Book Review: Blackout / All Clear by Connie Willis

This is a review of two books in one. Blackout and All Clear are a two part series by Connie Willis of time travelers back to London at the time of the Blitz, around 1940. I decided to review them together since each is incomplete without the other. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind splitting them (I'm fine reading really long novels), but that's all right. 

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This book started very tense, though the pay off was worth it. In the first novel, Blackout, we get introduced to all the characters and their perilous situation. It ends on a positive note, but the following novel, All Clear, takes that and pushes through to the final resolution. The split means you have to read both to get the whole picture, but it is an interesting novel of time travel with some good characters in an fascinating time period. Personally, I think I preferred Doomsday Book better, but this was still enjoyable.

Plot

The plot of this book follows several characters and as such jumps back and forth in time a lot. Sometimes you are in Oxford 2060, other times you are in 1940 or 1945 or somewhere in between. It's at first a bit jarring, since you also get introduced to a lot of the characters and nearly each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. It does settle into a nice rhythm, though, especially as the individual timelines start to converge and the shape of the story forms up. There is a feeling of tension all throughout the first part, though, as the characters worry about how hard it is becoming to get back to their original time.

Characters

The two books follow three main characters, Merope, Polly, and Mike. However, there are numerous secondary characters, both time travelers and contemps (ie, contemporary people), such as Sir Godfrey, Alf and Binnie, Mr. Dunworthy, Colin, and more. They're all quite different and this is reflected in how they approach their situations. Merope, who goes by the name Eileen, is optimistic despite having to deal with bratty children in the Evacuation. Mike is stressed out as he attempts to observe the rescue efforts around Dunkirk. Polly is a pro, having had many time travel adventures before, so she's a bit reckless but confident as she explores London during the Blitz.

Setting / World Building

This novel is set in the same universe as Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. We start of in Oxford in 2060, where time travel exists and is being used by historians to conduct research into the past. Our three main characters are students researching various aspects of life during World War II and get assignments into the past. I certainly learnt a lot of details that I didn't know about in terms of England's participation in WW2, both from the book itself but also from looking up information afterwards or chatting with friends.

A big topic in all of these books is whether or not historians can affect and change the past. There is a concept here known as slippage, which affects how accurately a drop, that is a time travel location, can open. Historians can find themselves a few hours, days, or months after they expected, or at the correct time but dozens of miles away. This is an ongoing point of discussion in this book, as the exact cause of slippage is unknown, and the historians frequently worry about how they are interacting with the contemps. In my opinion, this book finalizes this topic after the other books introduced it.

Final Thoughts

This was a pretty good book with some epic events going on. It featured some interesting characters caught in the chaos of WW2 in London and their struggle to return home, or at least get a message out to the future. The plot was tense and chaotic, but with a good, enjoyable payoff when it delivered. And the setting was cool. I wouldn't mind seeing more time travel novels from Connie Willis, but in terms of preference I enjoyed Doomsday Book over To Say Nothing of the Dog over Blackout/All Clear and would recommend others read them in that order.