In War Times | ||||||||
Kathleen Ann Goonan | ||||||||
Tor, 348 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Greg L. Johnson
As the story begins, Sam Dance's life is changed by three events, the start of World War Two, the death of his brother during the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and an encounter with Dr. Eliani Handtz, a Hungarian physicist who will continue to influence Sam throughout
the rest of his life. Sam is being trained by the Army in electronics and code-breaking, Handtz teaches physics, and in her meeting
with Sam, introduces him to her own ideas, which include a synthesis of physics and biology that she believes will lead to a
better understanding of human nature, and end the human race's propensity for solving problems by resorting to warfare. She
leaves Sam with a machine that she hints will help bring the reality she envisions to pass.
After their meeting, Sam continues on his Army career, and makes friends with Al Winklemeyer, another science geek who also
shares Sam's passion for jazz, and not just any jazz, but the new, radical form of improvising being explored by musicians such
as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, which the musicians call be-bop, and Sam and Al refer to as "modern music." Al and Sam
also play jazz, and throughout the novel they maintain a lively discussion of what it's like to learn and play this new music,
and how the mental gymnastics needed relate to their study of physics, and furthers their understanding of the sometimes
cryptic ideas Handtz has left them with.
From the beginning of her career, Kathleen Ann Goonan's novels have always been filled with references to music, especially jazz,
as titles like Queen City Jazz and Crescent City Rhapsody make apparent. In War Times extends this
interest in jazz until it becomes one of the core elements of the story, a unifying element that serves both as a glimpse
into the character's lives and as a metaphor for the world as they would like it to be.
The story continues on through Sam's post-World War family life, and into the cold war of the 50s and 60s. Eliani Handtz
remains in the background, a mysterious figure whose ideas and actions seem to be leading to the creation of one or several
alternate realities that offer more hope for the continued existence of humanity than the world Sam lives in, which is very
close to our own. Sam, in fact, becomes increasingly convinced that there is something basically wrong with the reality he lives in.
It's hard to label In War Times as simply either an alternate history or a science fiction novel. The alternate realities
are grounded in our own, Goonan uses excerpts from her own father's recounting of his experiences in World War Two to flesh
out the reality of Sam's life, and at the same time speculations in the relationship between physics and biology make Eliani
Handtz seem like someone well ahead of her own time. The result is a novel which feels based in reality but also causes the
reader to constantly question to just what extent the reality of In War Times matches our own. The underlying theme, that
human nature is flawed, and can be helped by a greater understanding brought on by a confluence of quantum physics and
genetics, fills the novel with a wistful longing for a better world that may or may not be just within our
reach. In War Times is a novel that suggests things could be better, but that there is also a price to pay
for achieving it. The characters and their lives are a search for that better world, and the combination of music,
the realities of war, stylish writing, and a glimpse into what our world possibly could be, make In War Times
a thought-provoking, captivating novel, and Kathleen Ann Goonan's best work yet.
Reviewer Greg L Johnson shares Sam Dance's disappointment when he learns that his friend Al's new reality, which has avoided the worst aspects of our own Cold War, somehow does not include the music of Miles Davis. His reviews also appear in the The New York Review of Science Fiction. |
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