Nancy Kress cemented her reputation in SF with the publication of her multiple-award–winning novella, “Beggars in Spain,” which became the basis for her extremely successful Beggars Trilogy (comprising Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride).And now she brings us Probability Spa...
One day I hope to read a Nancy Kress novel full of amazing, deep, complex characters who manage to transcend the stereotypes often demanded by plot and story. Alas, that day has not yet come.Probability Moon ended on a bittersweet note. The Zeus and its crew was destroyed when Orbital Object #7 e...
I love to sleep. I prefer at least eight, preferably nine hours of sleep each night. Going to bed at midnight and waking up at nine in the morning is a perk of my madcap, Bohemian university student lifestyle that I will have to abandon once I become a stern, starched-collar high school teacher. ...
Dynamic Characters by Nancy KresstNancy begins this writer’s aid book with a quote by Henry James. “Character is plot.’A little further on, she notes that, “…you must believe in your characters.” Dynamic Characters presents a good, solid entry into the development of the many needs of creative st...
This is an outstanding collection of stories, most about near-future bio-engineering, written with a uniquely human and emotional touch. Most are real gems."Beggars in Spain" is the first story in the collection, and it's easy to see why it won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novella in 1991....
Nancy Kress made her reputation in the early 90s with her multiple award-winning novella, "Beggars in Spain," which became the basis for her extremely successful Beggars Trilogy (comprising Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride). Since then she has written over a dozen novels, ...
Kress became a favorite after I read her Beggars in Spain, which won both Nebula and Hugo awards. An Alien Light wasn't as strong as that book, but I thought hung together better than her other early novel, Brainrose. That one was set in the near future, and had dated quite badly--this one is set...
Told from the perspective of several generations of teenagers, this science fiction novel involves an Earth ravaged by mankind, high-tech manipulative aliens, and advanced genetics. Early in the 21st century, global warming has caused sickness and death among plants, animals, and humans. Suddenly...
Earth is an environmental disaster area when humanity gains new hope: a star gate is discovered in the solar system, built by a long-gone alien race. Earth establishes extrasolar colonies and discovers alien races--including the warlike Fallers, the only spacefaring race besides humans. Mysteriou...
But it was the human guards I noticed. Techs, mostly, although at least one was donkey. I noticed them because there were so many. Miranda had more human guards than the entire population of Huevos Verdes, even including the Sleepless hangers-on like Kevin Baker’s grandchildren. She awaited her t...
“For VIPs only. Which I just promoted us to being.” Cai said, “How did you get that?” “I have my ways. . . .” “I’ll just bet,” Waverly muttered. Violet ignored her. Because the elevator ascended, Amy e...
Sign up for our Monthly Free Ebook Coupon http://www.PPickings.com ********************************** The Body Human: Three Stories of Genetic Engineering copyright © 2012 by Nancy Kress . All rights reserved. This book may not be copied or reproduced, in whole or in part, by any means, elect...
Marianne was redoing an entire batch of DNA amplification that had somehow become contaminated. Evan picked up the mail sack and the news dispatches. When he came into the lab, where Marianne was cursing at a row of beakers, he uncharacteristically put both hands on her shoulders. She looked at h...
Erin took a deep breath, rolled her head, stood up. Still no pain. And there hadn’t been pain when it happened, but there had been something . . . not the calm place that yoga or meditation sometimes took her, either. That place was pale blue, like a restful vista of valleys seen at dusk from a h...
Someone will observe the character's appearance, clothes, manner. This someone may be the author, or another character, or even the protagonist himself. Whoever does the observing, the description will be related to us readers, and we will get our first chance to form an impression of this person...
must be defined on some basis if there are to be any obligations to the “we”; and once there is a “we,” there will be a “they.” —James Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense, 1993 Ten Jennifer sat at her desk in Sanctuary, drawing with a black calligraphy pen. It was ama...
Every time he moved it under the covers, he almost screamed out loud. But he couldn’t do that because then his mother would…do what? Take him to the doctor? Nobody in Tyler was supposed to leave their houses. But if she knew about his foot… Gross, greenish-yellow stuff was oozing out of the foot....
What is an act of kindness? Some are easy to identify: helping up a stranger who has fallen, donating to disaster relief, not pointing out that your spouse has told the story about the wheelbarrow six times to the same people. But what about more ambiguous acts? Is it a kindness to stop a suici...
She drank three cups of coffee, listening for the owl by the window. She showered, dressed, read a biography of John Coltrane. At a decent hour she called Diane, who had just spoken to the hospital and reported that there was no change in Fengmo’s condition. Soledad cooked a paella, an elab...
“The president will see you now,” his secretary said simultaneously with the aide's statement, “Wait a moment, Katie."She turned to stare at him. Keep the president waiting? But his face told. For a moment vertigo nearly took her, a swooping blackness, but only for a moment. She said quietly to t...