Blackout (Audio CD)
6 journalers for this copy...
Rec'd via Amazon.com's Vine Program.
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Product Description
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 seventeen-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 everyone’s 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.
From the people sheltering in the tube stations of London to the retired sailors who set off across the Channel to rescue the stranded British Army from Dunkirk, from shopgirls to ambulance drivers, from spies to hospital nurses to Shakespearean actors, Blackout reveals a side of World War II seldom seen before: a dangerous, desperate world in which there are no civilians and in which everybody — from the Queen down to the lowliest barmaid — is determined to do their bit to help a beleaguered nation survive.
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Product Description
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 seventeen-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 everyone’s 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.
From the people sheltering in the tube stations of London to the retired sailors who set off across the Channel to rescue the stranded British Army from Dunkirk, from shopgirls to ambulance drivers, from spies to hospital nurses to Shakespearean actors, Blackout reveals a side of World War II seldom seen before: a dangerous, desperate world in which there are no civilians and in which everybody — from the Queen down to the lowliest barmaid — is determined to do their bit to help a beleaguered nation survive.
Started listening today.
WHAT.
This ended mid-sentence, practically. What the heck?
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In the year 2060, historical research has become quite different from what we do today. Thanks to the invention of time travel, historians can now send themselves back to their period of research and do field work among the “contemps” – the contemporaries living at the time. Right now the most popular place to visit seems to be World War II, with several young men and women heading there. Merope Ward, under the name Eileen O’Reilly, is living with London evacuees in a country manor. Her friend Polly is a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz, learning about how ordinary Londoners adapted to the bombings. Michael Davies is preparing for a whirlwind tour of the past, including stops at Pearl Harbor and Dunkirk. But things have gone a bit chaotic – without warning, the time travel lab is suddenly canceling and rearranging assignments with no explanation, and Mr. Dunworthy – head of the time travel program – is away from Oxford on a trip to London. When Merope, Polly and Michael finally reach their destinations, problems emerge. Michael arrives in the wrong location; Polly finds herself in London on a different day than planned. Worse, Merope finds that her drop – the gateway between times – no longer opens, and she’s stranded in rural 1940s England. A terrifying possibility emerges, one formerly thought impossible: have our heroes somehow changed the past, and their future?
Blackout is fantastic. It’s probably one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. Willis’ time travelers are focused on how ordinary people transcended the horrors of World War II, so the book focuses on those in humbler positions: the brave men who sailed out to rescue people in the Dunkirk evacuation, the children removed from their homes in London and sent on trains to the rural parts of England, female ambulance drivers and normal civilians coping with daily bombings in London. It really brought the time period to life in vivid detail. Plus, time travel! That’s always cool.
Throughout the book, there’s clearly some deus ex machina at work. The historians never seem to be in any real danger. After one too many miraculous survivals, I was beginning to wonder if anything bad ever happened. Sure, a time traveler’s survival can easily be attributed to the time stream somehow protecting them, plus their foreknowledge of when and where bad things happen, but this extreme good luck seemed to extend to most of the people they met, too. But maybe that’s just how it was in WWII. A friend would lose contact and you’d worry sick they’d been hit by a bomb, only to have them pop up a week later right as rain.
Unfortunately, the book has a major flaw. MAJOR FLAW. It ends very, very abruptly – practically mid-sentence. It’s a KILLER cliffhanger, and it was exceptionally frustrating because there was no. resolution. whatsoever.
OK, I don’t like cliffhangers. (Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows this.) But I can live with them, as long as there’s some resolution. For example, take the Lord of the Rings movies. The second movie, The Two Towers, ends on a major cliffhanger – Frodo’s on his way to destroy the ring with psycho Gollum and Sam, while the rest of the Fellowship are getting ready to declare war on Mordar, right? But we’re given some resolution because the Fellowship has just beaten the armies of Sauron and won the battle of Helm’s Deep. We have some closure. We can step back from the story with some satisfaction until the next installment comes. Not so in Blackout. The book just ends. Bam. Randomly. It’s very, very annoying.
The second half of the story – I can’t even call it a sequel, because I really think Willis or her editor just took a complete book and chopped it in half for who knows what reason – came out October 19th. Amazon already has the book, All Clear, on its way to me. I was angry enough about the sudden end that I thought about not reading the book, but hey, it’s really freakin’ entertaining. So I’ll be reading that and reviewing it ASAP.
This ended mid-sentence, practically. What the heck?
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In the year 2060, historical research has become quite different from what we do today. Thanks to the invention of time travel, historians can now send themselves back to their period of research and do field work among the “contemps” – the contemporaries living at the time. Right now the most popular place to visit seems to be World War II, with several young men and women heading there. Merope Ward, under the name Eileen O’Reilly, is living with London evacuees in a country manor. Her friend Polly is a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz, learning about how ordinary Londoners adapted to the bombings. Michael Davies is preparing for a whirlwind tour of the past, including stops at Pearl Harbor and Dunkirk. But things have gone a bit chaotic – without warning, the time travel lab is suddenly canceling and rearranging assignments with no explanation, and Mr. Dunworthy – head of the time travel program – is away from Oxford on a trip to London. When Merope, Polly and Michael finally reach their destinations, problems emerge. Michael arrives in the wrong location; Polly finds herself in London on a different day than planned. Worse, Merope finds that her drop – the gateway between times – no longer opens, and she’s stranded in rural 1940s England. A terrifying possibility emerges, one formerly thought impossible: have our heroes somehow changed the past, and their future?
