In War Times: An Alternate Universe Novel of a Different Present

Dance Family #1

by Kathleen Ann Goonan

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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Time Travel, Speculative Fiction, War

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2007

About the author

From Locusmag.com

Author Kathleen Ann Goonan, 68, died January 28, 2021. She was born May 14, 1952 in Cincinnati OH and at age eight moved to Hawaii for two years while her father worked for the Navy, after which the family moved to Washington DC. She got a degree in English from Virginia Tech in 1975, and earned her Association Montessori International Certification in 1976. She taught school for 13 years, ten of those at Montessori schools, including eight years at a school she founded in Knoxville TN. She spent a year back in Hawaii and took up writing full time before returning to the DC area in 1988, the same year she attended Clarion West. She began teaching at Georgia Tech in 2010, where she was a Professor of the Practice.

Goonan’s first story ‘‘Wanting to Talk to You’’ appeared in Asimov’s in 1991. Notable stories include ‘‘Kamehameha’s Bones’’ (1993), Nebula Award nominee ‘‘The String’’ (1995), British SF Award finalist ‘‘Sunflowers’’ (1995), and Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist ‘‘Memory Dog’’ (2008).

Debut novel Queen City Jazz (1994), a New York Times Notable Book, was shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Association Award, and launched her Nanotech Quartet: sequel Mississippi Blues (1997), Nebula Award-nominated prequel Crescent City Rhapsody (2000), and final volume Light Music (2002), also a Nebula Award finalist. Standalone The Bones of Time (1996) was a Clarke Award finalist. Alternate history In War Times (2007) won the Campbell Memorial Award and was the American Library Association’s Best SF Novel of 2007, and was followed by sequel This Shared Dream (2011), a Campbell Memorial Award finalist. Angels and You Dogs, a short story collection, was published by PS Publishing in 2012.

Goonan and her work were featured in venues such as Scientific American (‘‘Shamans of the Small’’) and Popular Science (‘‘Science Fiction’s Best Minds Envision the Future’’). As a member of SIGMA, she gave talks for the Joint Services Small Arms Project and the Global Competitiveness Forum in Ryhad. She published more than 40 short stories, including ‘‘A Love Supreme’’ (Discover Magazine 10/12), ‘‘Bootstrap’’ (Twelve Tomorrows 9/13), ‘‘Sport’’ (ARC 2/14), ‘‘What Are We? Where Do We Come From? Where Are We Going?’’ (Tor.com), ‘‘Girl In Wave; Wave In Girl’’ (Hieroglyph), ‘‘Wilder Still, the Stars’’ (Reach for Infinity), and ‘‘Tomorrowland’’ (Tor.com).

Goonan lived in Tennessee and Florida with husband Joseph Mansy, married 1977.

Reviews

[Stacie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I could get back the week of my life I spent trying to read this horrible book. I'd give it negative stars if I could.

I love science fiction, but this is one of the most poorly-written books I've ever read. Perhaps I wouldn't be so harsh if I hadn't read such glowing reviews before picking it up. Errors in history, errors in music theory, errors in her German--and just think of the technical errors that I don't know enough to pick up on.

It seems to me she's come up with a great idea, and then beaten it to death by poorly organizing the deluge of information she wanted to include. The timing's bad, the preponderance of di ex machinae is ridiculous, and even a first-year German student knows that all nouns are capitalized. She even misspelled "nein".

Of course, I need to blame her editor as well. Perhaps her editor has gotten lazy after publishing so many books by her. Who knows? Anyway, I'm tired of reading books that perhaps should have been a set of related short stories instead.

As a musician I often receive advance samples of newly-published works. Sometimes, I'll read through a piece and think, oh, man, this was published ONLY because of who wrote it--if I had submitted this one it would be in the trash can! I believe this book fits into this category.

I know I sound mean, but I'm sure she can take it. After all, she's laughing all the way to the bank. I just hope no one decides to make a movie of this book, because it will be a real bomb.

[Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear!

You cannot drive from Wiltshire to Kent in half an hour.

Nobody would have driven a Mini around London in 1944 because it wasn't invented until 1959.

Luftwaffe strafing raids on southern England in 1944? I don't think so.

Goonan seems to have generally confused the scale of the 1944 Germany bombing offensive with that of 1940/41.

