The novel “If Tomorrow Comes” by Nancy Kress was published for the first time in 2018. It’s the second book in the Yesterday’s Kin trilogy and follows “Tomorrow’s Kin“.

The starship Friendship has reached the planet Kindred, also called simply World, the Denebs’ home. Onboard, in addition to the crew, there are scientists and diplomats protected by a team of rangers. They expect to work together with an advanced civilization, but the only other starship they find in the area is Russian, arrived only to destroy World’s civilization and the Friendship, and then return to Earth.

A shuttle from the Friendship manages to escape the Russian attack and land on World, where the Earthlings find a low-tech civilization capable of building a starship only thanks to the instructions left by whoever brought the Denebs to World many millennia before. The natives don’t have enough scientific knowledge to discover a vaccine that will protect them from the lethal spores that will soon hit the planet.

The first contact with the visitors nicknamed Denebs in “Tomorrow’s Kin” gave a certain impression about their civilization, but “If Tomorrow Comes” opens with a shock for the expedition arrived from Earth with the discovery of a small population technologically far behind the Earth’s. For this reason, World’s inhabitants can’t defend from the attack of a Russian starship, and their biggest cities get destroyed. In essence, the survivors of the expedition of the starship Friendship find a population on the planet to which the interstellar cloud of spores is about to give the coup de grace.

After this brutal beginning, the plot of “If Tomorrow Comes” is developed with the attempt by the Earthlings to create a vaccine to save the natives from the spores while facing a series of problems due to the peculiarities of the local culture. World’s society is very different from the Earth’s ones and this creates difficulties of understanding with the Earthlings that go well beyond linguistic problems.

World’s society is matriarchal, and based on family groups in which the members take care of each other, have strict control over the population, and protect the environment, so there’s neither poverty nor pollution. On the other hand, that society is very static and every little change goes through long discussions.

In some ways, “If Tomorrow Comes” has a plot mirroring that of “Tomorrow’s Kin” because it explores the consequences of the arrival of the Earthlings on World and the attempt to develop a vaccine that protects the natives from the interstellar spores. Basically, that’s what happened in the first novel with the arrival of the Denebs on Earth.

In “If Tomorrow Comes” Dr. Marianne Jenner is back and finds her son, who had left with the Denebs, but there are also new characters who offer different points of view. Leo Brodie was assigned to the ranger team, and must protect the Earthlings. Dr. Salah Bougiba is a doctor who contributes to the vaccine research by getting by with the little equipment he has with him and what he can get on World. Austin is a teenager son of an Earth woman who emigrated to World with her sister who tries to find his way, but is caught between the local culture and the Earth’s one that’s still important among the immigrants, with the complication of a mother with some mental problems.

Telling the consequences of an important change on a society is one of Nancy Kress’s trademarks, so it’s far from surprising that in “If Tomorrow Comes” the best part is in the consequences of the contacts of the Earthlings with World’s inhabitants and the imminent arrival of the interstellar spore cloud. Despite the profound cultural differences, the similarities also emerge in certain emotional reactions, for better or for worse.

“If Tomorrow Comes” has more or less the strengths and weaknesses of “Tomorrow’s Kin”, with great importance in the relationships between characters, but also with the use of some clichés that sometimes make their actions predictable. The difference from the first novel is that the story took place in a much shorter time and follows various protagonists instead of Marianne Jenner only. Overall, my opinion remains positive, so if you liked the first book, which you need to read to understand the second, I recommend to go on with the trilogy.