Probability — (2000-2002) Humankind has expanded out into interstellar space using star gates-technological remnants left behind by an ancient, long-vanished race. But the technology comes with a price. Among the stars, humanity encountered the Fallers, a strange alien race bent on nothing short of genocide. It’s all-out war, and humanity is losing. In this fragile situation, a new planet is discovered, inhabited by a pre-industrial race who experience “shared reality”— they’re literally compelled to share the same worldview. A team of human scientists is dispatched-but what they don’t know is that their mission of first contact is actually a covert military operation. For one of the planet’s moons is really a huge mysterious artifact of the same origin as thestar gates… and it just may be the key to winning the war.

Crossfire — (2003-2004) Caught in the Crossfire A human colony settles on a distant planet, a colony formed by Jake Holman — a man trying to escape a dark past. But as this diverse group of thousands comes to terms with their new lives on a new world, they make a startling discovery: primitive humanoid aliens. There are only a few isolated villages, and the evidence seems to indicate they aren’t native to the planet — despite the aliens living in thatched huts and possessing only primitive tools. When a handful of human colonists finally learn the truth, they will face the toughest decision of their lives, a decision that could determine not just the fate of their new home, but the fate of all humanity.

Stand-alones and collections:

The Prince of Morning Bells — (1981) Long out of print, this novel by one of the major voices in contemporary science fiction and fantasy will enthrall you, charm you, and make you care deeply about two of the most engaging characters you’re ever likely to meet between the two covers of a book. Smile a lot, yes, and then weep a little, and hold your breath, and wonder at the wisdom and the whimsy of it …depending on how much you bring to it, the book is metaphor, it is fable; it makes a statement, has a moral, looks back at you, from time to time, like a mirror.’ ~ Theodore Sturgeon

The Golden Grove — (1984) A haunting green island. A stand of trees known as the Golden Grove. In the moonlit darkness, the webs gleam faintly, stirring in the warm night breeze. Arachne and the women sit at their looms around the Grove, weaving tapestries from the silk of the golden spiders, tapestries of life and time, clarity and light, the pattern of their world… But the Grove is dying. The spiders are sick — their offspring disfigured, their webs malformed. The mysterious aura is waning, the peace and harmony fading. Shadow falls over Island, strange ships are seen on the horizon, and Arachne fears that the pattern is about to change… forever.

The White Pipes — (1985) A novel of love, power, and magic.

The Aliens of Earth — (1985) For over a decade, Nancy Kress has written a succession of science-fantasy stories in which a depth of imagination is conjoined to an uncommon perception of human nature. Even Kress’s most committed partisans, however, were unprepared for the appearance of her two awesomely accomplished nouvelles, “Beggars in Spain, ” and “And Wild for to Hold.” The former – a Hugo and Nebula recipient – has become an acclaimed novel; the latter – a time-travel adventure involving Anne Boleyn – explores the uneasy interface between technology and humanity as one of the eighteen stories in this outstanding collection: “The Price of Oranges, ” “Glass, ” “People like Us, ” “Cannibals, ” “To Scale, ” “Touchdown, ” “Down behind Cuba Lake, ” “In a World like This, ” “Philippa’s Hands, ” “Inertia, ” “Phone Repairs, ” “The Battle of Long Island, ” “Renaissance, ” “Spillage, ” “The Mountain to Mohammed, ” “Craps, ” “And Wild for to Hold, ” and “In Memoriam.”

Trinity: And Other Stories — (1985) A collection which includes: With the Original Cast (1982), Casey’s Empire (1981), Talp Hunt (1982), Against a Crooked Stile (1979), Explanations, Inc. (1984), Shadows on the Cave Wall (1981), Ten Thousand Pictures, One Word (1984), Night Win (1983), Borovsky’s Hollow Woman (1983) with Jeff Duntemann, Out of All Them Bright Stars (1985), Trinity (1984)

An Alien Light — (1988) The human species is at war with the Ged, a collective species that is baffled by humankind’s ability to turn violence upon itself & yet advance into space. In order to defeat the humans, the Ged must first understand them. So they go to a world called Qom, where a lost Earth colony has forgotten its origins & regressed to pre-industrial society. They are split into two warring city-states: Delysia, town of merchants, & Jela of Spartan wariors. The Ged build a walled city out in the wilderness, promising riches & new weapons for anyone brave enough to stay in the city one year. The offer attracts a diverse collection of outcasts & adventurers, Jelite warriors & Delysian artisans. Once inside, they’re taught the secrets of science & technology. In watching them learn, the Ged hope to find out how humans think. But they don’t anticipate the few humans who will cross feudal boundaries to unite against the Ged, deducing more than the Ged meant to teach about the nature of the universe & the origin of humans on Qom.