The idea of a lone German bomber inflicting significant damage to a Flight of Spitfires in 1944 over southern England is stretching credulity.

I don't think Wiltshire was in range of, let alone a target of, the V-1's. So a plot device of not one but two V-1's hitting a house in rural Wiltshire is not very convincing.

Berlin was not part of the Roman Empire and wasn't founded until hundreds of years after it's collapse in the west, so the presence of Roman Aqueducts in Berlin would have to be the archaeological find of the century.

When you find so many factual errors in areas you know about, it kind of makes you wonder what else is wrong.

I also have a deep antipathy to modern jazz and JFK.

Notwithstanding all the above, I didn't think it was a bad book.

[Shellie (Layers of Thought) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review by John posted at Layers of Thought.

An excellent read – a mashup of alternative realities, particle physics, experimental jazz music, the Second World War and science fiction. How could you not like that combination?

About: It’s 1941 and Sam Dance is a an intelligent but uncoordinated jazz lover who has poor eyesight. He struggles to be accepted by the US army, but finally manages to wangle his way in, and then finds himself plucked from regular training and sent on a series of esoteric technical courses. After a passionate evening with one of the temporary lecturers, a brilliant and mysterious Eastern European physicist, the woman leaves him with a strange device, associated technical plans and scientific papers. While the device is an early prototype, she believes that once improved and if used properly, it can change the course of history for the good; it can affect the physics of consciousness and human behavior, and maybe even diminish man’s warlike tendencies. Dance is puzzled but intrigued and tries to understand some of the complex papers.

The very next day, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Dance’s beloved elder brother is killed in the attack. He is heartbroken and the US is drawn into the Second World War.

So begins a strange tale. Dance becomes deeply involved in a program to design and deploy a top-secret radar and gun director that could help to win the war. He becomes close friends with Wink, another soldier who like him is a fanatic lover of modern jazz. They are deployed first to England and then to France and Germany, becoming ever more embroiled in the war effort and experiencing first-hand the horrors of the Nazi regime. All the while Dance remains fascinated by the device, and with Wink’s help they secretly try to create improved versions of it. Their deep understanding of jazz seems to help them make mental connections in the complex science behind the devices. Mysteriously the devices almost seem to have a mind of their own, and periodically mutate – but it’s not clear that the devices are actually doing anything. Meanwhile it is clear that the allied secret services suspect that the devices exists and want to find them.

Times move on, the Second World War ends but evolves into the Cold War, and Dance remains involved with the US armed forces, in Europe, the US and the Pacific. But strange things are happening. Times seem to be shifting, people are appearing and disappearing, and Dance becomes aware of alternative realities that seem to intertwine. He becomes drawn towards a critical historic event that appears to be the locus for those alternative realities. Can he and the mutated device affect those possible realities and prevent a grim new world from evolving?

John’s thoughts: This is a meaty, twisty, complex and thought-provoking story. At times I felt like I was just about hanging on, and found I often had to re-read sections - which isn’t intended as a criticism; this is one of those chewy stories that exercises the old grey matter in a positive way.

I like all of the detail about the Second World War, much of it (and some of the plot elements) being pulled directly from Goonan’s own father’s wartime experiences. He was actually involved in the secret radar project and was based for a time in most of the places featured in the story. I found those details really interesting, apart from which they also help to give the fantastic storyline a very grounded foundation (which I think is a definite plus in a plot that is so complicated.) I guess any story that is based around alternative realities and time travel is bound to be complicated, and this one is certainly no exception.

I really like the way that an actual historic event (the assassination of JFK) was used as the pivot for a variety of alternative futures. You can certainly see how our world might have turned out very differently if that event had never happened.

There are some really strong characters in the story – principally Sam Dance himself and the secret agent who becomes his wife. They are both conscientious and deep thinking, and strive to figure out what is right. The enigmatic Eastern European physicist too is an interesting character. She is actually a Magyar Gypsy who was heavily involved in the free-thinking European scientific community of the 1920s and 1930s, providing a nice contrast with the era of the Nazi regime that followed.

Was there anything that didn’t grab me? Well, the jazz connections with particle physics and biochemistry were interesting but at times felt just a smidgeon contrived. Clearly jazz is a big deal for Goonan, but for readers who aren’t that way inclined, the big focus on jazz in the story might get in the way a little bit.

