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A review by aleffert
All Clear by Connie Willis
4.0
Willis's band of good hearted historian time travelers from future Oxford travel back to London in the blitz and learn some lessons about heroism while trying to avoid getting hit by bombs or destroy the fabric of reality.
This is nominally the sequel to Blackout, but they are basically one book in two volumes. This covers both of them.
These were pretty good. They hit kind of in the middle in tone between The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog (both books have the same frame setting and some minor character overlap). Which is to say there were some funny bits, but it wasn't a romp and there were some sad bits, but it wasn't about the frickin' black plague. They were also waaaaay too long. I get that our characters are stuck in World War II, but that doesn't mean I have to feel like I'm stuck somewhere too. There are so many near misses where the plot could be resolved, and while there are structural reasons why it doesn't, the author kind of rubs your face in it to the point of aggravation.
Still, Willis is a good writer and I quite enjoyed reading these. Her characters sound like people. They're worth it just for two delightful rascal children, named Alf and Binnie, who cause no end of trouble. And I appreciated the celebration of every day heroism that was the book's main theme.
This is nominally the sequel to Blackout, but they are basically one book in two volumes. This covers both of them.
These were pretty good. They hit kind of in the middle in tone between The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog (both books have the same frame setting and some minor character overlap). Which is to say there were some funny bits, but it wasn't a romp and there were some sad bits, but it wasn't about the frickin' black plague. They were also waaaaay too long. I get that our characters are stuck in World War II, but that doesn't mean I have to feel like I'm stuck somewhere too. There are so many near misses where the plot could be resolved, and while there are structural reasons why it doesn't, the author kind of rubs your face in it to the point of aggravation.
Still, Willis is a good writer and I quite enjoyed reading these. Her characters sound like people. They're worth it just for two delightful rascal children, named Alf and Binnie, who cause no end of trouble. And I appreciated the celebration of every day heroism that was the book's main theme.