Customer Reviews

All Clear

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "All Clear", Connie Willis finishes the story she started in "Blackout". "All Clear" was published on October 19th, 2010. Somewhat longer than the first installment, "Blackout", the pace of the story is consistent and there are no major changes in how the tale progresses. The combination of "Blackout" and "All Clear" won the 2011 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards and they were also a finalist for the 2011 Campbell Memorial award and finished 7th on the SF Site Poll for 2011. Neither of these books can stand on their own, so treating them as a single work is the obviously correct choice.

By itself, "All Clear" is nearly 650 pages, so one can understand the decision to split it into two volumes. However, there was another choice which should have been considered, and that would have been to edit it down to a more manageable length, which would also have helped with the pace of the overall story. In reading both books, I felt that it would have been better to make some cuts, and lose a bit of the wonderful research material, to benefit the overall work. I can't point to any specific part that should have been cut, but rather it would have been a decision made at a higher level to edit and handle the material in a different matter, rather than simply cutting chapters from the current books.

The excess material and slow pace do not destroy this work, but they do turn what could have been an amazing work into something which is rather average. Specifically, by the time the cause of the issues facing the time travelers is resolved, it is anti-climatic and had about zero impact. When I compare that feeling to what I had after reading Willis' other works, it just doesn't measure up to her best works. Of course, these books did take home the major awards, so feel free to ignore my input, or better yet read the books and make up your own mind.

Read Black Out first had to read All Clear,
fascinating account of the blitz and love time travel. Great read !

THANK YOU AGAIN CONNIE WILLIS....

The story continues and part 2 is just rewarding as part 1. I loved "Blackout" (Please see my review of Blackout) and I love part 2 "All Clear" just as much. Never have I read a book, which is so vivid that it make you feel as if you are really there, that you are experience everything the wonderful characters are experiencing. So many emotions are experienced when reading these two books. The historical knowledge that the reader gains is also valuable. I only wish these two books/one story, could have continued. Really they couldn't be long enough for my liking! Every moment experience in this story is interesting and believable. The great characters are solid and also quite believable. Their experience during WW2 were so real and moving in this book, I felt as if I was there with them. It made me want to learn more about peoples experience and the effect of WW2 had on those involved. My parents lived thru the war and my father lived in East London and experienced the Blitz. His home was hit twice by bombs. This book really made me understand what they and others really went through during this war.

I read this because having ploughed through the Blackout volume I needed to know how it was all resolved. Excellent writing and accurate history ... but, too long by far. There is just too much repetition of detail, once we have been from A to B on the underground we know how the system works, once we have sheltered from the bombs we know how that panned ut too but the book repeats and repeats small details that really only have to be written about once. Enjoyable, I like her work, but some serious editing would have helped this one.

Her earlier time travel book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, was better. A gem in fact.

I read and reviewed Connie Willis' Blackout back in March; finally, the second half of the story arrives in the form of All Clear, a 600+ page-turner that picks up immediately after Blackout left off. We again encounter time traveling historians, Polly, Eileen and Mike as they struggle to make it through the Blitz in London while at the same time attempting to avoid doing anything that might change the course of history, i.e., cause the Allies to lose the war. When Mr. Dunworthy, head of the historians in 2060 Oxford, also turns up in the Blitz and is also stranded there, the temptation to give way to despair is almost overwhelming, but Polly thinks there might be another way to look at events....Once again, Connie Willis pulls off a very complex story, with chapters set in a variety of times (1940, 1944, 1995, 2060), and at the same time makes the reader care deeply for each individual character. At times, I felt the story to be a comedy of errors with people continuously just missing each other, and at other times I was very glad to have a box of tissues at hand, because there was so much grief going on. You cannot read this book without having read Blackout first, since they are really just one book that's been broken up into two volumes due to considerations of length; and I would very strongly recommend that both books be read back-to-back because I found the 7-month gap between the time I read the first "half" and the second meant that there were certain scenes and incidents from the first that I'd forgotten by the time All Clear arrived at my house. That quibble aside, this is a masterpiece of storytelling, and Connie Willis once again shows why she is one of the foremost writers working today. Very highly recommended!