Overall I’d rate this book 4 stars. For anyone who likes stories about alternative realities and histories this will be a great read. Also interested in the Second World War? And Jazz? Then you just have got to give this one a go.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Alegato ingenuo sobre muchas cosas.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Sam Dance es un recluta del ejército estadounidense seleccionado para un curso intensivo que incluye criptografía, cálculo avanzado y física teórica, entre otras materias. Tiene una noche de pasión con una de sus instructoras, la doctora Hadntz, que le confiesa que, aparte de considerar atractivo a Sam, buscaba una situación como esta para darle un archivo muy secreto sin que las personas que se encargan de su vigilancia puedan sospechar. El archivo contiene datos y planos de un aparato que parece combinar resultados muy avanzados de varias ciencias, que Sam no termina de entender completamente pero le entusiasma.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Shara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book broke my heart, but also rang with hope. Goonan's interview in Locus actually touched on a lot of what I got out of this tale, about hope and consciousness and humanity and the arts and sciences. The characters were real in a way that didn't need big, flashy action to reveal who they were. And the events of the story truly painted a strikingly vivid picture of the world as it used to be. And more frightening, it paints a vivid message about what the world is now.[return][return]It's a slow read. Don't expect to pick this up and get lots of action. It's soft SF, in a way. It's focused on character, on idea, but most important, on humanity. It's intellectual food for thought. And the parallels between jazz and quantum physics are simply the desert.[return][return]Fair warning: the more you know about this point in history (WWII through the Cold War, through King's assassination), the more you're going to get out of this novel. The more you know about music theory, particularly jazz, the more you're going to get out of this novel. And the more you know about quantum physics and the theory of the multiverse, the more you're going to get out of this novel.[return][return]This might be considered a flaw by some, but for me, it's a strength. It's a book to savor and enjoy, not to speed through. In many ways, the book is a portrait for what was, what is, what could have been, and what could be. [return][return]I look forward to reading more of Goonan's work. I'd love to see this book nominated for a Hugo.[return][return]For a full review, which may or may not include spoilers, please click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.co...

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, by many lights, a brilliant book. It did, after all, win the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008).

In many respects this is a throwback to the early days of Science Fiction when a confluence of mind-expanding technology and cutting edge science could evoke a sense of wonder despite a lack of believable characters, coherent plot, or situational continuity. Except, in this case, the "science" is essentially mystical techno-babble.

This is "Literary" Science Fiction, i.e. not plot-driven. The protagonist has ideas and impulses, but the conflict is amorphous and he displays very little agency in grappling with the forces that he has encountered. Stuff happens, occasional thrilling sequences of action, but our hero is mostly just drifting in the current of events. Characters we care about die, horribly. That is the nature of war, but there seems to be little meaning in their deaths.

In spite of its flaws, there is something compelling about this book. I was driven to finish it, after all, despite my irritation. Goonan is a competent writer. So go to Goodreads and look at the other reviews. If someone with your existential bent really enjoyed it, you might consider picking it up.

[Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathleen Ann Goonan is one of the science fiction writers I have been meaning to read for some time. I started with In War Times, probably because of the World War 2 setting. The book involves the development of a never fully explained technology that allows its users to manipulate time. It is designed as a means of dealing with Hitler, is developed in a race against Hitler and eventually comes to have an impact on the Cold War.

With its focus on the impact of technology on history, the book reads as an allegory about the impact of nuclear weapons. The World War 2 chapters show the peculiar life of soldiers involved in the development of secret weapons and much espionage is conducted to capture the technology. The device also allows for communication with alternate universes and the characters deal with a world where the Cold War doesn't happen and the investment in nuclear weapons is instead spent on more productive technologies. As you might expect it is a much nicer place than our world.

There is a lot more going on in this book, including the idea the creation of jazz music shows the same new ways of thinking that make quantam mechanics understandable, or at least understandable to some. Given my limited musical theory understanding, much of this went over my head, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Goonan used her father's war time diaries to create her main character. She even uses them in the book, to great effect.

