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Connie Willis

1945-

Reviewed by Bill Capossere
and Kat Hooper

Connie Willis has won ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. Ms. Willis was graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1967. She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband who teaches physics at the university. Connie Willis was inducted into the Science Fiction Museum and Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009. Find out more at Connie Willis's website.

Click covers to view available formats, including audio & Kindle.

Time-Traveling from Oxford — (1992-2010) These are related novels involving time-traveling college students and professors at Oxford. All Clear is the direct sequel to Black Out.

Doomsday Book — (1992) Publisher: For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received. But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin — barely of age herself — finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours. Five years in the writing by one of science fiction's most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

To Say Nothing of the Dog — (1997) Publisher: From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel... Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier. But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right — not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.

Blackout — (2010) Available at Audible. Reviewed by Bill below. Publisher: Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place, with scores of time-traveling historians being sent into the past. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser into letting her go to VE-Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, and dive-bombing Stukas — to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

All Clear — (2010) Available at Audible. Publisher: In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060 — the setting for several of her most celebrated works — and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler’s bombers attempt to pummel London into submission. Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory — but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong. Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians’ supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own — to find three missing needles in the haystack of history. Told with compassion, humor, and an artistry both uplifting and devastating, All Clear is more than just the triumphant culmination of the adventure that began with Blackout. It’s Connie Willis’s most humane, heartfelt novel yet — a clear-eyed celebration of faith, love, and the quiet, ordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice too often overlooked by history.

Blackout and All Clear

With Blackout and All Clear, which together comprise a single fluid story, Connie Willis returns to the time travel universe that was home to her acclaimed early novel Doomsday Book. If anything, she has only gotten better with, ahem, time.

In the late 21st century, time travel is a tool employed by historians to observe and to take part in historic events, though it appears that something inherent about the travel precludes them from being sent to extremely pivotal points and settings so as to ensure they do not change history. In Blackout and All Clear, the time travel setting is World War II, England. Merope Ward has been sent to observe the children’s evacuation to the countryside, Mike Davies ends up at the Dunkirk evacuation, and Polly Churchill is going to be a shop girl in London during the Blitz.

Blackout begins with a sense of chaotic foreboding as time travel assignments are being switched on the fly, the head of the department Professor Dunworthy, is clearly nervous about something, and there is talk of a scientist who has some theories about the dangers of time travel. When the students arrive, more seems to have gone wrong as they either end up at the wrong place (Mike, for instance, wasn’t supposed to be at Dunkirk — one of those pivot points supposedly off-limits) or the wrong time by a weeks or months. Then, their “drops,” where they’re supposed to check in or return to the 21st century, are either non-existent or somehow damaged or, worse, something has happened back in the 21st century to prevent their return. Soon, they find themselves living real lives in an unfamiliar time and affecting events they weren’t supposed to affect. Mike, for instance, saves a single soldier in the evacuation and thinks perhaps that wasn’t so bad, until he learns that single soldier went on to save another 500. Is it possible, then, that the theory they can’t change the past, and thus the future, isn’t correct?

At first we move between stories as characters desperately try to return home and avoid changing the past. However, eventually events and characters converge and we watch their homeward attempts begin to blend with resignation that perhaps they are stuck in the past forever.

Willis’ characterization is top notch, not only with the three major characters, but those they come into contact with as well, from two hellion children that Merope must deal with to a famous English actor Polly shares a shelter with to an aged ship captain (both the man and his ship are aged) whom Mike meets at Dunkirk. The characterization is full and sharp from the smallest character to those we spend hundreds of pages with.

The same sharp and vivid detail is seen in the setting as well, as Blitz WWII is brought completely to life: its sights and sounds and smells, its terrors and absurdities and mundanities. And as with the characterization, this attention to detail and richness of presentation is layered with equal love on the “big” events such as the V2 attacks to even the tiniest moments: a new dress unpacked, a dog in a street, a scrawled phrase on a wall.

It’s a wholly immersive historical novel whose urgency and poignancy of plot and character is enhanced by the time travel framework, the suspense over whether they’ll find a way home, and the anxiety over the past and future being changed utterly. But the key is that this element enhances the story’s underlying strengths; without the sci fi trappings, the reader would still be compelled to read and be moved by the events. Keep All Clear by your side, as when you speed through Blackout, you won’t want to waste any time picking up the rest of the story, which concludes in powerfully bittersweet fashion.

