Helpful Score: 3
All Clear is the second (of two) volumes of Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear "novel". Do not read this book until you have first read Blackout. These two volumes are not independent stories. All Clear picks up right where Blackout left off, and there's truly no help for you if you start with All Clear. Willis herself has said that these two volumes should be treated at one novel, and you do yourself a great disservice if you don't treat them that way yourself.
I really like Willis' time travel stories, her "Doomsday Book" being one of my all-time favorites. Blackout/All Clear is set primarily during the London Blitz of World War II (with some diversions to other WWII locales and times). The storyline essentially is that of historians sent back in time to study elements of the war, and who wind up trapped in their past and spend the bulk of the books trying to get back to their base in 2060 Oxford.
The storyline here has a tendency to get frustrating, since the characters have a very difficult time accomplishing the things they're trying to do. The ultimate resolution of the plot has more to do with what is done accidentally, rather than deliberately, and that tends to weaken the characters. It also means a close reading is helpful, and I'm sure a re-read (should I ever empty my to-be-read pile) will yield a significant amount of relevant detail I missed the first time around.
Nevertheless, the ending is strong and well done --- once the "frustrating" bits are over, and the characters start to get a glimpse of what's really going on, it became really hard to put the book down.
The world Willis paints of 1940s England is fantastic, and might really be the true star of the show. I don't really know if any of it is accurate, but I really got the feeling that she'd done an amazing amount of research and loved making sure the details were right.
This pair of books was well worth reading, even with the frustrations there. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I really like Willis' time travel stories, her "Doomsday Book" being one of my all-time favorites. Blackout/All Clear is set primarily during the London Blitz of World War II (with some diversions to other WWII locales and times). The storyline essentially is that of historians sent back in time to study elements of the war, and who wind up trapped in their past and spend the bulk of the books trying to get back to their base in 2060 Oxford.
The storyline here has a tendency to get frustrating, since the characters have a very difficult time accomplishing the things they're trying to do. The ultimate resolution of the plot has more to do with what is done accidentally, rather than deliberately, and that tends to weaken the characters. It also means a close reading is helpful, and I'm sure a re-read (should I ever empty my to-be-read pile) will yield a significant amount of relevant detail I missed the first time around.
Nevertheless, the ending is strong and well done --- once the "frustrating" bits are over, and the characters start to get a glimpse of what's really going on, it became really hard to put the book down.
The world Willis paints of 1940s England is fantastic, and might really be the true star of the show. I don't really know if any of it is accurate, but I really got the feeling that she'd done an amazing amount of research and loved making sure the details were right.
This pair of books was well worth reading, even with the frustrations there. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Blackout/All Clear.
The two books are really one novel (thanks, publishers, for getting me to pay double!) so there's no reason to talk about them separately.
They're also part of Willis' time travel series, although they're not advertised as such. I really wouldn't recommend starting with these books; I feel that a lot of the questions and criticism of these books that I see in other reviews stems from the likelihood that readers haven't read the other books in the series: The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Fire Watch. At the very least, you have GOT to read Fire Watch before reading these books.
That said, the books are excellent. Blackout starts slowly, but Willis does a great job of gradually but surely building the tension and intensity of the story, working from trivial humor up to tragedy... (and the tragedy that can spring from the trivial) although it never gets as intense as The Doomsday Book. The pacing is the main reason why I feel that the book should not have been split in two. The end revelations also came dangerously close to getting too sentimental/religious for me... but I think they fall on the OK side of that line...
I found the representation of London during the Blitz to be completely convincing and memorable - I found myself saying, "wow, I didn't know...." And I've also decided that it is virtually incomprehensible that I've been to London over a dozen times, and I don't think that I've ever been inside St. Paul's cathedral. I'm sure Willis would think that was sad and horrifically neglectful.
For another depiction of the Blitz, which also focuses on its effect on ordinary individuals, I'd highly recommend Sarah Waters' The Night Watch.
The two books are really one novel (thanks, publishers, for getting me to pay double!) so there's no reason to talk about them separately.
They're also part of Willis' time travel series, although they're not advertised as such. I really wouldn't recommend starting with these books; I feel that a lot of the questions and criticism of these books that I see in other reviews stems from the likelihood that readers haven't read the other books in the series: The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Fire Watch. At the very least, you have GOT to read Fire Watch before reading these books.
That said, the books are excellent. Blackout starts slowly, but Willis does a great job of gradually but surely building the tension and intensity of the story, working from trivial humor up to tragedy... (and the tragedy that can spring from the trivial) although it never gets as intense as The Doomsday Book. The pacing is the main reason why I feel that the book should not have been split in two. The end revelations also came dangerously close to getting too sentimental/religious for me... but I think they fall on the OK side of that line...
I found the representation of London during the Blitz to be completely convincing and memorable - I found myself saying, "wow, I didn't know...." And I've also decided that it is virtually incomprehensible that I've been to London over a dozen times, and I don't think that I've ever been inside St. Paul's cathedral. I'm sure Willis would think that was sad and horrifically neglectful.
For another depiction of the Blitz, which also focuses on its effect on ordinary individuals, I'd highly recommend Sarah Waters' The Night Watch.
Blackout is the first half of this story and MUST be read first. Well-written but overly long; it should have been edited down to take out at least 100 pages. My FIL, a voracious reader, couldn't get through it. Connie Willis likes to mix in literary references, which is usually charming but occasionally annoying. The end of this book is particularly good and made slogging through the middle worthwhile. Frankly, when I got bogged down in the middle I skipped to about 50 pages from the end and then went back. You should too if you're tempted to give up. One of these days I'll psych myself up to read the whole thing through....
