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    After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
    Unavailable
    After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
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    After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
    Ebook170 pages2 hours

    After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall

    By Nancy Kress

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    2012 Nebula Award Winner
    2012 Locus Award Winner
    2013 Hugo Nominee
    2013 Sturgeon Award Nominee

    In the year 2035, all that is left of humanity lives in the Shell.

    No one knows why the Tesslies attacked in 2014, devastated the environment, and nearly destroyed humanity. Or why the aliens imprisoned twenty-six survivors in a sterile enclosure built on the barren remains of the Earth.

    Fifteen-year-old Pete, one of only six children born in the Shell, is determined to lead humanity to a new beginning. But Pete struggles to control his anger as, one by one, the survivors sicken and die. Although the Earth appears to be slowly healing, the Shell’s inhabitants may not live long enough to see it. The only chance for humanity lies within brief time portals. Peter and the survivors hatch a desperate plan: to increase their numbers by abducting children from the past.

    In the year 2013, a brilliant CIA consultant sees a pattern in seemingly unrelated kidnappings. As Julie Kahn’s predictive algorithms reveal that the world is in imminent danger, she discovers that she may also play a role in its possible rebirth. Julie and Pete are rapidly converging in timea chance encounter between them may be the Earth’s only hope.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTachyon Publications
    Release dateMay 1, 2013
    ISBN9781616960667
    Unavailable
    After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
    Author

    Nancy Kress

    Nancy Kress is the author of thirty-four books, including twenty-six novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. Her work has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. She writes frequently about genetic engineering; including the acclaimed science-fiction novel Beggars in Spain. Kress’s fiction has been translated into Swedish, Danish, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Croatian, Chinese, Lithuanian, Romanian, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, and Klingon, none of which she can read. In addition to writing, Kress often teaches at various venues around the country and abroad, including a visiting lectureship at the University of Leipzig, a 2017 writing class in Beijing, and the annual intensive workshop TaosToolbox. Kress lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Pippin, the world’s most spoiled Chihuahua.

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    Reviews for After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall

    3.5/5

    144 ratings21 reviews

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    • 4/5
      My first sci-fi, a resolution for the YEAR OF YES. No that unbelieveable. A group of survivors belief that they had been abducted from earth with occasional individual visits back twenty years in time to grab youngsters and goods. But were they? Read this fast read and find out. I enjoyed it and would find it appropriate for highschoolers and older.
    • 3/5
      This short novel by Nancy Kress was interesting. I thought it had a young adult feel to the narration, although I wouldn't recommend it for that audience. The story was built in three parts, a post apocalypse/environmental collapse tale that was different than the usual fare. Time travel that made a little Scotty voice in my head say: "Captain, there be whales here". As a read, this was OK. One thing I did like was that this story was told compactly. Far too many books these days are long drawn out affairs. Pseudo-epics. This had a story to tell and it told it in a shorter form.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating world. It would have been interesting to find out more.
    • 4/5
      Thoughtful, tense and compelling all the way through, and just the right length to tear through all in one sitting. Some things, central things, go unexplained, but it turns out that they're less important than you think they are. Ultimately, it's the characters who make this, and through them the juxtaposition of stages of the apocalypse and the various understandings of people, of relationships, and of the world.
    • 3/5
      3 sobre 5, para "After de Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall: A Novel", de Nancy Kress
    • 3/5
      Solid, but very short, and less experimental than I expected from the title. Short chapters, clearly labelled, track two character plotlines - one present-day (2014), one several decades later. In addition, half-page "chapters" also in the present day track the physical events that mark the beginning of the transition from the present world to the future one. "During the fall" doesn't really get much attention -- it's all before and after, with some time travel thrown in. The future plot, following as it does young teen in a world very different than ours, could be considered Young Adult of the "sex is part of YA life" variety. As he learns more about the past, we learn more about his world. The present-day plot follows a female statistician who gradually discovers something bad is coming. These stories do converge, in a way that is a bit contrived, but not simple out of the blue coincidence. My main complaint is that there a few too many "what ifs" thrown in the pot. Not only the cause of the fall in the title, but the Tesslies (robots? aliens), the Shell (in which the few humans remaining live in the future) and time travel. That, in such a short novel, reminded me of the typical 180 page paperback SF novels of the 1960's. Fortunately, Kress is a better writer than most SF writers were back then. Things get pretty grim, reminding me a bit of her novel Alien Light, but brevity and good writing help keep the book from becoming a slog.Recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is an intense novella on both fronts: the uncertainty of what will happen to these captive few humans in the future and why the aliens have kept them there for twenty years, and the horrible sense of dread in the past because the reader knows the cataclysm is imminent and the characters have no idea. I read Kress's novel Beggars in Spain and was frustrated by the unevenness of it; I really didn't have much interest in reading more of her work. This story has taught me the error of my ways.I can most definitely see why this one the Nebula.
    • 3/5
      It’s easy to see why Nancy Kress’s After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall has done well with science fiction’s premier awards. Winning the Nebula and the Locus for best novella and garnering a nomination for the Hugo, the story is equally intriguing and gripping. It’s too bad her story flops for failure to satisfy reader expectations.Pete, one of the Six, lives in the completely enclosed and environmentally controlled “Shell” in the year 2035. They are descendents of the few remaining survivors on Earth of a catastrophic alien attack decades before. Kept alive by the grace of the aliens–the Tesslies–Pete and his fellow survivors jump back to the past to rescue individual children, hoping somehow to overcome their captors and restart life again on the planet.Meanwhile, Julie Kahn is a mathematician and contractor for the FBI helping to hunt down a mysterious crime spree that follows the outcomes of her algorithm. Each event brings her closer to a conclusion she may not be ready to accept.Skipping between three timelines, the story quickly builds to a crescendo. Kress uses the absence of information as a tool to build mystery and suspense, creating a palpable sense of the ominous. Given how short the book is–a novella, by definition–it was easy to blow through it in just one sitting.At this point, the book blogger code of ethics demands that I warn you that spoilers follow…or at least, information that could lead you to spoilers.Despite Kress’ excellent writing, I struggled with her resolution. Rather than explain anything, it has the effect of deus ex machina, except that we have no idea where the ex machina emerges from. The twist–oh, yes, there is a twist, but if you’re still reading this, don’t say I didn’t warn you–has no explanation in reality or science fiction. It just happens. We never learn how or from whence it came…it just happens. And the major plot device–a time machine, robots, aliens, tidal waives, volcanos–none of it makes sense in the context of what Kress has promised the reader.If Kress had made angels appear and bring a message from God, it would have made more sense than the strange plot device she used.Ultimately, for that reason, I finished After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall with a feeling of betrayal, disappointment, and like I had just had a heavy handed message about the environment stuffed down my throat. I might even have been ok with the message, if Kress had seemed like, just for a moment, she would justify it by some sort of explanation. As it was, though, her story amounts to no more than wishful thinking that might shift this book more into the fantasy genre than science fiction. It’s good writing, but in the balance is a disappointing story.
    • 3/5
      A bit didactic and more than a bit derivative, not up to her best but still an excellent read.
    • 4/5
      This book carried its own momentum -- it was a quick, easy read. The premise of a device to travel back in time to rescue people before an apocalypse in order to preserve the human race is done in an interesting way -- the people going have no control over the device, when it leaves or goes or where it goes, and can only hop in when it's ready and grab who/what they can before they are sent back.