Is it flawless? No. Personally, I could see dropping a hundred pages or so (though that’s small over two relatively large books) and sometimes events work out a bit coincidentally, but this eventually is subsumed within the logical underpinning of the story’s premise and so while it distracts at first, it eventually becomes a “oh, never mind” kind of reaction.

Brilliance Audio's versions comes with an interesting introduction by the author which will equally pique your interest in the book as well as, I hate to say, make you praise the decision to not have Ms. Willis actually read the entire work. The actual reader is Katherine Kellgren, and she does an excellent job. There are a lot of characters in this novel and Kellgren does a great job of distinguishing among them, slipping easily in and out of gender, age, class, and character/narrator mode, modulating accent, tone, pitch, volume, and rhythm as needed (along with, obviously, emotion). As usual with voices, though, your mileage will vary. While I think Kellgren does a fantastic job of distinguishing characters, I confess that the pitch of her voice, even as varied as it is among characters, would wear on me a bit over extended listening, say for an hour or longer. Less than that it’s wholly entertaining. If you don’t plan on major sustained listening, then I wouldn’t foresee this being an issue at all. Otherwise, you may want to sample a bit of her voice first.

In the end, the single story comprised of Blackout and All Clear is a wonderful reading experience that draws you in fully to both time and place and character. One of my favorite reads of the year and thus, highly recommended. —Bill Capossere

Other Novels, Novellas, and Story Collections:

Water Witch — (1982) With Cynthia Felice. Publisher: At the instigation of her con-artist father, Deza masquerades as a witch who can control the water supply of the desert planet of Mahali, in order to deceive its rulers and become rich, but the deception backfires.

Fire Watch — (1985) Publisher: Winner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner "Fire Watch," set in the universe of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history's hardest lessons. In "A Letter from the Clearys," a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In "The Sidon in the Mirror," a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.

Lincoln's Dreams — (1987) Publisher: For Jeff Johnston, a young historical reseacher for a Civil War novelist, reality is redefined on a bitter cold night near the close of a lingering winter. He meets Annie, an intense and lovely young woman suffering from vivid, intense nightmares. Haunted by the dreamer and her unrelenting dreams, Jeff leads Annie on an emotional odyssey through the heartland of the Civil War in search of a cure. On long-silenced battlefields their relationship blossoms–two obsessed lovers linked by unbreakable chains of history, torn by a duty that could destroy them both. Suspenseful, moving, and highly compelling, Lincoln’s Dreams is a novel of rare imaginative power.

The Last of the Winnebagos — (1988) Publisher: In this Hugo Award-winning novella, dogs have become extinct after an epidemic, and the Humane Society has been granted extraordinary police powers to protect the remaining animals. As the Society investigates the death of a jackal on a highway, its attention turns to a photojournalist whose own dog was one of the last to survive.

The Last of the Winnebagos

After a virus has killed all of the dogs on Earth, the Humane Society (“The Society”) has been given the power to prosecute and punish anyone who, even accidentally, harms an animal. The government has started putting walls around highways, tracking vehicles with videocameras, and banning recreational vehicles from the roads.

After a photojournalist stops to report a dead jackal on the highway, he becomes involved in The Society’s investigation. During the process he meets an elderly couple who claim to own the last Winnebago, and he visits the woman who accidentally killed his own dog, one of the last to survive, 15 years earlier. Along the way, he keeps hoping to get a candid photo that will show, through its owner’s face, one of these beloved dogs who’ve been lost.

The Last of the Winnebagos, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella after it was published in Asimov’s in 1988, is a touching story about guilt and forgiveness, the pain of the loss of a beloved animal companion, and the extraordinarily stupid things that the government sometimes does in its quest to do the right thing.

The Last of the Winnebagos is a beautifully written and often poignant story. The last scene is particularly moving. However, I had a hard time giving in to the premise that the Humane Society had such free rein, so to speak, in the U.S. government.

I listened to Dennis Boutsikaris narrate Audible Frontiers’ version which is 2 hours long. He did a great job. —Kat Hooper

Light Raid — (1989) With Cynthia Felice. Publisher: As civil war rages between eastern and western North America — fought with massive laser beams called "light raids" — young Ariadne works desperately to clear her mother's name from a charge of treason while struggling to survive the deadly onslaught.

