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Dec 08, 2010

Kemper rated it:

Warning: This review will be lengthy due to pure hatred.

Did I ever tell you that I’ve got a time machine? There was a freak accident where my laptop and my lawn mower got fused together following a lightning strike, and now I can use it to travel in time. It’s a long story. Anyhow, when I have a chance, I take the occasional trip through history. Recently, I popped into London in 1940 during the Blitz to take a look around. It’s a fascinating time with England hanging on by its More...

138 comments like (113 people liked it)

Apr 26, 2011

Elizabeth added it

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9 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 13, 2011

Ron rated it:

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19 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2010

Jamie rated it:

October update: Bump from 4 to 5 stars, when read along with the next book, All Clear.

Typically good writing from Connie Willis, and a riveting story - or half of a riveting story, at least. This is the first half of a long novel, and seems chopped off rather than deliberately crafted to be the first volume of a duology. I look forward to the next book, and I almost wish I had waited to read this one until it was available.

The rushed and disorganized Oxford historians of the More...

12 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Ben rated it:

Time travel is a sexy science-fiction trope. It's right up there with faster-than-light travel (the two are, in fact, inextricably related, and chances are you if you invent one then you'll have invented both) as something that, as far as our current understanding of the universe works, is impossible. There are some fascinating loopholes involving wormholes and general relativity, but in order to get it working you need metric shit-joules of energy and something called exotic matter, and it woul More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2010

Jon rated it:

Fifty years in our future, time-traveling Oxford historians studying key moments early in the Second World War become stranded in time in various locales around England. Like the contemporaries they are assigned to observe, the historians increasingly feel the weight of impending doom.

Doubt seeps into their belief that the continuum, the embodiment of a chaotic system, prevents damage or alteration to the time line; a self-correcting system. The butterfly effect, more aptly refere More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2010

Sherwood added it

I waited a full year to read this, after having heard that it ends on an abrupt cliff hanger. I finished it last night, and tonight will begin the next.

The surface plot is a difficult one, or challenging: basically, a number of people running around trying to find one another, or to get to their drop. Three of them are caught in England in 1940, as the Blitz and the V rocket bombings began. The driving mechanism is appearing slowly, only acknowledged at the very end of this one (this i More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Lisa rated it:

A warning: This book has no proper ending. It was meant to be the first half of a book but the publisher divided it into two books and Blackout is the first half. All Clear is the second book/second half of the book. Definitely have All Clear on hand to read immediately after this book. I finished this book and started the next the same day and that’s the way to do it. I deliberately read this slowly so there wouldn’t be a gap before I could read the next book.

I was completely enthra More...

14 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2010

meeners rated it:

YESSSSSSSSSS AT LAST IT IS MINE MY PRECIOUS

edit: ok i have literally just opened this book and ALREADY i am in love. FOUR QUARTETS EPIGRAPH! oh connie willis i love you.

edit again: ok i have finished the book, and i loved it, but i don't know if i should be making any kind of review since really it's just half of a book. i will say that i started out rather annoyed at all the different story arcs, but by the end i found myself invested in (nearly) all of them.
More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Rae rated it:

OMG TIME TRAVELING HISTORIANS!!!! *flails hands around in excitement*

So, above you can see my first impression of this book, and it didn't disappoint. Yes, I am obsessed with time travel, and yes, I love learning about World War II. Blackout was positively fantastic.

A while ago, one of my friends told me that I was going to have to go through sci-fi detox due to the massive amounts of it that I was absorbing. When I asked what that would consist of, she simply replied " More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2010

Wyndie rated it:

The hype of Connie Willis Blackout fell short. The story sets place in Oxford 2060 and World War II England. This was my first Willis novel and perhaps some of my complaints are due to my lack of knowledge in her description of time travel. I am not clear as to why ~~Dumbledore~~ Mr Dunworthy is frantically sending his 20something historians out to observe WWII England in such a chaotic and disorganized fashion. Their assignments durations and details tend to change abruptly and for no clear cut More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2011

Juno rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2010

Wendy rated it:

Aaargh! Connie Willis has never written books with sequels. So imagine my surprise and dismay when I'm getting towards the end of this one and nothing is getting wrapped up! And then there is the little note that the sequel will be out in the fall! I bought this book as a hardback! I spent money on it and now I will be forced to spend money on the hardback sequel. Because I can't have a series with un-matched editions. Anyway, I don't know why I like this author. I have almost all of her More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Taueret rated it:

I'm already planning to put this on the "hours I will never get back" shelf. Crazy thing is that I will finish it and probably listen to the second book, because it only costs one Audible credit and it's better than a punch in the throat for the 2 hours each day I commute. Were this not set in a historical time and place of which I cannot get enough, I'd have canned it long ago. The main characters are whining douches from the future. The "contemps" as they call the Lond More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2011

Kerry rated it:

I loved the book all over again. I read it so fast I'm astounded. At 14% progress, I moved from my iPhone to my new Kindle and just powered through the rest. It is SO easy to read on.

I now also have some notes on important (or potentially important) points to keep in mind for All Clear. There are lots of mysteries to be solved in the second book, so I'm very glad I have it to go on with. Never again will I be reading half a book before getting the second half. (This is why Robin McKi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2012

Carol rated it:

Her characters were, as always, fantastic. Richly described with interesting challenges. However, there were far too many of them, and since the focus shifted each chapter, I felt like as soon as I was putting together the pieces of the story, I had to start over again. Then when they came back, I had to go back and remember what they were dealing with when I last saw them. It made for a disjointed read. Although normally I love Connie WIllis and own a few of her books, I just never got in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

By the year 2060, time travel has been developed and historians at Oxford regularly travel back in time to study. Several historians find themselves trapped in London during WWII. The fascinating part of this book isn't the historians, it's the contemporaries they encounter. This book is like getting a series of lovely little vignettes that illuminate the courage, strength, and odd quirks of the civilian British during WWII. It's a lot of characters, locations, and dates to keep track of, but we More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Jeremy rated it:

I'm hesitant to speak critically about this two-volume tale (Blackout / All Clear) with so many wonderful things to be discovered within the 2011 Hugo and Nebulae award-winner. But one shortcoming still resonates more than a week after finishing the some 1200 pages of the combined volumes.

