All Clear

By: Connie Willis

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Connie Willis (introduction)

Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060, the setting for several of her most celebrated works, and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler's bombers attempt to pummel London into submission.

Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory, but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong.

Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians' supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and 17-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own - to find three missing needles in the haystack of history.

Told with compassion, humor, and an artistry both uplifting and devastating, All Clear is more than just the triumphant culmination of the adventure that began with Blackout. It's Connie Willis' most humane, heartfelt novel yet - a clear-eyed celebration of faith, love, and the quiet, ordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice too often overlooked by history.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an introduction written and read by author Connie Willis.

Also listen to the first book, Blackout.

©2010 Connie Willis (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2010
• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2011
• Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2010: Readers' Choice (SF Site)

"By the time the three historians and Mr. Dunworthy have unraveled the mystery and arrived at the full-on, three-hanky finale, you’ll no longer be a disinterested observer. Drawn in Willis’s skillful storytelling, you’ll be back in 1941, wondering what’s about to happen next." ( The Village Voice)

"Katherine Kellgren's delightful English accent is perfect for the many characters she portrays." ( AudioFile)

“As vivid an evocation of England during World War II as anyone has ever written.... You’ll find here a novelist who can plot like Agatha Christie and whose books possess a bounce and stylishness that Preston Sturges might envy.” ( The Washington Post)

Every detail counts!

This is seemingly a slow read, until you realize that all the details count, and then have to go back to review what exactly it was that happened to pick out clues and give insight to the story. I would listen to this again because it was very well done. The research on the time period, the little bit of SyFy, all mixed to tell a great story. This would make an excellent TV series if anyone picks it up. Highly recommend!

A wonderful conclusion to this two part book.

Connie Willis' vibrant and heroic characters are brought to life by Katherine Kellgren's naration. a very entertaining and enlightening historical novel.

I loved getting emotionally attached to the chars.

yes, blackout and all clear were very long. but a tremendous sorry keeps the pages turning and it's very hard to put it down. TIME travel is fascinating, history is splendid. I really felt like I knew what it was like in that era. the best part is the character's are so likable and the narrator's performance with multiple voices is so easy to follow, it's better than reading the text. the best part is getting emotionally attached to the character's and routing for their success all through history.

Time Travel and World War II history

Book 2 of 2 involving time travel and World War II history. Somewhat lengthy but well written and very well narrated. 4.5 out of 5.

Breathtaking

Just read it. It's worth it despite the flaws. Overall this was a powerfully moving story with a strong ending.

Not more train schedules please!!

I usually love this author's books but this one was a bloated mess of train schedules, missed connections, and characters always jumping to conclusions. It could have been half as long and more interestingly told. The narrator is spectacularly good.

Wow, great sci-fi AND historical novel

Gosh, I just loved this book and wish I could read more about Alf and Binni .. ❤️

More historical than science fiction

Vivid detail and characters, though not the "historians". I'm glad I stuck with it though the pace at times is glacial.

joint review for Blackout and All Clear

I've listened to a number of Connie Willis' books before and really enjoyed them. My experience with these two books was decidedly more mixed. Much was very enjoyable; however, I got sick of the interminable self-recriminations about whether one action or another had changed history. Also, one character or another would go haring off on some errand and immediately the others would wonder why he/she was late in returning despite the fact that all their experience told them that delays in travel in war disrupted England were business as usual. It also seems to me that time travelers would have standard strategies for making it easy for their retrieval teams to find them. Gawd! Don't we tell our kids to either stay put or go to some previously specified place if lost. These people would have made the task of finding them very difficult indeed.

I guess the main complaint is that the same two or three devices were used to excess. This is one book (or rather one pair of books -- they must be reviewed together as they aren't stand alone books) that lends itself to abridgement -- and I don't listen to or read abridged books! There are extremely tedious passages as they moan about whether or not they have changed history by some action forgetting, of course, that not acting can have ramifications, too.

Still Ms Willis paints a wonderful picture of war time England with only a few major historical mistakes.

Satisfying ending to the story

I enjoyed hearing how things work out for our heroes and found the ending satisfying. And as with Blackout, the details of wartime London and environs make for interesting listening.

However, this book is easily 25% longer than it needs to be. The early and middle parts are filled with loooong passages in which our heroes agonize over the things they are keeping from one another. After a while, this made me nuts and I wanted to scream at them to stop lying or at least stop ruminating on these lies and just move on already.