Impossible Things — (1993) Publisher: A collection of science fiction tales by the winner of six Nebula and two Hugo awards features a tale of an outrageous colony in outer space, a distraught woman obsessed with the past, and creatures who roam London during the Blitz.

Remake — (1994) Publisher: Winner of more Hugo and Nebula Awards than any other science fiction author, Connie Willis is one of the most powerfully imaginative writers of our time. In Remake, she explores the timeless themes of emotion and technology, reality and illusion, and the bittersweet place where they intersect to make art. Remake. It's the Hollywood of the future, where moviemaking's been computerized and live-action films are a thing of the past. It's a Hollywood where Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe are starring together in A Star Is Born, and if you don't like the ending, you can change it with the stroke of a key. A Hollywood of warmbodies and sim-sex, of drugs and special effects, where anything is possible. Except for what one starry-eyed young woman wants to do: dance in the movies. It's an impossible dream, but Alis is not willing to give up. With a little magic and a lot of luck, she just might get her happy ending after all.

Uncharted Territory — (1994) Publisher: Noted planetary surveyors Carson and Findriddy undertake the task of mapping the planetoid Boohte, a mission complicated by their companions, a young intern specializing in mating customs and a native guide who levies fines to pay for roulette wheels.

Bellwether — (1996) Publisher: Pop culture, chaos theory and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula winning author of Doomsday Book. Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.

Promised Land — (1997) With Cynthia Felice. Publisher: It has been fifteen years since Delanna Milleflores set foot on Keramos. Now her mother has died, and she has returned only to settle and sell her estate. But Keramos has some surprising laws. To sell her farm, Delanna must first live on it for one year. And along with her land comes one Tarlton Tanner, heir to the adjoining farm. A man who, at the moment of her mother's death, became Delanna's husband...

Passage — (2001) Publisher: Dr. Joanna Lander is a psychologist specializing in near-death experiences. She is about to get help from a new doctor with the power to give her the chance to get as close to death as anyone can. A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Joanna’s first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined — so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why that place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid. Yet just when Joanna thinks she understands, she’s in for the biggest surprise of all — ashattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page.

Inside Job — (2005) Publisher: Connie Willis is the master of the science fiction novella, from seminal efforts such as "Blued Moon," "Fire Watch," "The Last of the Winnebagos," and beyond. "Inside Job" takes its place on that permanent shelf, a tale of spiritualists, séances, skeptics, and a love that just might be able to rise about it all.

Inside Job

I have a goal of eventually reading all of the major SFF award winners, including novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories, so that’s why I picked up Connie Willis’s Inside Job when I saw that it was available on audio. Inside Job won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2006. Just a couple of months ago, by the way, Connie Willis received the SFWA Grand Master Award (January 2012).

Inside Job is a story about Rob, a professional debunker of pseudoscience, and his new partner Kildy Ross, a beautiful and famous actress. They attend séances and visit faith healers, psychics, and palm readers, always figuring out how these hucksters are cheating the gullible and publishing their findings in their magazine, The Jaundiced Eye.

Mostly it’s the same thing over and over: an earpiece, hidden wires, a confederate in the right place. Their latest case, however, is the toughest one ever. When they attend a seminar by the new psychic in town, Ariaura Keller, she begins channeling the spirit of H.L. Mencken, the famous skeptic who reported on the Scopes Trial and famously said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

Rob and Kildy are determined to discover how Ariaura is channeling Mencken. But, more puzzling, why would a psychic who makes money tricking her audience be regaling them with monologues by H.L. Mencken? The resulting investigation is exciting, suspenseful, full of delicious logical quandaries, and often very funny.

Eventually the reader wonders if there’s such a thing as being too skeptical. At some point, you have to have faith in something or someone. What kind of relationship would you have with your loved ones, for example, if you kept demanding irrevocable proof when they said they loved you?

Inside Job was a quick read and a fun and educational story with likable characters and a delightfully silly plot. I listened to Audible Frontiers’ version which was narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris, who I liked very much. The audio version is 2½ hours long and costs about $7 at Audible.com. Or you can read the full text of Inside Job for free at Asimov’s. —Kat Hooper

D.A. — (2007) Publisher: Theodora Baumgarten has just been selected as an IASA space cadet, and therein lies the problem. She didn't apply for the ultra-coveted posting, and doesn't relish spending years aboard the ship to which she's been assigned. But the plucky young heroine, in true Heinlein fashion, has no plans to go along with the program. Aided by her hacker best friend Kimkim, in a screwball comedy that has become Connie Wills' hallmark, Theodora will stop at nothing to uncover the conspiracy that has her shanghaied.

