Review: Steal Across the Sky

Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Atoners are an alien species that have taken up residence on our moon. They are recruiting humans as "witnesses" to travel out to new planets on their behalf. In her candidacy interview, Camilla O'Kane (Cam) asks two questions which the interviewers choose not to answer. Why send humans? And, what are y'all atoning for?

Cool set up and I was very quickly hooked. Before long this is feeling pretty star trek, we have rules-guided first contact scenarios wrought with cultural misunderstandings that are simultaneously helped and hindered by translator limitations. Take for example, the following quoted internal monologue, as one of the aliens we meet considers our new friend Cam:

"She gazed at him from those dark eyes that were Pulari and not Pulari, and Aveo suddenly saw that he would never understand her. Not if he studied her for a thousand years. He would never follow her thinking or penetrate her illusions, because even though she was not a goddess but a woman, she was so foreign, so strange, that she lay completely outside any reality he could ever grasp. She was her own reality, and she and all of the known world were not playing the same game."

Another recognisable feature is the body armour that Atoners use which is similar to the Atreides shield-suits from Dune. Cool, cool.

This story has some spectacularly alien names that thankfully don't rely an on overuse of apostrophes. A few examples are Chewithoztarel, Ragjuptrilpent and Hytrowembireliaz. If you're not trying to say those out loud right now, you're missing out on a little bit of silly fun! The last one is my favourite, but don't worry, I'm not going to use it to name my first born.

Naturally, there is disagreement on Earth about whether or not involvement with the Atoners is a good or bad idea. Especially more so later in the book after what I'm dubbing "the revelation".

This story has some very strange lines that seem such bizarrely out of place observations. There were a few quirky examples but this one just came so out of nowhere -->

"He wondered briefly about parents who would let a grown man linger alone and unseen with a young girl on the cusp of adolescence, but then decided that the damn cold made child molestation unlikely—or at least unenjoyable."

--> What the?! Why?! Anyway. Weird and in this example creepy yes, but it wasn't a frequent feature.

Cam winds up a prisoner during her mission while her shipmate Lucca is experiencing temporary loss of his senses, one at a time, during his mission. Curiously both are jealous of the other's "more interesting" predicament.

It was alarming to discover aspects of my personal experience so deftly portrayed on the page. Lucca having lost his love and choosing never to love again, Camilla confusing her own actions as being well intended charity rather than self satisfying displays. In other words I thought the characters were generally very good, very believable humans with a little (or a lot) of the recognisable in each of them. Great for introspective readers and those who love good character growth.

There was one particular instance of a person going home with a stranger which struck me as not only ill-advised, but also out of character for someone who was supposedly laying low at the time. If you read the book you'll know what I'm referring to. *shakes head*

This story touches on plenty of themes including some telepathy, genetic manipulation, sensory deprivation and notions of an afterlife at various points of the story.

It seems obvious that the mystery surrounding the Atoners and their intentions will be the heart of this story but that's a positively inaccurate assumption which is dispelled a little under half way through the book at which point we discover the true story is going to be about how the revelation of those details will impact society. There remains a mysterious aspect on Earth but it was hinted at enough to give it away pretty quickly I thought.

However, after half way we are positively done with space travel and we're back on Earth until the end, apart from a quick run to the moon. The Atoners are still around, although largely silent and the narrative focuses on human interactions in the latter half.

A fascinating study of human nature follows and how the revelation affects just about everything is explored in the second half of the book; from religion and faith, to art and expression, to industries and advertising, and even to personal relationships. Even if the Atoners' intention is not sinister could it turn out that their benevolence is more detrimental than even they could have foreseen?

Every other chapter or so was a news report or an intelligence report or a tv interview or some other novel way to do a mini data dump. One of these was even a small but actually doable crossword puzzle, with answers given on the following page! I've noticed many reviewers on GR tend to not enjoy this kind of thing but I usually find these interesting and especially appropriate in stories that have "global" reach. It was done notably well in Keith RA DeCandido's 'Articles of the Federation' (often described as a "West Wing for Star Trek"), and also on screen in the Babylon 5 episode 'And Now for a Word'. Personally I think it was employed really well here too.

And now, honestly, I'd love to write about what the revelation is because the implications explored in this story just get wilder and wilder and it would be a lot of fun to discuss with you BUT I'm not going to spoil it. Of course there is a little surprise saved up until the very end too, which is tricky and maybe everyone wants the same thing after all. Then again, maybe not. You decide.

As is becoming a bit typical of me, I'm simply going to recommend that you read it and enjoy the ride yourself. It was 4-stars from me for most of the story with some 5-star philosophical meanderings in the final quarter. A very enjoyable read for my first visit to Kress' writing.

Another little habit I seem to be forming is to close my reviews with an irrelevant tidbit. In today's edition of Frank's Forgettable Facts I thought I'd mention that this is the second book I've read in the last week to reference Helen Keller, so I suppose now I'm off to have a quick Google and try to find out a little about who she actually is.

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