- Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; New edition edition (24 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765346036
- ISBN-13: 978-0765346032
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,347,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Crucible (Crossfire)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Kress is becoming equally adept with hard science, alien contact, planetary colonization, and action, combining them with exceeding, possibly unique flair. A must for sf collections." -- Roland Green "Booklist" (09/01/2004)
Product Description
Jake Holman, a man trying to escape a dark past, brought together a diverse group of thousands to settle on a new world. The humans found themselves caught in the crossfire of a galaxy-spanning war between two disparate species: aggressive, militaristic humanoids known as Furs, and passive, plant like creatures known as Vines. Having now cast their lot with the peaceful Vines, humanity faces all-out war against the technologically superior Furs. Their only hope? A virus designed by the Vines to remove all aggressiveness from the Furs. Can it spread fast enough to save not only Holman's colony, but the rest of humanity?
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First Sentence
The party was reaching its city-wide crescendo, the speeches would begin soon, and no one could find Alex. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The party was reaching its city-wide crescendo, the speeches would begin soon, and no one could find Alex. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Crucible is a highly entertaining contination to Crossfire.
Still caught in the age-old battle between Vines and Furs, the citizens of Greentrees manage to carve a place in the new planet of humankind. Lucy and Karim from the adventure group of the last book are on their way to the planet of the Vines in order to infect the Furs further with the virus that the Vines had provided. But their plan of action takes an unexpected turn upon arrival at the Vine planet.
Back at Greentrees the 50-year celebration of the landing at Mira City is going strong when word of an approaching vessel comes to the leaders. Because of increasing devastation back on Earth, Julian Martin has decided to take the Crucible out to Greentrees to see if things are better out there. But here, too, things turn out differently from what the residents of Mira City had expected upon reception of the news of another Earth ship.
Kress spins an excellent yarn. In many ways this reminds me of Ludlum, though Ludlum in space. As a thriller it does its job and I kept on reading until the wee hours of the morning (not a good thing when work was waiting the next day).
I highly recommend Crucible to any and all.
Still caught in the age-old battle between Vines and Furs, the citizens of Greentrees manage to carve a place in the new planet of humankind. Lucy and Karim from the adventure group of the last book are on their way to the planet of the Vines in order to infect the Furs further with the virus that the Vines had provided. But their plan of action takes an unexpected turn upon arrival at the Vine planet.
Back at Greentrees the 50-year celebration of the landing at Mira City is going strong when word of an approaching vessel comes to the leaders. Because of increasing devastation back on Earth, Julian Martin has decided to take the Crucible out to Greentrees to see if things are better out there. But here, too, things turn out differently from what the residents of Mira City had expected upon reception of the news of another Earth ship.
Kress spins an excellent yarn. In many ways this reminds me of Ludlum, though Ludlum in space. As a thriller it does its job and I kept on reading until the wee hours of the morning (not a good thing when work was waiting the next day).
I highly recommend Crucible to any and all.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Terrific follow-on to "Crossfire"
17 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover
Nancy Kress continues her space-colonization story with this novel, a sequel to "Crossfire."
In terms of plot, the book opens as the colonists on Greentrees are still caught between the rock of "Furs" and the hard place of "Vines"--alien races at war with each other. The humans are allied with the Vines, who have a plan to eliminate the Fur threat.
If that weren't enough, a ship of humans arrives from Earth, bringing ambitions and prejudices of their own--and a whole new dimension to the conflict.
Without giving away too much, the story unravels a thorny briar patch of conflicts at many levels--among humans, planets, interstellar species, ecologies, technologies, biologies, relativity, and especially philosophies.
It's a massive undertaking on Ms. Kress's part, and she succeeds brilliantly. One of her strengths as a writer is that she has an appreciation for technology without being seduced by it. Better still, she creates very believable characters--the only other writer I can think of who created characters as convincingly was John D. MacDonald. But more than just a character study, she has an intricate, well-paced plot with a resolution that doesn't let anyone off the hook.
Best of all, there's enough threads to support a third entry in the series.
In terms of plot, the book opens as the colonists on Greentrees are still caught between the rock of "Furs" and the hard place of "Vines"--alien races at war with each other. The humans are allied with the Vines, who have a plan to eliminate the Fur threat.
If that weren't enough, a ship of humans arrives from Earth, bringing ambitions and prejudices of their own--and a whole new dimension to the conflict.
Without giving away too much, the story unravels a thorny briar patch of conflicts at many levels--among humans, planets, interstellar species, ecologies, technologies, biologies, relativity, and especially philosophies.
It's a massive undertaking on Ms. Kress's part, and she succeeds brilliantly. One of her strengths as a writer is that she has an appreciation for technology without being seduced by it. Better still, she creates very believable characters--the only other writer I can think of who created characters as convincingly was John D. MacDonald. But more than just a character study, she has an intricate, well-paced plot with a resolution that doesn't let anyone off the hook.
Best of all, there's enough threads to support a third entry in the series.
Decent Space Opera from Nancy Kress, but....
12 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
Nancy Kress's "Crucible", the sequel to her novel "Crossfire", is noteworthy mainly since it has more of her excellent world-building featured in her best novels. Alas her characters are not really all that memorable, with the sole exceptions of Alex Cutler and General Julian Martin, but even they are depicted in scenes that seem all too predictable. Here in "Crucible", the human colonists of the planet Greentrees must contend with yet another battle between the alien civilizations of the Vines and Furs, and the unexpected visit of an Earth warship, Crucible, and its charismatic commander, General Julian Martin. Having enjoyed some of Kress's earlier work, I am surprised that her characters and plot aren't nearly as memorable as those from "Beggars in Spain".
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
fine outer space cerebral thriller
6 Aug 2004
Format:Hardcover
Four decades ago Jake Holman and thousands of settlers following him were trapped in the middle of an inter-galaxy war between the militaristic humanoid Furs and the serene flora-like Vines. Jake and his followers supported the Vines against the bellicose Furs though the odds heavily favored the latter. The Vines used a last-hope virus to remove the aggressive tendencies of the Furs.
Jake is old and frail, but feels proud of his accomplishments especially the diversity he brought to Greentrees. Still a fierce contention exists between the Chinese in the city Hope of Heaven against the technocrats of Mira City. When the earth ship CRUCIBLE arrives on Greentrees, Captain Julian Martin ruthlessly uses that antagonistic rivalry to further his ambitions to become planetary dictator. He seduces Technology Resources Allocation Officer Alexandra Cutler, a member of the Mira City executive triumvirate, and other key citizens to do his bidding. Off planet the fighting between the Furs and the Vines remains heated. On and off the orb, Jake's dream is turning nightmarish.
The sequel to CROSSFIRE, CRUCIBLE contains plenty of action and intriguing alien species with deeply developed cultures. The story line moves along two paths, off and on the planet, but also is somewhat difficult to follow because of the complex continuous changes as to what is the core of the tale. Most interesting for those who read the first novel is how much Jake has aged from the swashbuckling hero to an elderly statesman ignored by the next generation as being yesterday's news. Fans, as they did with Nancy Kress' previous outer space cerebral thriller, will ponder the author's concept that society needs to defend the right to live alternate .and minority lifestyles.
Harriet Klausner
Jake is old and frail, but feels proud of his accomplishments especially the diversity he brought to Greentrees. Still a fierce contention exists between the Chinese in the city Hope of Heaven against the technocrats of Mira City. When the earth ship CRUCIBLE arrives on Greentrees, Captain Julian Martin ruthlessly uses that antagonistic rivalry to further his ambitions to become planetary dictator. He seduces Technology Resources Allocation Officer Alexandra Cutler, a member of the Mira City executive triumvirate, and other key citizens to do his bidding. Off planet the fighting between the Furs and the Vines remains heated. On and off the orb, Jake's dream is turning nightmarish.
The sequel to CROSSFIRE, CRUCIBLE contains plenty of action and intriguing alien species with deeply developed cultures. The story line moves along two paths, off and on the planet, but also is somewhat difficult to follow because of the complex continuous changes as to what is the core of the tale. Most interesting for those who read the first novel is how much Jake has aged from the swashbuckling hero to an elderly statesman ignored by the next generation as being yesterday's news. Fans, as they did with Nancy Kress' previous outer space cerebral thriller, will ponder the author's concept that society needs to defend the right to live alternate .and minority lifestyles.
Harriet Klausner
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