author : Nancy Kress

Nancy Kress's first novel, recently reprinted, is a clever and moving Fairy Tale Quest. (I mean "fairy tale" in the same way as I explain about John Barnes' One for the Morning Glory, although TPoMB is slightly less knowing than OftMG.) Princess Kirila decides to go on a Quest for the Heart of the World, and is soon joined by Chessie, a talking purple labrador who explains that he is an enchanted prince. Before the conclusion they suffer a sequence of enchantments that attempt to divert Kirila from her quest. What makes the story for me is the inventiveness and interest of these enchantments (although quantum chromodynamics has moved on a little in the decades since publication), and the developing characters of Kirila and Chessie.

This is a first novel, and there are a few rough edges (I never did understand the point about the bat, for example). But the virtues well outweigh the vices, and I certainly shed a tear during the final scene.

This welcome reprint has obviously been done by scanning and recognising an earlier print, because there are occasional glitches not caught by the proof-reading: a "we11" rather than a "well", an "0h" rather than an "Oh", some spurious hyphens, and so on. These are mildly irritating (they jolt me out of the story when they occur), but a few typos are a relatively small price to pay for having this book back in print.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Margin of Error. 1994

Be careful whose work you steal, for even a boiling frog might jump.

• Beggars in Spain. 1991

expanded as Beggars in Spain

• Feigenbaum Number. 1995

• Fault Lines. 1995

• Unto the Daughters. 1995

• Evolution. 1995

• Ars Longa. 1994

• Sex Education. 1996

• Grant Us This Day. 1993

• Flowers of Aulit Prison. 1996

• Summer Wind. 1995

• Always True to Thee, In My Fashion. 1997

• Dancing on Air. 1993

Enigmatic aliens, the "Atoners", have arrived on the moon. They advertise for people to "Witness" the terrible thing they did to humanity ten thousand years ago. The witnesses they choose seem to be a totally random selection of Earth's youth. Off they go to other planets, do their witnessing, and gradually realise what has been done to humanity. Then they return to Earth to report on all this. So, what are the Atoners going to do about it?

I enjoyed reading this, but was ultimately left unsatisfied. Unless this is a set-up for a sequel (and it doesn't really have that feel), absolutely nothing is explained. We never learn why the Atoners did what they did to humanity (I can "understand" why they did what they did on the other planets, by why to the Earth?). We never learn why they chose that particular set of Witnesses. We never learn why the Atoners wouldn't let Frank keep his souvenir, despite similar information being made available many times on Earth. (I'm being deliberately vague here, to try not to introduce spoilers -- but my biggest complaint can't be explained without a spoiler -- so look for it here only if you don't mind spoilers.)

So, well written and engaging, but ultimately unsatisfying (unless I've missed the point?)