Steal Across the Sky

By: Nancy Kress

Narrated by: Kate Reading

The aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the Internet:

“We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly. We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it. Therefore we request 21 volunteers to visit seven planets to witness for us. We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety. Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to [e-mail].”

At first, everyone thought it was a joke. But it wasn’t.

This is the story of three of those volunteers and what they found on Kular A and Kular B.

©2009 Nancy Kress (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Nebula and Hugo winner Kress presents a fascinating mystery in classic SF style…Kress’ philosophical explorations will keep readers hooked and thoughtful.” Publishers Weekly)

Alien mea culpa

Nancy Kress’ Steal Across the Sky is an intriguing sci-fi tale where an alien race approaches humanity with the intention to atone for a ‘wrong’ they committed thousands of years earlier against humans. A group of humans is selected to bear witness and are transported to various star systems with human descendants living different lives as a result of alien experiments. The lives of those witnesses are never the same after their experiences, in some cases requiring changing identities. There is an attempt to cor-rect the ‘wrong’ involving an elaborate plan that requires a return to the moon.

Kress offers an engaging tale as first the basis for the alien remorse is revealed, followed by several of the witnesses adjusting to their return, in some cases dealing with death threats. Finally, the elaborate plan to correct the alien prior intervention is worthy of a mission impossible scenario.

The narration is quite good with reasonable character distinction. Pacing is smooth.

Doesn't live up to potential

The first half of the book is great. The mystery builds, and you find out what the great secret the Atoners have. Loved it.

The second half of the book just seems to flounder, never exploring the potential of the story. The Atoners take a background role and instead, we are back on earth exploring the daily lives of the witnesses and society as they deal with the news of what the Atoners have revealed. It's a great character study, but not really my cup of tea as far as sci-fi goes.

The narration is great and the story is not bad, just doesn't live up to the promise of the book's description, nor what I think it could have achieved. I gave it 3 stars.

Good -- could have been great

This book takes us to two faraway planets that are richly described with carefully crafted cultures, and that is the best part of the book. Once the humans figure out what the aliens are atoning for, the book changes focus to the fallout of that realization back on Earth. That half of the book seemed to be building toward a major event that never happened. I thought that maybe the end was contrived to enable a sequel, but there is none.

It's Good

Like other works by Kress, it leaves you looking at the world and future a little differrently, with new ideas in hand. This story seemed more tongue in cheek and "what if" that the other stories, though.

Unlikable characters, good plot, excellent reading

Narrator was awesome, but story became frustrating. Characters were generally unsympathetic. I kept waiting to like them, for them to change, but they largely didn't. Plot was definitely interesting and kept me engaged.