Connie Willis' New Books, Blackout and All Clear

[fclbrokle]

Last night, I finished All Clear, the follow-up to Blackout, which together comprise one very long new book from Connie Willis that had to be split in two. The premise of these books --- and several others that she has written --- is that time travel has been invented sometime in the mid-2000s and historians from Oxford use it to travel back in

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i've kept this post in mind for a few weeks

[schnerf]

Just finished All Clear last night so now I'm ready to comment ;).

I think you're exasperated with the worrying characters because you're not a worrier. The main characters were mostly fleshed out by their worries. One of the things that impressed me was how distinct their individual personalities and choices were despite their common problems.

I was more frustrated with the endless string of, well, frustrations. I think just because the books were so long I ran out of patience for the tragic near misses. There was one particular nearly missed near miss near the end where it almost seemed like a 4th-wall break: she'd set us up so well for another ARG SPIT IT OUT AND PLOT DUMP ALREADY NOOOOO NOT AGAIN that when they actually did get to continue the conversation, it was like she was poking fun at herself.

I reread Blackout before All Clear came out and started taking note of every instance where Willis slipped in reassuring foreshadowing that there'd be a happy ending. There are a lot! Apropos for time travel of course. And I did cling to them, reminding myself as the narrative palpably hit rock bottom and shifted to start pulling the characters out of the pit that she would never give all those hints and let things get so bad without fixing it at the end.

Also: trying to decide whether the book was really religious or not.

Re: i've kept this post in mind for a few weeks

[fclbrokle]

Hmmm, interesting. Perhaps I'm exasperated because I'm not a worrier. It just felt like, while their situation was dire and I understand their position, they threw out all their training in their worrying. Ah well.

As to the hopeful notes in Blackout: honestly, I don't remember them! I'd be very curious what you noted.

As to religious: have you read Passage? I think that Willis is somewhat spiritual or something of that ilk. She doesn't believe in God, I think, but does write frequently about a universe with some kind of great meaning/sentience/something. It's an interesting perspective and a fun one for me to read about.