Brain Rose — (1989) Caroline Bohentin, Joe McLaren, and Robbie Brekke meet at a fashionable private hospital where each has signed up for a new — expensive and exclusive — procedure: Previous Life Access Surgery. This procedure removes barriers in the human brain and allows patients to recall memories from all of their previous incarnations throughout human history. But the memories are not under conscious and willful control. After the operation, each patient must begin his or her journey into the past with moments of discovery and surprise, whose meaning and significance are often unclear. Meanwhile, in the outside world, which is ravaged by plagues that destroy the body’s immune defenses, a crisis is building, both medically and politically. The mutated plague virus is destroying people’s memories at an ever-increasing rate. And only those who have had the surgery seem to be immune. As Caroline, Joe, and Robbie begin to remember flashes of previous lives, it becomes more and more evident that they are somehow connected to each other and that their connection has fateful implications for the entire future of the human race.

Oaths and Miracles — (1996) FBI agent Robert Cavanaugh thinks he’s on to something. The showgirl lover of a dead New York mafioso is murdered in Las Vegas. Her last words are difficult to understand but included the name of Verico, which might refer to a bio-research company in New Jersey. An Ivy League scientist is found dead in a Boston parking lot after a job interview at Verico. And the Mafia has secretly invested in this firm doing cutting-edge work with recombinant DNA. Cavanaugh knows it’s all tied together, but not how, and he doesn’t have enough hard evidence to convince his boss there’s a case anywhere. People keep dying, but nothing makes sense, and Cavanaugh gets more desperate to find the key.

Dancing on Air — (1997) As in her Hugo and Nebula-award winning Beggars in Spain, Dancing on Air finds Nancy Kress once more exploring the moral ambiguities of genetic engineering that have become her hallmark. This novella-length chapbook combines an intriguing murder mystery, involving a reporter’s investigation into the competitive world of professional ballet, with the thought-provoking science fiction we have come to expect from Nancy Kress. This story is among her finest work. BACK COVER: Like Walter Miller’s “The Darfsteller,” [Dancing on Air] follows the future of an artform through ethical quagmires. – Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

Maximum Light — (1997) By the middle of the twenty-first century the worldwide fertility rate has declined nearly eighty percent. No one knows why. Now the average age in the United States is fifty-four, and children are treasured and spoilt by those lucky enough to have them and coveted by the vast majority who can’t. Maximum Light is the story of three people from different sections of this very different American society. Nick Clementi is seventy-five years old, a doctor, and an advisor to the Congressional Advisory Committee for Medical Crises. Shana Walders is twenty-six and has just finished her two years in the National Service Corps. Cameron Atuli is twenty-eight, a primcipal dancer with the National Ballet, and has willingly had a portion of his memory removed; what it was and why he did it, he doesn’t know. In her last days of National Service, Shana witnesses something so horrible that it is immediately brought to the attention of Clementi’s committee, but so shocking that even the committee would like to believe that it can’t be true. And what Cameron can’t remember may be the key to the mystery.

Beaker’s Dozen — (1998) The twenty-first century, it’s often remarked, will transform our knowledge of biology, in the same way that the twentieth century transformed physics. With knowledge of course, comes application. And with the application of all we are learning about genetic engineering come social and ethical questions, some of them knotty. This is where science fiction enters, stage left. Scientific laboratories are where the new technologies are rehearsed. Science fiction rehearses the implications of those technologies. What might we eventually do with out new-found power? Should we do it? Who should do it? Who will be affected? How? Is that a good thing or not? For whom? Of the thirteen stories in this book, eight of them are concerned with what might come out of the beakers and test tubes and gene sequencers of microbiology. Not everything in these stories will come to pass. Possibly nothing in them will; fiction is not prediction. But I hope the stories at least raise questions about the world rushing in onus at the speed — not of light — but of thought.

Stinger — (1998) FBI Agent Robert Cavanaugh has been transferred from the organized crime unit to the slow-paced field office for southern Maryland, where the biggest federal crime is the condition of the roads. But things take an unpleasant turn when a nurse at a local hospital notices a sudden increase in the incidence of fatal strokes among otherwise healthy black adults. The trail leads to a new strain of malaria that causes rapid blood clotting in people with sickle-cell trait, who begin to die. It’s an unlikely natural mutation, yet there’s no hard evidence of human intervention. Did a fringe hate-group arrange for a bioengineered weapon to decimate the African-American population? As more people die, Cavanaugh must convince the FBI to look for the answers before it becomes an epidemic that threatens millions of lives … or even race war.

Nothing Human — (2003) 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?

