Enjoyable enough, but relatively slow-paced and ending not particularly surprising (at least to me). ( )

"All of us believe everything you said."
"We just don’t want to." ( )

Perhaps prequel to [b:Tomorrow's Kin|31702736|Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)|Nancy Kress|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482256477s/31702736.jpg|52384449] but also included in [b:Tomorrow's Kin|31702736|Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)|Nancy Kress|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482256477s/31702736.jpg|52384449] as part one. The content is the same so if you want all three parts read [b:Tomorrow's Kin|31702736|Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)|Nancy Kress|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482256477s/31702736.jpg|52384449]. ( )

Several months previously, an alien ship landed in New York Harbor. They suddenly really want to talk to Dr Marianne Jenner, author of a scientific paper all about mitochondria. They tell Jenner, and the UN Secretary General, some really interesting things. The aliens (humanity calls them "Denebs" even though they aren't from the star Deneb) and humanity are almost genetically identical. Also, very bad things are going to happen to Earth in less than one year.

A group of Earth's best scientists, including Jenner, are taken aboard the ship in a desperate search, with Deneb help, for immunity from "it." Meantime, outside the ship, Jenner's family is fractured. She is a widow with three grown children, two of whom, on opposite sides of the political spectrum, are constantly arguing. The third, Noah, is a drug addict. The reaction of the rest of humanity to the news about Earth's future ranges from There Are No Aliens to riots and suicide bombers.

Inside the ship, progress is slow, and the clock is running. As the end gets closer and closer, despair sets in among the scientists that they are not even close to a solution. Then the Denebs reveal the honestly real reason for their trip to Earth. Time will tell if Earth's spirit of friendship and cooperation will continue, or if the Denebs have committed a monumental error by getting all of mankind really angry at them.

This book easily gets five stars. It is full of ideas on a variety of topics, it is really easy to read and the hard science is kept to a "reasonable' level. Will there be a sequel? I hope so. ( )

What if: Aliens have finally come to Earth and they are us? Now they are here, how long do we have to get to know them before everything we love is gone forever.

Nancy Kress has written a fascinating book about what motivates people: family, survival, greed, fear. She centers her story on a family consisting of a mother, geneticist Marianne Jenner, her children, Noah, restless, addicted to a personality changing drug called sugar cane, Elizabeth, a tough law enforcement officer, and Ryan, an environmental scientist who studies invasive species.

When the Deneb appear on Earth with their enigmatic message that they come in peace, it ignites a chain of events that will change how you view First Contact profoundly.

What a fantastic story!! ( )