      It was hard to put down, but I do have some criticisms. For one, the number of grabs seems like awfully small number statistics for Julie, the mathematician to have noticed a pattern and developed an algorithm. It didn't seem like there was enough connecting the kid grabs to the store grabs for her to have linked them together.

      Also, the ending was probably deliberately ambiguous, but I still have a lot of unresolved questions about the Tesslies - the beings who collected the survivors and made the time travel device. I have a really hard time finding their choices to have any consistency, and can't come up with a story fro them that would motivate them.

      Don't read if you need to be reassured that teenage boys aren't all terrible.
    • 4/5
      A compact story that moves between 2013-2014 and 2035. In the earlier time frame, Julie Kahn, a mathematician recognizes patterns in recent child abductions and store thefts as she consults with the CIA. In the future, Peter, a deformed 15 year old boy lives in a biosphere created by aliens known as the Tesslies. However, things appear to be changing. First, the Tesslies have added the jumping portal allowing Peter and the other survivor children to go back in time for quick "grabs" of supplies and children. Also, the grass outside the shell is beginning to grow suggesting that the inhabitants might be able to survive outside the "shell" in the near future if they can survive long enough. The brief chapters jump between Julie's story, the slow bacterial mutation that leads to a giant tsunami, and Peter's story all of which intersect in the end.
    • 3/5
      Interesting book, didn't spend a lot of time on the science which is ok. We spent a lot of time in the heads of two characters Julie before the fall and Peter after the fall. I was really dreading dreading the ending and how their two stories would intersect but the author tied things together nicely. In spite of the huge amount of peril the characters are in the author does manage a bit of hope at the end, though a bit abruptly.
    • 3/5
      After a world-wide catastrophe (or series of catastrophes), only a few humans survive. They are trapped inside a bunker, with sufficient water, air and food (unvaried though it may be) but too much genetic damage to continue the human race. In hopes of keeping their species going, they start traveling into the past and kidnapping the healthy babies they find. This part of the story is told through the eyes of Pete, a rather stupid teenager who was born in the bunker and views the world of the past through an almost alien mindset.

      In their past, and our future, a brilliant statistician named Julie Kahn is investigating the disappearances. This sets her on a collision course with Pete and the future he represents.

      A well-written book, but upsetting as all apocalyptic novels are. I wish this had been a little longer and more fleshed-out.
    • 3/5
      A quick read but I didn't find it convincing in terms of plot.
    • 3/5
      I liked how the characters were drawn, and the gradual reveal of life in the Shell.

      The interludes that described environmental changes didn't quite work for me -- they should have been ominous, but instead they were just repetitive.

      What really irritated me was this whole Gaia nonsense. The idea that eventually an anthropomorphic Earth will kick our asses is not science. Furthermore, we don't need a sentient Earth to punish us for ruining the environment. The actual science is scary enough.

