J.

by William Sanders

Three women, three worlds. Or rather one woman in three alternative selves, in three alternative worlds:Dr. Ann Lucas, former NASA scientist and present mental patient. In her world Kennedy was never murdered, the space program has gone forward, and she was working on the manned Mars mission when she began having the terrible visions that ruined her life and put her in a fancy mental institution. Mad Jack, one-eyed gunwoman and occasional mercenary; killer of rapists, lover of women. Across the poisoned wasteland left by Nixon's nuclear war, even the toughest marauders respect her--or die. And Jay Younger, known to her readers simply as Jay: science fiction writer and alcoholic, her career and talent wrecked by drink. She lives in our own allegedly real world. . . . But something impossible is happening, now; the boundaries are breaking down, and they begin finding themselves in one another's worlds. Their lives become a struggle to survive, separately and then together, pursued by frightening not-quite-human beings from yet another world. In the process they find new insights into their own separate and collective identities--as well as a strange and powerful love.

380 pages, Unbound

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

this is William^^^Sanders

William Sanders served with the US Army Security Agency during the Vietnam War. He is the author of more than 20 published books and many stories and articles; his short fiction has been nominated for major awards, including the Hugo and Nebula, and has twice won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Sanders' gift for naturalistic genre storytelling rivals Stephen King's. His plots are compulsive, his people seem real, and he treats the fantastic elements with a sense of ironic detachment that makes the strange seem... not mundane, but regular, orderly — expected.

I'm on a years-long quest to read Sanders' spottily published back catalog, and found J. in the recesses of the NYPL's ebook offerings. I wasn't as excited for it as for some of his others, but I fell in love immediately. He's just damn good.

In a different timeline, Guy Ritchie would have made a kickass film of J., about three different versions of Chloe Sevigny, who would have thanked Sanders in her Oscar acceptance speech. In a different, better timeline, Sanders would have gotten a smidgen of the success he deserved.

(All of this said, the story stops kind of abruptly — endings are hard!)

[EG · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read. It is about 3 very different women, who are in fact the very same person, but in different realities. And a mysterious event that ends up drawing them all together to solve a mystery about themselves, and how they are able to cross the boundaries of reality and meet in the first place!