Willis, Connie: Blackout

[calico_reaction]

Comments

[tenaya_owlcat]

On the subject of self-policing time travel (sort of), have you ever read Dean Kootz's Lightning? It's my favorite time travel book. It's similar in that, while time doesn't actively police itself, time has a pattern and disrupting it makes it struggle to put things back the way it was originally going.

I liked Blackout a little better than you, methinks, but you do make good points on some of the more confusing aspects of the story. Still, when I got to the end of the book, I really wanted to know if what supposedly just happened, really DID happen. I'm a sucker like that. ;)

[calico_reaction]

It would've been interesting to see what my reaction would've been if I hadn't had ALL CLEAR at my fingertips. I suspect the reaction would've been much worse, actually... :)

[tenaya_owlcat]

Admittedly, waiting 6 months for All Clear hasn't been easy. ;)

[crowinator]

I agree. I read Blackout in May, and now I'm worried that I won't be able to remember what was going on with all the characters when I start All Clear. Which means I will have to find time to read Blackout again and...well, I don't have time right now. I hope I can ease back into the story with minimal issues.

[beth_shulman]

in my mind, it relies on the universe or God or something just knowing something is up and then policing itself

That's how I saw it - as almost a religious work of sorts, especially with that ending that suggested that they were just part of a bigger plan.

So Blackout is set in the same world? Even with all your misgivings, I'll have to read it. I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog. (Most romantic sentence? I must have missed that. What is it?)

[calico_reaction]

Blackout is a time-traveling historian adventure. Save for Mr. Dunworthy, there aren't any recurring characters, though there is mention of previous missions by other people.

The most romantic sentence ever? And kissed her for a hundred and sixty-nine years (p. 449). Of course, that's in To Say Nothing of the Dog, not Blackout.

[beth_shulman]

I'll have to read it just to see what it's like. And ohhhh of course!

[doriscrockford2]

Wow, great review. I agree on all points. One of the things that's beginning to grate on me about CW's books is how much running around to no effect her characters do. They are always rushing off to do something important but getting thwarted, and while I could see the symbolism of that in Passage (but I still thought it happened too much there, too) I am beginning to lose patience. I love CW's sense of humour and her obvious love for the subject of WW2, but while reading Blackout I just wanted to shake her (or her non-existent editor) and say: "Get on with it already!"

[calico_reaction]

Let's talk more about this topic when All Clear's review goes up, because on some level, the running around and being thwarted is part of the story. On the other hand, it does get REALLY frustrating after a while, because the characters aren't getting anywhere.

[infinitlight]

I agree with the comment above about characters running around becoming frustrating. This is one thing about Connie Willis's writing that is bothering me--it's starting to feel like filler. I really noticed it in Passage (which I admit is my least favorite of her novels). I feel like the characters constantly repeat themselves, and constantly worry about things without ever really acting to change their situation. Which is a pretty human reaction, admittedly, but not always very interesting to read.

I think she's deliberately kept the details of her time travel very vague--I originally thought this was to keep the focus on the characters and the history rather than the science--I wonder now if she has had something else in mind all along ;) (I haven't finished All Clear yet).

I found some of the chapter endings irritating, too. IDK, maybe I'm getting grumpy in my old age. :)

[calico_reaction]

See, Passage was the second book of hers I read, and I loved it. Not as much as Doomsday Book, but I still loved it.

And it's not old age! :)

[infinitlight]

I found the premise of Passage very difficult and confronting, so I suspect I was doomed to not like it from the start. That said, I think a "bad" book by Connie Willis is still better than the best books of most every other author.

My absolute favorite of hers in Lincoln's Dreams, which, oddly, is probably more akin to Passage than any of her other novels. I adore Doomsday Book as well. I named my horse (in icon) Kivrin.

[marycatelli]

It certainly reads as a book chopped in two.

[calico_reaction]

There's no question that it is. In her acknowledgments, she talks about it. :)

However, I do wish once the decision had been made that Willis tried to give the first half a little more oompf or resolution, you know?

[calico_reaction]

Well, I think the book just ended because originally it was going to be all one book, but then they decided that it would be too long and just stopped the book half-way through.

That's exactly what happened. Willis talks about it in the acknowledgments. However, that doesn't give her a free pass for where she stopped. Make it a bigger cliffhanger, or give it some kind of resolution.