This was a good read, with the techno-optimism of science fiction combining with a humanistic belief that people can do better.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first looked at this book because I had read in some forums that people think it could win this year's Hugo Award. The description on Amazon was intriguing and I was excited to read the book. But it was definitely a let down. This is a story about a machine that modifies human DNA to affect how we perceive and move through time and to make us more empathetic and less likely to fight. Unfortunately, in the first half of this book the machine does nothing. The first half of the book is set in WWII and there is barely the faintest hint of any science fiction to it. In addition, the characters are shallow and one-dimensional. The idea the author has of comparing jazz music to the flow of time is an interesting one, but it was very poorly developed. She talked about it a lot, but never really expanded on it, and frankly I was bored of hearing about it after a while. In the second half of the book the plot got much more interesting, although the depth of the characters didn't improve. Unfortunately, we zipped through historical events so quickly in the second half, moving from WWII to the 1980's in no time flat, that the whole thing felt superficial. The climax was over before it started. All in all, there are tantalizing ideas here, but the potential is never actualized. If this book wins the Hugo I'll be sorely disappointed.

[Merrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was my first foray into the "speculative fiction" side of sci fi. You know, what if the Japanese had won the war, how would the world have been different if blah blah blah hadn't been assassinated, etc. I found this author via the Nebula showcase book for 2009.

And I'm just not sure.

The book was a whole lot of nothing happens except what actually happened in the war, a little bit of "well what does this do?" and a lot of "huh?" at the end, before wrapping things up in two pages of exposition. I liked best the parts that weren't science fiction at all, when Sam, the main character, and his war buddy Wink got into Hawkeye and BJ style antics in occupied Germany. Goonan used her father's journals of what the war was like from the view point of an engineer, actually quoting bits of his journals in the text, and those were also completely fascinating. This is a book that sent me to google more than once, and I definitely appreciate that in a book.

HOWEVER. The science fiction side of it still, again, made little to no sense, and wasn't incredibly well executed. I'm left a little cold at the end.

[E. Sabin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In War Times is absolutely brilliant. It weaves together jazz, quantum physics, and DNA in a novel that immerses the reader first in the ambience of an American army camp in England during World War II, later in the Cold War, the Kennedy assassination, and what life might be like in alternate timelines. During the first part of the book I felt I was right there with protagonist Sam Dance and his buddy Wink as they experienced the camaraderie that develops in an army unit and all the horrors and loss of war. The book moves slowly, yes, and it needs to in order to give the reader time to absorb and savor and feel a part of the events taking place. The second half of the book moves more quickly and is more speculative, but just as fascinating as it moves through our actual history and an alternate timeline that provides a look at what could have been. This is speculative fiction at its best. It is not light reading. It challenges the reader to think, to question, to explore the nature of reality and time and what we are as human beings. I would easily rank it among the best books I've read and will want to read again.

[Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

An American on the eve of shipping out to the Britain in 1941 has a one night stand with a Eastern European scientist who leaves him plans for a time machine.

What started as a good, built into an intriguing book, and was on the verge of being a thrilling twist on time-travel...ends with the time machine being used to stop the JFK assassination so that the universe does not collapse. Seriously.

[ambyr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goonan's father was a World War II vet who kept meticulous diaries, and scattered throughout the book are excerpts from his writing. They're well-written, sharply observed, and offer an unusual wartime perspective. I'm glad I read them.

The rest of the book . . . not so much. If you share Goonan's obsession with jazz or hero worship of JFK, maybe you'll like it more than I did.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea but I had to force myself to finish the book as it was too long. I just was bored with the idea by the end.

[Ginna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started off badly for me. On page one the narrator, Sam Dance, announces that he spent 3 years studying chemical engineering at the University of Dayton. 2 pages later, he discusses the 3 years spent studying physical chemistry at the University of Chicago... The errors in facts and timelines just continued from there.

It seems like the author has no idea how long things take to do. Sam spends 2 years waiting to deploy to the UK, doing nothing about building the machine. He spends 100% of his non-working hours learning about, listening to, and playing jazz music. Once in England in January 1944, he works full-time in wartime, spends hours a week at an orphanage talking up the headmistress, and forms a jazz band with some mates, and drinks heavily at local pubs seemingly every night. Oh, and while doing all that, he builds a prototype of the mysterious machine, by April. When would he have the time? Even assuming men in their (late?) 20's don't sleep, it defies belief.

