Kress became a favorite after I read her Beggars in Spain, which won both Nebula and Hugo awards. An Alien Light wasn't as strong as that book, but I thought hung together better than her other early novel, Brainrose. That one was set in the near future, and had dated quite badly--this one is set in our far future, and still works. In that future an alien race, the Ged, are at war with humanity. The aliens discover a planet where a human colony had reverted to a primitive state, divided into the warrior Jelites and the mercantile Delysians. The aliens set up a sort of social experiment, luring members of both groups into a settlement they create to study and understand humans. Mostly the story gets told through the Delysian artisan Ayrys, and three Jelites, a "sister-warrior" Jehane, a warrior-priest Dahar and the young prostitute SuSu. The title turns out to be apt in more than one sense as Kress uses the alien perspective to examine what it means to be human. It's an engrossing story, with aliens that feel--well, alien, and characters I cared about.
The premise of this book is that aliens, at war with humanity in space, find a lost colony of humans and study them to see what makes them tick. There are three groups of humans on this lost planet; survivors from the starship that brought them who flick in and out of stasis, a militaristic society, and a trader society. The latter two are almost constantly at war with one another. This is an interesting idea but probably beyond the ability of one novel to explore satisfactorily. There are gaps and unanswered questions. I would have liked more insights about the cultures, how they developed and why they are so antagonistic to one another. The ending also seems a bit abrupt. I won’t give that away though. This might have made a great series but one book wasn’t enough to handle the idea.
What do You think about An Alien Light (1989)?
This book is one of Kress' earlier ones, but already it contains many of the things that have made her one of my favorite authors. On the planet Qom, two human groups, Delysians and Jelites, are enemies who are frequently engaged in devastating wars against each other. The Ged, a species for whom unity and togetherness are essential parts of their collective make-up, can't understand how human beings, willing to kill others of their own species, have survived long enough to develop the intelligence to discover space travel. They've come to Qom to study that, to help them in their inter-stellar war against humans. How their study is conducted and its results create a fascinating plot. But in typical Kress style, it's the characters who make the story so rich.
—Susan
This was an interesting book in that it examines fundamentally opposing philosophies of the universe. Humans in the book are willing to kill other humans and the aliens are only willing to kill beings of another species. The aliens are trying to understand how humans can be successful as a species and not value all human life. The reason they need to understand the human way is because the aliens are at war with other humans. Kress does a fair job examining these philosophies but at times, it is difficult to sympathize with the aliens.
—Duane
