Sanders has published a number of first rate novels in several genres: SF, fantasy, mystery, men's adventure. He's best known in SF for two alternate history novels from the late 80s (Journey to Fusang and The Wild Blue and the Gray) as well as his recent American Indian fantasy about nuclear waste disposal problems: The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan, which made SF Site's list of the best novels of 1999. He's also known for a number of outstanding recent short stories, including the Hugo and Nebula nominated novelette "The Undiscovered." He's never less than a crackling good adventure writer, and at his best he combines whipcrack action writing with a deadpan ironic sense of humour, fully rounded, "lived-in" characters, and real passion. J. is Sanders at close to the top of his form -- it's perhaps not quite as good as The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan, but that's a high standard -- and it is fast moving, intense, and fun to read. It's also as close to pure SF as Sanders has ever come at novel length.

The story follows the three women, who share the same name in different forms (Jay, Mad Jack, and Ann, all short for Jacqueline Ann Younger) as they cope with the realization that in some strange way they are the same woman, in three divergent time lines. Mad Jack's is the most distant from ours, and Sanders portrays her post-Apocalyptic anarchic New Mexico with brutal realism. We see only a little bit of Ann's world -- similar to ours with slight divergences that have led, for example, to a more advanced space program. And Jay's world, as far as we can tell, is our world. The main action opens with Ann threatened with rape by a brutal worker at the mental institution to which she has committed herself -- but suddenly she is rescued by the strange appearance of the heavily armed Mad Jack. Jack deals with the rapist in the manner which is second nature to her harsh way of life. But of course in Ann's world that's murder -- and while Ann and Jack clumsily try to escape the law, there really isn't any hope for them -- until somehow they find themselves in Mad Jack's version of Santa Fe. That provides only the briefest respite, however, especially when mysterious gray clad men show up, apparently ready to kill the women out of hand. But soon they find themselves, by what means they don't know, in yet another world, and they meet up with Jay. However, that's not a long-term solution to the problem of the gray men, to say nothing of their new short-term problems dealing with Jay's drinking, and with the unavoidable eventual problem of explaining the appearance of two extra women in a world with no place for them.

J. careens back and forth, the action never stopping, and always realistic (these women aren't invulnerable superheroes), as they struggle to escape their pursuers. Fortunately, they find a man who mysteriously has some idea of what might be happening -- and eventually they learn, to some extent, what's been going on -- and they even have a chance at finding a way that all three women can stay together. This novel features three involving and believable main characters, some fine SFnal speculation that is reminiscent of some of Poul Anderson's work, and some of H. Beam Piper's, and an always compelling plot. It's definitely worth a trip to the iPublish site to buy a copy -- or a trip to one of the online booksellers.