Blackout

By: Connie Willis

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Connie Willis

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 who shape history.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill's next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London's Blitz. And 17-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can catch up to her in age. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyones schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, author Connie Willis discusses her fascination with WWII and the historic context of Blackout.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Blackout is the first volume of a two-part novel. To find out what happens to the time-traveling historians from Oxford, we invite you to download the concluding volume, All Clear.

Listen to Connie Willis and Carrie Vaughn: A Conversation. And listen to All Clear.©2010 Connie Willis (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2010
• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2011
• Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2010: Readers' Choice (SF Site)

“If you're a science-fiction fan, you'll want to read this book by one of the most honored writers in the field; if you're interested in World War II, you should pick up Blackout for its you-are-there authenticity; and if you just like to read, you'll find here a novelist who can plot like Agatha Christie and whose books possess a bounce and stylishness that Preston Sturges might envy.” ( The Washington Post)

Enthralled

Connie Willis delivers another fabulous book. Part of her charm is that her books are written in a sort of Victorian style. She is the most decorated Sci/fi fantasy writer of all time. Other quality Fantasy writers like Neil Gaiman have similar styles. If you are looking for a space cowboy traditonal sci-fi novel then you will be disappointed. If you hate her style that is too bad for you. However, the Nebula and Hugo award panel disagree. This one may not win best novel of the year but it is worth listening to or actually reading.
It is engrossing. Only bad thing about it is that I have to wait until Fall fot the next half.

Great Book, but cliffhanger

I have listened to other Connie Willis books and LOVED them (Bellweather, To Say Nothing of the Dog) so I thought I would listen to this one too. It is a fantastic book and I can't wait for All Clear to be published so that I can listen to the end of the book. It should be out October 2010. I thought the narrator was really good. The history of the Blitz is fantastic. The characters (particularly Mike) do go on a bit about "changing history" but that is really my only complaint. I think that it will get better reviews after All Clear comes out and one is able to listen to the entire story without waiting for a year.

I'd Listen Again (but with reservations)

I liked these books, but don't start the first one unless you are prepared to listen to the second. I would listen to these books again sometime which is my primary standard for any written or audbile book. I go back to the stories I like to walk around in the world the author created. Willis created characters that I liked, that I cared about and that, overall, acted believably.

All that said, I think that these books could have benefited from better editing. Willis, at times, becomes very tedious describing the characters' angst over changing time or each others' welfare. In the second, all clear, there are stream of consciousness sections of characters who have suffered traumatic injuries and who can't keeep events and times separated. Although generally well done, these started to get so tedious that I wanted to slap some sense into the character. However, since I wanted to slap the character instead of the author, I guess Willis did a good job suspending disbelief.

The narration is superb.

couldn't do it

I know that by writing this I am a shame to English majors everywhere, but I couldn't stand this novel. I listened to seven hours before I finally flung my headphones across the room and screamed, "What in the world is going on? What is this book even about?"

So, if you are already a Connie Willis fan, jump in. You'll find more of the same. If you were on the fence with other Willis novels, this one is not going to please you. Her prose is fantastic, but, like always, her plots are mysterious and/or nonexistent.

Tested my patience

The premise of this novel is fantastic, and the overall plotting is extremely well-constructed. But I found the writing itself disappointingly turgid and almost gave up several times.

There are some novels that work in print but don't work as audiobooks. I think I would have loved "Blackout" in print, because in print you can skim-read, and this is an extremely skimmable book. I say that because Connie Willis's style is functional rather than stylish, and is unbearably long-winded: she spins out some mildly amusing comic sequences ad nauseum until the joke is worn thin, and the novel contains endless scenes in which characters think through their predicaments and then work logically through every possible solution in minute detail. This would be fine in print, but when you have to listen to Every. Single. Word. it becomes achingly slow and repetitive.

Another thing that bugged me was the empty characterization. The world of 2060s Oxford has no characteristics at all; all we're told is that Oxford University has invented time travel; apparently nothing else in this future world is worth mentioning. Similarly, our time-travelling students have no backstories: they're just generic Oxbridge types who are functions for kickstarting the plot. And in the 1940s section, the Londoners all behave like stereotypical figures from old movies about the pluckiness of Brits. I felt as though the author had gotten her knowledge of Britain largely from Brideshead Revisited and Ealing comedies.

