Blackout
Celebrated author Connie Willis returns with her first novel since Passage! The opening salvo of a powerful two-book campaign, Blackout is a sweeping time-travel adventure with ties to Willis’ most popular novels, The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog.
It’s the year 2060, and the time-travel lab at Oxford is sending three scholars into one of the most dangerous periods of the 20th century—the Second World War. Eileen’s drop point is a remote British manor where she can research the Children’s Evacuation at the outbreak of the war. Polly will be masquerading as a London shop girl while she studies people’s behavior during the Blitz. And Mike Davis is going to observe the rescue of soldiers from Dunkirk to discover what qualities turn ordinary people into heroes.
But when each of their drops back to the future refuses to open, these three refugees must jump from the safety of remote vantage points to total embeddedness. Can they find each other and figure out how to return to their own time before it’s too late?
Told with passion, humor, sympathy and a historian’s understanding of the time, Blackout once again proves why Connie Willis is so beloved by both critics and readers alike.
Hardcover Book : 512 pages
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books/Random Hous ( February 02, 2010 )
Item #: 12-940682
ISBN: 9780553803198
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 inches
Product Weight: 19.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Battle of Britain up-close. 
April 16, 2012
Blackout, and its sequel, All Clear, are hard to put down. This is a view of Britain's World War II battle that will grip and hold you fast. I was alternately amazed and impressed by the courage and resilience of the "contemps" and disappointed by the stupidity and - yes, arrogance - of the time-traveling "historians". The solution to the mystery is surprising and satisfying.
Reviewer: Nan L
Kind of a cheat 
April 20, 2010
As another reviewer said I missed that there was a sequal to this story and kept waiting for the story to start to wrap up and it didn't. There wasn't even an attempt to end this story. The writing just stopped. I felt kind of cheated.
Reviewer: Pat R
awesome
April 12, 2010
I am a big Connie Willis fan and this book is one of her best! I also love books set during WWII so for me it was a double hitter.While I have read other reviews that fault her for the technology, this was minor, for me the story line more than made up for it and I cannot wait for the sequel!
Reviewer: sarah h
The Blitz up close and personal
April 06, 2010
Unlike other readers I knew it wouldn't end with this book. I read the author's remarks and acknowledgements( she stated "one book became two") before starting the book. It is fast paced and kept me turning pages to find out what happened next. The book paints a picture of what a person would see and feel in England during the blitz. I am waiting impatiently for the sequel.
Reviewer: Rebecca B
a pleasure, as always, but I wish I'd realized it had a sequel
April 03, 2010
Ms. Willis has long been among my favorite authors, but I agree with another reviewer who said she isn't to be trusted. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. "To Say Nothing of the Dog" made me laugh with joy and "Doomsday" made me weep - I loved them both! I have to admit that for the last 50 pages or so of "Blackout" I was increasingly worried that she was not starting to wrap things up, since I (like so many others) had missed the warning that this had a sequel. For a while I thought she might even deus ex machina her way out of the corner I thought she was writing herself into, which would have been VERY disappointing! Instead I was relieved and delighted to discover that the story would go on. I can understand why some were disturbed by the abruptness of the ending, but I have no complaints and look forward to the conclusion with great anticipation.
Reviewer: Carl C
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