(Drivebycuriosity) - Nancy Kress belongs to my favorite science fiction writers. I loved her "Probability" trilogy, where she interwove weird quantum mechanic effects with a thrilling but plausible story and I enjoyed many of her short stories, often base on cutting edge physics. Apparently the admiration is shared by many. Kress collected tons of awards, including 6 Nebula and 2 Hugo Awards (wikipedia ).
Unfortunately Kress got very profolic and has been producing tons of books, including a series of trilogies, watering down the quality. I was disappointed by her novel "The Eleventh Gate" (my review ). I just finished her novel "Tomorrow`s Kin", the begin of a trilogy (amazon ). This book is even worse. Here aliens appear out of nowhere and warn about a coming catastrophe on earth.
The book is full of clichés. The aliens aren`t really aliens and they resemble comic book illustrations for school kids. And Kress ignores basic physical facts. Aliens don´t just show up, they have to deal with limitations of the speed of light when they travel hundreds of light years and spaceship don´t land on earth because of the gravity (they are put in an orbit). Kress also developed ridiculous causality chains: Virus from outer space kills mice, mice don´t eat crop anymore, prices of corn & wheat drop because of rising supplies and the global economy crashes. Holly cow, what did this woman smoke? The novel is basically a family story about a grandmother and her children & grand children. Kress could do better.
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