Subject: THE ALIENS OF EARTH by Nancy Kress

From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Feb 94 01:28:06 GMT

THE ALIENS OF EARTH by Nancy Kress
          Arkham House, ISBN 0-87054-166-8, 1993, 327pp, US$20.95.
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This book of eighteen stories is Nancy Kress's second collection.  (The
first, TRINITY AND OTHER STORIES, was published in 1985 by Bluejay and is out
of print.)  This one includes the two Hugo-nominated stories "And Wild for
to Hold" and "The Mountain to Mohammed."  (They were both nominated for Best
Novelette for 1990, and when "The Mountain to Mohammed" won, Kress was
presented with a button that read, "I lost the Hugo to Nancy Kress.")

     All but one of the stories in THE ALIENS OF EARTH share one common
element: they take place on Earth (hence the title).  Beyond that they range
from horror ("To Scale" and "Philippa's Hands") to fantasy ("Spillage") to
straight science fiction ("People Like Us" and "The Mountain to Mohammed").
Though no medical training is listed in Kress's biographical data, many of
her stories deal with disease and the medical profession: "Inertia" has the
victims of a  disfiguring plague in a quarantine camp; "The Mountain to
Mohammed" deals with the allocation of medical care in the future
"Cannibals" looks at the dying-off of an alien species; "In Memoriam"
examines a new treatment for the elderly.  Time travel and parallel worlds
are also common themes ("The Price of Oranges" and "And Wild for to Hold").
"The Battle of Long Island" combines the two, being a story of parallel
worlds told in the setting of a battlefield hospital.

     My personal favorite is "The Price of Oranges," but all the stories are
excellent examples of how we are the "aliens of earth."  I recommend this
collection.

     (Note: Kress's BEGGARS IN SPAIN has just been released in paperback by
AvoNova.  I recommend that as well.)

%B      The Aliens of Earth
%A      Nancy Kress
%C      New York
%D      1993
%I      Arkham House
%O      hardback, US$20.95
%G      ISBN 0-87054-166-8
%P      327pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] / [email-masked]

"Remember, high-tech means breaks down next week, while cutting edge means
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