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All Clear
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Connie Willis (introduction)
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
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 17-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' 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.
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an introduction written and read by author 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)
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East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
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Wow. Wow wow wow!
- By I like to shop on 04-26-16
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Murphy's Law
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- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
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Molly Murphy always knew she'd end up in trouble, just as her mother predicted. So, when she commits murder in self-defense, she flees her cherished Ireland, under cover of a false identity, for the anonymous shores of late 19th-century America. When she arrives in New York and sees the welcoming promise of freedom in the Statue of Liberty, Molly begins to breathe easier. But when a man is murdered on Ellis Island, a man Molly was seen arguing with, she becomes a prime suspect in the crime.
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Cream Puff Read
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By: Rhys Bowen
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Enemy Brothers (Living History Library)
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- Narrated by: Paul L. Coffey
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British airman Dym Ingleford is convinced that the young German prisoner, Max Eckermann, is his brother Anthony, who was kidnapped years before. Raised in the Nazi ideology, Tony has by chance tumbled into British hands. Dym has brought him back, at least temporarily, to the family he neither remembers nor will acknowledge as his own.
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More people should read this wonderful story!!!
- By E.F.B. on 08-02-18
By: Constance Savery
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The Quiet American
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Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy amidst the intrigue and violence of the French war with the Vietminh, while his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on.
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Terrible narrator nearly derails Greene novel.
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Dead Man's Land
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Deep in the trenches of Flanders Fields, men are dying in the thousands every day. So one more death shouldn't be a surprise. But then a body turns up with bizarre injuries, and Sherlock Holmes' former sidekick, Dr. John Watson - unable to fight for his country due to injury but able to serve it through his medical expertise - finds his suspicions raised.
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Watson is wonderful, amid very grim surroundings
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Evans Above
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Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters.
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Interesting....
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The Irish Inheritance
- Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mystery Series, Book 1
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July 8, 1921. Ireland. A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin. November 22, 2015. United Kingdom. Former police detective Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father. How are the two events linked? Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book, and an old photograph.
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Why the foul language?
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Raven's Gate
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Matt is being punished for a crime he saw, but didn't commit. Instead of being locked up, he is being sent to the middle of nowhere to live with a new foster mom, as part of a government scheme called The Leaf Project. But Matt's new home provides anything but peace and quiet. His new guardian is involved in very sinister things, and the whole town seems to be on her side. The truth is much bigger than Matt or the town, but Matt is the only person who can stop the ultimate evil from being unleashed.
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Measured success
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Nocturne
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It is Warsaw, 1939, and Elzunia is an indulged teenager who longs for a heroic life filled with romance. But the outbreak of war shatters all her dreams. As bombs fall, she meets Adam, a taciturn airman whose fate becomes entwined with hers. In despair over the occupation, Adam joins the Polish resistance, then flies bombers for the RAF.
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Blech
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Down Cemetery Road
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When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a young girl disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker becomes obsessed with finding her. Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband’s wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew, as her investigation reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.
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A bit of a slog....
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Ghost Station
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Ghost Station is a tense thriller about espionage, cryptography, and paranoia, set in the earliest days of the Berlin Wall. Can Reed trust Longshore? His boss? His lover? Can he find the truth behind the lies - or will Berlin become ground zero for a world-ending war?
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Ghost Station pulls you in from the beginning
- By Kurt Petrey on 11-08-19
By: Dan Wells
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What listeners say about All Clear
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mike From Mesa
- 12-05-11
Rescued by the second half
Blackout and All Clear really constitute a single book. Blackout leaves the reader without any resolution and All Clear has no back story (and hence makes no sense) without Blackout. Ms Willis, in the introduction to All Clear, says as much. However this review is only for All Clear.
Ms Willis seems to have had the goal of telling the story of the British civilian population during World War II and especially during the Blitz and to have used the characters in the book as the vehicle for doing so. In this she has succeeded brilliantly. Although I have read many books about World War II none have really told the story of the British civilians and how they coped with the violence and devastation of the war and especially what living through the Blitz was like. I have a much better idea of what people had to go through as part of their daily lives and what just getting through the day must have been like.
