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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Blackout

Yesterday I bought Connie Willis’ book All Clear in hardcover.  I don’t often do this, being on a fairly tight budget, but every once in a while when I think I’m going to like a book I do it.  Unfortunately, my hopes don’t always work out and more often than not I end up donating a hard cover to the library (e.g. Captive Queen).  However, with Willis, I feel very confident.  After all, I already own five of her books (one of them hardcover) and I like them all.  The first book of hers I ever read was Doomesday Book (it won the Hugo and Nebula Awards), which I borrowed from the library, and now own in hardcover due to a lucky purchase at the Saskatoon Symphony Music and Book Sale this spring.
All Clear is the follow up book to Blackout, which I recently bought (in paper) and finished in record time.  In her intro Willis wrote, “I want to say thank you to all the people who helped me and stood by me with Blackout as it morphed from one book into two and I went slowly mad under the strain.”  I have to say, I’m glad she decided to live on the edge.  Both of these books, as well as Doomsday Book  (about Medieval England) are about time travel stints for history students launched from a special lab at Oxford University around 2060.  There are rules and regulations about how the time travel is to occur as well as ‘natural laws’ that seem to apply.  So if you like history and time travel along with aspects of a thriller, and good writing, these books are worth reading.
Blackout concerns several students sent back to London in 1940, during the height of the WWII bombings.  The research is well done, not only in regards to real historical events, but also for the atmosphere and how people might have behaved and lived.  I found the same things to be true about Doomesday Book, so I think it would be safe to say the Willis is consistent in her ability to research and bring the past to life in a way that will keep you turning pages and reading far into the night (if you’re a before bedtime reader).  Another thing she wrote in her intro was, “But most especially, I want to thank the marvellous group of ladies at the Imperial War Museum the day I was there doing research – women who, it turned out, had all been rescue workers and ambulance drivers and air-raid wardens during the Blitz.”
Needless to say, the time travel in Blackout  (and the other books) does not go according to plan.  As we move back and forth between 2060 and 1940, we read about events such as the bombings of London streets, homes and department stores; child evacuations to the country with a measles epidemic; friendships that develop in the bomb shelters and underground;  the evacuation of Dunkirk by little boats not always seaworthy; and the heroism of ordinary people.  Although each of the students is sent to a different part of England during the war, several of them eventually find each other and try to determine what is causing their problems, as time is literally running out for them.  Will the students ever make it back to Oxford?  That’s where Blackout ends.  You can see why I had to buy the next book, though I was able to hold out for about a week before I broke down and headed to the bookstore.
Other Connie Willis books worth reading (not time travel) are Lincoln’s Dreams, Bellwether (very funny), and Passages.

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