All Clear by Connie Willis

A Hugo and Nebula-Award winning novel.

All Clear is the conclusion to Blackout, which I was pretty excited about reading back in the fall. It picks up immediately where Blackout left me hanging, or at least relatively so. It is a time travel story after all.

Time traveling historians Mike, Polly and Eileen/Merope are stuck in England during World War II and are struggling to come up with reasons to believe they’re ever going to get back to 2060 Oxford. Their dangerous adventures continue and they also attempt to send distress signals to the future so someone will try to get them home. In addition to dodging rockets and bombs, they also try to dodge situations in which they could change history. Their faith in the time travel theories that suggest that history can take care of itself is eroding, and they are prepared to accept that their actions may have irrevocably changed the future

The historians are armed with plenty of foreknowledge (such as dates, times and locations of bombings in London and V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks) and at first this gives them a bit of an attitude of detached superiority toward the contemporary citizens. They admire the courage and strength of the ordinary folks being bombed out of their jobs and homes and pity them in their loss and desperation. When their own situation becomes more and more uncertain, however, their pity becomes commiseration, and they must learn from the courage of the folks around them. They can no longer be cold observers.

And sometimes, they just get lost in the moment and behave compassionately and heroically, as if they belong to this unjointed place and time. I found that it’s in such moments that the historians show their true character and it is that admirable character that makes them qualified to be the heroes of this story. And, oh boy, what a story. All Clear kept me on my toes. As soon as I didn’t think I needed any more of the details I’d been plowing through, it all became clear that each detail was important.

Yes, just like in history, all the details are important, but only when looking at it all from the right direction can one see just how that it so. All Clear (along with Blackout) is science fiction, it’s history, it’s astute character study. It’s exciting, thought provoking, puzzling. It’s another brilliant concoction by Connie Willis.



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