The reader does an superb job of covering lots of different accents, and her treatment of the Cockney evacuees is particularly delightful. She speaks at a good pace that helps overcome the novel's plodding style at times. However, her use of a cut-glass upper class accent for the main narration is a mistake; it makes for a strident and headache-inducing listen. And occasional mis-pronunciations cause irritation ("she walked down the parsage and put on her gars marsk" - erm, no, not even in 1940s England....)

In summary, the clever plotting and the inherently entertaining premise of "Blackout" kept me fighting through to the bitter end, as I did genuinely want to know what happened next. It was a struggle through, and I'll be buying the next instalment to read in print at the airport, where it belongs.

Intriguing history of WWII

Would you consider the audio edition of Blackout to be better than the print version?

Did not read the print version

What did you like best about this story?

The book transported me to the day to day life of British citizens during the Blitz in WWII and how resilient they were.

Have you listened to any of Katherine Kellgren and Connie Willis ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Katherine Kellgren is a fantastic narrator and an excellent choice for this story, especially the voices of Alf and Binnie, the incorrigible evacuee children.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Trapped in the Blitz!

Any additional comments?

Many reviewers said this story dragged, but I never found that to be an issue. For me it was interesting throughout and gave an unusual perspective on WWII London, through the eyes of a visitor from the future.

Another wonderful time travel book by Connie Willi

Would you listen to Blackout again? Why?

Yes--I've already read it twice, and listened once--I love this series.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blackout?

Well, severally, but together: when the historians realize something is wrong and they can't get home.

Have you listened to any of Katherine Kellgren and Connie Willis ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I listened to Katherine Kellgren on "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and I found this just as enchanting as that one.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes...but it's about a thousand hours long, so I had to only listen during my commute. :D

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this series by Connie Willis for EVERYBODY to read: starting with Doomsday Book (based in the future and in medieval times), and then read "To Say Nothing of the Dog (based in the future, during WWII, and WWI/the roaring twenties)," "Blackout," and "All Clear" (both based during WWII).

Not only does Ms. Willis do her research thoroughly--mixing true historical fact in with the fiction of her novels--she does it in a way that makes you want to run right out and start learning about those particular time periods because they are so fascinating.

Now, if only "Passages" could be made into an Audible book. :)

Dreadfully repetitive, frustrating story

Three of the most incompetent time travelers speculate about why their poorly planned mission has gone down the drain... for hours and hours and hours on end.

I refuse to spend 5 more seconds on this time-wasting piece of drivel.

A novel of English manners - with time travel.

This one barely squeaks into the sci-fi category through it's use of time-traveling historians. Sounds weird I know, but the historian conceit is really just a mechanism to allow the author to write about England circa world war II.

I wouldn't chalk this one up as a total waste of time, but it's probably not what a lot of sci-fi readers are looking for, especially if they were steered to the novel via it's reputation as a Hugo award winner.

In general, I felt that "Blackout" was more a novel of English manners a la "Jane Eyre", than a science fiction story. It's relatively slow-moving - nothing really happens for the first third of the novel - and spends the bulk of its time focused on character relationships and some pretty mundane situations (e.g., job hunting, traveling with problematic children on a train, the struggles of wrapping parcels).

It's not horrible by any means and is fairly well written - it just wasn't what I expected and didn't really fit my taste.

The audiobook itself was very well narrated and sound is of excellent quality. In fact, I think that the quality of narration is the only thing that kept me going through this book. Had I been reading this one instead of listening, I'm pretty sure I would've stopped well before the halfway point.

A word of warning - be warned that a purchase of "Blackout" pretty much necessitates the purchase of "All Clear" as well. It's really one novel split into two halves.

As close as you can come to real time travel

What about Katherine Kellgren and Connie Willis ’s performance did you like?

The performance is masterful. All the various voices and accents come across superbly.

Any additional comments?

Connie Willis's time travel novels are always impeccably researched (in fact, it's probably one of the reasons she doesn't publish more often), so getting immersed in this story, and the characters she creates, is about as close as we can come as a modern audience to experiencing what London was like during the Blitz. It's not just in the period details, though . . . it's in the way she breathes life into her minor characters, how they go about their business despite a nightly rain of bombs falling out of the sky, and how their plights just MATTER because they might as well have been real people . . . that's the amazing strength, and the charm of "Blackout": just your average everyday ordinary heroics.

But don't be fooled. "Blackout" isn't merely a history lesson. It's also a cracking good story, and I can't wait to listen to the concluding volume "All Clear."