AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--AUGUST 2021-CONNIE WILLIS

If you are a reader of science fiction and/or fantasy, you probably are already familiar with Connie Willis. She has been writing and publishing for decades, has won multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Locus Awards, been nominated several more times for those and others, and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. If, on the other hand, you are more like me, and rarely read these genres without a resounding recommendation from someone who knows you and your tastes really well, then she may just be someone you've heard of (because you hang around in bookish circles), but haven’t read. But maybe, again like me, just maybe her tendency to include humor and satire in her stories might be an incentive to pick up one of her short story collections or novels this month to see if you have been missing something.

Willis lives in Colorado, with her husband, a former professor of physics (which can’t hurt with the research, right?). She has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and is a very popular MC at Sci-Fi conventions and award ceremonies. Her best known novels are Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and the two parter, Blackout/All Clear.

As part of her website, ConnieWillis.net (which is awesome), the author blogs on various subjects and keeps her readers up-to-date on her work. She rarely mentions her personal life or history, but some insight into who Willis is can be found in this interview from last March.

Thanks for the reminder Linda. Way back in the 80's I read a LOT of Connie Willis's shorter fiction. I enjoyed it a lot then. I've never read a novel by her, although I read a novella by her a couple years ago that underwhelmed me. I am going to read at least part of a large collection of her work called Impossible Things. It was published in 1993 and has 11 stories including several novellas. There are a couple stories in it I know I read long ago and loved such as "Last of the Winnebagos" so it will be interesting to see if I still enjoy them. I will confess that in my mind I felt I outgrew her. We will see.

I found Impossible Things on my library's ebook service, so I will read that (thanks Rbeffa!).

Karen O.

I loved Doomsday Book when I read it a few years ago, and I liked To Say Nothing of the Dog nearly as well. I am looking forward to reading Blackout in August.

I was surprised how many Connie Willis books my library has - both as ebooks and paper copies. There are several short novels/novellas so I may end up reading more than one next month.

Likely a minority view - while To Say Nothing of the Dog does offer great time travel, poetry,
literary stories and humor, readers may quickly tire as it gets overwound up and repetitive.

Also, around page 100, some might feel like flinging the book into the nearest flaming hearth
with Tossie's incessant baby talk.

>6 m.belljackson: "readers may quickly tire" This reader did just that after about 30 pages. I decided it just isn't worth my time.

>6 m.belljackson: >7 laytonwoman3rd: ruh roh

>8 RBeffa: I'm Wild Carding this month by reading more Native American stuff.

Uh oh. You folks are a hard crowd. I very much liked both The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog; read them just last year. So I am looking forward to reading both Blackout and All Clear, starting...maybe...Thursday. Yes, yes. That's it: Thursday Next. (A series I love and have but a single volume left to read.)

Does this mean I'm a reader of little polish?

By the bye, Ron, I scanned your comments on your own thread about the stories by Willis. Good. Maybe I should follow up with a collection of her stories. The inimitable Mr. Derus dismissed her with an "Ugh...*ptooptoo*" on my thread, but he also said, "I liked two of her novellas...Inside Job especially." So maybe that's a work for me to look for.

>10 weird_O: My grand-dog, Thursday Next, whom nobody loves, obviously.

>10 weird_O: As I noted about Inside Job, with 4 stars, "It is a noirish story about a professional psychic debunker and a young actress who want to expose a supposedly fake channeler. The charm of this is in the telling and I think one of Connie Willis' better stories. It is very good fiction and well told"

The story is quite a bit better than my description. It may be hard to find although it has been included in several of Willis's "Best" collection and at least two anthologies: Best Short Novels of 2006 and Year's Best Fantasy 6. Maybe your library has the novella like mine did.

>2 RBeffa: I found Impossible Things to be a very mixed collection. The stories I liked best were "The Last of the Winnebagos," "Chance," and "Jack."

I would love Thursday Next. But you are correct, Linda, clearly TN is concerned about being unloved.

Thanks for the tip on Inside Job, Ron. Mencken in his prime was a journalistic idol of mine in college (as a journalism major). I've already added it to my *Want!* list.

I read Uncharted Territory, a novella by Connie Willis. A humorous read about 3 explorers on the planet Boohte and their indigenous guide, full of satirical political correctness. I found it on Hoopla.

