Part One: Blackout

I found Connie Willis's latest book, Blackout, rather unfulfilling. She seems to have learned an incredible amount about the early days of World War II in England, with an emphasis on the Battle of Britain and the bombing of London. Unfortunately, much of this book seem to exist mostly to convey this information to me.

Her usual strengths of dialog and capturing the essence of young researchers drew me in, and I quickly became interested in the projects of Polly, Eileen, and Mike (I'll use their project names so they don't get confused). Obviously the three of them would somehow have to come together, but my patience wore a bit thin after four hundred pages. Each page was fun to read, but the story wasn't progressing much. The book feels like part one of the entire novel; a novel I'll probably enjoy, but one that is definitely not complete yet. Those of my friends who are waiting for the next book to come out will have a much better reading experience. Yes, I knew going into it that there was a second book, but I still hoped for a more complete fill; I was happier with the ending of Lois Bujold's Sharing Knife: Beguilement, and that I knew had never been planned as a stand alone book. I shall think of it as a library book that I didn't finish and that I have to request again to get the last bit; there, that's better! (no grade until the end)