All Clear - Connie Willis
Having now finished both books I’m now wondering why ? Like the first, All Clear
is nicely written but it all gets a bit tedious. It does have some surprises, but you’d expect that in over 1000 pages. The last 50 pages I was just hoping that it would end soon, as I’d worked out most of the ending and nothing was surprising. As other reviewers have noted, it really needed to be edited down to
one book. It doesn’t help that her two plot devices; will time travellers alter history and will time travellers ever get back to their own time have now been overused. There is an attempt to put a new twist on these, but it doesn’t work that well, possibly because the book is just too long to maintain interest.
If you haven’t read any of her books then this is not the place to
start, try Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog, which are both excellent.
