| Blackout/All Clear | |
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Blackout first edition hardcover |
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| Author(s) | Connie Willis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Spectra |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | Blackout – 512 pages All Clear – 656 pages |
| ISBN | Blackout – ISBN 0553803190 All Clear – ISBN 9780553807677 |
Blackout and All Clear are the two volumes that comprise a 2010 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. Blackout was published February 2, 2010 by Spectra. The second part, the conclusion All Clear, was released as a separate book on October 19, 2010.[1] The diptych won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel,[2] the 2011 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel,[3] and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel.[4][5] These two volumes are the most recent of four books and a short story that Willis has written involving time travel from Oxford during the mid 21st century.[6]
Contents |
Willis imagines a near future (first introduced in her 1982 story "Fire Watch" and featured in two of her previous novels: Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog) in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is mainly conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the mid-21st century. In their world, time travel has been known since the early 21st century. The time travel device remains in the future, and travelers are sent through a portal called "the Net," which places them in a particular location and time. They can return from the same location when someone in the future re-opens the Net for them at the agreed upon "rendezvous" time.
Historians in Willis' world believe that the rules of time travel resist possible alterations to the past by preventing visits to certain places or times. In some cases, the machine used for time travel will refuse to function, rendering the trip impossible. In other cases, "slippage"--a shift in the exact target in time and space--occurs. The time traveler arrives at the nearest place and time suitable for preventing a paradox; although sometimes this is only a few minutes later than planned, it can be as much as several years.
In addition to slippage, which the technicians operating the net cannot control or predict, there are other reasons why a historian might not be able to travel to a certain time. Once a time traveler has visited a certain date, he or she can never go to that same time again. The 21st-century authorities controlling time travel also have rules and can deem some historical periods too dangerous for time travel, even though those times might be theoretically accessible.
In a February 12, 2010 interview[7] Connie Willis said:
What are Blackout and All Clear about? They’re about Dunkirk and ration books and D-Day and V-1 rockets, about tube shelters and Bletchley Park and gas masks and stirrup pumps and Christmas pantomimes and cows and crossword puzzles and the deception campaign. And mostly the book’s about all the people who "did their bit" to save the world from Hitler—Shakespearean actors and ambulance drivers and vicars and landladies and nurses and WRENs and RAF pilots and Winston Churchill and General Patton and Agatha Christie—heroes all.
It's the year 2060, and the history students at Oxford University are a hair's breadth away from revolting. Mr. Dunworthy keeps changing their assignments at the last minute. Michael Davies, who had prepared for a first-hand look at the events of Pearl Harbor, abruptly finds himself instead being sent to witness the response to the Battle of Dunkirk. The constant changes mean that the wardrobe department can't assemble the proper wardrobe for Polly Churchill, who plans to work as a shopgirl during the Blitz if she can avoid running into Mr. Dunworthy before her jump time. Merope Ward, embedded in the staff of an English country manor overseeing the child refugees from London, finds herself utterly unable to find the support she needs to complete her first assignment in the past. Dunworthy himself is nowhere to be found, having set off for a meeting with another academic who theorizes that continued time travel has pushed the laws that govern it safely to the breaking point.
When they make it to World War II England, all initially seems fairly well. Merope excels at her assignment despite the devilish evacuated street urchins Binnie and Alf. Polly manages to secure employment at a local shop. And Michael lands in generally the right place, a few days late and a couple dozen miles to the south.
All Clear begins where Blackout left off, with Michael Davies (as Mike Davis), Polly Churchill (as Polly Sebastian), and Merope Ward (as Eileen O'Reilly) trapped in 1940 Britain during the Blitz. Just as in Blackout, the novel switches between multiple people and times.
As the novel opens, Polly Churchill, who is posing as Polly Sebastian, a shop assistant, realizes that she has a deadline. She had already visited Oxford and London in 1943. Since she was able to do that, and she now believes she is trapped in 1940, she must either have returned to the future by 1943, or died. She is convinced that she will in fact die. Meanwhile two other time travelers, Merope Ward (posing as Eileen O'Reilly) and Michael Davies (posing as an American journalist, Mike Davis) have found Polly after discovering that their drops are also unable to return them to the future. Mike originally went to Dover to observe the Dunkirk evacuation, but became an unwilling participant. Eileen began observing the evacuation of children from London to the countryside in 1939. Now together, the three believe that their own actions, particularly in Mike's case, may have changed the future so that there is no time travel, and that possibly it involves Germany winning the war.
Knowing something has gone wrong which prevents them from returning to 2060 Oxford, the three time travelers attempt to determine an escape plan, but none of their efforts are successful. Gerald Phipps, who was supposed to be at Bletchley Park studying Ultra, never came through to his assignment. Due to a misunderstanding, they only realize that another Oxford historian, John Bartholomew, is also in their place and time less than a day before he will leave. Frantically they try to get to him, but the three are separated and repeatedly delayed, not helped by the fact that this is the night of December 29, 1940, some of the worst raids of the war. They are unable to find Bartholomew before he returns to 2054 Oxford. When Mike and Eileen figure out that Polly has a deadline in June 1943 – meaning that if she isn’t out by then she’ll die, since she’s already visited that time – their search for a way out becomes even more desperate. Their frustration turns into tragedy when Mike is killed during a raid. Eileen refuses to accept his death, but upon realizing Alf and Binnie’s mother has been dead for months, volunteers to raise the orphans, giving her life meaning.
In 2060 Oxford Mr. Dunworthy sends himself on a rescue mission to retrieve Polly in September 1940. However, when he arrives at St Paul’s Cathedral he is unable to determine the date before the raids start. (St. Paul's, and especially one of the paintings in the Cathedral, The Light of the World, are viewed several times by most of the important characters in the book. They are either inspired or depressed by their current view of the painting.) When he realizes it is December 1940, he becomes hopeless and distraught. Polly stumbles across him in the cathedral a few weeks later. He explains that slippage isn’t a result of the time continuum trying to prevent historians from changing the past as was previously thought, but is a response to changes they’d already caused. The continuum around World War II is in such disarray that it has sealed itself off to time travel, and will engage in ‘corrections’ – likely the death of the historians and those they have influenced. Their worst fears – that they have been able to influence the past and cause discrepancies – have been realized, possibly to the point the war will be lost.
However, all hope is not lost. Mike faked his own death and in 1944 is engaged in Operation Fortitude, a misinformation campaign. He is able to plant notices in newspapers hinting where Polly and Eileen are located in the hopes that someone in 2060 Oxford will find the notices and be able to rescue the girls. Another potential rescuer is Colin Templer, an overeager teenager from 2060 Oxford with a crush on Polly. He goes back to 1944 and finds Mike, right after he has been hit by a bomb and helped by a clueless 1944 Polly. Mike explains that Polly and Eileen are together and falls unconscious as Colin brings him back to 2060 Oxford. Colin also goes to the 1970s for research and 1995 to try to find someone who knew Polly. To his surprise, he meets an elderly Binnie, who tells him Eileen died in 1987. Binnie also revealed that she has learned all about time travel and has been looking for him through the years to tell him where and when he can rescue the stranded historians. Equipped with this knowledge, Colin is able to return to 1941 to rescue Polly and Mr. Dunworthy.
Polly’s worries about leading to the deaths of those around her by interfering do not prevent her from saving the life of Sir Godfrey in a bombing. She finally realizes what is going on as she lies recovering in the hospital; the historians have caused small things to happen which ultimately led to winning the war. She concludes that they’re stuck in World War II not to be killed by the continuum, but because there are things they need to do so that the war is won and history is as it should be.
In April 1941, an older Colin comes through at St. Paul's and finds the historians. Polly and Mr. Dunworthy leave with Colin to return to 2060 Oxford, but Eileen stays behind. She reasons that she must remain in the past so she can tell Colin in the future where to find them, and she refuses to abandon Alf and Binnie. Colin tells them that Mike had faked his own death, but died from his 1944 injuries. Finally Polly, Mr. Dunworthy, and Colin return to the St. Paul's drop and Oxford. Eileen, Alf, and Binnie stay behind to live their lives in the past. Binnie meets Colin in 1995, and gives him information that helps him plan his rescue.
While waiting for the drop to open for her to return to Oxford, Polly also realizes that there is a resemblance between the grown-up Colin and Eileen, implying that she becomes his ancestor. Eileen also seemed to see this, since she called Colin "dear boy" and said "I will always be with you" before they left. Thus Eileen had another reason to remain behind in 1941.
Connie Willis worked on story for almost eight years, during which she pushed "everyone's patience to the limit". [5]
Michael Dirda of The Washington Post said that "Blackout is, by turns, witty, suspenseful, harrowing and occasionally comic to the point of slapstick."[8] Adrienne Martini of Locus Online called the 1940s Britain that Willis created "richly textured".[9] Julie Phillips of The Village Voice described All Clear as "neither tragedy nor comedy, but a mystery story with touches of grief and slapstick."[10]
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