Blackout

Maybe it’s just because I’m used to this style of storytelling from To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book, but I actually felt like Blackout went very fast, despite its length. It’s an impressive novel for the way it balances historical detail with engaging storytelling. The multitude of characters, settings, and storylines is a little overwhelming at first, but Willis does make everything clear and easy to follow fairly quickly. The confusing tangle of characters and stories seems to even enhance the sense of chaos in future Oxford as the novel opens. Through all of the separate stories of historians and their chosen events runs the slow realization that all is not right with time travel and the world. While the book focuses mostly on the minutiae of daily life, this sci-fi type mystery also gives it a grander scope. This is clearly the first half of a story, so there is almost no resolution to be had at the end, but it did leave me eager to get my hands on All Clear!

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