      Also, it would have been nice if the Tesslies actually got explained.
    • 4/5
      I like Nancy Kress quite a lot so I was happy to see a new, if slim, novel from her. The plot has been adequately described by others so this review will be short as well. I liked the plot structure, three intertwining stories, slowly converging, with the future story (after the fall) ending the book. After the fall, the survivors are desperate, resulting to kidnapping children from the past. Before the fall, the police are baffled by a series of seeming unrelated kidnappings which, nonetheless seem to be predictable by a statistics consultant to the FBI. It was inevitable that, Pete, the main kidnapper from the future and Julie, the FBI consultant, would meet. Especially since the jacket blurb said it would happen.I liked the portrayal of the two main characters. Pete, 15-years-old, trapped in the Shell, frustrated both with the limited kind of life available to him and what he has to do to ensure a future that he's not even sure he believes in. Julie, needing a child but not wanting a husband, guilty about the way in which she had her child and convinced that these kidnappings are related somehow to the hints she sees of looming disaster.I didn't see the Gaia connection coming until it sort of jumped into the story rather late. I'm not sure it was necessary for Gaia to be invoked for the tragedy when Kress had set up several other potential instigators, but it didn't hurt the story for me.
    • 2/5
      This was on the Hugo ballot as a novella. so I read it in order to vote fully informed. The setup of the story was interesting but the ending was a complete downer. I'm not sure how you could have changed the outcome of the story but it was just rough and so bleak.
    • 4/5
      After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress is a strong post-apocalyptic story that mixes time travel, global disaster and mysterious aliens into a short book that certainly deserved it’s 2012 Nebula and Locus awards. In the year 2035 a small group of human survivors live in a prison-like shell from which some of them are able to time travel back to 2013 and grab items from before the earth was destroyed. The most important items are young children that will help to repopulate the world. Meanwhile back in 2013, brilliant mathematician Julie Kahn is working with the FBI to solve a number of strange kidnappings. As she untangles the puzzle her predictive algorithms begin to reveal much more than just simple kidnapping is going on. The story advances into 2014 when global disaster strikes and the future of humanity is at risk.I was totally captured by this story and although it is of a bleak and despairing nature, the author ended her story with a strong message of hope which I appreciated. This novella length story is a quick read and the author makes the world’s end very credible and scary. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is a unique, well-paced and gripping tale.
    • 4/5
      The premise: ganked from BN.com: The year is 2035. After ecological disasters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors—the last of humanity—are trapped by an alien race in a sterile enclosure known as the Shell. Fifteen-year-old Pete is one of the Six—children who were born deformed or sterile and raised in the Shell. As, one by one, the survivors grow sick and die, Pete and the Six struggle to put aside their anger at the alien Tesslies in order to find the means to rebuild the earth together. Their only hope lies within brief time-portals into the recent past, where they bring back children to replenish their disappearing gene pool. Meanwhile, in 2013, brilliant mathematician Julie Kahn works with the FBI to solve a series of inexplicable kidnappings. Suddenly her predictive algorithms begin to reveal more than just criminal activity. As she begins to realize her role in the impending catastrophe, simultaneously affecting the Earth and the Shell, Julie closes in on the truth. She and Pete are converging in time upon the future of humanity—a future which might never unfold. Weaving three consecutive time lines to unravel both the mystery of the Earth's destruction and the key to its salvation, this taut adventure offers a topical message with a satisfying twist.My Rating: 7 - Good ReadI rather enjoyed this novella from Nancy Kress. The braided storyline was well-handled, and it was reminiscent of Mira Grant's Countdown but more grounded in POV and structure. I liked how the story let me make predictions and re-evaluate those predictions while reading, so that in the end, I had it figured out what was going to happen, but not in a way that made me feel smarter than the book, if that makes sense. For a post-apocalyptic tale, it's unique in that we see the before, during, and after all at once, and it's also unique in that it doesn't rely on the usual suspects for the disaster. Perhaps its a little preachy in that regard, but I didn't mind too much. It's a good read, and one that I'll consider for "Best Novella" when I finally make my Hugo nominations.Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. Normally, I don't like to spoil short things, but the structure is such that I want to talk about how the three (really two) story-lines weave together and resolve. So if you want to remain spoiler-free, please do not read the full review at my blog. However, if spoilers don't bother you or if you've already read the book, feel free to click the link below to read the full review! As always, comments and discussion are most welcome!REVIEW: Nancy Kress' AFTER THE FALL, BEFORE THE FALL, DURING THE FALLHappy Reading!
    • 3/5
      Good, but depressing (of course) - it made me think of other stories, one by Kress herself where the aliens kill most of the humans, another novel by John Varley with the time travel piece and a little bit of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series.
    • 2/5
      Even knowing it is a novella, it feels like half a story. I'm not sure I'm even interested in the other half, given that we have huge plot holes and a deus ex machina. Filling those in wouldn't really make this a good story.

      I also really hate books where there is a date at the beginning of each chapter and the reader is expected to do the bookkeeping of which chapter goes where. That is just lazy storytelling. Establish where and when each character is, then use that. How hard is it?