The main characters, however, seem like terribly flawed individuals. They are supposed to be professional historians but act as though they are continually on the edge of panic. At every step they make the wrong choices and assume the absolute worst about what is happening around them. During the hours of listening I wanted to just tell them to "get a grip" and stop acting so stupidly. I was going to title this review "Historians acting stupidly" or "These are professionals?", but the second half of All Clear, where Ms Willis began to put the pieces of the puzzle together, was so well done that I felt the book was rescued from a 3 star rating.
The narration was very well done with many characters having such distinctive voices that I could tell who was speaking without having to be told.
I would recommend this book with the caveat that the reader might want to listen to the two parts of the book separately. Together they are 41 1/2 hours and that was just too much of these characters for me to listen to at one time. Perhaps if I had separated the two parts of the book I would have had more patience with the characters. As it was I ended up having to stop listening to All Clear about half way through and read an entirely different book before I was able to go back to All Clear and finish it. Still, having said that, I must credit Ms Willis with enough misdirection to credit Agatha Christie (who makes a cameo) appearance in this book.
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29 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Gabriel
- 10-21-10
This is the 2nd book of a series.
This is the 2nd book of a series. the 1st book of teh series is blackout.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Karen Campbell
- 11-06-10
Absolutely loved it
Connie Willi is one of my favourite authors and I think this would have to be her best work. Her writing is so evocative and her research so thorough, that listening to these two books almost felt like time travel. I waited until both parts were available and listened to them as one big book, which they actually are. So, the biggest problem was finding the time to listen to it because once I had started listening, it was difficult to stop. About half way through, I was feeling slightly annoyed by all the false leads in the plot but I loved the writing so much that it was easy to overlook the winding plot and just enjoy the descriptive writing. The plot was pulled together so beautifully in the end, that I forgave any tendencies to ramble. The narration was very good, although Ms Kellgren did tend to make most of her female "contemp" characters sound like Mrs Slocomb from the British TV show, Are You Being Served.
So, two very minor points in an otherwise fabulous listening experience.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Paula
- 12-01-10
Blackout and All Clear are magical books!
Having read all the customer reviews available so far, it's clear the Blackout/All Clear double book is either loved or hated by its readers / listeners. I'm one of the former - as a long-time fan of Connie Willis' work I've been waiting for All Clear to come out before I listened to Blackout and boy, was it worth the wait!
I can see why some readers found the characters' internal agonising over the impact their actions may have had on the space/time continuum too frequent or too long but, to me, the characters were incredibly three-dimensional and their fates something I really cared about. Yes, there were minor issues in historical accuracy - but the depth of Connie Willis' research into WWII England (and, especially, the Blitz) is incredibly impressive! And yes, there are minor inconsistencies in the books and, occasionally, Katherine Kellgren's somewhat unusual pronounciation of words was, er, surprising - but I was swept away by the story and the story-telling and the reading!
I find myself thinking about the characters and wondering what happened to them - sometimes devising plots to resolve ends which weren't tucked up entirely neatly. I think these are truly wonderful books and recommend them to anyone who likes their SF to have a human face
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- Rachel
- 01-25-14
You need to read Blackout first
If you're considering All Clear, you've read Blackout already or you need to.
This one is just as good or better. Enjoy.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- G. Bledsoe
- 06-08-11
A Tale That You Won't Forget
Connie Willis writes books that really get to me. Others have complained about "Black Out" and "All Clear" for being so long and for being repetitive. While there may be something to this, I just can't shake the feel and emotional context of the story. "Passage" was the same way--as was "Doomsday Book." Most books you listen to (or read) put them away and forget about them. Connie Willis's novels haunt you long after you reshelved them.
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- Pauline
- 03-27-15
Good concept but plods along
This is very detailed (with much research), but moves so painfully slow. Why did the author stretch it out into two books? She could (maybe should) have condensed the same content into one book! Again, the details are amazing, and the characters are very interesting. But I warn that the listener may find their eyes glazing over while listening.
