Crossfire

Publishers Weekly

In this far-future novel of planetary colonization and alien first contact, Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Kress (Probability Sun) offers a satisfying thought experiment in science and philosophy, despite a slow start, relatively stock characters and prose less lyrical than her usual. Jake Holman, founder of the Mira Corporation, leads 6,000 private citizens in flight from a troubled Earth to the planet Greentrees, where the expedition gets caught in the crossfire between two alien races: the Furs, DNA-based humanoids who first settled the planet; and the Vines, sentient plants who arrived after the Furs, their deadly enemies of long standing. Shipley, the leader of 2,000 Quakers, sympathizes with the Vines, while his estranged daughter, Naomi, sides with the Furs as victims of Vine bioengineering. Various philosophies, notably Libertarianism as extolled by Jake and New Quakerism, vie with one another. Fans of serious SF will enjoy this tale of bravery, travel, adventure, and personal and social crisis, though the inconclusive ending may annoy some readers, whether or not there's a sequel. (Feb. 26) Forecast: One of the strongest voices in SF today, Kress is sure to pick up added momentum with this solid entry. She is the widow of the late Charles Sheffield. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA

Kress offers an interesting premise in this first novel of the Cosmic Crossfire series. The planet Earth has only a century left as a life-sustaining biosphere, so a varied group of people who can afford to do so-New Quakers, the deposed Arabian royal family, Chinese workers, and descendants of the Cheyenne-fund a corporate starship and fly off to establish a colony on the world that they have named Greentrees. After a seventy-year voyage frozen in cold sleep and as the diverse group of colonists begins their exploration of their new home, they make a startling discovery-primitive humanoid aliens. There are only a few isolated villages, and the evidence seems to indicate that the aliens are a lost colony, not native to the planet and reverted to a primitive lifestyle because of brain damage caused by engineered viruses. When a second, plant-based race, the Vines, arrives, the human colonists must choose sides in an interstellar struggle. A lot is riding on their decision-not just the fate of their colony, but possibly the fate of the human race. Kress's aliens are convincing, and her colonists are all fascinating, developed individuals. The New Quakers embody their tenets: truth, simplicity, silence, and conscience. Dr. William Shipley, an aged, overweight, troubled father and New Quaker, is the moral center of the book. Together with colony leader Jake Holman, a troubled exec who bankrolled the colony with embezzled funds, the doctor determines the future of both alien species and humanity as well. This thought-provoking book is highly recommended for high school libraries and young adult collections in public libraries. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any betterwritten; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2003, Tor, 368p,
— Marsha Valance

Kirkus Reviews

Alien-contact yarn from the author of, most recently, the Probability Trilogy (Probability Space, p. 1000, etc.). With the Earth in dire straits, billionaire Jake Holman and his manager, Gail Cutler, built a starship and, taking along various groups who could afford to pay—Arab royalty, wannabe Cheyenne, New Quakers, Chinese, the Cutler clan—flew to planet Greentrees, where they established Mira City. Then the colonists discover the Furs, apparently intelligent but puzzlingly passive and incurious; stranger still, the Furs aren't native to Greentrees! Another Fur group seems to be permanently intoxicated; yet another clashes violently with the Cheyenne. An alien ship approaches, decelerating at a staggering 100 gravities. The colonists' supposed protector, Captain Scherer, attempts to destroy the alien ship; one of Scherer's men shoots two aliens as they emerge from their shuttlecraft. Despite all this, the weird, plant-like, peaceful Vines are willing to talk. The Vines are fighting with the xenophobic Furs, using captured Fur ships though eschewing the Fur weapons. The Greentrees Furs are Vine experiments in breeding nonviolent Furs. But then a Fur ship arrives, blasting the Vine ship and the humans' shuttlecraft. Jake, Gail, and others are herded aboard the Fur ship and taken to another planet, where the Furs maroon them: they must befriend more Vines and somehow destroy the force field that protects the Vines' homeworld. If Jake refuses to cooperate, the Furs will annihilate Mira City—and then seek out and blast the Earth. Life-sized characters with personal and cosmic preoccupations, tense and knotty if sometimes uneven plotting, and Kress's usual abundance of ideas: gripping,challenging work, a reassuring return to top form.

House Review

*"Life-sized characters with personal and cosmic preoccupations, tense and knotty plotting, and Kress's usual abundance of ideas: gripping, challenging work, a reassuring return to top form." (starred review)

Roland Green

Kress makes ethical dilemmas as gripping as laser fights, and the results of human-alien contact rather depend on which human contacts which alien. Choice stuff.