Dogs — (2008) The threat of terrorism and biological warfare become all too real in this riveting thriller when the danger comes from a family’s most cherished pets. Tessa Sanderson, ex-FBI agent, has moved to a sleepy Maryland town to escape her tragic past. When the town’s beloved dogs begin viciously attacking pet owners, federal CDC agents determine that the dogs are carrying a mutated flu affecting the aggression center of their brains, for which their is no known cure. Tessa offers to help round up and quarantine the dogs, even though some unconvinced locals are preparing to protect their pets by any means necessary. But she has another reason for getting involved — someone has been sending her threatening emails in Arabic claiming responsibility for the virus, and Tessa is resolved to go deep undercover to expose this deadly conspiracy. Combining hard science with thoughtful narrative, this chilling tale of science fiction explores the complex relationships between dogs and their owners.

Nano Comes to Clifford Falls: And Other Stories — (2008) Blending a focus on cutting-edge technology with deep emotional impacts, this enticing collection draws its stories from various Year’s Best and Reader’s Choice lists. The pathos of the human condition is explored in such stories as “My Mother, Dancing,” in which seedlings are planted and those responsible must decide if they will play God with them, or let natural selection progress; or in “Nano Comes to Clifford Falls,” where nanotechnology brings every wish to everyone — yet dire problems still ensue. The narratives reveal many forms of artificial intelligence including a persecuted slave in “Computer Virus,” a controlling force of the universe in “Mirror Image,” or even one that’s entirely indifferent to humans in “Savior.” From the center of the galaxy to the swamps of Earth, all 13 inventive tales offer a trademark mix of hard science fiction interacting with flawed humanity.

Steal Across the Sky — (2009) The aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the internet: “We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly.  We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it.  Therefore we request twenty-one volunteers to visit seven planets to Witness for us.  We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety.  Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to witness@Atoners.com.” At first, everyone thought it was a joke.  But it wasn’t. This is the story of three of those volunteers, and what they found on Kular A and Kular B.

Five Stories — (2011) Five science fiction stories by award-winning author Nancy Kress, including “The Flowers of Aulit Prison,” which won the 1997 Nebula and Sturgeon. Paired with the novelette are four short stories, all of them chosen for various Best of The Year collections.

Flash Point — (2012) Young adult. Reality TV meets a chillingly realistic version of America — and the fame game is on! Amy had dreams of going to college, until the Collapse destroyed the economy and her future. Now she is desperate for any job that will help support her terminally ill grandmother and rebellious younger sister. When she finds herself in the running for a slot on a new reality TV show, she signs on the dotted line, despite her misgivings. And she’s right to have them. TLN’s Who Knows People, Baby — You? has an irresistible premise: correctly predict what the teenage cast will do in a crisis and win millions. But the network has pulled strings to make it work, using everything from 24/7 hidden cameras to life-threatening technology to flat-out rigging. Worse, every time the ratings slip, TLN ups the ante. Soon Amy is fighting for her life — on and off camera.

Future Perfect: Six Stories of Genetic Engineering — (2012) Nancy Kress is unrivaled in her treatment of genetic engineering. In 1991 she wrote the ground-breaking classic novella Beggars in Spain (Hugo/Nebula) and since then has only enhanced her outstanding reputation of telling stories set in the near-future and dealing with genetics. This collection brings together six of these stories written between 1984 and 2008, including “The Flowers of Aulit Prison” which won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short story.

AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence — (2012) Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-two novels and numerous short stories. She is perhaps best known for the “Sleepless” trilogy that began with BEGGARS IN SPAIN. Her fiction has won four Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the 2003 John W. Campbell Award (for PROBABILITY SPACE). These two outstanding stories give us a fascinating look into the evolution of artificial intelligence and the impact it has on human society.

The Body Human: Three Stories of Future Medicine — (2012) Nancy Kress is famous for creating realistic near-future societies based on technological advances and then studying the impact those technological changes have on our society. Here is a collection of three outstanding stories that deal with innovations in medical science and how they affect our lives.

Fountain of Age: Stories — (2012) Nine new stories from a long-time star of the science fiction field including the Hugo Award winner “The Erdmann Nexus” and the caper-inspired Nebula Award winning title story “Fountain of Age.” Kress unpacks the future the way DNA investigators unravelled the double helix: one gene at a time. In many of these stories gene sculpting is illegal yet commonplace and the effects range between slow catastrophe (“End Game”), cosmic (“First Rites”), and tragic (“Safeguard”). Then there’s the morning when Rochester disappears and Jenny has to rely on “The Kindness of Strangers.” There’s Jill, who is kidnapped by aliens and trying to learn the “Laws of Survival.” And there’s Hope, whose Grandma is regretting the world built “By Fools Like Me.” “End Game” & “The Kindness of Strangers” are available as podcasts and many of these stories have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and Best of the Web.

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