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- RB
- 04-29-12
Endless agonizing but good basics
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes, but only with the caveat that the story can drag as the characters second guess their every action and miss each other as soon as they are out of sight. Against this is a sound story, some really good characters and good atmosphere.
Would you be willing to try another book from Connie Willis? Why or why not?
Yes but I would have to allow some time to pass - as I did after reading The Doomsday Book before starting Blackout/All Clear (together really only 1 book). The time allows the endless agonizing and repetition to fade in my memory so that I am left with the basically good story.
Did All Clear inspire you to do anything?
I plan to listen to Winston Churchill's 'The Second World War'.
Any additional comments?
Good narrator.
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- Ark1836
- 06-02-15
Deserves Six Stars
This is a joint review of Blackout and All Clear, which rightfully need to be read as one book. Blackout/All Clear are technically sci-fi books featuring time traveling historians experiencing WWII England from the perspective of normal people living on the home front. The sci-fi elements of the book are pretty limited. It's just an excuse for getting modern people into the historical setting and providing additional drama above-and-beyond the drama of the war so that the characters, who know that the war ends successfully, experience the same uncertainty as the contemporaries because they do not know how their own experience will end. The book is incredibly well-researched. In a forward to the second book, the author describes an amazing experience where she was able to interview members of a reunion group of women who served their country during the war and many of their real stories appear in the books. The author makes you feel like you have been dropped into the Blitz with bombs dropping around your head--a feeling of despair and fear buoyed by amazing acts of humanity.
The author does not wear her faith on her sleeve or make the message overly obvious, but there is a Christian message in the story--or at least an undertone of a message that I found especially heartwarming. The subtle message plays out through one of the character's interactions with a local parish preacher and through another character's frequent visits to the famous The Light of the World painting in St. Paul's Cathedral. It is amazing how the author is able to weave a story of faith into the overall plot without being overt or preachy. This shows the author's talent and the strength of the message.
I confess to being a history major in college and having a particular interest in World War II, which I'm sure influences my love of these books. Regardless of your interest in history, though, this book is a masterpiece. If you don't have a strong interest in history, this book may spark an interest and you may find yourself cruising through Wikipedia for more information on the historical events. You will have a better appreciation of what civilians went through during World War II--their fears, joys and sacrifices are all on vivid display. The writing is clear and captivating. The story is vibrant and creative. Blackout/All Clear quickly leaped into my all-time favorite books.
I also need to say a word about the narration. I've listened to dozens of books on Audible and this is by far the best narrated that I've heard so far. Katherine Kellgren is amazing and really brings the characters to life--particularly Alf and Bennie, two adorable urchins that the narrator clearly enjoyed bringing to life. Her enthusiasm for the characters really shows through in the powerful narration.
Lastly, it should be noted that Blackout/All Clear represent the third and fourth books in the Oxford Time Travel Series. The first two books are both fantastic in their own right--Doomsday Book (a dark drama) and To Say Nothing of the Dog (a lighthearted comedy). It is not necessary to read either of the first two books to read Blackout/All Clear as the stories are almost completely independent. There is one relationship in Blackout/All Clear that makes a little more sense if you have read Doomsday Book, but the essential background information is explained in Blackout/All Clear so it's not mandatory to read Doomsday Book first.
Blackout/All Clear is truly fantastic.
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- Deedra
- 02-18-15
All Clear
What made the experience of listening to All Clear the most enjoyable?
I loved the storyline and the narrator is wonderful!
Who was your favorite character and why?
Eileen,she seemed the most real of them all.
Which character – as performed by Katherine Kellgren and Connie Willis (introduction) – was your favorite?
Binny
Any additional comments?
I was gifted this book for a review.I felt I could not do just the last book so I started w/book 1.This is book number 4.I loved this series.The characters were all well written.Katherine Kellgrin was the perfect narrator for all the characters from young child to old man.
In the future,there are Historians who can go back in time to witness events,then return.All Clear is the book that seems to tie all the stories up.There are many Historians dropped in WW2,than they can't find a way to get home.We trek across England where they try to find a 'drop' site so they can come home.It takes us back and forth in time and can get confusing,but it is worth the wait.I recommend this book,and the 3 others very highly.
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