Blackout

[emmaco]

Lots of us had been waiting for Connie Willis’ new book for years. And not in a “I wonder if she will write a new book?” type of way - we knew there was a book about time travel to the Blitz being written for YEARS. So when I found out that it had been split into two books, and that the second half wasn’t coming out until October, I had a cruel

Comments

[emerald_happy]

wait, what!

It's going on my list. I'm looking forward to the next Miles though and so worried I'll be disappointed. FORWARD MOMENTUM!

[emmaco]

I was a little disappointed by Diplomatic immunity after A civil campaign, but it would have been hard for any book to live up to the perfect combination of genres in aCC. I'm more prepared this time for any type of new Miles :)

[emerald_happy]

yeah, DI was a bit anticlimatic. Luckily for me I read them all out of order and then together. The whole is still greater than the sum of the parts so I could gloss over my slight disappointment.

[philia_fan]

I thought that was sort of the point in Doomsday Book, that young researchers with fuzzy agendas were getting pushed in over their heads. Which I actually think is kind of realistic. It's funny how people always look at book-worlds and say they're illogical, or at archaeological sites and expect THEM to be logical ("Why would they build the village here when the water source is way down there?"). Whereas our daily experience in the here and now tells us that things are rarely planned in a logical manner, governments and universities and so forth are always doing stuff that we look at and say, "Huh?"

[emmaco]

I agree, the real world is messy and slow and disorganised, but any research I've been involved with has at least involved writing some sort of research plan, identifying objectives, passing ethics committee, finding funding etc. The idea of sending off very young students with vague research agendas (sometimes seeming like they just want to hang out and see what it was like) willy nilly when that means they can't ever go again just seems a bit strange. Of course, it makes for much more entertaining reading so I shouldn't complain really :)

[generalblossom]

Can you believe I hunted on the internet for the pic of st Paul´s amid the smoke? :p ehe, with hardcovers, I usually remove the dustcover while I am reading it ( I don´t read blurbs either) so only later did I get to enjoy Blackout. And it is difficult to judge it on its own.

I don´t quite believe the 2060, but let´ s see where she goes - I think even in 2010 one is more likely to misunderstand some stupid abbreviation or syntax in a sms message than bad caligraphy in an handwritten note!

But still glad she got over the writing-publishing block!

[generalblossom]

sorry to barge in with a comment, but can not resist.

I think Willis gets the point so very well in Bellwether and All Seated on the Ground, that social sciences are sciences, and the way of thinking, of planning, of grinding boring work and keep trying. In comparison the missions of the historians in the past seem awfully unbelievable as a mission, as study, as science...

[emmaco]

Yeah, I agree that Bellwether seemed a bit more like a scientific process. But maybe she's tapping into our fantasies of going back in time as an observer rather than as a worker :)

[generalblossom]

I will be mean and say, a tourist surely ;)