TOMORROW'S KIN is the first book of the Yesterday's Kin trilogy, and an expansion of the 2014 novella Yesterday's Kin, which won the Nebula award for Best Novella at the 2015 Nebula Awards ceremony held in Chicago. While it was
not my favorite that year - "We Are All Completely Fine" by Daryl Gregory would have gotten my vote if I was an eligible voter - I did like it quite a bit. I had a few quibbles with it, but all in all it was a fine story. Sometime after that I'd heard she was going to expand it into a novel; I was unaware and surprised that the intent was to expand it into a trilogy. I wasn't then, and am not now, quite sure where she is going with the story, but the pleasure is in the discovery of reading it, I suppose.
The first third or so of TOMORROW'S KIN is the original novella - probably with some modifications (to be fair, I don't remember the original well enough to be able to pick up on changes, although I suspect they're minor) - while the
last two thirds or so continues in the aftermath of the Denebs visit and the Earth passing through the spore cloud. The spore cloud did not kill off humanity as was originally indicated by the Denebs. Instead, the cloud caused havoc with other portions of the ecosystem on Earth, causing the balance of nature to be thrown off thus causing massive economic and ecological issues. To be sure, some humans were killed by the spore cloud, but most were not. Still, the unforeseen - by humanity, but maybe not by the Denebs - have divided the natives of Earth.
As a sign of gratitude, the Denebs have given us the plans and technology to build a star ship. But the gift of interstellar travel has, for many, raised even more suspicions of the Denebs. If they knew that the spore cloud was going to have the aforementioned unintended consequences, what else are they not telling with this gift? Feelings and opinions are split. One faction would like to build the star ship and make a peaceful visit to "World", as the home planet of the Denebs is called. Another faction would like to use those star ships to travel to World and attack the Denebs, and a third doesn't trust them and want nothing to do with the star ship. Maryanne Jenner, the protagonist of the original novella now has a role with a foundation that supports traveling to the stars. She travels the country making speeches on behalf of a foundation that is supporting the effort to build the star ship in the United States (it should be noted that many nations world wide are attempting to build the star ship, and that there are at least three different efforts going on in the United States alone. Maryanne is approached by the head of one of the efforts; he wants to give her foundation lots of money to go out and spread the good word of going to the stars. He is a shady character at best, and his motives are questionable.
One of the other side effects of the spore cloud is that children who are born after the Earth passes through the cloud cry almost continuously for a good portion of the first couple of years of their lives. Sometimes the crying stops, other times it does not - leading to undesirable outcomes. It is discovered that those who stop have a gift; they can hear sound above the highest frequency and below the lowest frequency previously known to be audible by humankind. As you might guess, the discovery of this gift has huge implications for the story.
As with the original novella, Maryanne Jenner's family is central to the entire novel, although the focus really comes down to her grandchildren. Her son Noah has left with the Denebs to go to World. Her daughter Elizabeth is largely offstage for the last two thirds of the book, probably working against the efforts to build a star ship, and her son Ryan has descended into depression over his role in the Deneb visit. I expect that all three of Maryanne's children will have large roles to play in the remaining two books of the trilogy.
As is probably obvious, the book is not only about family, but about consequences, unintended or not. All actions have consequences, and it's how we as a race react to and deal with those consequences that define who we are as individuals and as a species. Most times the consequences we deal with are not enormous or far reaching. It's the nature of fiction, however, that consequences that characters deal with are far reaching and significant. I feel that the characters of TOMORROW'S KIN have barely scratched the surface of what's to come, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.
Marguerite Gavin is an outstanding narrator, one of the best I've listened to. She has a tremendous ability to voice all sorts of characters, whether they be male or female, child or adult, or even human or machine simulated. I enjoyed her voice and pacing. Like Jefferson Mays, who narrates the outstanding Expanse series of novels, I would be thrilled to listen to more of her narration. I hope she continues to narrate the Yesterday's Kin trilogy. It will make the listening experience all that much more worthwhile.
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