This book was unnecessarily long. "All Clear" really should have been combined with its first part, "Blackout," and edited down into a single, tighter novel. The character development is quite strong, but what Willis does with those characters often feels pointless. All they seem to do is worry and speculate, running around like mad things while refusing to ask vital questions or tell each other the truth. There's just so much crazy, squirrelly behavior from people who are supposed to be highly...

Previously, on Ben's reviews:… there's a very palpable, somewhat ironic fear here, because in a way these three are more frightened of the Blitz than the stalwart contemporaries (or "contemps" as the historians call them).… So for a moment, there's a justifiable and interesting suspense. Unfortunately, Willis attempts to sustain that suspense entirely too long…… all the characters in this book are ninnies … They complain about the retrieval team not showing up and they lie to each other and keep...

Time-traveling historians fighting to get back to their own time. Honestly, "All Clear" by Connie Willis? This book was just ridiculous. I feel bad saying that, because 1. so many people absolutely loved it, and I feel like I missed something, and 2. it’s a book by a celebrated author *about a war*. But the only way I managed to get through "All Clear" was by treating it like a comedy and keeping a mental count of all the ridiculous things, including but not limited to: 1. every single time a ch...

This is a wonderful and amazing book. It really is the second half of a book. On the same day, I went from finishing Blackout and started reading **All Clear** by Connie Willis, and it was like going from one chapter to another, not like going from one book to another. Thank you to Goodreads friend and fellow group member Sarah Pi who didn’t let me see answers to my questions and therefore helped me avoid unwanted spoilers. I am very proud that less than 1/3 the way through this book, I figure...

It's here! It's here!The only reason "All Clear" isn't getting a full 5 stars from me is because the middle chunk of "Blackout" and "All Clear" (and I'm counting them as one book since they really are) bugged me a little. All that back-and-forth about whether they'd changed the outcome of the war and where the retrieval team was, over and over... I get why Connie Willis did it (total anxiety fuel!), but it was just a bit much. Probably because I've been through periods in my own life where I get...

I juggle a day job, a night job, and a band. I'm working on my fourth album, a novel, and several short stories. I've got a dog and a pony to look after, and I'm trying to get myself running-ready by February so I can join my friends' relay triathlon team. So, when I tell you I spent four hours curled up under a blanket tonight, phone on do-not-disturb, because I absolutely couldn't bear to put this book down before devouring the last three hundred pages, know that I haven't done that in *years*...

I had such a love-hate relationship with Connie Willis's *All Clear*. I honestly can't remember ever feeling so conflicted about a book. When it hits its stride, it's a rare and rewarding page-turner that you just can't put down. But when it gets bogged down, it feels like wading through molasses for a week before the story makes any real progress. There are way too many pages where we're stuck inside a character's head, listening to them ruminate endlessly. She'll wonder if she made a mistake t...

"All Clear" (and "Blackout") by Connie Willis are an excellent way to learn more about World War II and the Blitz in England. It is, however, an extremely frustrating book on many other levels. Of particular concern to me was the tendency for the historians to explain details that the other historians should hand in their degrees for not knowing. It was one thing in Book 1 to have to explain that Agatha Christie was a novelist. It's another thing altogether to revolve a major plot point on the ...

I absolutely hate this book. I hate "All Clear" by Connie Willis so much it physically hurts. I'm furious I wasted an Audible credit on it. I hate that it's about subjects I FREAKING LOVE – WWII? Bletchley Park? And it STILL sucks. The writing itself isn't terrible, but the story is awful, and the main characters are whiny, dumb, ignorant, and their voices keep changing (though that last bit isn't the author's fault). I HATE that I know more WWII trivia than these so-called "historians" do. That...

Let me start by saying that *The Doomsday Book* is one of my all-time favorite novels (definitely "top ten," quite possibly "top five"), and I'm also a huge fan of Connie Willis's *Lincoln's Dreams*. So, when I heard she had a new book – well, a duology, although *All Clear* is really one book chopped in half – set in the same time-travel universe as *The Doomsday Book*, I was beyond excited. (I blame her publishers for deciding to split the book and then make us wait months between the first an...