Blackout

By: Connie Willis

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Connie Willis

Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds - great and small - of ordinary people who shape history.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill's next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London's Blitz. And 17-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can catch up to her in age. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyones schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, author Connie Willis discusses her fascination with WWII and the historic context of Blackout.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Blackout is the first volume of a two-part novel. To find out what happens to the time-traveling historians from Oxford, we invite you to download the concluding volume, All Clear.

Listen to Connie Willis and Carrie Vaughn: A Conversation. And listen to All Clear.

©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)

“If you're a science-fiction fan, you'll want to read this book by one of the most honored writers in the field; if you're interested in World War II, you should pick up Blackout for its you-are-there authenticity; and if you just like to read, 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)

As close as you can come to real time travel

What about Katherine Kellgren and Connie Willis ’s performance did you like?

The performance is masterful. All the various voices and accents come across superbly.

Any additional comments?

Connie Willis's time travel novels are always impeccably researched (in fact, it's probably one of the reasons she doesn't publish more often), so getting immersed in this story, and the characters she creates, is about as close as we can come as a modern audience to experiencing what London was like during the Blitz. It's not just in the period details, though . . . it's in the way she breathes life into her minor characters, how they go about their business despite a nightly rain of bombs falling out of the sky, and how their plights just MATTER because they might as well have been real people . . . that's the amazing strength, and the charm of "Blackout": just your average everyday ordinary heroics.

But don't be fooled. "Blackout" isn't merely a history lesson. It's also a cracking good story, and I can't wait to listen to the concluding volume "All Clear."

Enjoyable, but Outlander it aint

I'm really enjoying the story- many people have complained of its slowness but I like the detail and building of the scene. The story should be enjoyed for what it is- whilst there are many lovely period observations there are also many glaring inaccuracies. Brits will wince at some of the pronunciations. Gas mask- Garse Mask, Daimler- Dime-ler and Passage- Parssage ,which should have been caught in editing because they are very obvious. The narrator otherwise does the accents very well, Binny and Alf are perfect! Worth a listen.

Outstanding

I'm posting this same review for both Blackout and All Clear since they are really just one long story. This has really been one (well, two) of my best Audible purchases. At 42+ hours, it's quite an investment, but well worth it. While a story of this scale probably deserved a full cast of voice actors, Katherine Kellgren did a fine job with it and I never got tired of hearing her talk. I've enjoyed other novels by Willis, but this is now my favorite among her works. The characters are engaging and well-developed. I've never read anything else set in the Blitz and it made for a rich backdrop and source of conflict.

Enter WWII

I'd thought I knew about all I wanted to know about WWII and then I read Anthony Doerrs gravel great new novel about those who broadcast for the underground and those who chased them now. That opened me to this work by Willis and I wasn't disappointed. I had thought it strange that the Germans were slow to react to the Normandy invasion. Willis reveals just how long and hard the British worked for that. We get only a distant look at the code breakers, but it's revealing. The look at life in London is he best.

Good story, first of two parts

Be aware that you absolutely need the second part (All Clear) as just about nothing is revealed in this book. This review applies to both books.

I've read the first two books, and one thing that struck me was that the two of them are very different. These two books have a bit of each of those two. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes keep me at the edge of my seat. The storytelling is compelling and the characters very likeable. Being a time travel story, the storyline is not necessarily in chronological order, and occasionally it takes a while for me to see how it fits together, but fit it does.

If I have one criticism, it is that the story tries too hard to mislead the reader. We're being led to a conclusion, a cliffhanger, then the story switches to another character's viewpoint. It's a style, some like it, it just happens that I'm not overly fond of it.

There are several very touching moments, and while I don't know how accurate is the description of life in London during the Blitz, it fills me with admiration for those who lived during that time. And I want so bad now to see London to see some of the places described, especially St Paul's Cathedral. Google Maps Street View just doesn't cut it :)

One final observation, the autiobook played back at 1.5x gives the narration a bit of sense of urgency, and did not make it harder to follow along for me.

Definitely an enjoyable book and a great performance.

Great except for the kids.

So many whiny children voiced accurately and very annoyingly by the narrator. And speaking of narrators, were there no British people available to read? The fake British accent is immediately detectable.
Still, good story overall.

Gripping at times but overly long

Connie Willis's time travel epic chronicles the experiences of three twenty-first century historians in early 1940s England. The protagonists have travelled back more than a century to explore wartime England and find themselves both unable to return and increasingly anxious that their actions are, contrary to theory, altering the course of history.

Set chiefly in London during the Blitz, the novel contains some utterly gripping passages describing conditions as the city is bombed, night after terrible night. The native Londoners ("contemps" to our heroes) are portrayed vividly and the true horror of the events is effectively and movingly described.

If the protagonists occasionally come across as naive and vacillating - well, they are university students, and their youth may also explain their apparent ability to function for days at a time without sleep. These are quibbles - the more substantive complaint is that the novel (itself only the first half of the story) is too long, obsessively following every minute of every day of the characters' experiences (or seeming to, at times). This, of course, is a widespread fault in this age of 1,000 page shelf-breakers.

My only other complaint is with Katherine Kellgren's narration, which is, at least at times, too breathlessly emotional for this listener's taste. However, none of those faults stopped me listening to the end and neither will they stop me downloading All Clear when a credit is available.

Interesting Story, Should have been edited

I like science fiction and time travel. I bought this book hoping for some of both. Turns out it really a historical fiction novel with a smattering of science fiction. Thats OK though - I enjoyed the historical aspect of it. What I didn't like was the fact that the book should have been about 1/2 as long. So much of the dialog was repetitive it became annoying. A good editor would have made the book much better.

What i also don't like is that there is no conclusion or wrapping up of the story. The book does not stand on its own. If you want the conclusion of the story, you must listen/read ALL CLEAR.

The performance was very good.

best narrator

this audio book narration is only rivaled by moby dick imo. by and far the best female narrator I've heard

Fascinating storyline & great characters

I love Connie Willis' books. The historical research is excellent, the plot gripping and the characters are always relatable.