Time Travel by Connie Willis

 I got these two books for my birthday last year but found them hard to hold with a broken wrist. They stared at me from the not-read bookshelf, enticingly. And eventually I got them down, reading both in the space of three or four day. Long books, but great reads, especially if you like time travel contradictions, or just like London.

Blackout by Connie Willis

Historians in 2060 Oxford, England, are researching the past. It’s a kind of hands-on research whereby they travel into the past, with strict instructions (and many protections) to avoid their changing anything.

Of course, things go wrong. Travelers visiting different locations, times and events of WWII find themselves trapped. Time-travel interactions might mean a certainty that someone will survive, combined with uncertainty about oneself. And multiple viewpoints have the reader tracking back and forth till the threads start coming together. And the fears.

The characters quickly become very real, and the world of WWII Britain is very convincingly portrayed. The balance of knowing and not knowing the future is cleverly contrasted with the perseverance of citizens who know no future but the present and keep fighting anyway. And the whole is a truly captivating read. But you’d better have the second book to hand, as the story doesn’t really finish and there’s much more to go.

 

All Clear by Connie Willis

Continuing the story begun in Blackout, All Clear carries characters and readers through the rest of WWII London. Time travelers shouldn’t be able to change anything, but what if they can? What if they already have done?

In Oxford, the elderly don and youthful researcher struggle to find a way to rescue the stranded before the whole of history falls apart.

In London, the stranded interact with people whose lives might be saved, lost, or changed, and can no longer keep themselves apart.

And in this book, all the threads will gradually come together, inviting the reader to ponder and persue the implications while reading.

The two books together make a truly enthralling read, and bring London to life just as surely as they give life the speculative questions of what might be.