Books : Science Fiction & Fantasy : Authors, A-Z : G : Goonan, Kathleen Ann

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In War Times

Kathleen Ann Goonan
Light Music (Gollancz S.F.)

Kathleen Ann Goonan
Crescent City Rhapsody

Kathleen Ann Goonan
Queen City Jazz

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Kathleen Ann Goonan's first novel is an impressive sci-fi debut, combining the themes of post-holocaust America and rampant nanotechnology. This imagined technology of molecule-sized machines and computers has excited many science fiction writers with its possibilities for total control of matter, atom by atom--including human flesh and DNA. In Goonan's future America, cities brought to life with nanotechnology or "nan" have mutated in strange, threatening ways. Rural areas, meanwhile, were devastated by nan-based plagues. Our heroine Verity, raised by a rustic Shaker community that rejects most technology, feels a mysterious compulsion towards learning machines and the closest transformed city. This is Cincinnati, whose skyscrapers have blossomed into exotic nan flowers between which huge artificial bees carry pollinating information. Verity's adventures there are complex, flickering between real-life action, virtual reality and chemically induced all-senses hallucinations. Eventually--the old, old sci-fi story--Verity realises that she herself was created to redeem the malfunctioning city. Its inhabitants are trapped in pleasant but futile cycles of dreams and play-acting (living the roles of Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and others): Verity must somehow free them. Well written and colourfully imagined, the story requires close attention to thread its maze of realities and unrealities. --David Langford
Mississippi Blues

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Mississippi Blues is a uniquely twisted vision of a post-apocalyptic future in which nanotechnology is just the most recent rung humanity has climbed in its techno-evolution. Goonan's story features a wild ride down the Mississippi to "Norleans" propelled by a nanoplague that may or may not be humanity's saving grace. Our heroine Verity rescues a motley group from metapheromonal slavery in Cincinnati and they set off on boats and rafts to an uncertain utopia at the end of the river. On the way they encounter everything from whirlpools to religious zealots to a terrifying little town that's best described as the bastard child of Las Vegas and Westworld. It's a swirling, existentialist voyage with a meandering soul. Although weak in structure, it's strong in concept, with an ending that smacks of sequels to come. --Jhana Bach
Mississippi Blues

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Mississippi Blues is a uniquely twisted vision of a post-apocalyptic future in which nanotechnology is just the most recent rung humanity has climbed in its techno-evolution. Goonan's story features a wild ride down the Mississippi to "Norleans" propelled by a nanoplague that may or may not be humanity's saving grace. Our heroine Verity rescues a motley group from metapheromonal slavery in Cincinnati and they set off on boats and rafts to an uncertain utopia at the end of the river. On the way they encounter everything from whirlpools to religious zealots to a terrifying little town that's best described as the bastard child of Las Vegas and Westworld. It's a swirling, existentialist voyage with a meandering soul. Although weak in structure, it's strong in concept, with an ending that smacks of sequels to come. --Jhana Bach
The Bones of Time

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Early next century, the Interspace company, in charge of humanity's first generation starship, has been given extraordinary powers. Cen, descendant of Hawaiian shaman-priests, and a mathematical genius, finds out as an adolescent how ruthless they are in their preparedness to exploit human weakness and brilliance, yet sells his work to them for the leisure to pursue his own plans--the conquest of time and the saving of the long dead princess whom he meets and loves in moments of vision. A decade later, Lynn, geneticist renegade from Interspace's ruling dynasty, rescues from assassination Akamu, clone of Hawaii's legendary unifier, and finds herself, like Cen before her, manipulated by Interspace's Hawaiian nationalist foes. She and Akamu are pursued from Hawaii to Hong-Kong and into the uplands of Tibet. Bristling with intrigue and ideas about Buddhism, wormholes, celestial navigation and quantum theories of intelligence, Goonan's new novel is touching about love and families and a gruelling switchback ride for the intellect. Her first novel Queen City Jazz was impressive in its dreamy portrayal of a world altered by nano-technology; this radical change of place remakes the near future techno-thriller as a set of passionately conceived ethical quandaries. --Roz Kaveney
Crescent City Rhapsody

Kathleen Ann Goonan
Crescent City Rhapsody

Kathleen Ann Goonan
Queen City Jazz

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Kathleen Ann Goonan's first novel is an impressive sci-fi debut, combining the themes of post-holocaust America and rampant nanotechnology. This imagined technology of molecule-sized machines and computers has excited many science fiction writers with its possibilities for total control of matter, atom by atom--including human flesh and DNA. In Goonan's future America, cities brought to life with nanotechnology or "nan" have mutated in strange, threatening ways. Rural areas, meanwhile, were devastated by nan-based plagues. Our heroine Verity, raised by a rustic Shaker community that rejects most technology, feels a mysterious compulsion towards learning machines and the closest transformed city. This is Cincinnati, whose skyscrapers have blossomed into exotic nan flowers between which huge artificial bees carry pollinating information. Verity's adventures there are complex, flickering between real-life action, virtual reality and chemically induced all-senses hallucinations. Eventually--the old, old sci-fi story--Verity realises that she herself was created to redeem the malfunctioning city. Its inhabitants are trapped in pleasant but futile cycles of dreams and play-acting (living the roles of Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and others): Verity must somehow free them. Well written and colourfully imagined, the story requires close attention to thread its maze of realities and unrealities. --David Langford
The Bones of Time

