Blackout cover art

Blackout

Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Blackout

By: Connie Willis
Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Connie Willis
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £17.61

Buy Now for £17.61

About this listen

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds - great and small - of ordinary people who shape history.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. 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, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill's next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London's Blitz. And 17-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can catch up to her in age. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyones schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history 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.

BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, author Connie Willis discusses her fascination with WWII and the historic context of Blackout.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Blackout is the first volume of a two-part novel. To find out what happens to the time-traveling historians from Oxford, we invite you to download the concluding volume, All Clear.

©2010 Connie Willis (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Fiction Historical Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel War

Continue the series

All Clear cover art
All Clear By: Connie Willis

Critic reviews

  • Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2010
  • Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2011
  • Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2010: Readers' Choice (SF Site)

“If you're a science-fiction fan, you'll want to read this book by one of the most honored writers in the field; if you're interested in World War II, you should pick up Blackout for its you-are-there authenticity; and if you just like to read, you'll find here a novelist who can plot like Agatha Christie and whose books possess a bounce and stylishness that Preston Sturges might envy.” ( The Washington Post)
All stars
Most relevant

Where does Blackout rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Oh amazing if you have interesting in WW2 London History

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Commander and Saltram-on-sea

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The scale of human loss during the blitz

More History than Time Travel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend it as a good story, however the narration was poor, so I would recommend that they read it rather than listen.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not really relevant as there are numerous characters.

What three words best describe Connie Willis and Katherine Kellgren ’s performance?

Katherine Kellgren's performance was ok however there were some strange pronunciations, e.g parssage for passage; parsenger for passenger. It was very odd.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The story didn't have the depth of characterisation that would require slow considered reading.

Any additional comments?

It's full of anachronisms. Towards the end I was enjoying spotting them. Examples were, currency was not pennies but pence; temperatures were given in centigrade rather than Fahrenheit; people playing an American game Parcheesi etc. there were loads. Also the two books are really part one and part two of the same book so it's a bit of a rip off!

Bomb alley

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I found this very evocative, as a child I walked past the City bomb sites to school. My mother had a fear of shelters and refused to go to one when she was waiting for my dad in trafalger square once. Dad said he was terrified but mum was cool as a cucumber.

Unlike some others I love this book and the sequel. I confess that I waited for the sequel before reading it.

I got to really like the characters and I wanted to know what happened to them. And I wished I had read some Agatha Christie's because I might of figured out what happened before the end.

There is a caveat though. If like me you know London well not to mention the geography of England and Wales you might find yourself noticing mistakes. And some Americanism's slip in despite a valiant attemp to keep them out.

All in all a very interesting take on the time travel idea and a very worthwhile read.

Love this author

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a good story despite some Americanisms, such a 2 cent stamp on a letter, but completely let down by the narration; some of her accents were good but some very odd pronounciations - check out 'passage' and 'daimler'. On balance I think I would have preferred to read this rather than listen to it.

Poor narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is my second Connie Willis audiobook-it was brilliantly read with an authentic voice depicting the era that the book is set in. A long, well-paced satisfying listen that is very evocative of Britain in the 1940's, especially the parts set in London during the Blitz. There are several different narratives running alongside each other, anyone familiar with Connie Willis' time travel books will know many of the characters and find it easy to follow. I loved it! Am now starting on the follow up 'All clear'.

Excellent listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews