World War II and historians from the future, what could go wrong?

A lot is what!
There are a lot of books about or set in World War II.
There are a lot of books about Time Travel.

"Blackout" is a book about both.
And it delivers on every level. I am much too young to have experienced the war, all I know is taken from history books, but those are very matter of fact.
What the war was like for those who had to live through it I could only glimpse through the tales of my grandparents or older acquaintances, if they even chose to talk about it.

It feels a lot like something someone who was in London at the time could tell you and manages to transmit the anxiety of those trapped in London during the Blackout.

As if this wasn't enough Connie Wills adds the anxiety of scientific observers from the future, trapped in time and ever afraid of changing events, which could easily have devastating consequences for WWII.

All in all "Blackout" is filled with as much suspense as it its with historic facts, to be clear it's a lot.

Mrs Kellgren does a solid job voicing the many characters of Blackout.

So it gets 4 stars, because there are better books and readers out there, but this one's still thrilling to listen to.

P.S: Be aware you will want to hear the next one as well,
don't say you haven't been warned.

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Read to perfection

I return to this audiobook from time to time. I like Connie Willis' sujet and focus. This story isn't perfect, but the reading is.
The story is nice, timetravellers stuck in WWII, and the dialogues are well written, but some passages, usually self reflections of the young historians, could be shorter.
But all shortcomings are forgiven, as the reading is so good. Katherine Kellgren has captured the characters, and has given all of them an individual voice and tempo. I admire this art of reading.
5 stars, because of the overall experience.

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Murphy's Law of Time Travel Applied

Three historians from the future definitely get more of an experience than they expected when they find out that they are trapped in WW2 Britain. And that the supreme law of time travel apparently has Murphy as an author…

One hour into this (audio) book and you are hooked because not only is it funny in a screwball-comedy kind of way but also tremendously good history about a dark age and the power of endurance and the will not to despair.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Blundering historians during the Blitz in London

Connie Willis, how can you do this to me? How can you write such a masterpiece like “The Doomsday Book” and then deliver such a blunder like “Blackout”. Where “The Doomsday Book” is deeply moving and touches the essence of humanity in its description of compassion, love and kindness, “Blackout” is a description of helpless blunders of some time travelling historians during the Blitz in London. The story does not do justice to the people, who showed incredible endurance and heroism during that time.

Mr. Dunworthy’s time travelling lab, which we know already from The Doomsday Book, sends 3 young historians to the United Kingdom during worldwar 2. Michael Davis is supposed to travel to Dover to observe the heroic evacuation of the British army after the disaster at Dunkirk by private yacht owners and fishermen. Merope is send to a country mansion to study the situation of evacuated children during the bombing of London and Polly is in the heart of London during the air raids acting as a sales girl in Oxford street. All 3 historians are badly prepared for their tasks and stumble from one blunder to the next. Since they observe some major difficulties with the mechanics of time travel and cannot return as planned, they set out to find each other. The major part of the book describes these boring and endless efforts and near misses until they finally meet each other and the book suddenly ends.

Overall the book is very disappointing, the prose rambles on and is simply boring at times. There are a lot of repetitive situations and pointless, long dialogs, which make it very hard to continue to listen.

I know that Connie Willis can do better than that. Simply forget this book and don’t buy the sequel.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich