09-20-2011, 10:13 AM
These books won this years Hugo awards. And I have never been happier to get through a set of books in my life. 1200 pages of whining.
It's a time travel movie set against the backdrop of World War 2 in Britain. It's supposed to have the same characters as "Domesday Book" but it's been so long since I hated that book that I've blocked most of the story from my mind. But Greg, if you hated that book why are you reading this book? It got good reviews. It won the Hugo. I thought that would count for something. I know now the Hugos squat on a throne of lies.
The main part of the story takes place in 1940 in London. Nightly bomb raids cause everybody to run for the shelters. Our Time travelers always know where the bombs are going to fall so they are pretty safe in choosing which shelters to run to. The twist for the story is that their returns portals to get back to 2060 won't open. They are struck. For the next 1100 pages they try and figure out a way to get rescued and get back to their own time. And that is it.
We get zillions of scenes of them in the shelters crying about what can they do to get home. Or if they aren't crying, they are depressed because they are stuck. And if they aren't doing those two things, they fear that their presence is interfering with the space time continuum and that ultimately they will have changed the outcome of the war.
I guess the strength of the book is the depictions of the blitz and how the British people stood up to the nightly terror. If you are a novelist, you want to show this through the eyes of your characters.
There are also scenes of later in the war as the Allies are getting ready to invade France and all the subterfuge surrounding that period. Also several of the characters from the Blitz period are here, too, but they have different names, which I think is a bit of a cheat.
At some points, Willis also writes the same scene from different characters perspectives. Early on we have the ambulance drivers trying to rescue a man underneath a bombed out building. Later on we tell the same story from the man's perspective underneath the burned out building.
Maybe if the books had been shorter. Maybe if the characters had done something besides deliver expository dialogue all day long and the same expository dialogue all day long. Maybe I should have just stopped reading when I started to get irritated.
Please cross Connie Willis off my reading list.
It's a time travel movie set against the backdrop of World War 2 in Britain. It's supposed to have the same characters as "Domesday Book" but it's been so long since I hated that book that I've blocked most of the story from my mind. But Greg, if you hated that book why are you reading this book? It got good reviews. It won the Hugo. I thought that would count for something. I know now the Hugos squat on a throne of lies.
The main part of the story takes place in 1940 in London. Nightly bomb raids cause everybody to run for the shelters. Our Time travelers always know where the bombs are going to fall so they are pretty safe in choosing which shelters to run to. The twist for the story is that their returns portals to get back to 2060 won't open. They are struck. For the next 1100 pages they try and figure out a way to get rescued and get back to their own time. And that is it.
We get zillions of scenes of them in the shelters crying about what can they do to get home. Or if they aren't crying, they are depressed because they are stuck. And if they aren't doing those two things, they fear that their presence is interfering with the space time continuum and that ultimately they will have changed the outcome of the war.
I guess the strength of the book is the depictions of the blitz and how the British people stood up to the nightly terror. If you are a novelist, you want to show this through the eyes of your characters.
There are also scenes of later in the war as the Allies are getting ready to invade France and all the subterfuge surrounding that period. Also several of the characters from the Blitz period are here, too, but they have different names, which I think is a bit of a cheat.
At some points, Willis also writes the same scene from different characters perspectives. Early on we have the ambulance drivers trying to rescue a man underneath a bombed out building. Later on we tell the same story from the man's perspective underneath the burned out building.
Maybe if the books had been shorter. Maybe if the characters had done something besides deliver expository dialogue all day long and the same expository dialogue all day long. Maybe I should have just stopped reading when I started to get irritated.
Please cross Connie Willis off my reading list.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit