Kathleen Ann Goonan burst into prominence with Queen City Jazz, the start of her Nanotech Quartet. The Bones of Time, her widely acclaimed second novel, was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2000. In War Times is deeply, satisfying SF.
Sam, the protagonist, is a young enlisted man in 1941 when his older brother Keenan is killed at Pearl Harbor. Seduced by a mysterious woman, Sam gives her plans for a device that will end not just the war, but perhaps even the human predilection for war.
Sam spends his war years trying to construct the device and discovers only later that it worked. Sam falls in love with a spy, and they both become involved in preventing the JFK assassination in the 1960s. Over the decades it becomes deeply meaningful that his world is strangely transformed by the enigmatic device.
Industry Reviews
In War Times is a novel of great historical reach...and profound ambition, expressed with an unmistakable ease of execution and a master's sureness of touch. Kathleen Ann Goonan has come through to the kind of control that makes every startling fresh development--and this novel bristles with astonishing moments of development--seem inevitable.--Peter Straub, bestselling and award-winning author of Talisman and Ghost Story "Goonan weaves experimental jazz, particle physics, and biochemistry into a compelling adventure through alternate universes." --Entertainment Weekly
"In War Times is a novel of great historical reach...and profound ambition, expressed with an unmistakable ease of execution and a master's sureness of touch. Kathleen Ann Goonan has come through to the kind of control that makes every startling fresh development--and this novel bristles with astonishing moments of development--seem inevitable." --Peter Straub, bestselling and award-winning author of Talisman and Ghost Story
"Sometimes a book makes me stop and think after I've finished it. Occasionally a book will make me stop and think during it. Rarely will a book do both. In War Times is one of those rare books whose ideas live in your mind long after you've finished and make you think about them for a time afterward." --SF Signal
"Paralleling the evolution of modern jazz with the creative ferment of science, Goonan delivers a bravura performance." --Publishers Weekly Goonan weaves experimental jazz, particle physics, and biochemistry into a compelling adventure through alternate universes. "Entertainment Weekly"
In War Times is a novel of great historical reach...and profound ambition, expressed with an unmistakable ease of execution and a master s sureness of touch. Kathleen Ann Goonan has come through to the kind of control that makes every startling fresh development and this novel bristles with astonishing moments of development seem inevitable. Peter Straub, bestselling and award-winning author of Talisman and Ghost Story
Sometimes a book makes me stop and think after I've finished it. Occasionally a book will make me stop and think during it. Rarely will a book do both. "In War Times "is one of those rare books whose ideas live in your mind long after you've finished and make you think about them for a time afterward. "SF Signal"
Paralleling the evolution of modern jazz with the creative ferment of science, Goonan delivers a bravura performance. "Publishers Weekly"" "Goonan weaves experimental jazz, particle physics, and biochemistry into a compelling adventure through alternate universes." "--Entertainment Weekly " ""In War Times "is a novel of great historical reach...and profound ambition, expressed with an unmistakable ease of execution and a master's sureness of touch. Kathleen Ann Goonan has come through to the kind of control that makes every startling fresh development--and this novel bristles with astonishing moments of development--seem inevitable."
"--"Peter Straub, bestselling and award-winning author of "Talisman "and "Ghost Story " "Sometimes a book makes me stop and think after I've finished it. Occasionally a book will make me stop and think during it. Rarely will a book do both. "In War Times "is one of those rare books whose ideas live in your mind long after you've finished and make you think about them for a time afterward." "--SF Signal""" "Paralleling the evolution of modern jazz with the creative ferment of science, Goonan delivers a bravura performance." "--Publishers Weekly" "Kathleen Goonan is one of the very few writers of science fiction, today, willing to work with the unfettered vistas of abject weirdness presented by the apocalyptic potential of really new technologies."
--William Gibson
"Goonan is one of the most imaginative authors in the literature of the imagination."
--David Brin
"In the hands of Kathleen Ann Goonan, the science of science fiction becomes something lyrical and vividly human, and the intricately imagined future she presents is thus rendered completely plausible and poignant in the extreme." --Lucius Shepard
"Only Kathleen Goonan could have created this complex interweaving of jazz, physics, love, and war."
--Joe Haldeman on "In War Times"
