has a great skill at sketching, with just a few words, all of the different ways that humanity might respond to overwhelming events. I won’t spoil the what-if for you, since with a novella of this length just about anything I can say would be a spoiler. Indeed, I wish it had been a full-length novel so certain sections could have been fleshed out, especially Noah’s perspective in the second half. But that’s pretty much my only complaint, and I suppose “I wish it had been longer” isn’t really much of a complaint! A recommended quick read for fans of first contact tales and biology-focused hard sci-fi.
A musician set the repeated phrases to music, a sly and humorous refrain, without menace. The song, an instant international sensation, was the opening for playfulness about the aliens. Light-night comics built monologues around supposed alien practices. The Embassy became a tourist attraction, viewed through telescopes, from boats outside the Coast Guard limit, from helicopters outside the no-fly zone. A German fashion designer scored an enormous runway hit with “the Deneb look,” despite the fact that no one knew how the Denebs looked. The stock market stabilized as much as it ever did. Quickie movies were shot, some with Deneb allies and some with treacherous Deneb foes who wanted our women or gold or bombs. Bumper stickers proliferated like kudzu: I BRAKE FOR DENEBS. EARTH IS FULL ALREADY—GO HOME. DENEBS DO IT INVISIBLY. WILL TRADE PHYSICS FOR FOOD.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
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