Steal Across the Sky
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
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 twenty-one 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 witness@Atoners.com.”
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.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Fabulous, KRESS at her BEST!!
First, I am a huge Kress fan and consider her one of the best authors I’ve ever read. At her best, Nancy is expert at everything–characterization, pacing, plot. And I hold her to a higher standard than other authors. I might give one of her books 3 stars that would equate to 5 stars for another author. Perhaps not really fair, but true.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would! It is smart, well written with terrific characterization and a page turner! One can’t ask for more than that! I predict this book will be an award winner like her Sleepless trilogy. I’d love it if this was the first of trilogy or series.
5 Stars exhilarating cerebral science fiction
The alien Atoners race came from deep space to establish a base on the earth’s moon. They use the Internet to inform humanity that they committed a heinous crime against mankind ten millennium ago that they cannot rectify. Instead they ask for twenty-one English speaking volunteers to serve as witnesses to see the results of the crime they committed by witnessing and testifying first hand what has occurred on seven planets in which they seeded abducted earthlings. Safety is guaranteed to and from the planets visited.
Cam, Lucca and Soledad respond to the Internet advertisement and are selected by the Atoners as human surrogates. They are escorted to the moonless twin planets of Kular A and Kular B. The humans living on these orbs treat life as expendable as they believe that life does not end with death. What the three human visitors learn they bring back to an earth already reeling from the alien visitation.
STEAL ACROSS THE SKY is an exhilarating cerebral science fiction thriller that asks profound questions about humanity’s development, religion, and social interaction through the Atoner (apropos descriptor for this group) intervention. The three earthlings represent mankind visiting two planets in which each orb can be seen in the sky of the other; while the Atoners remain mysterious almost Godly due to their superior technology, knowledge, and humble need to atone for their mistake. The residents of the two deep space orbs also seem real even as their culture (their existence actually) on the Kular twins is owed to the Atoners, which makes for a fascinating religious relationship between the settled and those who performed the deliverance. Nancy Kress provides plenty of action, but it is the thought provoking questions to include defining what a crime is that make this a great tale.
Harriet Klausner