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myriadreads's review against another edition
4.0
A quick, fascinating read. Nancy Kress never disappoints. As the title indicates, the narrative switches back and forth between 3 different time frames, before, during, and after the end of human civilization as we know it. Despite the grim prophecy for mankind, the book ends with a strong surge of hope. As in the best post-apocalyptic reads, I got that feeling that we've been there before, survived it, and will be there again. My only complaint is that it's a short book, so I felt like I didn't get to know many of the characters well or at all. It could have easily been a much longer novel with more character development and more perspectives represented.
kitsuneheart's review against another edition
4.0
A masterfully hidden plot which will leave you speculating to the very end. We're treated to three timelines--though "before" and "during" really should just be one, seeing as the former catches up with the latter by the end--of the end of the world. The fall and the rebuilding of the human race. Not civilization, but just the basic breeding stock of humanity.
In the far future, a small pocket of humanity is kept alive by the Tesslies in a compound that is little more than a prison. Their genetics have been ravaged, and the only way they could keep humanity going is by bringing humans from the past to their time. But the only technology the Tesslies give them can only bring back small children. And so the last humans must go back in time to kidnap children before humanity is wiped out.
Horrifying. Partially because children are being snatched from their parents, but more because they SHOULD be. Not just to save the human race, but to save the children themselves as the end approaches.
This would make a great read of an idle afternoon. So long as you know where your kids are.
In the far future, a small pocket of humanity is kept alive by the Tesslies in a compound that is little more than a prison. Their genetics have been ravaged, and the only way they could keep humanity going is by bringing humans from the past to their time. But the only technology the Tesslies give them can only bring back small children. And so the last humans must go back in time to kidnap children before humanity is wiped out.
Horrifying. Partially because children are being snatched from their parents, but more because they SHOULD be. Not just to save the human race, but to save the children themselves as the end approaches.
This would make a great read of an idle afternoon. So long as you know where your kids are.
mxsallybend's review against another edition
3.0
A relatively short (under 200 pages) but interesting novel that puts a unique spin on the apocalypse. As the title suggests, each chapters carries us backwards or forwards in time, telling three intersecting stories:
AFTER THE FALL: A claustrophobic, emotionally charged, post-apocalyptic tale of dying adults, damaged adolescents, and stolen children.
BEFORE THE FALL: Cold and efficient, a contemporary drama surrounding one woman's struggle to decipher a mystery while preparing for single motherhood.
DURING THE FALL: Brief, tantalizing, and the heart of the story, these mini chapters offer a terrifying glimpse into just how simply catastrophic change can begin.
This is a book where execution is everything, where the telling of the story trumps the story itself. Personally, I saw the 'twist' revelation coming very early on, but that's OK. Instead of being something that hooks the reader or sets the stage for an earth-shattering climax, the twist is more a key to unlocking the melancholy truth behind the end of human civilization.
Fortunately, the telling is solid, populated by characters who may not be entirely likeable, but to whom we can either relate, or with whom we can sympathize. Pete (AFTER) is a spoiled teenager, a sad, angry, lonely young man who fills his time by having emotionless sex with teenagers as damaged as himself, and with secret, painful, unrequited longing for an older woman who serves as teacher, mother, doctor, aunt, and friend. His only escape from The Shell (a sterile bubble in which the human race has been preserved) is through brief jaunts into the past, where he steals supplies he doesn't understand . . . and young children to help repopulate the race.
Julie (BEFORE) is a lonely, independent, brilliant mathematician who has been helping the FBI to find a pattern in the bizarre string of child abductions and store thefts. Having become too close to her FBI partner, she chooses to embark on a path of single motherhood, even as she finds herself cast adrift by an agency that doesn't believe her theories. Driven as much by her need to find a purpose behind the pattern as she is by the need to protect her child, she sets herself on a course that will ultimately see her cross paths with Pete . . . before it's too late to satisfy either need.
A solid effort, with a well thought out, appreciably detailed, yet somehow understated catastrophic end to humanity's reign in the final chapters. I would have like a bit more insight into the aliens, but that's a minor quibble and doesn't detract from my appreciation for the story Nancy Kress has crafted here.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
AFTER THE FALL: A claustrophobic, emotionally charged, post-apocalyptic tale of dying adults, damaged adolescents, and stolen children.