The rest of the book continues with these strangely conceived events and actions. Sam as a character has zero personality. He spends years not working on the machine, to be prodded into action by Hadantz, then drops it again. He marries the mysterious Bette, who is seemingly unknowable, even by her husband.

The climax of the book is of course, saving JFK, and changing his own timeline. Right, because if you could go back in time, having fought in WW2, that's exactly what you would do.

I've never read anything else by Goonan, and I doubt I ever will.

[A.L. Sirois · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novel of time-travel and/or parallel worlds. It's quite intricately plotted, with characters appearing from and vanishing into alternate time streams, apparently influenced by a sort of semi-organic machine, the construction of which is being overseen by a mysterious female physicist. The lead character, Sam Dance, is a young man when his brother is killed when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Sam is not only an engineer, he is also a talented amateur jazz musician. He and his close friend, Wink, who plays cornet, often go out of their way to see some of the jazz greats of the time -- the late 1940s -- in NYC. Goonan writes very well about jazz and engineering, and how "being in the zone" can feel the same for musicians and scientists. Sam's romantic involvements also have an impact on the strange machine of which he has custody, machine that seems capable of changing human nature. As Sam grows older and has a family of his own, the story moves into the lives of his children, especially as one of them becomes determined to return to 1963 to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. This is a remarkable book, and I know my description hasn't fully done it justice. That may be because it isn't really like anything else I've ever read. Sadly, Goonan died in 2021 and we will have no more work from her. But the books she left behind are notable, and deserve a wider audience.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combining a terrible reality with the truly fantastic, Kathleen Ann Goonan has created a memorable story full of grand ideals and ideas. In War Times immediately thrills with intriguing possibilities, and features relatable, very human characters that you’ll likely form a deep connection with due to their intelligence, wit and will.

I’d describe this as a genuine page-turner, as the plot constantly reveals new information and situations that simply must be read immediately without pause – an effect that only skilled writers can maintain through a full-length story. As with previous Goonan novels, jazz is a central storyline component. Here it explains some of the scientific mysteries of a technology that offers a chance to change future events: a highly complex device that seems to share a musical otherworldliness, and can open alternative timelines where humanity has followed a different path.

This is a great read, full of philosophical discussions, personal and moral decisions, and many profound questions. Additionally, all of the fictional elements are built upon the World War II experiences – and factual army accounts – of Goonan’s father, which adds real depth to the content.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Dance gets recruited from college into the military in 1940 where during his physics course he meets (and sleeps with) his mysterious lecturer Dr. Elian Hadntz who bequeaths a strange blueprint for a device that may alter timelines with the ultimate aim of eliminating war. When she disappears he is left to work on the device - which he calls the HD (Hadntz Device) and discover its workings. Through the various stages of WW2 - Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Liberation of Europe and the Pacific denouement Sam and his co-conspirator 'Wink' Winkelmeyer produce a number of improved HDs with the spontaneous help of Hadntz herself - who appears to be from an alternate timeline. Kathleen Ann Goonan weaves this complex and mesmerizing tale into a tapestry of intrigue, freestyle jazz and alternate universes, spiced up with the threat of nuclear annihilation and a coven of spies who all want control of the HD. During the 1960s the HD starts self-evolving and ensnares Sam and his wife Bette (herself a CIA agent since the days of the wartime OSS), and their daughter Jill in a desperate attempt to prevent the assassination of JFK and the eventual destruction of all timelines... Fabulous stuff and thoroughly RECOMMENDED!

[Francis X DuFour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely interesting...

Well researched novel following the history of a handful of individuals from Pearl Harbor to sixties Washington DC. All are connected to the mysterious multi-dimensional quantum computer-like device known as the HD. Inexplicable plot that has to be read to be (maybe) understood.

[Andrés Zelada · Rating 1 out of 5]

Si con un 15% una novela no te está interesando, no hay razón para acabarla. Y a mí las aventuras de un soldado por un montón de garitos de jazz, así como las interminables disquisiciones sobre este género musical, no me estaban interesando nada de nada.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i stopped at page 898 of 1076, I could not go on.

I have no idea what is happening in this book.

