Queen City Jazz - Hardcover

Goonan, Kathleen Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312856784 ISBN 13: 9780312856786

Publisher: Tor Books, 1994

Synopsis

In Verity's world, nanotech plagues decimated the population after an initial renaissance of utopian nanotech cities. Verity has been raised, an orphan, in a tiny Shaker revival community where all are forbidden contact with the Enlivened Cities. Yet as she grows up on the isolated farm, she is often drawn to the City of Dayton, abandoned nearby, and to its self-contained and still-functioning library. Her happy life is suddenly destroyed when the Shakers, in spite of their precautions, contract a nanotech plague that possesses them. Blaze, the only young man in the community and Verity's best friend, is shot by a crazed elder.
And so Verity, with her dog Cairo - and the body of Blaze wrapped in a nanotech cocoon - sets off on a quest to the Enlivened City of Cincinnati. It is a place of legend, walled off from the rest of the world, where huge bio-engineered bees carry information through the streets and enormous nanotech flowers burst from the tops of strange buildings. It is the place where Blaze might be brought back from the brink of death.
But Cincinnati is a city of dreams turned into nightmares, endlessly reliving the fantasies of its creator, a city that Verity must rule - or die.

About this title

Review

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

Review

An unforgettable vision of America transfigured by a new and utterly apocalyptic technology. Greg Bear's Blood Music is perhaps the only other novel to have dealt so unflinchingly with the paradigm-shattering possibilities of a functioning nanotech. If a science fiction writer's job is to conceive the inconceivable, Goonan has arrived with an immaculate version of the traditional tool-kit--and the nerve to use it hard.--William Gibson Goonan is one of the most imaginative authors in the literature of the imagination.--David Brin In the hands of Kathleen Ann Goonan, the science of science fiction becomes something lyrical and vividly human, and the intricately imagined future she presents is thus rendered completely plausible and poignant in the extreme. Queen City Jazz is hands down the best first novel I've read in the genre in the past ten years.--Lucius Shepard "Unforgettable." --William Gibson"A dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech." --The New York Times"An unforgettable vision of America transfigured by a new and utterly apocalyptic technology. Greg Bear's Blood Music is perhaps the only other novel to have dealt so unflinchingly with the paradigm-shattering possibilities of a functioning nanotech. If a science fiction writer's job is to conceive the inconceivable, Goonan has arrived with an immaculate version of the traditional tool-kit--and the nerve to use it hard." --William Gibson"Goonan is one of the most imaginative authors in the literature of the imagination." --David Brin"Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan is a dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech. ...For Ms. Goonan, the freedom to remake the world in one's own image poses a terrible temptation. ... a first novelist of enormous talent and energy ...In the end, what saves her novel from self-destructing through sheer exuberance is the way that she grounds her apocalyptic vision in a few short, finely detailed scenes that reveal how personal failings can become writ large in the great events of history." --The New York Times"[In] this already-celebrated debut . . . Goonan has written one of the most original, thought provoking novels to emerge from American writing in some time." --Des Moines Register"Richly imagined...Goonan displays a rare gift for grounding far-reaching ideas in beautifully crafted, almost magical prose." --Booklist."In the hands of Kathleen Ann Goonan, the science of science fiction becomes something lyrical and vividly human, and the intricately imagined future she presents is thus rendered completely plausible and poignant in the extreme. Queen City Jazz is hands down the best first novel I've read in the genre in the past ten years." --Lucius Shepard"Kathleen Goonan is one of the very few writers of science fiction, today, willing to work with the unfettered vistas of abject weirdness presented by the apocalyptic potential of really new technologies." --William Gibson Unforgettable. "William Gibson" A dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech. "The New York Times" An unforgettable vision of America transfigured by a new and utterly apocalyptic technology. Greg Bear's Blood Music is perhaps the only other novel to have dealt so unflinchingly with the paradigm-shattering possibilities of a functioning nanotech. If a science fiction writer's job is to conceive the inconceivable, Goonan has arrived with an immaculate version of the traditional tool-kit--and the nerve to use it hard. William Gibson Goonan is one of the most imaginative authors in the literature of the imagination. David Brin Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan is a dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech. ...For Ms. Goonan, the freedom to remake the world in one's own image poses a terrible temptation. ... a first novelist of enormous talent and energy ...In the end, what saves her novel from self-destructing through sheer exuberance is the way that she grounds her apocalyptic vision in a few short, finely detailed scenes that reveal how personal failings can become writ large in the great events of history. "The New York Times" [In] this already-celebrated debut . . . Goonan has written one of the most original, thought provoking novels to emerge from American writing in some time. "Des Moines Register" Richly imagined...Goonan displays a rare gift for grounding far-reaching ideas in beautifully crafted, almost magical prose. "Booklist." In the hands of Kathleen Ann Goonan, the science of science fiction becomes something lyrical and vividly human, and the intricately imagined future she presents is thus rendered completely plausible and poignant in the extreme. Queen City Jazz is hands down the best first novel I've read in the genre in the past ten years. Lucius Shepard Kathleen Goonan is one of the very few writers of science fiction, today, willing to work with the unfettered vistas of abject weirdness presented by the apocalyptic potential of really new technologies. "William Gibson"" "Unforgettable."--William Gibson "A dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech." --"The New York Times" "An unforgettable vision of America transfigured by a new and utterly apocalyptic technology. Greg Bear's Blood Music is perhaps the only other novel to have dealt so unflinchingly with the paradigm-shattering possibilities of a functioning nanotech. If a science fiction writer's job is to conceive the inconceivable, Goonan has arrived with an immaculate version of the traditional tool-kit--and the nerve to use it hard."--William Gibson "Goonan is one of the most imaginative authors in the literature of the imagination."--David Brin Praise for Queen City Jazz and Kathleen Ann Goonan "Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan is a dizzying novel that takes full advantage of the creative potential of nanotech. ...For Ms. Goonan, the freedom to remake the world in one's own image poses a terrible temptation. ... a first novelist of enormous talent and energy ...In the end, what saves her novel from self-destructing through sheer exuberance is the way that she grounds her apocalyptic vision in a few short, finely detailed scenes that reveal how personal failings can become writ large in the great events of history."--"The New York Times" "[In] this already-celebrated debut . . . Goonan has written one of the most original, thought provoking novels to emerge from American writing in some time."--"Des Moines Register" "Richly imagined...Goonan displays a rare gift for grounding far-reaching ideas in beautifully crafted, almost magical prose."--"Booklist." "In the hands of Kathleen Ann Goonan, the science of science fiction becomes something lyrical and vividly human, and the intricately imagined future she presents is thus rendered completely plausible and poignant in the extreme. Queen City Jazz is hands down the best first novel I've read in the genre in the past t

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312856784
• ISBN 13: 9780312856786
• Binding: Hardcover