An Alien Light [Hardcover]

Nancy Kress (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1987

A Science Fiction Novel

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Arbor House; Book Club edition (1987)
• ASIN: B0015MRMNU
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,945,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Thoughtful Science Fiction, January 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Alien Light (Mass Market Paperback)

Good Science Fiction book. Second book of Nancy Kress' I have read (Brain Rose in 1992?) and both have been thoughtful and to have contained fully explored themes. In this book an alien race confines a community of ship wrecked humans to study them. The humans have been stranded on the planet so long they have reverted back to a roughly medieval lifestyle. The purpose of the experiment is to allow the aliens to better understand humans so they can defeat them in an on-going war they are having with Earth. Both the primitive human community and the alien culture are fully developed in the book. Philosophical questions are asked and answered through the story. A largely successful effort to write about human behavior from the standpoint of an outside observer. What makes us strong, what makes us weak, and what makes us dangerous. Well written both from an idea stand point and a story line stand point. Kress is a concise and economical writer who develops characters pretty well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Into the City of the Aliens!, May 7, 2008

By 

Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: An Alien Light (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book I read authored by Nancy Kress (1948) and I look forward to read more from her pen!

"An Alien Light" (1988) is a very interesting sci-fi novel with keenly defined characters and powerful argument.
The story is as follows: in far future humankind has expanded thru the universe and collided with intelligent alien species.
The Geds are loosing the war and desperately try to investigate these annoying humans.
They choose Qom a god-forgotten planet, inhabited by humans, to establish their city-laboratory-experimental-place. They lure humans to enter R'Frow and stay there while Geds observe them and try to draw conclusions.
Qom is populated by two confronting communities: Jelites, with a military structure similar to ancient Sparta and Delysians a mainly commercial group with similarities to ancient Phoenicia.

The author sagaciously let loose the antagonistic humans in a closed environment supervised by aliens delivering a griping story.

The novel has an almost rushed ending that do not invalidate its merits, as no loose strings are left, nevertheless I was expecting something more elaborated.
All in all "An Alien Light" is an enjoyable sci-fi novel, with a last warning: it is oriented to adult public.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Violence aids intelligence.", January 12, 2007

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: An Alien Light (Hardcover)

The Ged have come to Qom. The Ged, after warring with humans in space, can't figure out how such a volatile species could ever have achieved the ability to travel in space. The Ged are different, evolved over centuries upon centuries of communion and cooperation. They don't ... they can't ... understand the unpredictable nature of human beings.

On Qom, two factions constantly war with each other, Jela and Delysia. Each city holds unique traits to their citizens and has little tolerance for their foes. Yet when the Ged open the walled city of R'Frow to any citizen, Jelite or Delysian, promising riches to the traders and weapons to the warriors, the two factions find themselves encaged together inside R'Frow.

Inside R'Frow, they find that the Ged have changed their circadian cycles. Ayrys, a Delysian glassblower, Jehane, a Jelite warrior, Dehar, an ostracized Jelite warrior-priest, and SuSu, a Jelite prostitute, all find themselves part of the Ged plans to "observe" humans and why they've developed the capacity for interstellar flight.

Kress has built a believable world with Qom, intriguing with its alien cycles and the adaptation of the humans that live there. Plant life flourishes, and Jelite and Delysian both know the treacheries of the landscape. Archaic customs of each faction both hinder and help them through their experience with the Ged, and in the end their answer lies within their very own planet.

'An Alien Light' is a compelling story of an alien species observing humans. The aliens are really alien, and the humans are all too representative of how humans interact with each other. This is a very thoughtful "hard" Sci-Fi, with plausible scenarios through modern science stretched into the imagination of a masterful story-teller. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!