Fountain of Age: Stories

by Nancy Kress

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Publication

Small Beer Press (2012), 300 pages

Description

Nine new stories from a long-time star of the science fiction field including the Hugo Award winner "The Erdmann Nexus" and Nebula Award winner "The Fountain of Age." These stories have been reprinted inThe Year's Best Science Fiction,Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, andBest of the Web. Kress unpacks the future the way DNA investigators unravelled the double helix: one gene at a time. In many of these stories gene sculpting is illegal yet commonplace and the effects range between slow catastrophe ("End Game"), cosmic ("First Rites"), and tragic ("Safeguard"). Then there's the morning when Rochester disappears and Jenny has to rely on "The Kindness of Strangers." There's Jill, who is kidnapped by aliens and trying to learn the "Laws of Survival." And there's Hope, whose Grandma is regretting the world built "By Fools Like Me."… (more)

Rating

½ (26 ratings; 3.8)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
A strong collection of mostly SF stories by Kress. A fairly common background is an Earth in decay. This is especially true in Laws of Survival, that has a lot in common with her novel Nothing Human, where things are so bad, aliens step in to protect a few bits, and in By Fools Like Me (as in
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Kilmer's poem Trees) where everything has seriously gone to hell in a handbasket. Another favorite theme of hers that appears multiple times is the accelerated evolution of humanity, usually artificially, though not in every case. The endpieces are The Erdmann Nexus, that won a Hugo, and Fountain of Age, that won a Nebula. Both are excellent, but I prefer the latter, because Kress stretches her narrative voice to channel Heinlein (or Scalzi, for you youngsters) in a modern version of Heinlein's "man who learned better" template.

Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
A collection of sf stories by Nancy Kress. Usually collections are an uneven mix, but these stories not only flow together well, but each and every story is excellent. Many of the stories are about individual humans' reactions to technological leaps or apocalyptic events. Aliens appear in a few.
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And yet they are all believable, like what might actually, truly happen if these events come to pass. Kress has a solid scientific understanding and avid curiosity and imagination about future breakthroughs, and it makes her tales all the better.
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LibraryThing member morgan.goose
was a really good set of short stories. some a little on the sad side, but well varied and with great characters

Awards

Philip K. Dick Award (Nominee — 2012)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2012

Physical description

300 p.; 8.5 inches

ISBN

1931520453 / 9781931520454

UPC

884404908250
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