book thoughts: All Clear, by C. Willis; also a short TV this week summary
So I finally finished reading All Clear, by Connie Willis. I'm always torn when I read a Willis epic. I love the characters she creates, but there's SO MUCH STUFF to go through before finding out the answer to the puzzle. It's a hard balance, having a plot that has to move forward but still having the character moments that count and for me as a reader, Willis doesn't quite reach that balance some of the time. That and the sense of urgency her characters (far too often) have makes me feel a bit jittery after a while.
That being said, I liked both Blackout and All Clear and I'm glad I read them. As often happens with a Willis time-travel novel, I learned a lot about the time period (England, World War II, particularly the Blitz).
Colin hardly showed up in the first book, and I'm not sure if I consider that a weakness or not. Considering the ending of the second book, I wish there had been a bit more with him at some point, although I suppose going around reading through historical documents and interviewing old women in the seventies doesn't have the punch to it that putting on a play in a bomb shelter in London during the Blitz has.
Good thing I was never very attached to dead-not dead-dead Michael Davies. I would say that Willis writes better female characters than male characters but 1) I tend to like the female characters a bit more anyway--that's just me, and 2) I liked Ned quite well in To Say Nothing of the Dog and I liked Richard in Passage. Hm.
On the more emotional end of things: Oh, Eileen!!! Oh Binnie and Alf! I should have known that was coming. Huh, I wonder if she ever told her husband, "Hey, I'm from the future and I decided to stay here and raise these awful children."? I was gonna say that it would be hard for Alf and Binnie to keep the secret, but then I remembered what little hooligans they were. Maybe not that difficult after all.
And then Binnie and Alf went to every war memorial event after Eileen's death? Awww. Just to make sure Polly and Mr. Dunworthy got their way home.
I'm glad I read the two books back to back; it would have been both confusing and frustrating to wait, since All Clear picks up immediately where Blackout ended.
The Oxford time-travel novels tend to leave me wanting more in that universe*, even though I find it bewildering at times.
*Not the Oxford part; the time-travel stuff. Oxford in 2060 has always been less well-defined than the pasts the historians have visited. Probably 'cause Willis can't research that, heh.
Moving on. Wow, I really need to finish season two of Fringe and watch season three, because I keep seeing all these cut-tagged reactions on LJ and I want to read them.
Revenge this week: not quite as good as episodes 1-3, but still quite watchable. (Also, I want Emily's earrings.) Same with Prime Suspect. Have I watched Person of Interest this week? Oh yeah, I did, and I was grading papers, so it didn't exactly get my undivided attention. (Same with Prime Suspect. Procedurals: the only way I can both keep up with grading papers and actually 'watch' TV.) Anyway, Jim Caviezel continues to sound like Batman, and that used to bother me. Now I just want him to use that growly voice and talk on the radio to Detective Carter. A lot. Like, rumbly, "I will hunt you down"--"Just you try" conversations. That could be a whole episode. And then I would read all the fanfic about those two ever.
Um. Apparently this week's episode worked on a hormonal level even if I don't remember the actual plot... Oops?
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/212932.html. Comment where you wish.
That being said, I liked both Blackout and All Clear and I'm glad I read them. As often happens with a Willis time-travel novel, I learned a lot about the time period (England, World War II, particularly the Blitz).
Colin hardly showed up in the first book, and I'm not sure if I consider that a weakness or not. Considering the ending of the second book, I wish there had been a bit more with him at some point, although I suppose going around reading through historical documents and interviewing old women in the seventies doesn't have the punch to it that putting on a play in a bomb shelter in London during the Blitz has.
Good thing I was never very attached to dead-not dead-dead Michael Davies. I would say that Willis writes better female characters than male characters but 1) I tend to like the female characters a bit more anyway--that's just me, and 2) I liked Ned quite well in To Say Nothing of the Dog and I liked Richard in Passage. Hm.
On the more emotional end of things: Oh, Eileen!!! Oh Binnie and Alf! I should have known that was coming. Huh, I wonder if she ever told her husband, "Hey, I'm from the future and I decided to stay here and raise these awful children."? I was gonna say that it would be hard for Alf and Binnie to keep the secret, but then I remembered what little hooligans they were. Maybe not that difficult after all.
And then Binnie and Alf went to every war memorial event after Eileen's death? Awww. Just to make sure Polly and Mr. Dunworthy got their way home.
I'm glad I read the two books back to back; it would have been both confusing and frustrating to wait, since All Clear picks up immediately where Blackout ended.
The Oxford time-travel novels tend to leave me wanting more in that universe*, even though I find it bewildering at times.
*Not the Oxford part; the time-travel stuff. Oxford in 2060 has always been less well-defined than the pasts the historians have visited. Probably 'cause Willis can't research that, heh.
Moving on. Wow, I really need to finish season two of Fringe and watch season three, because I keep seeing all these cut-tagged reactions on LJ and I want to read them.
Revenge this week: not quite as good as episodes 1-3, but still quite watchable. (Also, I want Emily's earrings.) Same with Prime Suspect. Have I watched Person of Interest this week? Oh yeah, I did, and I was grading papers, so it didn't exactly get my undivided attention. (Same with Prime Suspect. Procedurals: the only way I can both keep up with grading papers and actually 'watch' TV.) Anyway, Jim Caviezel continues to sound like Batman, and that used to bother me. Now I just want him to use that growly voice and talk on the radio to Detective Carter. A lot. Like, rumbly, "I will hunt you down"--"Just you try" conversations. That could be a whole episode. And then I would read all the fanfic about those two ever.
Um. Apparently this week's episode worked on a hormonal level even if I don't remember the actual plot... Oops?
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/212932.html. Comment where you wish.