In War Times [Hardcover]

Kathleen Ann Goonan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007

Sam Dance is a young enlisted soldier in 1941 when his older brother Keenan is killed at Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, Sam promises that he will do anything he can to stop the war.
 
During his training, Sam begins to show that he has a knack for science and engineering, and he is plucked from the daily grunt work of twenty-mile marches by his superiors to study subjects like code breaking, electronics, and physics in particular, a science that is growing more important to the war effort. While studying, Sam is seduced by a mysterious female physicist that is teaching one of his courses, and given her plans for a device that will end the war, perhaps even end the human predilection for war forever. But the device does something less, and more, than that.
 
After his training, Sam is sent throughout Europe to solve both theoretical and practical problems for the Allies. He spends his free time playing jazz, and trying to construct the strange device. It's only much later that he discovers that it worked, but in a way that he could have never imagined.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This engaging alternate-universe tale posits a quintessential enigma of civilization: can technology be prevented from doing as much evil as good? Goonan (Light Music) traces the career of amateur saxophonist Sam Dance, a young soldier who receives plans for a strange electronic device from his physics instructor, Magyar Gypsy Dr. Eliani Hadntz, after she seduces him on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She intends her "time machine"—melding physics and biology—to harness the human mind and rescue Europe from Nazi evil. As Sam experiences successive horrors of WWII, the love of jazz he and his friend Wink share enables them to build increasingly perfected models of Hadntz's device. Sam eventually plants the machines across the globe, hoping the technology will somehow cause various time-shifting realities and save humanity from its herdlike propensity for violence. Paralleling the evolution of modern jazz with the creative ferment of science, Goonan delivers a bravura performance. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This alternate history with multiple threads blends bebop, physics, molecular biology, politics, and ethics into a compelling story of one family's journey through the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. Sam Dance is a soldier who, in early December 1941, has been sent by the army to study physics and other esoteric subjects in Washington, DC. One of his teachers, an Eastern European woman, seduces him and gives him a device–and the plans for it–that she says will change the course of world history. The next day, Pearl Harbor is attacked, and Sam spends the rest of the war trying to figure out what the object exactly does, and what his role is. This novel is full of thought-provoking ideas about people and conflict. Can people be changed at the molecular level to cause them to prevent war? Can societies thrive and prosper without war? What are the connections between music, especially jazz, and physics? Readers with some knowledge of World War II and of the postwar period will probably get the most out of this book, and they will enjoy seeing where events in the novel diverge from what really happened. But any reader who likes alternate histories; strong, appealing characters; and provocative ideas will find plenty to admire in Goonan's book.–Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765313553
• ISBN-13: 978-0765313553
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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 [e-mail], www.goonan.com, and www.goonan.com/blog.

This Shared Dream website is www.thisshareddream.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Trying to alter history while stumbling around in the dark, February 11, 2008

By 

Rachel Thern "kiravae" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In War Times (Hardcover)

At the outbreak of World War II, Sam Dance's mysterious physics teacher gives him detailed instructions for building a "quantum machine" that can affect human behavior and possibly change the course of history. The next day, he finds out that his brother has been killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. This event sets his resolve to work on this device that may change the timeline and allow him to alter reality.

Throughout his WWII experiences he and his friend Wink try to build the device in their spare time, sometimes secretly receiving updated instructions. Their first finished device doesn't seem to do anything, but they continue in their attempts to make a better one. After the war, Sam begins to notice some curious anomalies.

This book was well-written, the characters likeable, and many scenes interesting, but I wasn't really able to really get into it or find it a page-turner. The characters seemed a little distant. I believe this might be because they have no agency - they are not controlling the flow of the story but reacting, having no idea whether their device will work and what it should do. When it appears changes may finally be occurring, they are still in the dark and so is the reader (one could argue that this is at least realistic - what character could get their head around everything?). History is finally presented as having nexus points at which it may be altered, but I found the choice of event the book focused on at the end to be a bit predictable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, touching science fiction, June 27, 2007

By 

GadgetGirl (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In War Times (Hardcover)

Goonan used to do more hard science fiction -- nano- and bio-tech. This is much more alternate history, and damn it, but it's good. Part of it is how well she's researched it (I read a review somewhere that said she used her own father's diary from the war), but a lot of it is how well she integrated what she's learned into the story. It's complex, and rich, and it rewards people who re-read books in a way I haven't seen since Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazzing Through Times, August 16, 2011

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In War Times (Hardcover)

In War Times (2007) is a standalone SF novel. It follows the main character around the world and through time.

In this novel, Sam Dance has almost three year schooling in chemical engineering at the University of Dayton. Sam plays jazz music on the sax. He has an older brother who is serving within the US Navy.

Elani Hadntz is part Magyar Gypsy. She had trained as a physician, but later became a physicist. She has been studying the quantum nature of the brain.

Bette Elegante is a member of the OSS organization. She also knows Hadntz.

Al Winklemeyer is from upstate New York. Wink also plays jazz music on the cornet.

In this story, Sam had tried to volunteer in 1940, but was rejected because of his poor eyesight. A year later, he finds an aspiring recruiter and is accepted into the US Army. He is pulled out of Camp Sutton and sent to Washington, DC, for special training.

The course meets in a hastily erected structure on the roof of a War Department building and covers a range of esoteric subjects. The fourth instructor is Dr. Hadntz, an exile from Budapest.

On December 6, 1941, Hadntz seduces Sam so that she can give him the plans for an exotic device. According to her, the apparatus will promote world peace. It communicates with human brains to change attitudes, but it obviously is not yet perfected. Hadntz also tells him that it is a time machine of sorts.

The next day, Sam spends his time drinking alcohol and listening to the radio reports on Pearl Harbor. His brother Keenan is serving on the Arizona. Eventually, Sam learns that Keenan is entombed within his ship.

Later, two men in black suits interview Sam about his encounter with Hadntz. The seduction diverts security's attention from other aspects of the meeting. Elegante takes notes during the interview.

Then the Army sends Sam to generator school. He quickly learns that the class is really about the M-9 Director. The device incorporates a new radar device feeding a computer and is much more accurate than the M-7 and earlier models.

Sam travels to Britain by ship to set up the new anti-aircraft guns. After some tweaks, the M-9 becomes very effective. It becomes the main defense against V-1 flying bombs.

Sam meets Hadntz again in England. Afterward, Sam returns to the place where Hadntz had taken him and finds it deserted. From her comments, Sam figures that Hadntz had taken him sideways in time.

This tale takes Sam and his unit to France and then Germany. He meets others who have encountered Hadntz. One such person is Elegante, now a Major in the OSS.

This story is based on current thinking about consciousness. Yet it introduces such theory through very early works on DNA, the brain and quantum mechanics. It talks about some very heavy mathematics, but does not show the formulas.

The story also discusses modern jazz. Sam and Wink hang out at jazz clubs and start a jazz band within their unit. Sam thinks of Hadntz's theories in terms of the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Sam also has experiences of traveling sideways in time. He and his mother briefly see his dead brother in their attic. He also encounters Wink after his death in his current timeline.

Highly recommended for Goonan fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of time travel, alternate timelines, and persons of good will. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin