Jack Dann Jack Dann was born in Johnson City, New York, in 1945. He received his BA from Binghamton University in 1967. He has taught at Cornell University and Broome Community College, and has run an advertising agency. He still retains big business links as a director of a New York insurance company. His work has resulted in him being a finalist for the Nebula Award 11 times and a World Fantasy Award finalist 3 times.
War is in our systems.
We love the carnage. Whether we're making the world safe for democracy, stopping dictators from taking over the world, or halting the bone-chilling machinations of genocide, humans are there, in the mix, hurling ordnance at each other. This was true back in the good old days when high-tech warfare meant someone with a sling and pouch full of perfectly smooth stones, and it will be true even as we colonize the rest of this solar system and beyond. You sit around wondering if artillery will flatten your neighborhood, or if that GI with the M-60 is bored enough to rock and roll up and down your street, or whether this or that group of hoodlums out looting stores will turn up at your house. You learn to not sleep a lot.