Blackout

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Average customer rating 4.7 (16 comments)

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Review is for both Blackout and All Clear. Complaints first: 1. More historical fiction than science fiction: There is an underlying time travel/science fiction element to the books, but 95% of the content is about living in England during the years before and during WWII - Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks. 2. Total content of the two books is 25-50% too long - for example, when a character is faced with a dilemma, the reader doesn't need to hear them think through every ramification of every option they have, every time; as another example, when our heroes are escaping from a 7-story building, it isn't necessary for the author to take us through every floor, with the thoughts and concerns of each character on each floor. Overall, however, the books are highly readable, and since many chapters end in cliffhanger fashion, the story does keep one's interest. Characters are likeable and believable. And as historical fiction goes, the information is fascinating - I'm a big fan of history, and these books gave me a comprehensive appreciation of the dangers and sacrifices of the people of Britain during WWII, which lasted much longer for them than it did for American and Americans. The time travel element is also flawlessly executed, though you should keep the first novel handy as you read the second, to go back and reference chapters that, at the time you first read them, don't seem to fit the story. It's not linear, and keeping notes as to who is who, and when, will serve you well. So if you dont' mind the occasional thought of "C'mon, get on with it", these can be very enjoyable books.

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Let me start with a little confession: I don’t often read time travel books because 1) the time travel going on is usually for dramatic reasons; and/or 2) there is some utterly ridiculous method for the time travel itself. Connie Willis avoids both these pitfalls and makes time travel and exciting, fresh, and a rousing good story. In short, this is how time travel should be. She doesn’t get all caught up in the mechanics or theories of time travel, whether it is plausible or not. She doesn’t use some mystical rock or token to suddenly sweep our adventures up into another place and time. No. It is simply a tool used for years by researches, set in a future Oxford University. Our main characters set out to study small things, nuances of the WWII in England �" evacuated children, the life of a shopgirl, the small heroes at Dover, female ambulance brigades, etc. Some of my favorite characters were Alf and Binny Hodbin, two children that plagued Eileen in the countryside, often playing hookey from school, ‘collecting’ aluminum for the war effort by stealing cooking pans, and ‘practicing’ for a potential German invasion by leaving tacks at the start of the long driveway to the mansion. Quite charming, really. The Hodbins provided entertainment and drama, and were a challenging interaction for Eileen, and yet were still endearing. Polly ends up working at Townsend Brothers shop by day and spending most nights in a small local shelter or one of the tube station shelters, instead of the boarding house where she rents a room. Over time, the small group of neighborhood folk she hangs with decide to form an acting troupe, complete with children and a dog. Initially planning to go to Dover to witness unsung local heroes, Mike experiences the biggest slippage, placing him in the wrong place a few days ahead of schedule. Through a ridiculous set of circumstances, he ends up on a leaky tub captained by an aged lunatic who volunteers with the local ‘fleet’ to go to Dunkirk across the Chanel to rescue Allied troops. Of course, there are all sorts of things for Mike to be concerned about: the mined Chanel, enemy submarines, the seaworthiness of the vessel he’s in, fog, the knowledge of the captain, and of course enemy fire at Dunkirk. But he also has the added worry of Dunkirk being a time travel divergent point �" basically a place he should not be just in case any action of his alters something that then changes the known time line. So those three (Eileen, Polly, and Mike) are all researching WWII at about the same time on the time line. Meanwhile, we also get to meet Mary, who is studying a female ambulance brigade set a few years later and at the very start of the V1 and V2 rockets. We only get a few scenes with her, but I can see how she could fill a larger role in the sequel. By now, you can tell that I was very taken with the characters. Well, I also loved the plot and the setting. Willis does a beautiful job of weaving in small historical tidbits all over the place, seamlessly integrating them with the story line. It was interesting and part of the plot, and when I finished the book, I felt like I had just lived through a rather exciting WWII history course, I learned so much. And I will remember much of it because I was so attached to these characters that ‘lived’ through it. Connie Willis, you rock history!

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Connie Willis one of my desert island authors, and I was delighted that with Blackout, she has returned to the madcap world of To Say Nothing Of The Dog (and Doomsday Book), which is one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels. Blackout and its second half All Clear are just as funny as To Say Nothing, plus a giant epic landscape of WWII history, with the kind of ridiculous detail makes me feel like I could walk around London with Blackout in my hand as a guidebook to individual Londoner's experience of the Blitz. The story is also intense, suspenseful and tragic. It's a great time travel story, and it's a great World War II story, and it's a great story about what living through a war really means.

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I love Connie Willis, but it's not a relationship where she can do no wrong. Sometimes she goes over long or belabors a metaphor. Her book Passages is a good example. This book had me worried that she was doing it again, but she pulls it together and leaves off with a real cliffhanger. She's good with page turning plotting and 3D characterizations. Recommended to historical fiction and time travel fans. Can't wait to read the next book!

