- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Saint Martin's Press Inc.; later printing edition (13 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765304678
- ISBN-13: 978-0765304674
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 16.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,087,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
CROSSFIRE is the story of a human colony started by Jake Holman, a man trying to escape a dark past. But as this diverse group of thousands of people comes to terms with their new lives on a new world, they make a startling discovery: primitive humanoid aliens. There are only a handful of isolated villages, and as the colonists gather more information, the evidence seems to indicate that the aliens aren't native to the planet. When the humans finally learn the truth, they find themselves caught up in an interstellar war between two very different species of aliens. In the end, just a handful of humans, led by Jake, must choose sides. The fate of not just their new home, but all of humanity, hangs in the balance.
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Gail Cutler loved the Ariel. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Gail Cutler loved the Ariel. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Personable writing style overcomes the few flaws,
By
This review is from: Crossfire (Hardcover)
Nancy Kress' style captivates me to the point that I am quite willing to overlook her shortcomings. I'll mention them though, just to get them out of the way: I found the beginning a bit rough, keeping track of a lot of characters all introduced at the same time. And there were occasional repetitions noticeable, and rather awkward foreshadowing.These are each very minor flaws though, and don't interfere with a thoroughly enjoyable read. Plotwise, we have a private company in the 23rd century building a spaceshp and ferrying 6,000 very rich people from a dying Earth to their new planet, Greentrees. These 6000 represent quite diverse groups and ideologies. There's a tribe of Cheyennes wanting to take up a traditional mode of life; 1000 Chinese and 1000 New Quakers each seeking separate ways of leading simpler and quieter lifestyles; a major charcter's extended family of ecologically obsessed scientists; a deposed Arabic royal family, along with a few other various assorted rich & eccentric individuals. The challenges and difficulties of setting up a world with such large and diversified groups is well handled by the author. Further complication ensue with the discovery of aliens already living in villages and with the approach of a spaceship bearing a very different species approaching. The core of the novel and its primary fascination come from the parts where humans and aliens work to avoid mistakes like those made on first contact. However, the stories & agendas of the various characters are also fascinating. At times, one might fear trite & ho-hum subplots such as the friction between the New Quaker doctor and his rebellious daughter, or the Corporation leader with a deep dark secret in his past, and yet we feel deeply enough for those involved that we are concerned with how each works out his and her challenges. Having been away from science- reading for a long while, disenchanted with the depressing view of the future and the emphasis on hard science prevalent in the genre, I found this to be a refreshing, enjoyable return.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre but just readable SF.,
This review is from: Crossfire (Paperback)
It says something about the low standards present in the genre thesedays that work as unsophisticated as this can still win the odd plaudit.
Fails miserably in its attempt to come up with a remotely plausible reason for interstellar warfare, and drags in the oldest cliche of the lot, an earth that goes offline because of a breakdown of order at the critical moment I could go one, but there isn't a lot of point.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good science fiction,
By
This review is from: Crossfire (Paperback)
This is my first Nancy Kress book. It will not be my last.Humans settling space and humans encountering aliens is a common theme in science fiction litterature. In this book humans do both. As the Mira Corp group settles down on Greentree, they discover that they are not all alone. On a planet they had thought was devoid of sentient life, they encouter another race. But this race is extremely divergent and seems to differ from group to group more than evolution can account for. In fact evolutionary studies of the planet show that it is highly unlikely that these aliens (now called Furs) are in fact originally from the planet. They are not. It turns out that they have been imported by another group of aliens (part plant, part animal) who are experimenting on a way to change the genetic makeup of the Furs in order to make them more docile. Now the humans need to choose sides, and their struggle in making a choice is what most of this book is about. It is also about the conflicts within the Mira Corp group, both among individuals and among the different groups who have emigrated from Earth. All in all it was an enjoyable book. It caught my attention and managed to hold it most of the way through. While not a book I could not put down, it was certainly above average. Enjoy.
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