BEFORE THE FALL: Cold and efficient, a contemporary drama surrounding one woman's struggle to decipher a mystery while preparing for single motherhood.
DURING THE FALL: Brief, tantalizing, and the heart of the story, these mini chapters offer a terrifying glimpse into just how simply catastrophic change can begin.
This is a book where execution is everything, where the telling of the story trumps the story itself. Personally, I saw the 'twist' revelation coming very early on, but that's OK. Instead of being something that hooks the reader or sets the stage for an earth-shattering climax, the twist is more a key to unlocking the melancholy truth behind the end of human civilization.
Fortunately, the telling is solid, populated by characters who may not be entirely likeable, but to whom we can either relate, or with whom we can sympathize. Pete (AFTER) is a spoiled teenager, a sad, angry, lonely young man who fills his time by having emotionless sex with teenagers as damaged as himself, and with secret, painful, unrequited longing for an older woman who serves as teacher, mother, doctor, aunt, and friend. His only escape from The Shell (a sterile bubble in which the human race has been preserved) is through brief jaunts into the past, where he steals supplies he doesn't understand . . . and young children to help repopulate the race.
Julie (BEFORE) is a lonely, independent, brilliant mathematician who has been helping the FBI to find a pattern in the bizarre string of child abductions and store thefts. Having become too close to her FBI partner, she chooses to embark on a path of single motherhood, even as she finds herself cast adrift by an agency that doesn't believe her theories. Driven as much by her need to find a purpose behind the pattern as she is by the need to protect her child, she sets herself on a course that will ultimately see her cross paths with Pete . . . before it's too late to satisfy either need.
A solid effort, with a well thought out, appreciably detailed, yet somehow understated catastrophic end to humanity's reign in the final chapters. I would have like a bit more insight into the aliens, but that's a minor quibble and doesn't detract from my appreciation for the story Nancy Kress has crafted here.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
twowhoodles's review against another edition
4.0
Utterly gripping and mostly depressing. There's no overwhelming sense of hope at the end, although I do appreciate the lives saved.
tasharobinson's review against another edition
3.0
This very short book operates in three timelines: The "Past" chapters which briefly catalog the progression of bacterial mutations and other natural phenomena for reasons that only gradually become clear. In the "Future" chapters, the last handful of weakening, sterile, mutated humans to survive the apocalypse have been encased in a protective cage by forces unknown, and use a time-travel device to go back in time to steal babies to expand their numbers. In the "Present" chapters, an analyst looks at a set of inexplicable kidnappings and robberies and tries to figure out what's going on and where the baby-thieves will strike next. The future-timeline strongly recalls John Varley's "Millennium," while the present timeline reads like a standard mystery-thriller, with the complication that time travel is involved, and the intrepid analyst is unlikely to factor that into her equations. The whole book is so compressed that there isn't a great deal of time for character development, but Kress does do a strong job with her time-traveling future-segments protagonist, Pete, particularly in making him feel like a real teenager, full of confusion and resentment and frustration, and capable of simultaneously shouldering a man's responsibility for his community while making a child's mistakes and feeling a teenager's emotions. It feels more like a novella than a book, but it's a taut, fleshed-out story even at this length.
jimbob2001's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
4.25
raven_morgan's review against another edition
5.0
Read as part of the 2013 Hugo packet.
And yeah, kind of holy crap amazing. Suspect it will be one that I reread fairly regularly. Though dammit, I kind of wanted it to be expanded into a novel.
And yeah, kind of holy crap amazing. Suspect it will be one that I reread fairly regularly. Though dammit, I kind of wanted it to be expanded into a novel.
dontanam's review against another edition
2.0
The cover is striking. A tsunami wave and cracked, egg-shaped building, not to mention the tiny skull are great indicators for a science fiction story. I kept reading, despite my feelings about the characters and the story, because of the tiny chapters that making up "During the fall". I've never been so invested in the life cycle of bacteria.
One cataclysmic event changes the population and topography of Earth.
