Bellwether by Connie Willis

Anyone familiar with this blog knows that I'm a big fan of Connie Willis. I choose her four part Oxford time travel series as my #1 favorite time travel book.(I had classified the four volumes as one "book").

For the first non-time travel book by Willis, I picked her 1996 novel, Bellwether.  Like her novel To Say Nothing of The Dog , this book is clever, witty and funny in the right places. I highly recommend it.

That being said, I am puzzled by one thing regarding this wonderful book. I don't really understand why it is classified as "Science Fiction". Sure, it's fiction and there are loads of scientists in the book, as well as lots talk of science in general. However, there's no time travel, nor aliens nor space travel as you'd usually associate with Sci-fi.

Still, I can't say enough how much I enjoyed this novel.

All Clear

After reading The Anubis Gates  the first of February, I decided that I'd read only Sci-fi novels focusing on time travel for the next few months. I've just finished my fifth novel on this subject - All Clear by Connie Willis. All Clear is the 4th of Willis' so-called, "Oxford Time Travel series", the first three being The Doomsday Book ,To Say Nothing of the Dog , and Blackout .

All Clear is essentially the second part of a two part novel, Blackout/All Clear , which tells the stories of time traveling historians who've gone to the past in order to research World War II.

Willis has done an excellent job chronicling the lives of Brits living through those difficult times. The novels feel as if they were written during the war.

Being a time travel novel, there are, of course problems involving the numerous paradoxes brought on by time travel. A good deal of the two novels focus on the difficulties the time travelers have trying to return to 2060.

All four of Willis' time travel novels have been awarded the Hugo Award - making Willis the first author to win Hugo awards for all books in a series.

Earlier, I gave To Say Nothing of the Dog a rating of 5 stars out 5......a perfect score. Of the four, "the dog" is my favorite. I'm giving each of the other 3 novels in the series a rating of 4.9 stars out of 5. I've enjoyed all four, but I can't give the others an equal rating with my favorite.

Blackout by Connie Willis

As I've mentioned before, I first came upon To Say Nothing of The Dog by Connie Willis when I started looking for Sci-fi novels on time travel and found it listed among "23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books". I hadn't realized at the time that the novel was the 2nd in a four part series by Willis.

I then went on to read the first in the series, The Doomsday Book .Fortunately, reading the 2nd book first, and the 1st book second didn't disrupt the flow of the series.

The same cannot be said of books three and four - Blackout and All Clear . Although published as two novels, the two are essentially one novel. The events in Blackout remain unresolved at the end of that volume.

The events chronicled in the two volumes take place during World War II. According to Wikipedia,Willis worked on the story for almost eight years - 2 years longer than the actual war. I'm on the second volume now. The two volumes together run more than 1,100 pages. I'm hoping it takes me less than eight years to finish. 

Obviously, I'll more to say once I've read the second volume.

The Doomsday Book

As I've mentioned earlier, starting in February, and continuing on until perhaps past March, I'll be reading Sci-fi novels pertaining to time travel. I had come upon a website listing 23 time travel novels, and I added seven, making my list 30.

I've just finished #3 - The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. When I had read Willis' To Say Nothing of The Dog a few days ago, I hadn't realized that that novel was # 2 in a four part series about Oxford time-traveling historians. I loved that novel, and decided I'd read the entire series. Fortunately, reading the 2nd novel first, and the 1st novel second doesn't cause a problem.

The Doomsday Book was first published in 1992 and the "present" in the novel is the winter of 2054/2055. The time traveler, Kivrin Engle goes back to the early 14th century.

One of the things I liked about To Say Nothing of The Dog was the humor. Although there is the occasional humorous episode in The Doomsday Book it is far more dramatic than "the dog". Never the less, I loved the The Doomsday Book just as much.

Written well before our current COVID pandemic, Willis writes of an influenza epidemic in Oxford in 2055. There is also mention of an earlier pandemic - although the specific year of the pandemic isn't given. Willis' prediction of how people will act during the 2055 influenza epidemic is quite similar to how many acted in our real (current) pandemic.

The final 2 volumes in the Oxford time travel series are Blackout and All Clear. I'm starting #3 today.

To Say Nothing of The Dog

It was while reading The Anubis Gates , by Tim Powers that I decided that, for the next few months, I would concentrate on reading Sci-fi novels dealing with time travel . I had done something similar last year when I spent a month reading dystopian novels and a couple of months reading only mystery novels written by Agatha Christie.

I had happened upon a website containing "23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books"......a good place to start. I also added seven additional time travel novels, making my list thirty instead of 23. While still reading the Powers' ebook, I looked over the online list and decided my next time travel book would be To Say Nothing of The Dog  by Connie Willis. I had two reasons for picking this one. 1) It was the last one mentioned on the online list, and 2) I was especially impressed that the title of this book references another favorite of mine - Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men In a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog).

There's time travel back to the Victorian era with three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog) and to the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940. It's part Sci-fi, part Mystery novel à la Hercule Poirot. One reviewer calls the book "hilarious". It is funny, and charming and witty although I rarely call anything "hilarious".
 

 I  had found a good deal of The Anubis Gates heavy,but quite the opposite with this book. I had given The Anubis Gates a rating of 3 stars out of 5, I'm giving To Say Nothing of The Dog ,the top rating of 5 stars out of 5.