Connie Willis indeed pens an incredible descriptive of everyday London life during the Blitz. There are fantastic details about how residents entertained one another in bomb shelters, managed fashion More...

0 comments like

Jan 31, 2012

Alyce (At Home With Books) rated it:

I love Connie Willis’ books, and lately have discovered that their length (many are quite long) appeals to me greatly. A truly good epic novel has to be either fast paced or have fascinating characters to make my list of favorites, and Blackout passes both of those tests.

I have noticed what I thought was a pattern in her writing style, but have come to see how the style of writing has a particular logic in each book, and is actually a larger metaphor for the overarching theme of the More...

0 comments like

Jan 13, 2012

Jenny rated it:

Well yes, like everyone else I was not happy to discover that this was part I of a story that was by no means even partially complete at the end of this volume. Though fortunately, by the time I read it the second volume was available at my library and I only had to drive through a blizzard to get it (which I did, because she really got me sucked into her story.)

And I agree that it could have used some editing. Actually, a lot of editing. Because both this and the next volume could h More...

0 comments like

Dec 21, 2011

Dlora rated it:

I loved this time travel story with historians from 2060 Oxford traveling back in time to study various aspects of World War II. I think I know a lot about the time period, but mostly I have read books about Germany and Hitler and the concentration camps and the Japanese war in the Pacific. Blackout deals with the effects of the war at home in England--and it was as much a war there as on the battlefront. Mike Davies wants to study the heroism of unexpected, every day people during the evacuatio More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2011

Michele rated it:

Connie Willis is one of my favorite Authors and I was happy to see her come out with another book. This was a fascinating look back at London England during the Blitz. The historians go back in time to England to observe heros - which to break off for a moment - sort of seemed like a dopey explanation to what they were doing in England, however this is a fiction book so I just went with it. Many reviews criticize that plot point - but whatever.

While they are there they realize thei More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2011

Mike rated it:

This is the first of her two-part series called "All-Clear". It is the story of time travelers who are historians, people whose vested interest in time travel is to clarify the past. The two books were originally written as one, but we can assume that Willis' publisher thought no one would attempt to read a 1400 page novel. There are a few of us (note the popularity of Stephenson) but they appear to be correct on this one. I had to take a breather between volumes. Therefore, I will tre More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

This is actually a pretty hard book to review because it is really only half of a story. I can only imagine how frustrating this book would be if someone didn't know that going into it and then got to page 491 to see the words "For the riveting conclusion to Blackout, don't miss All Clear..."

Fortunately I knew what I was in for right out of the gate. Connie Willis continues to fine tune her stories of time travel and WWII the way Monet painted and repainted haystacks. More...

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Nov 22, 2011

Shiftless rated it:

Three stars for the story but the setting and historical information boost it up one more star. I learned a lot about World War II which I did not know before requiring a lot of Wikipedia lookups and so forth. The characters are stuck in the past after time travel and almost every few paragraphs they worry practically endlessly about changing the timeline. The worrying goes on for far too long, for each character, as they should just basically suck it up as what the hell else could they do since More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Annie rated it:

I enjoyed Blackout, and immediately ordered the sequel from the library. What bothered me reading it was how low the stakes were for the characters—everyone around them is in danger, but they, for the most part, know they'll be fine. It alo bothered me how much of the suspense toward the end depended on a character having a coy hint-dropping inner monologue (when thinking to myself, I usually finish sentences, rather than having thoughts like "Could it be? No... But wait! The possibility is More...

0 comments like

Oct 17, 2011

Tim rated it:

Some books are read for pleasure. Other books are read to gain knowledge, to learn something factual or expand one's mind. Still, there are books that fit into neither categories. They are read, because a person is bored and it's the only free book available in a hostel. They are read, because it's a beautiful day outside and there are few books which look appealing on the new book display. Blackout by Connie Willis is one of those books.

I grabbed the book off the shelf, sat outside More...

0 comments like

Oct 08, 2011

Fence rated it:

Set in the same ‘verse as Doomsday Book and To say nothing of the dog this is a book about historians. But not the sort of historian you or I might be familiar with, but one who actually travels through time and investigates the past in person. Mr Dunworthy’s time travel department in Oxford is having a spot of bother. Schedules are being changed and moved about all other place. This does not please the historians, especially those like Michael who have just been implanted with American accents More...

0 comments like

Oct 07, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

Connie Willis’s Blackout is an excellent book (I almost gave it 5/5, but couldn’t quite put it on the same level as Middlemarch or Two Years Before the Mast). I could barely put it down. The book is the first volume of a duology, the second being All Clear. The overall idea, which she’s used in other novels and a short story, is that by 2060, time travel has been discovered, and historians at the University of Oxford are frequently going back to observe earlier events. We don’t get a lot of e More...

0 comments like

Sep 19, 2011

Felicia rated it:

UGH i dunno guys. I know it won the Hugo but I'm ok to have a differing opinion, right? I will definitely give credit, the book is IMPECCABLY researched. So much time and detail into WWII England, just...bravo for the research ALONE it deserved an award.

But I mean, bar none, this book does NOT feel like a stand-alone. From my investigations the publisher split the plot in two, and it's so clunky with the ending it shows. The book could TOTALLY have stood an edit pass that took o More...

14 comments like (8 people liked it)