Connie Willis: Blackout (EBook, 2010, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd)
eBook
English language
Published Jan. 6, 2010 by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.
No historian can possibly change the past - or can they?In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds - great and small - of ordinary people that shape history and, alarmingly perhaps, the future.The year is 2060, the fourth decade since the invention of time travel by a scientist who would not have been born had Hitler won World War II. At Oxford University, historians jockey for plum assignments, to carry out first-person research in the era of their specialty, from the Crusades to the Plague or the aftermath of the devastating nuclear attack on London.In the face of increasing scientific criticism of time travel - and the possibility that it could shatter the space-time continuum - three academics are in the heart of World War II in England. Merope is …
No historian can possibly change the past - or can they?In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds - great and small - of ordinary people that shape history and, alarmingly perhaps, the future.The year is 2060, the fourth decade since the invention of time travel by a scientist who would not have been born had Hitler won World War II. At Oxford University, historians jockey for plum assignments, to carry out first-person research in the era of their specialty, from the Crusades to the Plague or the aftermath of the devastating nuclear attack on London.In the face of increasing scientific criticism of time travel - and the possibility that it could shatter the space-time continuum - three academics are in the heart of World War II in England. Merope is a maid in a country house studying evacuated children in England in 1940. Mike is researching a common thread of heroism across history and is on his way to Dunkirk. Polly lives as a shopgirl during the Blitz, watching the behaviour of ordinary citizens under stress.For all three, unknown corners of history explode as Hitler's bombs rain down on London. But when they try to return they find themselves unable to make their way back to the future. Have they broken the law of time travel and changed the narrative of history in some accidental way? A dreadful awareness comes over them all: far from witnessing the past, they may be on a journey into the utterly unknown. And the world they left in 2060 may no longer be there to save them.Connie Willis has received six Nebula Awards and ten Hugo awards for her fiction, and her previous novel, Passage, was nominated for both.
Well researched and written, fun premise, but I docked two full stars because this book ends with no resolution, telling you to buy the next one.
And I thought Doctor Who was an overly British way to approach the ability to travel anywhere in time and space. No thanks.
Interesting book, but was not entirely sure where the story was going by the end of this first volume. Overall, I enjoyed this story of time travelers trapped in the past.
Three historians are sent back in time during the Blitz, and nothing happens exactly as it should. The schedules are disrupted from the start, and it may well happen that things that were supposed to be impossible actually happen...
The start is very slow, the main characters are not that distinguishable from one another (the secondary characters are more... colorful, I guess? Or maybe more cliché?), the ending is very abrupt, but I did get the second book right away, because I definitely want to know what happens next.
This isn't a linear book by any means, and the characters go through iterations of the same thoughts and actions over and over but like Bolero it builds to the meat of the plot. Blackout and All Clear are really one book so the climax of book 1 is a bit of a cliffhanger.
It is also important to pay attention to what time each chapter takes place in, or you won't realize the significance of other events.
That said the world building (the Oxford of present day in the story, time travel mechanics etc) are inspiring, and the history lesson woven in the day to days lives is fabulous. The life of shopgirls and ambulance drivers and evacuated children during World War 2 is sketched in mesmerizing detail.
I love Connie Willis' writing; every single thing I've read by her (which is most of it) just grabs you, draws you in, and keeps you reading till the last page. Add to that interesting stories, well developed characters, and original ideas, and Willis is one of the authors that I'll read absolutely anything they publish.
This particular book is in the same universe as the story "Fire Watch" which I read several years ago. The basic premise is that time travel back in time is possible, and has become the main method of research for historians. Willis' stories in this universe center around the historians at Oxford University, and in this novel three of them are sent back to study various events during World War II. Of course, things go slightly wrong, and the unfolding of their stories is told through an extremely detailed and believeable, and as far …
I love Connie Willis' writing; every single thing I've read by her (which is most of it) just grabs you, draws you in, and keeps you reading till the last page. Add to that interesting stories, well developed characters, and original ideas, and Willis is one of the authors that I'll read absolutely anything they publish.
This particular book is in the same universe as the story "Fire Watch" which I read several years ago. The basic premise is that time travel back in time is possible, and has become the main method of research for historians. Willis' stories in this universe center around the historians at Oxford University, and in this novel three of them are sent back to study various events during World War II. Of course, things go slightly wrong, and the unfolding of their stories is told through an extremely detailed and believeable, and as far as I can tell accurate, account of wartime England that brings it vividly to life for the reader. (Having recently seen the movie "The King's Speech" I was also pleased to notice one character in WWII London making fun of the king's stutter in passing.)
I haven't given this 5 stars because the constant jumping between protagonists was a little bit confusing at times, and if you aren't at all interested in wartime England then this would definitely be less accessible than some of Willis' other books. It also ends in a cliffhanger which I am never a fan of, though I do have the sequel ready and waiting ... Still, I finished the book in 2 evenings definitely had trouble putting it down. But, for someone who hasn't read any Connie Willis before, I would say start with another book (maybe Bellwether, or To Say Nothing Of The Dog).
I was really excited about Blackout: a new Connie Willis novel set in the Doomsday Book/To Say Nothing of the Dog world, focused on Willis' favorite period in history: the Blitz.
And Blackout is good. It focuses on the stories of three main historians as they travel to different parts of England during 1940 and encounter time travel hitches. Along the way, there are typical Willis flares -- cute, yet annoying children; lovable & brave young women with lots of pluck; comedies of errors and confused details; despair redeemed only by having friends to cling to. Her characters are lovable, her comedy is gold, her prose is affecting. It is pure Willis.
And yet. It feels sacrilegious, and maybe I'll go back and revise the three stars once All Clear comes out, but I just didn't love Blackout. The pacing felt a little slow, like I was reading the same …
I was really excited about Blackout: a new Connie Willis novel set in the Doomsday Book/To Say Nothing of the Dog world, focused on Willis' favorite period in history: the Blitz.
And Blackout is good. It focuses on the stories of three main historians as they travel to different parts of England during 1940 and encounter time travel hitches. Along the way, there are typical Willis flares -- cute, yet annoying children; lovable & brave young women with lots of pluck; comedies of errors and confused details; despair redeemed only by having friends to cling to. Her characters are lovable, her comedy is gold, her prose is affecting. It is pure Willis.
And yet. It feels sacrilegious, and maybe I'll go back and revise the three stars once All Clear comes out, but I just didn't love Blackout. The pacing felt a little slow, like I was reading the same day in the life over and over. I resent having to buy two books to get one story and Blackout ended just as it was getting to the point in the plot that I wanted to read. The whole thing feels like a historical set up for a great scifi story, rather than the story itself.