I've finished both Blackout and All Clear. I hope I'll report on that in a day or so. But first, I'm reading...well, re-reading...The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. In All Clear, a military group is assigned to spread rumors that the D-Day invasion will take place at Calais, in hopes the Nazis will deploy their defenses there rather than Normandy. All the soldiers are named for characters in Wilde's play. Notably, all in the detachment are men, including the commandant who is named Lady Bracknell. See if I can make anything of this Willis joke.

>15 weird_O: I read both Blackout and All Clear as well. I loved both books, and I did not want them to end. I loved all the Agatha Christie references, and her cameo appearance.

>15 weird_O: I love it when reading one book sends me off to read another.

There really were "official" rumors about the D-Day landing happening elsewhere, weren't there?

>16 cbl_tn: Carrie, would you copy over here what you wrote on your thread about the Willis books? I'm so glad you enjoyed them. I just couldn't get with her style, somehow.

>14 Kristelh: Another satisfied customer! I wonder if I've just lost my taste for satire? I remember reading Catch-22 in college, and being unable to put it aside; I thought it was hysterical. I can't imagine trying to revisit it now, though.

>17 laytonwoman3rd: Sure!



Blackout by Connie Willis

In 2060, Oxford historians study history by traveling to the past. Three Oxford students are preparing for drops to World War II England. At the last moment, professor Dunworthy, changes the order of their assignments, except for Polly Churchill’s. She managed to avoid him before leaving for her assignment to observe Oxford Street shop girls during the Blitz. Mike Davies’s project is studying civilian heroes who participated in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Merope Ward’s project is studying refugee children evacuated from London into the country. When something goes wrong with the drops, all three historians find themselves stuck in World War II England, hoping against hope for their retrieval teams to arrive.

Connie Willis creates a believable world populated with memorable characters, from Merope/Eileen’s street urchins Alf and Binnie Hodbin, to Polly’s shelter “family”, to Mike’s Commander Harold and his grandson Jonathan and their rickety boat, the Lady Jane. My familiarity with London enhanced the book’s strong sense of place. The to-and-fro-ing of most of the characters became exhausting at times. Readers should be aware that this novel doesn’t stand on its own. It ends abruptly without resolving any of the plot threads. Readers will want to proceed immediately to All Clear for the conclusion.



All Clear by Connie Willis

All Clear picks up right where Blackout left off, with three time-traveling historians trapped in London during the Blitz. Optimistic Eileen (Merope), on her first time travel assignment, has assumed responsibility for the horrible Hodbin siblings while she waits on the retrieval team. Mike assumes the role of protector for his female colleagues. Polly has found a family of sorts in her shelter partners, who have formed a (mostly) amateur acting troupe, as her hope gradually fades that her 17-year-old devoted admirer, Colin, will find her and take her home as he promised to do if anything went wrong.

Willis masterfully pulls off a complex plot with threads in multiple time periods. Even the minor characters are well-rounded, and they remind me of the kinds of characters Dickens created. (And Dickens’ characters are the reason I love his books so much.) I suffered with the characters during the bombings and felt their growing despair as the retrieval team didn’t make its appearance. I rejoiced with each small victory. Even though I guessed where some of the plot threads were leading, Willis surprised me with her storytelling and its emotional impact. The books together number more than 1,000 pages, yet it seemed too short. I did not want to say goodbye to the characters I had grown to love.

I finished reading The Doomsday Book last week. I'm a little bit on a fence about the book. I can see Connie Willis has a gift for writing and the story moves along with ease while keeping the reader engaged. I did find a few problems with the story plot and, being an engineer by trade, I could not get past these flaws. Nevertheless, I'm glad I was introduced to this author and I'll be back to read the next book in the series.

>18 cbl_tn: Great reviews, Carrie. Thanks for sharing them here.

>19 annushka: I understand not being able to overlook technical flaws like that---I have trouble reading legal thrillers sometimes, because having worked as a paralegal for nearly 40 years, I often find authors playing fast and loose with how the law actually works. I'm sure every professional has this issue with some books written for a "general readership". I'm glad you've discovered a new author that may give you reading pleasures in the future, though!

The September thread for Howard Norman is up.