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connie willis' blackout, along with all clear (it's really one big novel) was the best book i read in 2011. my hands were shaking; i was reading late late into the night; the suspense was off the scale - there should be a warning on the cover cautioning people taking heart medication. and the resolution was so satisfying, an essential element after the investment of reading such a huge tome; really a wonderful payoff. thank you, ms. willis.

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Connie Willis' BLACKOUT is the first half of a novel published in two parts, the second half being ALL CLEAR. My comments apply to the entire novel BLACKOUT/ALL CLEAR and not to half of it. Connie Willis is known for her painstaking research (just try to find an error in one of her books or stories), her dry sense of humor, and her ability to take her characters to a point of relative safety in the plot and then drop them in a bog full of hungry alligators. Things tend to turn out well (for most) in the end, but she is masterful at creating situations that seem to place her characters in inescapable peril. BLACKOUT/ALL CLEAR takes place in the same universe as her previous novel TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, in which Oxford historians in the near future travel back in time to do what historians do: learn everything they can about the past. As in the real world, nothing quite goes as one would want on this journey back to World War II, where no preparations can be complete enough and the "law of unintended consequences" must be dealt with repeatedly. This story is classic Connie Willis at the top of her game. If you don't already know her work, this is a good place to start. Willis has won more genre fiction awards (Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick) than almost any other living writer. Her books are what science fiction looks like when it becomes indistinguishable from the mainstream. Her sense of humor is legendary, but the reader has to peel layers of the story back like the layers of an onion to take advantage of the full depth of her skills.

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When Time Travel has become an academic endeavor, Blackout takes us to World War II during the bombing of London. Connie Willis continues to amaze me with her immense ability to interlace historical information, references to arts and literature, and character development without missing a beat. Don't miss the other half of the book in "All Clear!"

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The way to study history, in 2060 at any rate, is to go there yourself, and that's what the historians at Oxford University are doing. But the department is in chaos, and various researchers find themselves stranded in England during World War II. Although it isn't supposed to be possible to alter history in any significant way, the old rules start breaking down. Fragmented knowledge based on incomplete records -- or records that had been deliberately falsified in order to mislead the Germans -- only makes matters worse, for in trying to avoid one paradox, our characters may have created a worse one. I loved the sense of people stumbling around in the dark, acting from wrong assumptions and the best intentions, and read this not as actual time travel but as alternate history. That is, this is not the London Blitz of our world, but of some other that has been pushed and shoved and niggled by wayward historians into a subtly different form.

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It's hard to rate a book that is actually the first half of a two-volume novel, but I enjoyed _Blackout_. It's the story of multiple time travelers lost in England during World War II. Like many of Connie Willis's novels, there are mix-ups, misunderstandings and missed connections, but the tone is much more serious than her outrightly comedic books like _To Say Nothing of the Dog_. If the second book, _All Clear_, fulfills the promise of _Blackout_, I'll prob'ly revise my rating to 5 stars.

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This is actually a "two-parter" which is completed in Willis' book "All Clear". Continuing her time-traveling historians theme, Willis takes us to England in World War II. The history and sense of place is rich and intriguing and left me wishing to return to England to visit some of the more obscure historical spots enriched by the history lessons I learned. I was sorely disappointed when I discovered I had to wait months to read the second part but it was certainly worth the wait. These books are well-researched and, as always, the interwoven lives of the historians make for a compelling story.

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Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis was originally meant to be one book. Both "halves" of this work are impossible to put down, and incredibly interesting to anyone with the least interest in England and/or World War II. I was late to everything while reading them!

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Willis is a master of time travel fiction. This novel explores World War II from the point of view of time travelers who visit to experience first hand the lives of heroes as well as those of everyday people during the London blitz. The sequel, All Clear is equally brilliant.

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This is a 2 book series. From beginning to end (All Clear) kept me riveted to every word. The reader (on audio book form kept the story interesting as did her partner in reading. Going back to WWII era intrigues me, but the idea of dying before I was born is a rather scary concept.

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Once again, Connie Willis blends together past and the future to create an adventure that extends through time and space right into the anxious heart of her reader. A great place for new Willis fans to start, a wonderful return for Willis fans of the past, and a excellent historical journey for any lover of modern history.

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I love this book and Willis's ability to mix time travel with screwball comedy sensibilities.

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This is the book to read if you enjoyed any part of her earlier Doomsday book where a time traveling historian attempted to research the Dark ages with almost deadly consequences... Blackout is more accomplished and deeply researched story which follows 3 historians as they travel back to the 1940's in search of 3 different experiences connected with WW2. Not surprizingly things do not go smoothly and the reader is treated the juicy details of life in London during the bombings, volunteer efforts during Dunkirk; truly a total immersion in the time period. The ending is a true cliff-hanger and you will likely want to buy/borrow "All Clear" to get to the end of the story!