The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories — (2010) Publisher: Subterranean Press is proud to announce this mammoth (over 250,000 words) career retrospective by Connie Willis! "Variety is the soul of pleasure," And variety is what this comprehensive new collection of Connie Willis is all about. The stories cover the entire spectrum, from sad to sparkling to terrifying, from classics to hard-to-find treasures with everything in between — orangutans, Egypt, earthworms, roast goose, college professors, mothers-in-law, aliens, secret codes, Secret Santas, tube stations, choir practice, the post office, the green light on Daisy's dock, weddings, divorces, death, and assorted plagues, from scarlet fever to "It's a Wonderful Life." And a dog. Famous for her "sure-hand plotting, unforgettable characters, and top-notch writing," Willis has been called, "the most relentlessly delightful science fiction writer alive," and there are numerous examples here. Among them, Willis's most famous stories — the Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning "Fire Watch" and "Even the Queen" and "The Last of the Winnebagos" — along with undiscovered gems like Willis's heartfelt homage to Jack Williamson, "Nonstop to Portales." Her magical Christmas stories are here, too, from "Newsletter" to "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know..." which last year was made into the TV movie, Snow Wonder, starring Mary Tyler Moore. We've collected stories from throughout Willis's career, from early ones like "Cash Crop" and "Daisy, in the Sun," right up to her newest stories, including the wonderful "The Winds of Marble Arch." There's literally something for everyone here. If you're a diehard Willis fan, you'll be delighted with hard-to-find treasures like the until-now uncollected, "The Soul Selects Her Own Society..." If you've never read Connie Willis, this is your chance to discover "A Letter from the Clearys" and, well, "Chance." To say nothing of, "At the Rialto," the funniest story ever written about quantum physicists. And Willis's chilling, "All My Darling Daughters." And...oh, there are too many great stories here to list and pleasures galore. So enjoy!

All About Emily — (2011) Publisher: Theater legend Claire Havilland fears she might be entering the Sunset Boulevard phase of her career. That is, until her manager arranges a media appearance with her biggest fan — a famous artificial intelligence pioneer's teenage niece. After precocious Emily's backstage visit, Claire decides she's in a different classic film altogether. While unnaturally charming Emily swears she harbors no desire for the spotlight, Claire wonders if she hasn't met her very own Eve Harrington from All About Eve. But the story becomes more complex as dreams of fame give way to concerns about choice, free will, and identity. With this long, 17,000 word novelette, acclaimed author Connie Willis combines the glamour of old Hollywood and the eternal allure of Broadway to explore the cutting edge robotics of a richly-imagined near future. All About Emily is sure to join 'The Last of the Winnebagos,' 'Inside Job' and 'All Seated on the Ground' as one of multiple-award-winner Willis' seminal works.

All About Emily

Claire Havilland is an aging Broadway actress who considers herself too old to wear a leotard and fishnets, but is not quite ready to be called a “legend.” One of her most successful roles was playing Margo Channing in the Broadway musical adaption of the film All About Eve. When Claire meets a charming young woman named Emily, who seems to know all about Claire’s career, Claire feels threatened. Could Emily be planning to steal Claire’s career, as Eve Harrington did to Margo Channing in All About Eve?

Connie Willis’s new novelette All About Emily (only 96 pages) blends Broadway and science fiction — something I don’t think I’ve ever seen done before — and it works. It was fun to explore Manhattan’s Theater District and to learn about the history of the Rockettes and Radio City Music Hall while thinking about robotics, identity, ambition, and what it means to be human.

The plot of All About Emily moves quickly, never lags, and kept me thoroughly entertained for the couple of hours that it took me to read the book. Willis’s characters, who manage to become surprisingly well-developed in such a small space, are delightful — I was completely engrossed in their story.

All About Emily is the first of Connie Willis’s novelettes that I’ve read, though I own several more of them. I hope to get to them soon, and I’m going to rent All About Eve this weekend. —Kat Hooper

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