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Early next century, the Interspace company, in charge of humanity's first generation starship, has been given extraordinary powers. Cen, descendant of Hawaiian shaman-priests, and a mathematical genius, finds out as an adolescent how ruthless they are in their preparedness to exploit human weakness and brilliance, yet sells his work to them for the leisure to pursue his own plans--the conquest of time and the saving of the long dead princess whom he meets and loves in moments of vision. A decade later, Lynn, geneticist renegade from Interspace's ruling dynasty, rescues from assassination Akamu, clone of Hawaii's legendary unifier, and finds herself, like Cen before her, manipulated by Interspace's Hawaiian nationalist foes. She and Akamu are pursued from Hawaii to Hong-Kong and into the uplands of Tibet. Bristling with intrigue and ideas about Buddhism, wormholes, celestial navigation and quantum theories of intelligence, Goonan's new novel is touching about love and families and a gruelling switchback ride for the intellect. Her first novel Queen City Jazz was impressive in its dreamy portrayal of a world altered by nano-technology; this radical change of place remakes the near future techno-thriller as a set of passionately conceived ethical quandaries. --Roz Kaveney
Light Music

Kathleen Ann Goonan
The Bones of Time

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Early next century, the Interspace company, in charge of humanity's first generation starship, has been given extraordinary powers. Cen, descendant of Hawaiian shaman-priests, and a mathematical genius, finds out as an adolescent how ruthless they are in their preparedness to exploit human weakness and brilliance, yet sells his work to them for the leisure to pursue his own plans--the conquest of time and the saving of the long dead princess whom he meets and loves in moments of vision. A decade later, Lynn, geneticist renegade from Interspace's ruling dynasty, rescues from assassination Akamu, clone of Hawaii's legendary unifier, and finds herself, like Cen before her, manipulated by Interspace's Hawaiian nationalist foes. She and Akamu are pursued from Hawaii to Hong-Kong and into the uplands of Tibet. Bristling with intrigue and ideas about Buddhism, wormholes, celestial navigation and quantum theories of intelligence, Goonan's new novel is touching about love and families and a gruelling switchback ride for the intellect. Her first novel Queen City Jazz was impressive in its dreamy portrayal of a world altered by nano-technology; this radical change of place remakes the near future techno-thriller as a set of passionately conceived ethical quandaries. --Roz Kaveney
Queen City Jazz (Tom Doherty Associates Book)

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Kathleen Ann Goonan's first novel is an impressive sci-fi debut, combining the themes of post-holocaust America and rampant nanotechnology. This imagined technology of molecule-sized machines and computers has excited many science fiction writers with its possibilities for total control of matter, atom by atom--including human flesh and DNA. In Goonan's future America, cities brought to life with nanotechnology or "nan" have mutated in strange, threatening ways. Rural areas, meanwhile, were devastated by nan-based plagues. Our heroine Verity, raised by a rustic Shaker community that rejects most technology, feels a mysterious compulsion towards learning machines and the closest transformed city. This is Cincinnati, whose skyscrapers have blossomed into exotic nan flowers between which huge artificial bees carry pollinating information. Verity's adventures there are complex, flickering between real-life action, virtual reality and chemically induced all-senses hallucinations. Eventually--the old, old sci-fi story--Verity realises that she herself was created to redeem the malfunctioning city. Its inhabitants are trapped in pleasant but futile cycles of dreams and play-acting (living the roles of Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and others): Verity must somehow free them. Well written and colourfully imagined, the story requires close attention to thread its maze of realities and unrealities. --David Langford
Queen City Jazz

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Kathleen Ann Goonan's first novel is an impressive sci-fi debut, combining the themes of post-holocaust America and rampant nanotechnology. This imagined technology of molecule-sized machines and computers has excited many science fiction writers with its possibilities for total control of matter, atom by atom--including human flesh and DNA. In Goonan's future America, cities brought to life with nanotechnology or "nan" have mutated in strange, threatening ways. Rural areas, meanwhile, were devastated by nan-based plagues. Our heroine Verity, raised by a rustic Shaker community that rejects most technology, feels a mysterious compulsion towards learning machines and the closest transformed city. This is Cincinnati, whose skyscrapers have blossomed into exotic nan flowers between which huge artificial bees carry pollinating information. Verity's adventures there are complex, flickering between real-life action, virtual reality and chemically induced all-senses hallucinations. Eventually--the old, old sci-fi story--Verity realises that she herself was created to redeem the malfunctioning city. Its inhabitants are trapped in pleasant but futile cycles of dreams and play-acting (living the roles of Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and others): Verity must somehow free them. Well written and colourfully imagined, the story requires close attention to thread its maze of realities and unrealities. --David Langford
Light Music

Kathleen Ann Goonan