Rating: 
Summary: Slow start but worth the wait...
Review: I really enjoyed this book once I got into the story. It had a slow -strange start, but once the story began to flow, it was a real page-turner. This was my first Kathleen Ann Goonan novel, but certainly not my last.
Rating:
Summary: Slow start but worth the wait...
Review: I really enjoyed this book once I got into the story. It had a slow -strange start, but once the story began to flow, it was a real page-turner. This was my first Kathleen Ann Goonan novel, but certainly not my last.
Rating: 
Summary: Yaaaaawwwwwwnnnnn . . .
Review: I really tried to like this book...The beginning snapped me up immediately, and I was eager to see what was going to happen to the woman (I forget her name. Go figure). Of course it took forever for the author to bring me to the resolution of the story's first conflict, but I overlooked that, and kept reading, hoping Goonan would pick up the pace. Those hopes were slowly, agonizingly dashed.Yep, that's the overall pace of this book. Slow and agonizing. I kept reading and reading, waiting for something to happen. Goonan is telling a story here, but that's ALL she's doing. She's not pushing it along. It's not going anywhere. A hundred pages into the book, you're still pretty much at square one, and your head is lolling. I never even got to the end. If you're looking for a nightcap, then keep this book at your bedside. It'll knock you out like a board across the head. But if you're looking for an exiting, engrossing read with good pace and deft narrative, you'd better skip this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Sf the way it is supposed to be written
Review: In 2012, the electromagnetic impulse that shuts down worldwide communications makes the Northeast blackout of four plus decades ago seems like a blown light bulb. Computers become silent. Studying that void, DC astrophysicist Zeb Aberly concludes that the impulse was not a freak of nature, but a signal from an intelligent ET source. Instead of accolades and kudos, Zeb is forced to run for his life, ultimately ending up in New Orleans. While the pulses continue to wreck havoc, infants born after the disaster start showing strange physical and mental abilities. In New Orleans, someone assassinates mob chieftain Marie Laveau, her spouse, and child. Nanotechnology brings Marie back to life, but her family was beyond repair. Marie vows revenge. She also tries to build a safe haven with the help of outlawed technological geniuses like Zeb, but time is running out as the new world order plans to stop her and her Crescent City. CRESCENT CITY RHAPSODY, the third novel in Kathleen Ann Goonan's "Nanotech" series (see QUEEN CITY JAZZ and MISSISSIPPI BLUES) is a wonderful futuristic tale. The story line speculates on the path science and technology may take mankind down in the next decade or so. The action is non-stop in this bleak but fascinating novel. The charcaters are fully developed, but what makes this tale and its predecessors so good is the author's ability to paint a grim landscape that feels genuinely possible. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Sf the way it is supposed to be written
Review: In 2012, the electromagnetic impulse that shuts down worldwide communications makes the Northeast blackout of four plus decades ago seems like a blown light bulb. Computers become silent. Studying that void, DC astrophysicist Zeb Aberly concludes that the impulse was not a freak of nature, but a signal from an intelligent ET source. Instead of accolades and kudos, Zeb is forced to run for his life, ultimately ending up in New Orleans. While the pulses continue to wreck havoc, infants born after the disaster start showing strange physical and mental abilities. In New Orleans, someone assassinates mob chieftain Marie Laveau, her spouse, and child. Nanotechnology brings Marie back to life, but her family was beyond repair. Marie vows revenge. She also tries to build a safe haven with the help of outlawed technological geniuses like Zeb, but time is running out as the new world order plans to stop her and her Crescent City. CRESCENT CITY RHAPSODY, the third novel in Kathleen Ann Goonan's "Nanotech" series (see QUEEN CITY JAZZ and MISSISSIPPI BLUES) is a wonderful futuristic tale. The story line speculates on the path science and technology may take mankind down in the next decade or so. The action is non-stop in this bleak but fascinating novel. The charcaters are fully developed, but what makes this tale and its predecessors so good is the author's ability to paint a grim landscape that feels genuinely possible. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Never has a plot been more poorly developed
Review: OK, where to begin? The ONLY reason this tale merits more than one star is the tremendous idea on which the book is based and the arrangement of material into symphonic movements. The tale: An alien energy pulse (EMP) knocks out sophisticated electronic systems, all governments go bonkers and a woman in New Orleans has a plan to save the world. What follows is an unmitigated disaster on almost every element - characterization, plotting, authenticity, social comment, science...you name it. There is enough here for three books: Voodoo, globetrotting, New Age nonsense, dire environmental warnings, unconvincing characters, nanotechnology, biotechnology (two fields the author continually crossbreeds) and space travel. And that doesn't include the UN military force (a la black helicopter) or the socio-economic comments that sound like Daffy Duck attempting Mandarin. The sheer number of stories prevent any of them from standing out. The evil government forces are never seen, heard from nor given a chance to explain their actions. Marie (our erstwhile heroine) is attempting to set up a new type of human society, Crescent City, somewhere in the Gulf that will operate "without a government" according to bio/nano technology - as if these fields contained moral truths for humanity. The author seems clueless about the real world and of course the action is totally illogical and improbable. Let's see: A Tibetan learns the secret of the messages, cities secede from the United States, the future revolves around nanotechnology, jazz, New Age tripe and a "mixture of socialism and capitalism." My pet peeve (and not just here despite the breakdown of society, the return of barter and barbarism, and the presence of conflicts, science and scientific advances continue unabated. That is NOT the way the world works. THis is just so pathetic. We start a slow slide reaching the nadir on the last page. Not Recommended unless trapped in an elevator.
Rating:
Summary: Never has a plot been more poorly developed
Review: OK, where to begin? The ONLY reason this tale merits more than one star is the tremendous idea on which the book is based and the arrangement of material into symphonic movements. The tale: An alien energy pulse (EMP) knocks out sophisticated electronic systems, all governments go bonkers and a woman in New Orleans has a plan to save the world. What follows is an unmitigated disaster on almost every element - characterization, plotting, authenticity, social comment, science...you name it. There is enough here for three books: Voodoo, globetrotting, New Age nonsense, dire environmental warnings, unconvincing characters, nanotechnology, biotechnology (two fields the author continually crossbreeds) and space travel. And that doesn't include the UN military force (a la black helicopter) or the socio-economic comments that sound like Daffy Duck attempting Mandarin. The sheer number of stories prevent any of them from standing out. The evil government forces are never seen, heard from nor given a chance to explain their actions. Marie (our erstwhile heroine) is attempting to set up a new type of human society, Crescent City, somewhere in the Gulf that will operate "without a government" according to bio/nano technology - as if these fields contained moral truths for humanity. The author seems clueless about the real world and of course the action is totally illogical and improbable. Let's see: A Tibetan learns the secret of the messages, cities secede from the United States, the future revolves around nanotechnology, jazz, New Age tripe and a "mixture of socialism and capitalism." My pet peeve (and not just here despite the breakdown of society, the return of barter and barbarism, and the presence of conflicts, science and scientific advances continue unabated. That is NOT the way the world works. THis is just so pathetic. We start a slow slide reaching the nadir on the last page. Not Recommended unless trapped in an elevator.
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