Blackout is fantastic. It’s probably one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. Willis’ time travelers are focused on how ordinary people transcended the horrors of World War II, so the book focuses on those in humbler positions: the brave men who sailed out to rescue people in the Dunkirk evacuation, the children removed from their homes in London and sent on trains to the rural parts of England, female ambulance drivers and normal civilians coping with daily bombings in London. It really brought the time period to life in vivid detail. Plus, time travel! That’s always cool.
Throughout the book, there’s clearly some deus ex machina at work. The historians never seem to be in any real danger. After one too many miraculous survivals, I was beginning to wonder if anything bad ever happened. Sure, a time traveler’s survival can easily be attributed to the time stream somehow protecting them, plus their foreknowledge of when and where bad things happen, but this extreme good luck seemed to extend to most of the people they met, too. But maybe that’s just how it was in WWII. A friend would lose contact and you’d worry sick they’d been hit by a bomb, only to have them pop up a week later right as rain.
Unfortunately, the book has a major flaw. MAJOR FLAW. It ends very, very abruptly – practically mid-sentence. It’s a KILLER cliffhanger, and it was exceptionally frustrating because there was no. resolution. whatsoever.
OK, I don’t like cliffhangers. (Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows this.) But I can live with them, as long as there’s some resolution. For example, take the Lord of the Rings movies. The second movie, The Two Towers, ends on a major cliffhanger – Frodo’s on his way to destroy the ring with psycho Gollum and Sam, while the rest of the Fellowship are getting ready to declare war on Mordar, right? But we’re given some resolution because the Fellowship has just beaten the armies of Sauron and won the battle of Helm’s Deep. We have some closure. We can step back from the story with some satisfaction until the next installment comes. Not so in Blackout. The book just ends. Bam. Randomly. It’s very, very annoying.
The second half of the story – I can’t even call it a sequel, because I really think Willis or her editor just took a complete book and chopped it in half for who knows what reason – came out October 19th. Amazon already has the book, All Clear, on its way to me. I was angry enough about the sudden end that I thought about not reading the book, but hey, it’s really freakin’ entertaining. So I’ll be reading that and reviewing it ASAP.
Journal Entry 4 by k00kaburra at -- Bookbox, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Thursday, March 21, 2013
Released 11 yrs ago (3/21/2013 UTC) at -- Bookbox, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
adding to the bookbox!
I apologize. I thought I had journaled when I removed from the audiobook box
I very much enjoyed this book and will be looking for others by this author.
I agree ending seems random but I am hoping the next book picks up from here
I very much enjoyed this book and will be looking for others by this author.
I agree ending seems random but I am hoping the next book picks up from here
Released into booklady331's CD only Audiobook box
I Pulled this from Booklady331's Audio bookbox.
I am sending this out in Bigjohnlefty's audio book box.
Chosen from BigJohnLefty's Audio Book Box
Well, of course I loved this, but there a few nitpicky things I'd like to mention right away. I've loved Connie Willis' stories about the Blitz ever since I read her short story "Fire Watch" 34 years ago, but after spending this much time hearing about time-traveling historians studying the contemps, I started wondering: why is so much effort put into researching a time that is relatively well documented? In her Acknowledgements, Willis even specifically thanks the women at the Imperial War Museum for sharing their personal stories. How much more can be learned by sending young observers?
Second, near the beginning we see Mr. Dunworthy trying on a succession of unsatisfactory costumes. Those of us who've read 'Doomsday Book' will remember him as a well-intentioned, kind-hearted man who goes to any lengths to protect his students. When I read the print version, in my mind I heard him as mildly exasperated by the staff's incomprehension. The performer, Katherine Kellgren, presents him as outraged and sarcastic. Well, he is a fictional character, so she has as much right as I do to interpret his attitude. Besides that, it's a nice example of a performer adding color to a reading.
The big slap in the face, of course, is the ending. K00kaburra is quite right. I can only guess that the publisher decided to split the book because 'Blackout' in print is 491 pages and 'All Clear' is 605. There'd be all kinds of problems marketing a book of over a thousand pages, not least the fatigue in the reader's hands. But NMReader & I agree with k00kaburra. Before you start this, check your library to reserve a copy of 'All Clear' so that you can move on with it immediately.
And one final nitpick: one of the plastic loops that hold the CD sleeves in place has broken off its base, or maybe even lost a piece. Perhaps they weren't designed to hold as many as 16 CD's. At any rate, you'll have to be careful when removing CD's lest the sleeves start slipping out all over. Don't ask me how I know this.
