A review by booksaremagic
In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan

5.0

I picked up this book randomly at the library, thinking it might be interesting. It was wonderful. It is sci-fi, but the new technology the characters are trying to figure out remains mostly a mystery for most of the book. Although its subtitle is An Alternate-Universe Novel of a Different Present, most of it takes place in recognizable WWII and post-WWII eras. In fact, the brief blurbs from the main character's war journals are actual blurbs from the author's father's journals during the war. The jobs done by the main character (well, the more mundane ones at least) were real jobs done by the author's father.

The main character is smart, artistic, and lovable, and his female counterparts are breathtakingly real and daring and skilled. Every character, no matter how minor, comes across as an unquestionably real human being.

I love Neal Stephenson, and Kathleen Ann Goonan's work reminds me very much of his. The book is only 346 pages long, but it reads like something longer. In a good way. It's a beautiful journey.

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