In War Times.

Goonan, Kathleen Ann (author).

Related Features

This superlative alternate-history novel begins when educated army private Sam Dance is literally seduced into taking possession of something called the Hadnitz Device. According to its inventory, said device can change the course of history. Sam and his buddy in both electronics and playing jazz take this task seriously, and the reader will suspect they are having an effect when the Allies have to fight their way into Paris, and then when the Hiroshima A-bomb is unsuccessful. The latter turns out to mark a point of divergence, in which Sam ends up in something like our time line, and his buddy ends up in the one without the bomb. It falls to Sam and his family to prevent one of the catastrophic turning events of our time, through harrowing adventures and at a formidable price. Goonan’s parents may deserve some credit for the outstanding authenticity of the historiography—she thanks them first—but her own thorough research has to take the lion’s share. She can take all the credit for a narrative that has hardly a single flaw of pacing, setting, or characterization, and will be intelligible, not to say fascinating, to readers far beyond the ranks of World War II buffs. An authentic classic.