Fountain of Age: Stories

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 in The Year's Best Science Fiction, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and Best 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 theres the morning when Rochester disappears and Jenny has to rely on “The Kindness of Strangers.” Theres Jill, who is kidnapped by aliens and trying to learn the “Laws of Survival.” And theres Hope, whose Grandma is regretting the world built “By Fools Like Me.”

“Quality oozes from every page. A master class in the art of short-story writing.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Passions are magnified by age and the world only becomes more unpredictable in Kresss new collection, anchored by the Nebula-winning title novella. The nine stories, published over the course of just two years, wrestle with themes of love, death, and transformation. . . . Kresss depiction of science is much like her characters experiences with love: by turns glorious and terrible, and always a little disturbing, even in triumph.” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for Nancy Kresss previous books:

“Nancy Kress Has the true storytellers Gift–the ability to make her characters and what happens to them so vital that the readers heart aches.” —Stephen R. Donaldson

“Nancy Kress comprehends the grimy relationships among bioscience, technology, and politics; and soon we will too, if only enough of us read her. Too soon it cannot be.” —Gene Wolfe

“Nancy Kress has written a novel that graphically disects the roots of human violence while affirming the invincibility of the human spirit. An Alien Light is both provocative and insightful.” —Julian May

“Kresss villains are not diabolical conspirators but willfully ignorant hypocrites, shortsighted and greedy dunderheads, the well-intentioned half-baked—in short, us. But we are also the heroes whose generosity, honesty and energy could turn our lemming tribe away from the polluted waters ahead.” —Washington Post

“The plotting is fast-paced, the characterization is good, and science explained in easily digestible portions.” —New Scientist

“The kind of thriller that continually makes you want to turn the pages faster than you can read them.” —SF Site

“That Kress remains a master is everywhere evident.” —Booklist

“The keeness of vision to. . . see the possibilities for the future very clearly, and they are both fascinating and frightening.” —San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle

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 in The Year's Best Science Fiction, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and Best of the Web.

Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-seven books, including three books on writing. She has received four Nebulas and two Hugos. Her fiction has been translated into twenty languages. She often teaches writing—most recently at the University of Leipzig in Germany. She lives in Seattle, Washington.