Blackout/All Clear Review

Blackout/All Clear is a Hugo award winning novel in two parts written by Connie Willis and published by Bantam Spetra. The story focuses on Willis’ time travelling Oxford historians who were featured in her previous works: Fire Watch (link to the short story), Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing ofthe Dog. In Blackout/All Clear, historians are travelling back to England in World War II to observe life during that chaotic, dangerous and heroic time and become unable to return to their original time. The novel tracks their efforts to blend into 1940s society, find a way home and keep themselves alive.

The novel is structured in a way that the reader is taken back and forth in time to the various parts of the narrative. This includes going from 1941 London blitz to 1943, 1945 and V-E day as well as to the “present” of 2060. As many of the characters have assumed identities to blend into the 1940s, the reader is left to figure out who some of the characters are and often, due to time travel, characters are in the same place but at different time points in their own narratives and thus don’t recognize or miss each other. I found this part of the novel to be great and provided a bit of mystery to unravel as you followed the struggle of the characters to get home before they are killed. Having read Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, I liked having some of the same characters back again. Two of my favorites are Professor Dunworthy, the chair of the History department in future Oxford and Colin Templer, who while too young for Oxford has a way of getting into the past to save the day. Both characters had important roles in Doomsday Book.

I did wait to buy All Clear, so it was about a year between reading Blackout and the second half of the novel. I think this lowered some of my enjoyment of the book as it took me a little while to get back into the time period and remember who the characters were. I would recommend reading both parts of the novel back-to-back as the author obviously intended.

The story in Blackout/All Clear is rich in details about World War II London and if that period is at all of interest to you, you should go read this story. If you like time travel and all the mind-bending possibilities that come with it, then you should read this book. I think this one is on the border between 4 and 5 Mick Happies and if I had read it back-to-back it would probably get a 5. In the end, Blackout/All Clear is a great time travel story and I give it 4 Mick Happies. Now where is my time travel machine?