Yesterdayâ€™s Kin

Author: Nancy Kress

This short novel by one of the most reliable writers in the genre is a first contact story with a difference. Aliens have landed in New York, or rather, just off shore, where they have constructed an impenetrable dome, so no-one knows who or what they are, where they have come from, and why they're here. Then Marianne Jenner, a top geneticist, is summoned to a mysterious meeting in New York. There she finds that the aliens have specially asked to meet her, so she becomes part of the first human group to enter the dome. What they discover there is stranger than anyone expected, because the aliens aren't really alien, and they bring a warning that Earth is about to pass through a zone of space that could prove lethal to all of humanity. Marianne has ten months to find a solution. Why it's on the list: Nancy Kress keeps her story short and focussed, and it is all the better for it. There's a small cast of characters, a limited number of settings, and all of our attention is fixed on the overwhelming mystery. The result is a dramatic and compelling story.