Reviews

Blackout by Connie Willis

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embee007's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Audio is okay: not great but not bad or distracting either.

This isn't as good as Doomsday Book, but I am intrigued to see where it goes, so far. I am very confused with the jumping POVs & timelines, all headed to different areas near London during WW2 around the same time, but I'm also learning more about WW2 now as a bonus. & now most of the POVs have converged, so it'll be less confusing.

I wish we knew what was going on back in Oxford to cause all these issues, but I'm assuming we're going to get that POV in All Clear 🤞🏻

embee007's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

timinbc's review against another edition

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2.0

I have a very short list of authors whose work I eagerly await. Connie Willis just stepped off that list with this turkey. This book cuts off abruptly with a promo for the second book, but if it had been decently edited the whole mess would have fit in one volume.

Three incompetent characters are dropped into WW2 London by obviously incompetent staffers. Before they even left I was thinking that I wouldn't let these dingbats put me on a bus, much less a time machine.

[2022 edit: Yes, I know Willis is playing this for laughs at least some of the time, but for me it's just grating]

These folks are supposed to check in regularly with their home time. After each of them is stymied by implausible coincidences, they can't connect. It's not hard for the reader to figure out that something's wrong, but our heroes are each stuck in a loop of optimism, and keep trying, unable to even consider the possibility of a problem. It's like watching Homer Simpson stick his finger in an electrical socket over and over again.

OK, the descriptions of life in the Blitz are very good. But two of the lead characters are dithering wimps, and even brave-in-action Mike is channeling moany-groany Thomas Covenant the rest of the time. The characters around them are mixed, some cardboard, some ludicrously exaggerated, and a few believable. Alf, Binnie and Mrs. Rickett are right out of Dickens, and Terry Pratchett could probably place them in Ankh-Morpork, but they're just too unsubtle for this book.

In the first 50 pages we're introduced to the mysterious Head Guy through his many arbitrary decisions, and to a teenager who makes Mickey Rooney look unenthusiastic. 500 pages later we haven't seen the slightest hint of them.

I don't know if I can stand another 500 pages of this mucilage, or another 217 descriptions of the exact date and time when a particular building was bombed, or what time a siren went off.

Willis's Doomsday Book was excellent, but this just isn't. It's not even good. If you want time travel go read Kage Baker.

tregina's review against another edition

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4.0

I bought this book pretty much when it was first released, eager to read a new Connie Willis, then realised it was the first half of a set with the second half coming out in short order and decided I would exert willpower and wait till I had both. A lot of things happened then, the most relevant of those being that I moved (three times) and had a lot of my belongings boxed up for most of that period, and made the switch almost entirely to ebooks. Time passed. Then more time passed. Now over five years later I've finally treated myself to the book(s) that I've been anticipating all that time.

It's hard to review one with out the other, so the bulk of my comments will go under All Clear, but as far as this book taken in isolation goes. I was pretty pleased with the setup and how it was differentiated from previous works in the same universe. And of course I was so delighted to have something new to read in the Oxford Time Travel world that I was ready to forgive all manner of sins...but I felt that I didn't really need to. Willis's style involves a lot of repetition and narrative infodump, but she's always handled these in such a fluid and character-driven way that they've only felt intrusive to me in one case (Passage); I realise this isn't a universally held position, and YMMV.

Onward to All Clear...

przela71's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was a good read with a captivating story. Willis's affection for the time period is evident throughout. I really appreciate her attention to the historical details making the story feeling more authentic.