What We're Reading: Cathy

Blackout by Connie Willis.

Finally! Fans of Connie Willis have been waiting for this one a long time. It's the conclusion to her time travel series (The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog). This one takes place in England during WWII. Polly, Michael, and Merope have gone back to 1940 to observe life in London during the Blitz, Dunkirk, and the lives of the child evacuees respectively. Each of them gets more than they bargained for of course. As they try to get back to Oxford in 2060 to report in or get help, they each find that their "drops" don't work and they're stuck. So they hunt each other down and try to figure out what has happened. The most dreadful theory is that one of them has changed history so that "their Oxford" doesn't exist and they can never go back. Oh, by the way. This book is just part 1 of the series' conclusion. Ms. Willis had so much story that it became two books and the next and last part won't be out until November. So we have to wait till then to see if all of our time travellers survive the bombings intact, whether Colin and Mr. Dunworthy will come rescue them, and whether it is possible to change history.