Once the world worked differently -- before the Silence from space quieted the airwaves and rendered electronics useless.Once there was a haven called Crescent City, built through the wonders of nanotechnology to transport its enlightened inhabitants into the cosmos, far away from the chaos and terrors of a world gone mad. But humanity has failed the city. And carelessness has left it vulnerable to attack from those who covet the health and prosperity it offers.One of the original pioneers -- a recipient of the DNA-altering virus affecting a remarkable few who were born at the Silence's onset-Jason Peabody must now flee in the wake of an unanticipated assault on Crescent City by pirates. In the city-imposed persona of musical six-gun-toting Radio Cowboy, entrusted with the recovery of lost technology needed to heal the sentient metropolis and rocket it upward, he embarks on a bizarre odyssey across a perilous, unrecognizable outside -- through a landscape of Western round-ups and tragically "youngening" children; of plague-ravaged humans in foreboding flower cities; of conscious machines, talking animals, and toys that long to be real. With him is Dania, a brilliant scientist and resilient survivor whose hidden, troubled past is now painfully remembered beyond the walls of her urban sanctuary.But even as Dania and her Cowboy journey westward, others are being relentlessly drawn to Crescent City from all parts of the globe -- and two from the moon, the last humans remaining from the inexplicably vanished Unity colony.For an existence that is not as it was is on the brink of yet another astonishing transformation -- either by grand design or random cosmic accident. And the appearance on Earth of strange unearthly illuminations is causing widespread fear and panic -- as pilgrims from everywhere gather in Crescent City seeking answers to the Silence's long-concealed mysteries, responding to the hypnotic light music that's calling them toward a remarkable destiny in the stars.
Kathleen Ann Goonan is a writer, critic, and, presently, a Visiting Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she teaches Creative Writing and Literature.
Her 2007 novel IN WAR TIMES won the prestigious Campbell Award for Best Novel of 2007. Her first novel, QUEEN CITY JAZZ, was a New York Times Notable Book and a British Science Fiction Award finalist, and her second, THE BONES OF TIME, was an Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist. CRESCENT CITY RHAPSODY and LIGHT MUSIC were Nebula Award finalists.
Well-known for her Nanotech Quartet, Goonan's speaking engagements include appearances at Utopiales in Nantes, Kosmopolis in Barcelona, and at many universities. She has published over forty short stories, some of which are collected in ANGELS AND YOU DOGS, which will be released from PS Publishing in the fall of 2011.
She has this to say about THIS SHARED DREAM:
THIS SHARED DREAM evolved, as do most of my novels, from a variety of currents and influences. Chief among these were Eric Kandel's IN SEARCH OF MEMORY. Kandel, a Nobel laureate, has done extensive research on the biological roots and pathways of memory--how it is created, how it is stored, and how it re-emerges in certain conditions. In his book, his memories of his family's flight from Vienna following Krystallnacht in 1938 are interspersed with his growing appreciation of the mysteries of memory.
But THIS SHARED DREAM is in the main a family saga about lost and unevenly distributed information, and about how differing memories among siblings create their present. It is also about retrieving lost memories, lost parts of the self, and re-integrating them into one's present being.
It is about the nature of time and consciousness, and identity. It is about music, communication, and the potential of children when they have a science-based educational environment that meshes with and enhances their natural developmental.
Mostly, though, it is about the tenacity of love, and the power of love to heal.
Kathleen Ann Goonan can be reached for interviews via kathleen@goonan.com, www.goonan.com, and www.goonan.com/blog.
This Shared Dream website is www.thisshareddream.com
