FINISHED
Well. one thing I will say: NEEDS MORE MAKING OUT. Seriously! I get why there wasn't, it wouldn't have fit in, but seriously! Colin spent 7 YEARS looking for her! Connie Willis' books always end kind of abruptly, or at least, abruptly in my mind - I want to see them after! but we are left with the characters at the end of their emotional journey and the rest is just transport(to butcher a phrase from sherlock). It really is like a Agatha Christie novel(or what I imagine one to be like - I think I have read murder on the orient express, but I am not a christie fan) with everything connected and like one of the characters tells you, when you think you have it figured out, it turns out to be something else entirely.
The multiple names for the characters in the different time periods was hard, and a lot of the jokes/clues need understanding of the period(like the motorcycle nickname thing - CONFUSING, but paid off, and I had to google that murder on the orient express had the alternate title of murder in the calais carriage, which was used as a reference b a character to mislead about the location of the d-day landings VERY CONFUSING) but it was all woven together so well! But the characters....Polly lies for no reason(or for good reasons for her which seem stupid) and there are multiple occasions with miscommunications and people not mentioning things etc. I liked Eileen best, but Eileen from Polly's perspective was presented as someone naive, needing of sheltering from harsh truths and that didn't seem to be the character that I knew from her own POV. Mike just never clicked for me. Mr Dunworthy is relegated to being despair manifested of their situation, and after arriving on the 1941 scene pretty much sits out the rest of the novel/s. Colin is awesome, I will have nothing said against him. Also awesome are Alf and Binnie, the worst children in history.
I was tricked by the red herring of Stephen - I was sure that he was going to be an ancestor of Colin's(I blame 'playing beattie bow') - I didn't see the Eileen twist - does this make Colin's Great Aunt Mary from Doomsday book the Mary mentioned by Binnie? I don't think the timing would work out(Mary would have had to have been born in 1970? at the earliest?) - but I think it is clear that Binnie works it out, he must resemble someone in the family?
in conclusion, I liked it, but I didn't love it? I think it is amazing and the research and detail is fantastic, but I just didn't connect properly with the story.
I feel very sorry for anyone who read Blackout when it was first published instead reading the 2 books back to back. It really is 1 book in 2 volumes. I also need to read Doomsday book now, it was pretty much time for my semi-annual re-read anyway.
The multiple names for the characters in the different time periods was hard, and a lot of the jokes/clues need understanding of the period(like the motorcycle nickname thing - CONFUSING, but paid off, and I had to google that murder on the orient express had the alternate title of murder in the calais carriage, which was used as a reference b a character to mislead about the location of the d-day landings VERY CONFUSING) but it was all woven together so well! But the characters....Polly lies for no reason(or for good reasons for her which seem stupid) and there are multiple occasions with miscommunications and people not mentioning things etc. I liked Eileen best, but Eileen from Polly's perspective was presented as someone naive, needing of sheltering from harsh truths and that didn't seem to be the character that I knew from her own POV. Mike just never clicked for me. Mr Dunworthy is relegated to being despair manifested of their situation, and after arriving on the 1941 scene pretty much sits out the rest of the novel/s. Colin is awesome, I will have nothing said against him. Also awesome are Alf and Binnie, the worst children in history.
I was tricked by the red herring of Stephen - I was sure that he was going to be an ancestor of Colin's(I blame 'playing beattie bow') - I didn't see the Eileen twist - does this make Colin's Great Aunt Mary from Doomsday book the Mary mentioned by Binnie? I don't think the timing would work out(Mary would have had to have been born in 1970? at the earliest?) - but I think it is clear that Binnie works it out, he must resemble someone in the family?
in conclusion, I liked it, but I didn't love it? I think it is amazing and the research and detail is fantastic, but I just didn't connect properly with the story.
I feel very sorry for anyone who read Blackout when it was first published instead reading the 2 books back to back. It really is 1 book in 2 volumes. I also need to read Doomsday book now, it was pretty much time for my semi-annual re-read anyway.