Now, as for the book itself, it was wonderful. Willis has been writing time travel stories for over three decades, and the question of whether there's a danger of changing the past must have been looming large for quite a while. Here she tackles it head on. Most of this book is taken up with three students who gradually begin to fear that they've been marooned permanently , and then, even worse, that they have altered history, perhaps to the point of eliminating the time travel program.
Hearing the audiobook works better than reading the print version for this, because the tension builds at a much more believable pace. Willis also brings in lots of points of comparison with the contemps, who unlike the students were never offered a shred of certainty that all would end well. If you're listening, the slower pace allows those feelings to settle in more deeply. And there are some great descriptive passages, especially when Polly wanders into St. Paul's Cathedral and is astounded by its beauty.
Finally, Katherine Kellgren does an amazing job with this. There's a huge variety of voices, from the Shakespearean actor Sir Godfrey to the miserable child Theodore, always whining "I want to go home." There's a shopgirl with a charming Scottish accent, and, oh heavens, the Cockney speech of the dreadful Hodbin children. One of the students has an American accent, and Kellgren switches instantly back and forth in conversation between British and American characters, giving me an idea for the first time of just how flat and strange we Yanks must sound.
But this is all just one person's opinion. Future listeners, what do YOU think of this book?
Second, near the beginning we see Mr. Dunworthy trying on a succession of unsatisfactory costumes. Those of us who've read 'Doomsday Book' will remember him as a well-intentioned, kind-hearted man who goes to any lengths to protect his students. When I read the print version, in my mind I heard him as mildly exasperated by the staff's incomprehension. The performer, Katherine Kellgren, presents him as outraged and sarcastic. Well, he is a fictional character, so she has as much right as I do to interpret his attitude. Besides that, it's a nice example of a performer adding color to a reading.
The big slap in the face, of course, is the ending. K00kaburra is quite right. I can only guess that the publisher decided to split the book because 'Blackout' in print is 491 pages and 'All Clear' is 605. There'd be all kinds of problems marketing a book of over a thousand pages, not least the fatigue in the reader's hands. But NMReader & I agree with k00kaburra. Before you start this, check your library to reserve a copy of 'All Clear' so that you can move on with it immediately.
And one final nitpick: one of the plastic loops that hold the CD sleeves in place has broken off its base, or maybe even lost a piece. Perhaps they weren't designed to hold as many as 16 CD's. At any rate, you'll have to be careful when removing CD's lest the sleeves start slipping out all over. Don't ask me how I know this.
Now, as for the book itself, it was wonderful. Willis has been writing time travel stories for over three decades, and the question of whether there's a danger of changing the past must have been looming large for quite a while. Here she tackles it head on. Most of this book is taken up with three students who gradually begin to fear that they've been marooned permanently , and then, even worse, that they have altered history, perhaps to the point of eliminating the time travel program.
Hearing the audiobook works better than reading the print version for this, because the tension builds at a much more believable pace. Willis also brings in lots of points of comparison with the contemps, who unlike the students were never offered a shred of certainty that all would end well. If you're listening, the slower pace allows those feelings to settle in more deeply. And there are some great descriptive passages, especially when Polly wanders into St. Paul's Cathedral and is astounded by its beauty.
Finally, Katherine Kellgren does an amazing job with this. There's a huge variety of voices, from the Shakespearean actor Sir Godfrey to the miserable child Theodore, always whining "I want to go home." There's a shopgirl with a charming Scottish accent, and, oh heavens, the Cockney speech of the dreadful Hodbin children. One of the students has an American accent, and Kellgren switches instantly back and forth in conversation between British and American characters, giving me an idea for the first time of just how flat and strange we Yanks must sound.
But this is all just one person's opinion. Future listeners, what do YOU think of this book?
Journal Entry 11 by JudySlump612 at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Released 5 yrs ago (7/11/2018 UTC) at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Media mail to Imawinn
I picked this out of the BigJohnLefty Memorial VBB. Having read other Connie Willis books, I am looking forward to listening to this audiobook.
I enjoyed this story, very much. Connie Willis' time travel tales always keep me entertained. Thank goodness I have the "sequel", All Clear. I hate to have too much time pass between series. Don't want to forget the details. Thanks for sharing! I will send this audiobook on a journey, as soon as I have another audiobook bookbox come my way.
Sent off to erishkigel who picked this out from Judy Slump's Audiobook VBB. Enjoy!
Thank you.
I’ve been away pet sitting for the last nine days, and it was lovely to find these books tucked in my door when I returned 😊
I love Willis, but oh my god this book is so long and it’s only the first half —Yikes! I need to find something to do while listening, so that I don’t just listen to it in the car… Suggestions? As of about six weeks ago I have new eyes (cataract surgery), so maybe I could take a beading again…
I’ve been away pet sitting for the last nine days, and it was lovely to find these books tucked in my door when I returned 😊
I love Willis, but oh my god this book is so long and it’s only the first half —Yikes! I need to find something to do while listening, so that I don’t just listen to it in the car… Suggestions? As of about six weeks ago I have new eyes (cataract surgery), so maybe I could take a beading again…
