Good science fiction is more about the characters than the science. And this is good science fiction. Unfortunately, Kress goes a little overboard in weighting the book toward the characters (sometimes less human drama is more), but this is still a very interesting story. Kress presents a familiar question (what comes after death) and answers it in a unique way, without taking any of the various moralistic routes a less skilled author might have. ( )

Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress is a science fiction novel that starts as one of the best books I had read lately and then looses its steam and never picks it up again. Ten thousands years before the start of the book (which is in 2020), a race that calls themselves the Atoners had wronged the humanity in a way they do not want to explain. What becomes clear very soon is that they had taken some people from Earth and put them on other planets - 7 pairs of planets. Pairs... so that a blind experiment can be performed - and now they want witnesses to go to these planets and witness something. And this stealing turns out not to be the big thing that they had done.

The part of the book that was following one of these witnesses' teams was the most interesting part - Kress manages to build two very different human societies and to show how our own society deals with change. Then the witnesses come back on Earth and the book goes downhill. It keeps it up for a while but it just drags and drags. It leads to how the Atoners atone for what they had done... except that in the aftermath of what happens, most of the book becomes irrelevant... and some parts remain unexplained. Or maybe the first parts put the bar way too high - if it was put just in a few pages, I might have liked the rest a lot more. But I somehow wish the book had kept strong to the end.... ( )

Nancy Kress is great at setting up "what if?" plots and this is another one. Plus it moves along and has some good surprises. A fun read. If only she could write better. ( )

Aliens who call themselves Atoners come to Earth to confess that they did humanity a great wrong some 10,000 years ago. They ask for volunteers to travel to other planets and Witness the harm that was done. This first half of the book follows Witnesses Lucca and Cam as they experience life on twin planets. The second half picks up after the Witnesses' return, after their startling news has exploded on Earth society. The Witnesses--internationally famous and often reviled--have trouble settling back into their lives. And human society has trouble absorbing their revelation, a revelation that Cam embraces and Lucca refuses to believe.

It's not bad, but Kress has done better. ( )

http://michael-hartford.com/blog/?p=5... ( )

A somewhat disappointing metaphysical rehash from Kress.

This does read like it is stretched, too, and gets tedious at times - this is perhaps due to publishing length requirements.

Aliens contact Earth saying they did bad things in the past, and pick a bunch of young people via internet recruiting to go and Witness humanity on other planets.

Given that, you might expect some sardonic satire, but that isn't her style. A little of it in the various ads and media promos given between chapters.

The big secret discovered in the first part is the aliens apparently removed the gene for 'seeing dead peoiple'. This, of course, provokes a lot of religious hoo-hah (not to mention suicides) when those who discover this come back to Earth and let this be known.

Amazingly enough, most of the people chosen to go to the planets that reveal the humans that still have this gene are American. No evidence for why this might be the case.

Makes little sense with what happens after with the aliens, either.

Can't recommend this, but it isn't bad.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/05... ( )

First contact with aliens comes in the form of a web page. In Steal Across the Sky, alien Atoners set up a moon base and hook into the Internet looking for "Witnesses" via a Craigslist style job posting ad. Thousands of years ago, the Atoners visited Earth and somehow wronged humanity. They want to show the witnesses what they did. Presumably they will then atone for their crime.

What does get in-depth treatment are a few of the returning witnesses. One refuses to believe the evidence he saw himself, preferring an alternate explanation that doesn’t satisfy the test of Occam’s Razor. Another understands the revelation only superficially, but seeks out the spotlight to spread the message on her return. One is a working class Catholic who has both his religious views vindicated but also feels cheated out of his religious birthright. This is one of the better character studies in science fiction that I’ve read. It’s a genre that often neglects its characters. Kress hasn’t.

Between the excellent characters and the inscrutable aliens and lost colonies, I found much to like about the book.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Aliens who call themselves Atoners come to Earth to confess that they did humanity a great wrong some 10,000 years ago. They ask for volunteers to travel to other planets and Witness the harm that was done. This first half of the book follows Witnesses Lucca and Cam as they experience life on twin planets. The second half picks up after the Witnesses' return, after their startling news has exploded on Earth society. The Witnesses--internationally famous and often reviled--have trouble settling back into their lives. And human society has trouble absorbing their revelation, a revelation that Cam embraces and Lucca refuses to believe.

It's not bad, but Kress has done better. ( )