Nancy Kress
Author of Beggars in Spain
About the Author
Nancy Kress is an author who won Best Novella at the Nebula Awards 2014 for her title Yesterday's Kin. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: Ellen Datlow
Series
Works by Nancy Kress
Ej-es 11 copies
Safeguard 11 copies
Trinity [short story] 9 copies
Inertia [short fiction] 9 copies
By Fools Like Me 7 copies
My Mother, Dancing {short story} 7 copies
Philippa's Hands [short fiction] 6 copies
Patent Infringement [short story] 6 copies
Saviour 6 copies
Words Like Pale Stone [Short Story] 6 copies
Exegesis 5 copies
Images Of Anna 5 copies
State of Nature [Short Story] — Author — 5 copies
And Wild For To Hold 5 copies
First Rites 4 copies
The Kindness of Strangers 4 copies
To Scale [short story] 4 copies
Shiva In Shadow 4 copies
Call Back Yesterday 3 copies
Nancy Kress 3 copies
Deadly Sins 3 copies
Stone Man (short story) 3 copies
Battle of Long Island 3 copies
Spillage [short fiction] 3 copies
Clad In Gossamer 3 copies
Méfiez-vous du chien qui dort 3 copies
Explanations Inc. 2 copies
Sleeping Dogs {short story} 2 copies
Semper Augustus 2 copies
Sidewalk at 12:10 P.M. 2 copies
Dear Sarah {short story} 2 copies
Sex And Violence 2 copies
Shadows On The Cave Wall 2 copies
Mirror Image 2 copies
The War on Treemon 2 copies
A Hundred Hundred Daisies 2 copies
People Like Us 2 copies
And No Such Things Grow Here 2 copies
Product Development 2 copies
Elevator 2 copies
Arms and the Woman 1 copy
Solomon's Choice — Author — 1 copy
Cocoons {short story} 1 copy
Erdmann Nexus 1 copy
Devil's Ways — Contributor — 1 copy
Plant Engineering 1 copy
Cocoons 1 copy
تقنيات كتابة الرواية 1 copy
Canoe {short story} 1 copy
Borovsky's Hollow Woman 1 copy
Cost Of Doing Business 1 copy
First Principle 1 copy
Stalking Beans 1 copy
Marigold Outlet 1 copy
Phone Repairs 1 copy
The Rules 1 copy
Unintended Behavior 1 copy
First Flight 1 copy
Wetlands Preserve 1 copy
Eoghan {short story} 1 copy
Craps [Short Story] 1 copy
Night Win 1 copy
Pyramid 1 copy
Against a Crooked Stile 1 copy
Talp Hunt 1 copy
Casey's Empire 1 copy
Writer's Block 1 copy
Pathways (Novelette) 1 copy
Machine Learning (short) 1 copy
Eaters 1 copy
The Common Good 1 copy
Associated Works
The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993) — Contributor — 315 copies
Women of Wonder, the Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s (1995) — Contributor — 204 copies
The Best of the Best, Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels (2007) — Contributor — 201 copies
Crafting Novels & Short Stories: The Complete Guide to Writing Great Fiction (Creative Writing Essentials) (2011) — Contributor — 155 copies
The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year's Best Science Fiction (2019) — Contributor — 130 copies
Nebula Awards 28: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (1994) — Contributor — 63 copies
New Eves: Science Fiction About the Extraordinary Women of Today and Tomorrow (1994) — Contributor — 62 copies
The Final Frontier: Stories of Exploring Space, Colonizing the Universe, and First Contact (2018) — Contributor — 58 copies
Nebula Awards 27: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (1993) — Contributor — 53 copies
Twelve Tomorrows - Visionary stories of the near future inspired by today's technologies (2013) — Contributor — 35 copies
Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 35, No. 10 & 11 [October/November 2011] (2011) — Contributor — 23 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 13, No. 4 [April 1989] (1989) — Contributor — 13 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 10, No. 12 [December 1986] (1986) — Contributor — 13 copies
Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 33, No. 10 & 11 [October/November 2009] (2009) — Contributor — 12 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 16, No. 4 & 5 [April 1992] (1992) — Contributor — 10 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 13, No. 13 [Mid-December 1989] (1989) — Contributor — 8 copies
Science Fiction — Contributor — 6 copies
Millemondi Inverno 1996 — Contributor — 2 copies
Millemondi Inverno 1992 — Contributor — 1 copy
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 6 — Contributor — 1 copy
Free Stories 2020 — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
The World Fantasy Convention 2011: Sailing the Seas of the Imagination — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Kendall, Anna
Koningisor, Nancy Anne (birth name) - Birthdate
- 1948-01-20
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Buffalo, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Buffalo, New York, USA
East Aurora, New York, USA
Plattsburgh, New York, USA
Rochester, New York, USA
Brockport, New York, USA
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA (show all 7)
Seattle, Washington, USA - Education
- State University of New York, Plattsburgh
State University of New York, Brockport (MS|Education|1977, MA|English|1979) - Occupations
- science fiction writer
- Organizations
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Members
Discussions
SF short story: Time travelers capture Ann Boleyn in Name that Book (August 2017)
"Beggars in Spain" Group Discussion in Group Reads - Sci-Fi (August 2009)
Reviews
Lists
Five star books (1)
Books with Twins (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 176
- Also by
- 237
- Members
- 11,776
- Popularity
- #1,999
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 360
- ISBNs
- 320
- Languages
- 11
- Favorited
- 34
The humans are split into two: a four-person team of anthropologists down on the planet 'studying' the indigenous culture's concept of 'shared reality' and a military ship carrying out the real mission - to acquire what is believed to be an ancient alien weapon in orbit around the planet.
The military mission was more interesting for the physics being discussed and for providing the background on how the interstellar human diaspora, enabled by a network of 'gates' built by an ancient, now vanished, race are at war with an alien species who use the same inherited technology and who no interest in anything except expansion and extermination. The military characters were an unconvincing collection of stereotypes whose main function seemed to be to exposition.
The anthropologists were more interesting. I've never seen classic Persian poetry used as a reference for divining the meaning of events on an alien planet before in the way the Iranian team leader did. There was an American character with an undiagnosed God complex, a woman xenobiologist who seemed to be there to explain the physical differences between humans and aliens and a large jovial German geologist who was the easiest to like and also the least introspective.
At first, I couldn't see any connection between the two human missions. It took longer than it should have done to see that the book title was a clue to the concept behind both military and anthropological missions. This concept linked the apparently sociological phenomenon of Shared Reality with the observer effect in quantum mechanics.
The thing I liked most about the book was seeing the world through Enli's eyes. I liked that when I first met Enli, she was an outsider in her own culture. I quickly learned that she was 'Unreal'. Understanding what that meant and how it worked was, for me, the most interesting part of the book. I thought that Nancy Kress did a great job of making human behaviour seem odd by establishig Enli's people as a baseline for normal.
I enjoyed the ideas in the book but I couldn't engage with the human characters. I wasn't invested in the outcome of the military mission, even when the crew was at risk. The anthropologists were interesting mainly because they demonstrated how hard it is to see another culture clearly when you are unaware of the blindspots created by your own cultural biases.
'Probability Moon' is the first book in a trilogy but I won't be moving on to the other books. I think these stories at too abstract for me.… (more)