Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress (author of Beggars in Spain and Probability Space) is a different type of alien contact novel. Where most alien contact novels have the aliens either warring with Earth or helping shepherd Earth to the future, these aliens have come to apologize and atone for their actions 10,000 years ago. No one knows what they did, but the aliens (called Atoners) want to help Earth find out.

In 2020, a strange ad appears on Craigslist. It says that they are from an alien species that wronged humanity 10,000 years ago. They want 21 people to come and be witnesses on 7 planets to understand what was done. At first everyone assumes it’s a joke, but when the aliens make contact with SETI and setup a base on the moon no one is laughing any more. The Atoners select 21 people from the millions that apply to go to 7 pairs of planets in 3 person teams. From each team, one person will go to each planet and one person will stay up and coordinate. The first third of the book deals with one of the 7 groups as they spend time on the planet until they witness something (but they’re not told what it is). At the end of the first part, they realize what the Atoners are atoning for and the rest of the book deals with the implications and the way that the Atoners plan on doing to make it up to humanity.

Kress has a nice writing style and the format of the book is interesting as well. Kress mixes in chapters that further the plot along with interstitial chapters that have interviews or pro/anti webpages about the Atoners or a discussion among people about what the aliens did or want. The main characters are well written and interesting, but the supporting characters are a flat and seem to exist solely to further the plot at times. Dropped plot lines and characters that pop-in and then disappear are the biggest problems with the book. At times it feels like an extra couple hundred pages were dropped from the book based on things that wrap up too quickly or are just dropped.

I’m not sure I would recommend this book. It’s not bad, but there isn’t huge amount to recommend about it. A mediocre book that could have been done better.