In 2035, four adults, six children, and a coterie of others are trapped in an egg-shaped containment called the Shell. They are ruled by an unseen force called the Tesslies, aliens. With machinery given to them by the Tesslies, the six children are able to go into the past, specifically 2013-2014, and kidnap children. These children are hoped to be fertile and, when the time comes, will help repopulate the Earth. But what happened?
The year is 2013. Julie is a mathematician tracking the disappearances of children and break-ins in an attempt to prevent another kidnapping. She has developed an algorithm that will help the government, but when the task force is disbanded she continues on her own. A series of events leads her to understand that the Earth is killing itself in order to self-regulate all of the changes and pollution caused by humans.
This was not my book. I like science fiction and everything that entails, but I did not connect with this one at all. First, the characters. I hated Pete, even remembering that he's only 15 years old. His choices always seemed to come from way left of center. I also understand that his brain may be messed up from radiation from his parents. None of these make me like Pete. They are the facts of his existence. I felt that Julie had no depth as a character. We know nothing about her past or, at least, what caused her to be such a loner. She seems to have retreated into her science, only has one friend, and has a strained relationship with her family. While not important to the story, I still feel like some history was missing. I could have done without Gordon anywhere in the book. His only purpose was to frame Julie's entrance into the plot.
Second, the highly inappropriate relationship between McAllister and Ravi. If McAllister is supposed to be the mother figure and teacher of the children in the Shell, why is she sleeping with Ravi? Fertility is not a good enough answer. A good mother knows not to openly choose favorites. It causes conflict in the house. Why, then, does McAllister choose to have sex with Ravi, when she knows that Pete has a huge crush on her, which is also inappropriate? They are already going back in time and kidnapping children from Before, why does she need to sleep with Ravi? It has already been proven that children born of the original survivors have physical and mental handicaps. Does she just want another child? Does she actually want a relationship with Ravi? Pure survival as motivation just doesn't cut it.
As a storyteller, Kress has done her job in making me feel a way about her book. My issues with the book are purely story driven. They grow from a place of engaging with the text, not from being pulled out of the story by technical errors.
Well written, classic science fiction is hard to find, and this is a great example of the genre.
One cataclysmic event changes the population and topography of Earth.
In 2035, four adults, six children, and a coterie of others are trapped in an egg-shaped containment called the Shell. They are ruled by an unseen force called the Tesslies, aliens. With machinery given to them by the Tesslies, the six children are able to go into the past, specifically 2013-2014, and kidnap children. These children are hoped to be fertile and, when the time comes, will help repopulate the Earth. But what happened?
The year is 2013. Julie is a mathematician tracking the disappearances of children and break-ins in an attempt to prevent another kidnapping. She has developed an algorithm that will help the government, but when the task force is disbanded she continues on her own. A series of events leads her to understand that the Earth is killing itself in order to self-regulate all of the changes and pollution caused by humans.
This was not my book. I like science fiction and everything that entails, but I did not connect with this one at all. First, the characters. I hated Pete, even remembering that he's only 15 years old. His choices always seemed to come from way left of center. I also understand that his brain may be messed up from radiation from his parents. None of these make me like Pete. They are the facts of his existence. I felt that Julie had no depth as a character. We know nothing about her past or, at least, what caused her to be such a loner. She seems to have retreated into her science, only has one friend, and has a strained relationship with her family. While not important to the story, I still feel like some history was missing. I could have done without Gordon anywhere in the book. His only purpose was to frame Julie's entrance into the plot.
Second, the highly inappropriate relationship between McAllister and Ravi. If McAllister is supposed to be the mother figure and teacher of the children in the Shell, why is she sleeping with Ravi? Fertility is not a good enough answer. A good mother knows not to openly choose favorites. It causes conflict in the house. Why, then, does McAllister choose to have sex with Ravi, when she knows that Pete has a huge crush on her, which is also inappropriate? They are already going back in time and kidnapping children from Before, why does she need to sleep with Ravi? It has already been proven that children born of the original survivors have physical and mental handicaps. Does she just want another child? Does she actually want a relationship with Ravi? Pure survival as motivation just doesn't cut it.
As a storyteller, Kress has done her job in making me feel a way about her book. My issues with the book are purely story driven. They grow from a place of engaging with the text, not from being pulled out of the story by technical errors.
Well written, classic science fiction is hard to find, and this is a great example of the genre.