Tomorrow's Kin

Yesterday’s Kin Trilogy, Book 1

By: Nancy Kress

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Aliens have landed in New York.

A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now the plague is heading for Earth, threatening humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?

Geneticist Marianne Jenner is immersed in the desperate race to save humanity, yet her family is tearing itself apart. Siblings Elizabeth and Ryan are strident isolationists who agree only that an alien conspiracy is in play. Marianne's youngest, Noah, is a loner addicted to a drug that constantly changes his identity. But between the four Jenners, the course of human history will be forever altered.

Earth's most elite scientists have 10 months to prevent human extinction - but not everyone is willing to wait.

©2017 Nancy Kress (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

a very good story.

can't wait for the next book. there is so much room for great story lines

Good soup

This has been my token help me sleep/decompress book for the last couple of weeks and I can’t wait to get to the second book the story is very intriguing fascinating and very relatable to what today's mindset. The narrator is good too. I’ve heard the voice before, the kid voice in a different story, Anime either way Good stuff.

My brain works funky, so for the first little bit always trying to figure out the book until it pulls me in, if it can ,if not I’ll just leave it; this was a good one. I am happy Picked this book

original take onthe tired old alien apocalypse rag

Yup, alien first contact, planet apocalypse afterlife... as tired an old rag as you can find...Well! not like this one. zHold on for something new. Impossible and amazing. You'll love it. Next book please!

smart and entertaining.

Great story. Strong female lead with awesome science. A worthy read. The story is engaging and has great character development.

Very good and prescient book.

Well written, beautifully narrated, especially from a mother’s point of view, but don’t let that put you off if you’re not a mother. Good story about the usual thing…all the different human reactions to a stressor on a large group (or perhaps, ALL), of the people on earth.

Alien contact that does work out

Nancy Kress' Tomorrow's Kin is the opening salvo in her Yesterday's Kin trilogy. Earth is visited by aliens only to learn that they represent displaced human cousins removed from Earth some 150,000 years ago and evolved under slightly different conditions which apparently allows them to develop interstellar drives, but their biology sadly has not yet cured the common cold. They arrive to let us know that a galactic spore cloud is headed for Earth that will kill everyone and the cloud will hit their planet in another 25 years. There's a rush to develop a vaccine. Then the aliens leave, the spore arrives, but doesn't kill people (only mice) because we were exposed tens of thousands of years ago and the few who survived passed on those genes. Economic disaster results (because mice are very important ecologically) and the main character, a geneticist who worked with the aliens is on the run from angry humans as well as having lots of family troubles. She gets wrapped with a multi-billionaire who wants to travel to the aliens.

While conceptually intriguing (and a bit prescient with the crash vaccine development), the story suffers from uneven pacing that almost seems like three separate novelettes, loosely strung together. The aliens are never fully fleshed out in spite of their genetic connection. The notion that a civilization could reach a stage to coordinate interstellar travel but can't even grow viruses is a bit of a stretch. Populations of that size would be rampant with infectious diseases and hobbled for further development if they can't figure out better health options.

The narration is good with reasonable character distinction. Pacing is a bit on the slow side.

Fast paced and Original

Fast paced and Original. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It was different than many I've read in this genre.
It was one of the free selections, so that was a surprise bonus as well.

It's not written as well as it could be. it's lacking some polish, but the narration does a great job filling in where things are lacking and this talky helps the experience. It is a good story though and the important characters are very likeable. You will want to keep listening to see where things are going to end up. She threw in some nice twists and turns.

I would definitely say to give it a try.

Good writing. Interesting subject matter

A different kind of science fiction for me. Parts drag on in to details I found boring. Several times I wanted to stop this book and start something I would like more. The last few chapters finally picked up and became interesting. Keep with it.

Concept Sci Fi

This is concept sci fi. The author is working through some ideas about first contact that might transpire in unexpected ways. If you want space battles and fights with aliens for human survival, look elsewhere. But if you want a thoughtful engagement with ideas about environmentalism, human crisis politics, and alternative social orders, this is for you. There's a bit too much focus on sex at points ⎯ as if the author is trying to channel some of O. Butler's idea's on sex and becoming.

Binged the trilogy

I binge listened to all three of the trilogy over the past week. It is a wonderful series and I highly recommend it. Thought provoking, boundary pushing sci-fi that explores the nature of humanity and self and morality in a world of radically new technology and society is the best way to stoke my imagination and to wonder about the future.