In the early nineties, Nancy Kress took the SF world by storm with her multiple award-winning novella, "Beggars in Spain," which became the basis for her extremely successful Sleepless Trilogy (comprising Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride ). Since then she has written more than a dozen novels, most recently the well-received Probability Trilogy , which Booklist praised saying "Kress's characterizations are as sound as ever, but many will be agreeably surprised at her proficiency with military hardware and action scenes. Very impressive."And Kirkus, in a starred review, simply raved: "Kress's always excellent characters wrestle with a splendid array of puzzles and problems, human, alien, and scientific: another resounding success for this talented sure-footed writer." Now comes a brand-new science fiction epic: Crossfire Crossfire is the story of a human colony settling on a distant planet, a colony formed by Jake Holman-- a man trying to escape a dark past. But as this diverse group of thousands comes to terms with their new lives on a new world, they make a startling discovery: primitive humanoid aliens. There are only a few isolated villages, and the evidence seems to indicate the aliens aren't native to the planet-even though they live in thatched huts and possess only primitive tools. When the humans finally learn the truth, they find themselves caught up in an interstellar war. In the end, this handful of human colonists will have to choose sides in the struggle. A lot is riding on their decision--not just the fate of their new home, but the fate of all humanity. The first book in a new multivolume work sets up a somewhat familiar situation: interstellar colony financed by benign billionaire is filled by groups seeking room to achieve their identities. Said groups have barely reached the planet Greentrees, however, when they discover it already has sentient, alien inhabitants called the Furs. The groups discover soon thereafter that the local Furs were created as experiments in biological warfare by another sentient race, the Vines, who are, basically, plants and are at war with the technologically advanced, warlike ur-Furs, who subsequently show up and kidnap a number of humans. Caught in the crossfire, the humans need to foil Furs' and Vines' plans if they are to survive. Drawing on their mixed talents and personalities, they succeed for the moment. Kress operates up to her usual high standards in most respects, and she also makes ethical dilemmas as gripping as laser fights, and the results of human-alien contact rather depend on which human contacts which alien. Choice stuff. Roland Green Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Nancy Kress was born and raised in upstate New York, where she spent most of her childhood either reading or playing in the woods. She earned a bachelor's and master's degree in education, as well as an M.A. in English. While she was pregnant with the second of her two sons, she started writing fiction. She had never planned on becoming a writer, but staying at home full-time with infants left her time to experiment. In 1990 she went full-time as an SF writer. The first thing she wrote in this new status was the novella version of Beggars In Spain , which won both the Hugo and the Nebula Award. She is the author of more than twenty books, including more than a dozen novels of science fiction and fantasy, as well as three story collections, and two books on writing. Of her most recent novels, Probability Space (Tor, 2002) won the John W. Campbell Award for Best SF novel. Her short fiction has appeared in all the usual places, garnering her one Hugo and three Nebula Awards. Her work has been translated into Swedish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Japanese, Croatian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Greek, Hebrew, and Russian. She is also the monthly "Fiction" columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine and she teaches writing regularly at various places, including Clarion and The Writing Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She currently resides in Rochester, New York. CROSSFIRE 1 Gail Cutler loved the Ariel . That astonished her, because after Lahiri's death she had not expected to genuinely love anyone or anything again.As Gail walked the narrow passageway that led past the tiny sleeping chambers to the wardroom, she shot out one hand and stroked the gray metal bulkhead. It was a quick, tentative stroke; she didn't want anyone else to know how she felt about the ship. For one thing, it was damn silly, this affection for a huge hunk of metal. For another, the Ariel would be disassembled and converted once they reached Greentrees. Who could love, say, a sewage-purification vat?"You seem to be in a cheerful mood, Gail," Faisal bin Saud said as she entered the wardroom. The others were already seated at the lunch table, except for Captain Scherer and his officers. "Good news from Earth?""No news," Gail said briefly. Aft