- Hardcover: 300 pages
- Publisher: Golden Gryphon Press; 1 edition (Sep 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1930846185
- ISBN-13: 978-1930846180
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 14 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #652,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Nebula and Hugo winner Kress explores the personal and social repercussions of a hard-science idea-manipulating genetics to try to compensate for ecological catastrophe-while delivering some refreshingly unlikable aliens out to save humanity. Lillie, conceived via in vitro fertilization, falls into an inexplicable coma when she reaches puberty. Other children suffer similar symptoms. Relief is tempered with fear when the children wake up and announce that they bear a welcome message from aliens called the pribir. In the resulting hysteria, Lillie and other pribir-altered children are brought to a secure military compound, where the pribir step up their messages. Lillie volunteers to go aboard the pribir ship for more schooling, where she discovers that the pribir are masters of genetics but little else. When the children return, although only seven months have passed for them, 40 years have passed on Earth. A lack of focus due to the many points of view, a lengthy time span (three generations of children, two described in detail) and the children's failure to use any of the genetic info they've learned on the alien ship will annoy some readers, but others will appreciate the central question raised by this thought-provoking novel: When humanity has destroyed itself and must be remade in a new image, does that mean we're not human any more?
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
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 aliens contact and genetically modify a group of 14-year-olds, inviting them to visit their spacecraft. After several months of living among the aliens and studying genetics, the students discover that the aliens have been manipulating them and rebel. Upon their return to Earth, the girls in the group discover that they are pregnant and can only wonder what form their unborn children will take. Generations later, the offspring of these children seek to use their alien knowledge to change their genetic code, to allow them to live and prosper in an environment that is quickly becoming uninhabitable from the dual scourges of global warming and biowarfare. But after all the generations of change, will the genetically modified creatures resemble their ancestors, or will nothing human remain?
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing concepts wrapped in a sputtering plot,
By sonytoao (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Nothing Human (Hardcover)
As she does in "An Alien Light", Kress explores humanity and what defines it via the lens of an alien microscope. Unfortunately, in this novel, the concepts become less weighty when bogged down in a sluggish plot and superficial characters. In 300 pages, Kress fails to provide the reader with enough background, depth, or empathy to understand the central characters' motives or rationalizations for the actions they take. And the conclusion leaves one unsatisfied and somewhat flat - rather than pondering her central question (what defines humanity), one is left uncaring.To read about the same concepts in a better package, I recommend you read An Alien Light, or better yet, the Beggars series.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Negative pressure, not positive pressure,
By
This review is from: Nothing Human (Hardcover)
Ahem, just a brief comment. In the book, she refers to a bubble type environment, where someone is isolated, for fear that he might infect others. She says it is under positive pressure. Not so. It would actually be negative pressure, where the pressure inside would be less than in the entrance rooms. This is so that any particles would tend to be swept inside the room when the door is open.Positive pressure is just the opposite, and is used mostly in semiconductor clean rooms and surgical theatres, where you don't care if stuff inside the room leaks out, but you do not want particulates from outside leaking in.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Strong first half meanders in second half 3,
By WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Nothing Human (Hardcover)
Nancy Kress' latest novel, despite its garish cover, deals with a topical issue; genetic manipulation of the unborn. Kress' novel would be little better than an average Michael Crichton thriller if not for her unusual twist; the genetic manipulation being done here is not by humanity but by an alien race called the Pribir.The Pribir were once like humanity (or so they say)and are preparing humanity for life in an environment full of environmental toxics. Their primary means of communication appears to be through a series of complex smells. The resulting children from their experiment are something more than human but still have the same emotional flaws as their peers. Kress deals with a lot of complex issues here: the environment and our place in it; the rights of those who have been genetically manipulated; the role of any outside culture in influencing another one--even for their own good. As usual Kress handles the plot, characters and themes deftly. What the novel lacks is any sense that it is building to a powerful conclusion. Nothing Human isn't disappointing just anti-climatic. It's rare that a Kress novel disappoints and no one can write a classic every time. Kress' latest novel has much to admire but it just isn't in the same league as Beggar's in Spain or Probability Moon.
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