Recommended by a guy I know.
Note to self: do not take book recommendations from Sean

[David Lum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much inevitability in the plot to for me to really like it. But good individual scenes of the mid century.

[Alberto Illán Oviedo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entretenido hasta el último cuarto donde, con el mismo estilo literario, entra en lo tópico de una manera demasiado torpe.

[Jrubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s written well enough, but lacks any energy.

Its main fault is the lack of resonance. A day after finishing, it’s difficult to recall any details. Basically, a nonevent of a read.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning with Pearl Harbor, Sam Dance devotes his life to manipulating time to make the world peaceful.

[T. Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow to start, this novel grew on me all the way to the end.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In War Times: an alternate-universe novel of a different present,” by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor, 2007). This book is in fact two books. The first, announced in an afterword, is a barely fictionalized account of the latter stages of World War as lived by a young soldier, a highly accomplished engineer, mostly following the combat forces through western Europe and into Germany. Some of it was written by, and much of it is based on, the experiences of Goonan’s father, in developing the top-secret M-9 gun director for anti-aircraft guns, living in England and then the Continent with a small unit, getting ferociously drunk as often as they could, seeing the misery that the war created, and then Goonan’s career as a fire-protection professional after the war. The second part, subtly and cunningly entwined with the first, is speculation about what might happen if if time is chemically and biologically connected with biology and DNA, an ever-evolving, unpredictable flow like the jazz developed during the war by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Following the theories of a mysterious woman named Dr. Hardntz, Sam and Winkelmann and their buddies build a device that can do this, and as it is slowly developed so the world begins to change, even as they remember how it was. It is fascinating to watch. The goal is to create a world in which bad things do not happen, in which when given alternative actions, humans invariably take the most benevolent or least harmful path. The depiction of life during the war, in the US and Europe, is dense and very interesting, not the usual picture one sees of the war years. These are men working far behind or behind the lines, away from the fighting, indeed away from most official observation, doing their work but partying and playing music as hard as they can. The depiction of what Dizzy, Bird and their colleagues created in bebop, how spontaneous, unpredictable, intellegent and evolving it was, is fascinating. I am going to listen harder to those early recordings, especially things like Koko and Ornithology. For me one of the saddest passages describes how 52nd Street, which was lined with jazz clubs, disappeared. And then I was disappointed when Goonan ties everything to a conspiracy to assassinate JFK in which Oswald was barely involved. She does make it a very important moment, of course. There were times when I just wanted the plot to move along, when I was not terribly interested in the characters. But Goonan keeps the plot tied to the people---the way they change, and what they experience, is an essential part of the story. Not sure if I will seek out more of her stuff, and I need to examine myself to find out why. (btw, I loved her author photo; she’s got that Mona Lisa smile.)

http://goonan.com/

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In War Times is hard to describe and at times was hard to read. It's strong point was the author's fluid, almost surreal style, but it's weak point was lack of activity. To quote
Kipper the Dog, "Nothing Ever Happens". Or more to the point, plenty happens but the main characters never seem to DO any of it. It becomes kind of a "Band of Brothers" without any fighting, or "The Time Traveler's Wife" without the time travel. A helpful Amazon.com review described what the book was missing: agency. (Ironic in a book with so many agencies skittering through it.)


The main character, Samuel Dance, suffers worst from this narrative lethargy. Given plans to a "Device" with earth-altering powers early in his military career, he nonetheless putters along through various locales desperately trying to lead a normal life over the ensuing decades. The author becomes almost self-conscious about this at times, injecting Sam's Muse through time to give him a cosmic kick in the pants. But this only motivates Dance to regretfully say "I think she's impatient that we haven't done anything yet." Does he refer to the Muse, or the author herself?


But he does play Jazz - and talk about it - a great deal. Much outer and inner dialogue and is devoted to the universe-altering implications of Jazz, New Jazz, Bebop, and various permutations. A great seastorm of jazz metaphors washes across the pages of the book, pausing now and then dramatically at the peak of a tide, only to egress wistfully back into the bottomless void of figurative language.


But enough of the bad. If plot is lacking, the characters truly jump off the page. All the action is done by strong, beautiful, and interesting women, one reason why Dance seems nothing more than a spectator. One suspects the war tales of Major Bette Elegante or the Gypsy Myra graphic novels would make much livelier reading. But in a way, I think that is intentional.


Stylistically, the author's practice of sliding major events in as asides between Sam's musings paradoxically tends to underscore them a bit. The author above all else seems to be against war. And to share action-packed tales of wartime derring-do would muddy her critique of the "endless war" of our world's 20th century. Because the strongest message seems to be that "In War Times" describes ALL the time in the last 100 years.

The author also did an excellent job providing a moody, tense atmosphere that at times reminded me of The Shadow Of The Wind.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Splendid Novel of Ideas and Action Set in an Alternate Recent Past

“In War Times” is a great novel of ideas and action, showing why contemporary science fiction may be the most important literary genre of our time, grappling with greater clarity of thought and literary skill, the very nature of human existence, than what one usually discerns from so-called literary mainstream fiction. Kathleen Ann Goonan’s elegantly sparse prose captures vividly the vicissitudes of love, war, peace, and indeed, of reality itself. She weaves concepts as arcane and as dissimilar as the structure of DNA, the nature of time, and the atomic bomb, into one long elegant literary tribute to jazz, with each new unexpected development, as the tale progresses, emerging like some unexpected jazz riff played with ample conviction by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Jazz is the perfect metaphor to describe what the reader observes in this brilliantly conceived, vividly imagined novel; the merging and splitting of alternate realities, of different future histories, as witnessed by compelling characters such as Sam Dance, Bette Elegante, Wink and others, especially enigmatic physicist Dr. Eliani Hadntz, who presents Sam Dance with the plans of a mysterious device destined to alter all of their futures. Goonan explores how time - past, present and future - can be altered by the least likely of events, sending her characters into different alternate realities that differ by the slightest changing of a few details, relatively trivial in nature, with important implications for the respective futures of these realities. Hers is a novel whose historical settings range from Pearl Harbor to the American crossing of the Rhine near the close of World War II, the Kennedy assassination and the anti-war protests as the United States enters the Vietnam War; it is indeed a novel of grand ambitions which Goonan displays via her ample heartfelt conviction and exceptional literary craft. “In War Times” is certainly one of the most notable contemporary science novels of the 21st Century, and one that should be required reading by mainstream literary audiences.

[Caroline Herbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a combination WWII memoir and sci fi thriller focused on an experimental device that can manipulate time and change the past and future. The story begins on Dec 6, 1941, when a mysterious European scientist gives soldier/engineer Sam Dance plans for the device, hoping that he can create it and steer humankind's future away from war. After that opening straight from a spy thriller, the first half of the book mostly deals with Sam's experiences during WWII, in England and in occupied Germany. All the while he is experimenting with building the device, which may have the power to change time streams and alter the future for the better. It works, in that Sam learns of multiple time streams and futures that are more peaceful and prosperous than our own post-WWII, Cold War era--while Sam is living in our real past, he comes in contact over the years with visitors from other futures, where the Cold War doesn't exist and the world has de-militarized.
The concept and main storyline are very interesting--my main complaint with the book is that it really needed an editor! It's too long, covering the minutiae of Sam's life from the war through the 60s. Also, one of the author's conceits is the comparison between bebop jazz and the experimentation with time--Sam is a musician and jazz fan, and we are treated to many pages on the subject that (for me) detracted from the plot. The climax involving the JFK assassination was a page-turner, but it took way too long to get there!

[John Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book, full of wonderful writing, with an unsettling undercurrent of lost opportunities and hopes. Recounting the life of one Sam Dance, a bright, well-educated kid who joins up at the start of WW2, and is allocated to technical work because of his education. During his training he encounters a mysterious older woman, who seduces him, then leaves him with a set of plans for a mysterious device that he spends the next forty years alternately building and running away from. Following the course of the world war through to its conclusion, then on into the Cold War, this is a story with a very long slow-burning fuse, namely what the device is actually doing to influence the alternative timestreams. It keeps you on tenterhooks throughout and maybe doesn’t quite deliver the killer punch that the build-up deserves. (Goonan’s solution is both obvious and debatable.) But it’s an excellent book, well-written with great characters. A lot of very detailed research has gone onto it and Goonan makes it all hang together and work at nearly every level. Thoroughly recommended as a thoughtful and provocative read.