mikernc's review
5.0
I really liked this book. Short, sweet, to the point. Explained just enough for closure, left just enough unexplained to wonder.
jimmypat's review
1.0
It's a bit bewildering that this book could be published. Terrible writing, plot holes, juvenile (but not appropriate for juveniles with its subject matter/language).... in the end, I just started laughing at the absurdity of this book.
tanya_the_spack's review
4.0
I really enjoyed the story, but the oddly literal deus ex machina resolution is kind of absurd and never explained.
ginnikin's review
2.0
The scenario was impressive; the story was less so. The characters didn't have enough character (I remember feeling that way about Kress's books I ready a long time ago). Still, it was an easy read and an interesting idea. I get that the Tesslies were a macguffin, but your macguffins still need to make sense. Why were they interfering? Why in such an unscientific way? Why the urgency to get them out of the Shell after the last Grab?
raven_morgan's review
5.0
Read as part of the 2013 Hugo packet.
And yeah, kind of holy crap amazing. Suspect it will be one that I reread fairly regularly. Though dammit, I kind of wanted it to be expanded into a novel.
And yeah, kind of holy crap amazing. Suspect it will be one that I reread fairly regularly. Though dammit, I kind of wanted it to be expanded into a novel.
eishe's review
4.0
A haunting, short and easy read.
Even though I knew what was coming at the end, it still hit me like a brick wall. Recommended.
Even though I knew what was coming at the end, it still hit me like a brick wall. Recommended.
mjfmjfmjf's review
4.0
Weird short novel or long novella. A bit abrupt and hard to read at the beginning, in fact the very beginning had more of a horror novel feel. And yet it tied together well enough that it worked. Definitely in the apocalypse genre which seems to be sprouting out all over but quite a different take.
wunder's review
2.0
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?
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?
dunguyen's review
2.0
I didn't really know what to expect from this book but it turned out to be just ok. I felt the introduction a bit clunky and it takes a bit long to advance the plot enough to explain about the gaia theory. The plot seems very simplistic and everything is built up to serve the plot, there's not really any sideplots and although there's no unnecessary characters, the ones that are there seems very one-dimensional. A lot of the actions that happens throughout seems to have no consequence as the author wants to advance to the end and to the plot twist. The entire structure of telling three different timelines also seems like a complete gimmick. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you really did not have anything else to read.
maryrobinette's review
4.0
After the Fall, During the Fall, Before the Fall is the coming of age story for the human race. Nancy Kress has written a chillingly plausible tale of the end of the world.
I loved this book and at the same time wanted to hide from it. There are a lot of writers who tackle the end of the world, but no one makes it seem as real as Nancy Kress does. She makes no attempt to answer every question, because the few people left standing at the end just don't know. Neither do we. What After the Fall, During the Fall, Before the Fall reminds us is that the human race needs to come of age just as surely as Pete, one of the main characters. This fifteen-year old boy represents us; smart, angry, and lost.
I loved this book and at the same time wanted to hide from it. There are a lot of writers who tackle the end of the world, but no one makes it seem as real as Nancy Kress does. She makes no attempt to answer every question, because the few people left standing at the end just don't know. Neither do we. What After the Fall, During the Fall, Before the Fall reminds us is that the human race needs to come of age just as surely as Pete, one of the main characters. This fifteen-year old boy represents us; smart, angry, and lost.